Friday, February 17, 2006

Hip Hip Hooray! It's Couscous Day!


The people... they eat couscous here. Lots of couscous.

It's traditional to have couscous on Friday, and our school menu conforms to tradition. So, every Friday we get a huge platter of the lovely fluffy pasta-ish stuff, accompanied by some stewed veggies and a little meat in sauce (watch out - sometimes liver). Bread for sopping. Yum. I've asked a couple of Moroccans why, exactly, it is traditional that couscous be served on Fridays. The first answer from my dear roommate Lahcen (who, coincidentally does not always deliver the most elaborate explanations) simply said, "because we go to mosque on Fridays." So, am I left to assume couscous is a holy food? Perhaps it's the Muslim rendition of the bread/Body of Christ thing. I posed my question to the Moroccan girl who teaches French on Wednesdays. She said that, as Friday is a holy day, couscous is simply a celebratory food. This didn't exactly satiate my curiosity as to WHY couscous is special to the people here... but at least I got a more satisfying answer than "just because."

Our menu is actually scheduled to rotate every other week. They're supposed to have a mixture of American and Moroccan foods... technichally on different days of the week. As the year wore on, however, they apparently just morphed the best of the best into a one week menu. Week after week after week - same food. Monday is pizza day. When it's good, it's edible (watch out - sometimes with liver). When it's bad... it can be used to cut diamonds.

2 comments:

shannon wess said...

Well, I arrived, built the alter, and told the natives of the "Great One" who would follow me. But, uh, apparently the "Great One" would rather spend her thirtieth in Sin City. So, I gotta map out Plan B.

Anonymous said...

i don't like libber. actually i hate libber. libber smells. i miss you. the way i would miss my libber if my libber were to go away. packing has not been the same without you.