In Algeria and only in Algeria, we have a very popular and cheap sandwich (typically our most consumed street food) that all Algerians often eat in small greasy spoons. We call it “Frites Omelette”

To make this sandwich, you need french fries on which two eggs are poured, then cooked and then sprinkled with salt.

Then you take a French baguette (the most popular bread in Algeria), cut it in half lengthwise, brush both sides of the bread with harissa (a spicy sauce very common in North Africa) and voilà!

To be eaten with a soda!

Very strange, isn’t it ?

The must have ingredient, our famous spicy sauce Harissa

Edit: It's amazing, my post already reached 52 thousand in less than a day. Wow!

Well, this French fries omelette is often eaten in a sandwich BUT some people prefer to eat it in a dish.

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The second most popular dish in Algeria is Calentica which is originated in Oran the big coastal city in the west of the country.

The word comes from the Spanish word caliente, meaning 'hot'.

The history of calentica is a Spanish word of origin which was invented in the fortress of Santa Cruz in Oran by Spanish soldiers between 1577 and 1604, after being trapped in this fortress for several days against the natives without food.

The soldiers mixed the rest of their reserved chickpeas and this is how the recipe calentica came about and since then it has become a very popular dish in Oran, flavoured with cumin and eaten very hot with a good harissa!

The recipe is very simple

Ingredients :

• 250 g chickpea flour
• 2 tbsp. cumin
• 10 cl regular oil
• 1l water
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp pepper

Mix the flour, cumin, salt, pepper, water and oil with a mixer for a while.

Leave to stand for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Pour the mixture into a large rectangular metal dish of about 20 x 20 cm with high sides (or round with a diameter of about 25 cm) as the carentica needs to be thick.

Bake in a hot oven until the top forms a dark brown, almost black crust.

Often eaten in a sandwich in a French baguette, with harissa and a pinch of cumin