Tunisia Travel Guide - Going Out

Tunisian food combines Arabic, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and French influences. Bread and pastries are a legacy of the French, so you'll find crusty light-as-air baguettes and melt-in-the-mouth croissants and pains au chocolate. Dishes are cooked with olive oil, spiced with aniseed, coriander, cumin, caraway, cinnamon or saffron and flavoured with mint, orange blossom or rose water; many are accompanied by harissa, a chili and garlic condiment. Fresh fish and seafood are often splendid, as are roast chicken and baked lamb dishes.

Things to know: Although Tunisia is an Islamic country, alcohol is not prohibited. Tunisia produces a range of palatable table wines, sparkling wines, beers, aperitifs and local liqueurs.

National specialities:
• Couscous (ground semolina served with meat, fish or vegetable sauce).
• Harissa (chilli paste).
• Salade Mechouia (roasted vegetable salad).
• Tajine (a kind of omelette, served cold).
• Brik (tasty filling, usually tuna, egg, onions, capers and parsley, deep-fried in an envelope of pastry).

National drinks:
• Thé à la menthe (mint tea), often served with pine nuts.
• Ahwa arbi (Turkish coffee).
• Boukha (thick aromatic spirit, distilled from figs).
• Thibarine (herb-based liqueur).

Legal drinking age: 21 years.

Tipping: Not a requirement, but waiters and taxi drivers are usually tipped a few coins; waiters in tourist restaurants are accustomed to 10%.

There are several theatres and numerous cinemas in Tunis, with plays and films in Arabic and French. In Tunis and the main resorts, many restaurants and hotel bars feature live music and/or belly dancers in the evenings from May to September, and there are numerous nightclubs, which tend to be either a magnet for wealthy young Tunisians or aimed solely at tourists; all mostly play mainstream house music. Summer is the season for arts festivals, when traditional and international artists arrive in Carthage, Hammamet and Nabeul. In late summer there are also several music festivals in Tabarka on the northern coast, with live music in the evenings. Yasmine, Hammamet, Port El Kantaoui and Djerba all have large casinos.

Special purchases include copper and brassware (engraved trays, ashtrays and other utensils), articles sculpted in olive wood, leather goods (wallets, purses, handbags), clothing (kaftans, jelabas), perfume oils, vibrantly painted pottery and ceramics, silver and enamelled jewellery and sheeshas (water pipes). Rugs and carpets are a good buy. The two major types are woven (non-pile) and knotted (pile). Look out for traditional Berber pieces, called alloucha. The quality of all carpets is strictly controlled by the National Handicrafts Office, and a label attached to the carpet shows its quality seal and grading.

The medinas of Tunisia's larger towns, such as Tunis, Sousse and Sfax, are great places to buy Tunisian crafts, with an amazing range, but you will have to haggle. If you prefer not to enter the fray, there are Société de Commercialisation des Produits de l'Artisinat (SOCOPA; website: www.socopa.com.tn) workshops and stores throughout the country where visitors can buy items at fixed prices.

Shopping hours: Mon-Fri 0730-1300 and 1700-2000, Sat 0800-1200 (summer); Mon-Fri 0900-1230 and 1430-1800, Sat 0800-1200 (winter).