Tunisian Food & Drink
We had booked to go half-board at our hotel (the Sol Azur) as it was cheaper than self-catering so had our breakfast at the hotel each morning and had dinner there most nights. We had to fend for ourselves at lunch time so got to try some of the local dishes.
Hammamet Sandwich
We got this on our first day from the cafe on the hotel beach at Hammamet. I was hoping it was going to be like the clubs sandwiches they serve by the pools in Greece and even though it wasn’t I really enjoyed it. Tuna is popular in Tunisia and the Hammamet sandwich was filled with salad, a boilded egg and a generous portion of tuna. What made it different thought was the bread which was a large round toasted bap with a hard shell. I thought it was really nice and it came with fries on the side which was a nice touch.
Big Cheese
Nearly every cafe had a selection of burgers on the menu and the Big Cheese was a favourite of mine during my trip to Hamammet. It is a roll cut into three slices with burger and cheese in between one slice and salad in the other. Most places also had a Big Mac on the menu but regretfully I never tried on of those.
Pizza
They love their pizzas out in Tunisia, or at least the people going on holiday there do. Maybe because Tunisia is so close to Italy? Who knows but most cafes and restaurants have a good selection on the menu with version toppings. I had a couple of Hammamet Pizzas which varied in toppings from place to place but mainly consisted of tuna and olives. I also had a very with strange meats which looked a bit like ground beef. The pizzas were all 12 inch and thin crust which was nice and were very cheap, ranging from £2.50 up to £5 which was also nice.
Seafood
Being on the coast most restaurants in Hammamet and Hammamet Yasmine had an extensive seafood section and lobsters were often found swimming in tanks outside the beachfront eateries. I’m not much of a fish fan but my girlfriend had a few fish dishes and said they were all very nice.
Booze
Although Islam is the official religion of Tunisia alcohol is available in most cafes and restaurants in Hamamet and Hammamet Yasmine. Our hotel had two types of beer, one of which was called Stella but must’ve been a Tunisian copy as although it was nice, didnt taste or look the same and came in a pint sized bottle. The other beer was Celtia which came in a regular 33cl bottle and was also nice but probably not very strong. The hotel has a good selection cocktails and most places had a wine list. We had some Tunisian wine which was pretty nice.
Soft Drinks
The weather in Tunisia is perfect for growing oranges and all the cafes around the resorts of Hammamet and Hammamet Yasmine sold fresh orange juice which was squeezed to order. They said not to drink the tap water so we didnt and bought bottled water to drink instead. This was pretty cheap outside of the hotel selling for about 50p for 1.5 litres.
Full English
Non tourist resort would be complete without having a fry-up on offer and even Africa is no exception. We saw a couple of places doing an English breakfast but I never got around to trying one. Maybe next time…