| Joelle Garrus |PARIS (AFP) – Couscous may be the signature dish of North Africa, but steaming plates of the stew-topped semolina are also served up in West Africa and around the Mediterranean. Since 1998, the Italian island of Sicily has been the unlikely host of the couscous-making world championship known as Cous Cous Fest, which bills itself as a “festival of cultural integration”. In France, from the mid-20th Century, an influx of North African labourers from colonial territories and French expats returning after decolonisation helped popularise the dish. In his 1534 novel ‘Gargantua’, the French writer Francois Rabelais described banquets on tables featuring meats of all kinds, accompanied by soups and couscous. Spain also has long been gobbling couscous, not least due to centuries of Muslim rule on the Iberian peninsula.

Source: The North Africa Journal February 13, 2018 05:03 UTC