Couscous, the culinary glue that has shaped our family’s celebratory occasions since the sixties serves as the rallying call to la table for important Narboni events.
This semolina grain, a staple of North African cuisine, is produced from durum wheat. Couscous serves as the national dish of virtually every country that touches the Mediterranean on its southern shore. My French in-laws, born in Algeria and Tunisia, brought their versions of this dish when they emigrated to France in the early 1960s. It was only a matter of time and Sunday lunches for couscous to become the Narboni Family Favorite.
There’s a back story to our family’s couscous involvement:
The North African country of Algeria became an overseas province in the early 1800s as part of France’s colonial land adventures. Following the subjugation of the native Algerian population by French troops, Algeria was resettled as a French colony. Eventually, the country became an overseas province. French citizens living in the North African country had the same privileges and rights as those born on France’s mainland.
The era of colonization for European overseas empires, including France, ended in the mid-20th…
