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    Couscous: A Symbol Of Harmony In Northwest Africa, A Region Of Clashes

    Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania have a turbulent history. But they've created a joint bid to secure world heritage status for a food with deep roots and cultural meaning across the region.
    by Jeff Koehler Jun 27, 2019 4 minutes
    A woman prepares couscous in a small Amazigh (Berber) hamlet on the eastern slopes of Morocco's High Atlas Mountains.

    In 2016, Algeria announced that it would be applying for UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage status for couscous. If successful, the staple food would join a diverse list of more than 500 cultural treasures ranging from hand puppetry in Egypt and tango dancing in Argentina and Uruguay.

    Couscous refers to both the tiny, hard granules typically made from crushed hard durum wheat semolina, as well as the dish itself. The tiny balls are steamed in a two-level pot with a perforated steamer basket called kiskis (known in much of the world as a couscoussier) over a stew of meat or fish, vegetables and spices, which is served on top.

    While a catalog of outside influences has. "Algerian couscous remains in this respect the symbol of our originality and our greatest invention. ... If one had to culinarily and symbolically award a medal of our national cultural identity ... certainly couscous would be the star and the subject." So key is couscous to Algerian culture that some simply refer to it as , or "food."

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