Category: Tunisia

Tunisian Handicrafts

I really admire handicrafts and think they’re marvellous works of art.

I remember when I was a kid, after school, I’d go to my grandmother’s house where I’d have lunch then go for my Arabic lessons. After I was done with my Arabic lessons, I’d just go wandering around discovering new places in the city.

One of the places I discovered and loved passing by every now and then was a little workshop where a number of men would be sitting on stools working on these beautiful copper plates. With a small hammer and chisel, they tapped away, carving all these amazing shapes and texts with magnificent calligraphy.

I’d just say hi and stand there watching and admiring their work. It was really so inspiring.
To this day, whenever I pass through the souks in the old medina of Tunis and see all the copper plates with their different designs, my memories take me back to that little workshop where I saw that art being created.

Copper Plate

Soccer World Cup Qualifier Tickets Online in Tunisia

Next month, October 8th, will witness one of the hottest soccer games of the year which is the match between Tunisia and Morocco, where both teams will be fighting for the qualification to the World Cup 2006.

Tunisia needs one point to qualify, so a draw is fine. Morocco on the other hand need to win to qualify.

Tickets still aren’t on sale for now at the regular outlets, but 10000 tickets were released for sale online on the site of the Tunisian Football Federation, using the Tunisian Post’s e-Dinar solution, and they all dissapeared in a few hours.
The pressure was so big that the web server was brought down to it’s knees and the site crashed.

I think these soccer match tickets must be the most successful e-commerce effort in Tunisia to this day, as other e-commerce sites haven’t been successful at all.

Maybe sports can make people trust buying online more and fuel a growth in e-commerce in Tunisia. I certainly hope so.

Thai House

A couple of days ago after finishing work, I wanted to grab some take-away dinner before going home, and a friend from work suggested I check out “Thai House”, a Thai restaurant in Ariana I obviously didn’t know about.

I didn’t go for it that day because I was feeling a bit lazy and Ariana was out of my way. Anyway, today after work, my wife and I headed there directly.

It’s a small take-away restaurant in Al Kahina street (It seems they’ve recently changed the name though) in New Ariana.
It has a really interesting menu with stuff that brought back memories of our honeymoon days in Thailand, which actually influenced my decision on what to get: Sweet and Sour Shrimps with Rice confined (Riz cantonnais + Crevette Sauce Aigre-Douce).
I wish there was some Fried rice with Crab, that was so yummy.

The chef is a Thai woman who actually speaks in a pretty good Tunisian accent.
The food is really delicious and the prices are pretty good too. It’s the best Asian food place I’ve tried in Tunisia up to now.

Really worth trying out. I’m sure I’ll be going back there often.

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

On our wedding anniversary, we decided to treat ourselves to a dinner at the Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant in dowtown Tunis, in the Belvedere area.

We passed in front of it many times before but never actually went and tried it out.

It’s a small nice cosy place, decorated with a lot of chinese paintings, lanterns, fans, writings, …etc.; No chinese people though, unless they’re back in the kitchen somewhere.

The food was pretty good, although their “sweet and sour” was a bit light, lacking the beautiful sting that it should have, but all in all, it was a good meal.
I really liked the Wonton soup with shrimps. I was hoping they had Shark fin soup as I really liked that (Ok all you animal rights and environmentalist people, I know it’s unfair, but they taste as delicious to us as we do to them :P)

The prices are just a bit expensive, but well for a change in taste every once in a while, I guess it’s ok.
This is not meant as one of those Chinese take-away places after all.

Over the Border of Tunisia

“Over the Border of Tunisia”, a series of Oud concerts, that look at the oud from three different angles, will take place starting from October 30 in Amsterdam.

The event will start on October 30th with the concert of Rabih Abou-Khalil, which is entitled “Jazz Ballads from the East”. In his contemporary jazz and non-Western quintet, the oud is the leading instrument in the concert.

On December 11th, Hesperion XXI’s concert entitled “the Lost Paradise”, the oud is played as an accompanying and ensemble instrument, along with a few improvised solos based on manuscripts from the 13th century.

And on April 9th, Dhafer Youssef’s concert entitled “Echo from the Past”, the oud returns to its origins, in the stirring, spiritual and plaintive melodies of Tunisia and other Arabic cultures, as well as in his own compositions.

More info on the event and tickets is available here.

Show in Downtown Tunis

Show in downtown Tunis

Yesterday we went to downtown Tunis for a walk and to check out some books at Al Kitab bookstore.

We found Habib Bourguiba street closed to cars and lots of people were gathering in front of the Municipal Theatre there.
It turns out the Municipality of Tunis had organized a show by the students of the National School of Circus Arts (2 of whom appear in the photo above).
We stopped and watched for a while, it was really cool and nice. These guys are very talented and in really good shape.

After the show, there was a Rai concert, but we didn’t stay. We went on for a little walk, then sat down at a caf

10% Increase in Prices of School Books

For the new academic year, a rise of 10 per cent is expected in the prices of books in Tunisia.

La Presse, the daily Tunisian newspaper, reports that the increase in the prices of books is due to the improvement of quality of paper and layout. A team of pedagogues appointed by the Tunisian Ministry of Education revised the books and classes for the new academic year and have made some changes to make the books look “more attractive” for students.

Belgacem Lassouad, the director of the national teaching center, said that in order to improve the quality of the books, more colorful diagrams and graphs were added in particular to the science books.

Well I’m all for the Ministry of Education revising the books from time to time, updating them, making them richer pedagogically and making them more useful for the student.
I also do realize that using better quality paper, more attractive designs and having more graphics in the books does make their printing cost more.
But, I think a main concern should also be to keep the price accessible to everyone.

I know that the price of an individual book is only a few dinars and that adding 10% to the price of one book isn’t much of a difference. But multiplied by the number of books that students carry around on their backs to school, it becomes a significant increase, especially for the poorer families.

I guess what I’m saying is that of course changes need to be made from time to time, books have to be updated and their quality upgraded, and eventually this will mean a rise in their prices. But maybe this should be done gradually starting with the most important points first which are content and the way it’s presented.

After the 6th Tunisian Blogger Meetup

We just came back from the sixth Tunisian blogger meetup in Sidi Bou Said.

This meetup was organized on a very short notice and barely 2 weeks after the last one in Kelibia, and as not many people confirmed their attendance, we were afraid there’d only be 3 or 4 people present.
Surprisingly and luckily, it was a great success and 12 people showed up.

We sat in a corner in the beautiful Sidi Chebaane Caf