Algeria food & drink

Bread is an important part of Algerian cuisine, from baguettes to flatbreads and pan-baked loaves. Appearing everywhere from street food stalls to dining room tables, leftover bread makes its way into dishes too. Sfiria is a traditional dish that uses old breadcrumbs to make fried bread dumplings served with chicken, while stale bread can be soaked in a sauce of chickpeas and meat to make chakhchoukha.

Algeria was once the breadbasket of the Roman Empire – the Romans relied heavily on Algerian agriculture to feed its citizens. Whilst the country is 80 percent desert, the north has broad green swathes of agricultural land: common crops today include figs, olives, grapes, wheat, barley, citrus, dates and other Mediterranean fruits and vegetables.

Algeria is not a mass tourism destination, and visitors shouldn’t expect tourism-ready restaurants or a wide variety of dining options. Generally, travellers who come to Algeria aren’t coming to Algeria for the food, but for the variety of sights.

Algeria is a country of its changing landscapes, thousands of years of history and waves of influences from Berber to French – but this variety isn’t always reflected on menus. Because the country is not particularly set up for tourists, or visited by many tourists for its size, there isn’t much infrastructure for tourism. This extends to restaurant culture.

Travellers often report repetitive food on tours. Restaurants have common and unvarying items on the menus so expect lots of grilled meats, couscous (Algerian couscous is the national dish), soup, tagines – and French dishes like omelettes.

“There’s really not much infrastructure, and not much for tourists in the way of food,” says Antony Barton, North Africa expert at our partner Explore Worldwide. “We’ll stop off at markets and there are countless stalls – but they all tend to sell the same thing.”

As for drinks – whilst alcohol is not illegal, it is unobtainable in many places, including hotels. Some travellers resort to a bottle of vodka in the suitcase.

Travellers with dietary requirements can struggle, too. Vegetarians can be accommodated, but food may be repetitive and involve a lot of vegetables and couscous. Those following vegan diets, gluten-free diets and other specialised diets will have more difficulties.

“There are touristic restaurants in Algiers and Constantine,” says Antony. “In these cities you can find more for a western palate.” However, many of our tours spend a lot of time travelling beyond big cities and exploring more remote areas like the Sahara Desert oasis towns. As they do, options become more limited.

Yet Algeria, like many North African countries, has great food, including street food, lots of barbecued meats, stews and tagines, pastries and bread. “If you’re a meat lover and you love barbecues, you’ll be in heaven,” says Antony. “There’s steak, chicken fillets, kebab…” Restaurants may have a meat counter where you’ll choose what you want to throw on the grill, whilst street food stalls are often out to court carnivores with charred lamb or chicken brochettes.

The culture of preparing and eating couscous as practised in Algeria, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia has been inscribed in UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage. There’s fresh fish on the coast, too – look out for friture de la mer: seafood served battered and piled on the plate, and rich seafood stews. Menus are often very good value.

“It was unbelievably cheap,” says Antony. “Lunch is £2, dinner £4. It’s just one of the cheapest places I have ever been to because they don’t charge more for tourists – there isn’t a mentality of that.”

Our trips get you closer to food culture, whether that’s a cooking class or a home-cooked meal with multiple courses. Markets and street food, decoded by a local guide, can be a great way to digest culture, fast. Alternatively, stopping at a village house for drink and snacks – expect to be plied with strong, sweet black tea – presents a slower and calmer introduction.

You might learn how to make a spicy tomato and onion mhajeb for yourself, but if you don’t, this popular street food is available to try in many of Algeria’s cities. Spend time conversing in French or Arabic with small hole-in-the-wall eateries – get distracted by planchas of sizzling, spicy merguez (sausages), and draw up a seat to tuck in to traditional loubia – white bean soup, often prepared with meat.

Reporting in a British paper, writer A A Gill noted that the Turks and the French, who colonised Algeria, were two great café societies; and that there were hundreds and hundreds of cafes in the city of Algiers alone. There are plenty of cafes in the city today – for traditional coffees flavoured with cinnamon, orange blossom and vanilla, to trendy coffee shops selling European and Algerian pastries.

Antony’s tour stopped in a town in the M’Zab Valley for dinner in a local home. They had multiple courses, with traditional soup to start, a tagine made with camel meat, and then a sweet, dates and coffee. “It was very good, and very authentic,” he says. Our tours might alternatively make a daytime stop in a village home for tea and snacks.

When you’re out and about in a hot desert climate, soft drinks and ices start to sound increasingly appealing. Algeria still serves one of the oldest soft drinks in the world – order a glass bottle of Hamoud Boualem's ‘La Blanche’ lemonade whenever you see it on the menu. In the city of Oran, swap it out for a proper lemon ice – a creponne – made with eggs and sugar: the traditional way to cool down in the heat.

Travel south and you’ll encounter desert traditions – you might see camel fat in the butchers, camel meat on menus, and even decaffeinated coffee made from the ground up pits of dates. Buy up vast quantities of cheap and delicious olives from the giant tubs you’ll see at market stalls, or fresh dates and other fruits.

Unlike some of its northern African neighbours, Algeria’s food culture might be that bit harder for tourists to uncover for now, but if tourism develops further in the country, it could be a taste of things to come.