Check out the first part of my ode to the terrific tastes and wonderful people behind Moulins de Mahjoub

Going With The Flow: Energy Policy, Olive Oil, Good Eating And Compelling Culture And Cuisine
This is the second time in six months that I've sat down to write about Tunisia, which would make it twice more than I have in my life previously to date, and twice more than I'd have forecasted I would have if you'd have asked me two years ago. Historically, Tunisia's hardly been high on my life's radar, but pretty clearly it is now. Taking time to travel to, taste and talk about Tunisia has pumped me up, improved my eating, and given me a lot of good learning. It has also enhanced the quality of my cooking at home and built connections to some great people. I hope that I'm able to return the favor in kind, to keep the positive energy building by bringing a bit of traditional Tunisian foods here to Zingerman's and spreading the word about Tunisia's very interesting history, complex culture and compelling cuisine.

Before I get to the food, it's actually the energy issue that I want to tackle here. Regardless of one's politics, I can't imagine that too many people are going to argue that we don't need to seriously explore alternative energy sources. But I want to set aside politics, prices at the gas pump, offshore drilling, and gas taxes, and have at the subject from a different angle — the energy I'm into is emotional, and the oil I'm thinking of comes out of an olive.

Many people have posited that the absence of oil fields in Tunisia has actually engendered an increase in the creativity, ingenuity and the long term sustainability of the nation's economy and the culture. Majid Mahjoub, the man whose passion for his homeland and its food triggered my travels to Tunisia earlier this year, told me that, "It is actually our good fortune that we have no oil." Tunisians, he properly pointed out, had to work a bit differently to move ahead. "We must earn our living from our intelligence." While they have no fossil oil to fuel their finances, the country pretty clearly is on the move anyways; although you don't read much about it over here. Georgie Anne Geyer, writing in Tunisia: A Journey Through a Country that Works said that, "What characterizes Tunisia more than any other country in the region is its movement. Here is a people who... are going somewhere." I could see as much from being there for a few days last winter. The progress and the positive energy are pretty palpable. There's a good feeling to be had just from being there.

Which sends me back to the alternative energy I've been thinking about — the emotional, the intangible, I guess you could call it "karmic" energy of the world. I'm sure there's a better word than karma but I don't know what it is right now so I'll just run with that one. I'm guessing you know what I'm talking about... the seeming coincidences of life that, when you run with them, tend to bring good things, which then return good things to the place and people from whence they came. There are infinitely more scholarly places to look it up but to quote quickly from Wikipedia, "Karma is not fate, for humans act with free will creating their own destiny. According to the Vedas, if we sow goodness, we will reap goodness." That's the upside (the rest is basically that when we sow badness we reap that too) because for me, the time I've spent in, on and around Tunisia has all been up. The energy is good, the oil is good and the more I run with it, it all just seems to continue to get better.

Things tend come together in strange ways that one doesn't expect, nor necessarily even imagined. For planning types like me that stuff can be kind of tough. Other than gifts and unexpectedly sunny days, I generally don't love surprises. But when I've fought the things that life has let unfold, I almost always fail. Not that I have no influence; obviously I do. Stubborn, but not all out totally stupid, I've tried to learn to take the opposite approach, to leave the obstinate resistance aside, and, then, in turn, to embrace what comes up; to struggle less, and instead, swim more with the currents and let things unfold in ways that more often than not actually end up getting me to a really good place, even though at first blush it all seemed to run counter to what I wanted.

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Taking Off for Tunis
Tunisian products on our shelves at all — is a story of going with that flow; of riding with the karmic coincidences that the world presents us with, of being open to good energy when it appears unexpectedly in front of us. While I've nothing against it nor any real reason I wouldn't want to go I can say that up until very recently, taking a trip to Tunis was something I'd never really even given ten seconds of thought too. Knowing what I know now would have been entirely my loss. Fortunately the fates got involved.

If you didn't read the whole long ode to harissa that I put together in Zingerman's News last November, I'd be glad to send you a copy, either on paper or over the more ethereal route of email (ari@zingermans.com). Long story short, this whole Tunisian thing started with a taste of harissa, the hot sauce that is a hallmark of all of North Africa. It wasn't harissa in general that got me going, but much more specifically, I fell in love with the very lovingly, pretty incredibly full flavored, harissa that's hand made by the Mahjoub family from the organic ingredients that they produce on their own farm. The funny thing is that although it was last year when karma kicked in and got me hooked up the harissa from the Mahjoubs, I'm actually pretty positive that I'd tasted it years ago, but for whatever reason I hadn't been receptive to how good it was. To adapt the long-standing Zen saying about students being ready to listen to teachers, in this case, it's more like, "when the writer is ready the harissa will appear." And, appear it did.

The harissa really is what got all this going. I re-tasted the Mahjoub's version of this traditional North African hot sauce at a food show about 18 months ago. I was seriously sort of shocked by how good it was. With the taste lingering (as much in my mind as in my mouth), I went back to the Mahjoub's stand to try it again; when I try something that seems that good, I prefer to confirm that my enthusiasm for the flavor wasn't just me getting carried away in the moment. In this case, the second taste supported my initial reaction. In fact, I think I was actually more impressed than I was on my initial tasting. That, I can say from many years of experience, is very a good sign.

A dialogue with Majid continued apace over email. About fifty-five emails later, Majid and I finally met in person for the first time about a year ago, at yet another food show, this time in New York City. I came back from NYC and started on a longer article about the harissa. As I wrote, I researched. I'd send a question or two off to Majid, and within a day or so I'd get back an engaged, well thought-out, impassioned response. The more I inquired, the more he told me, the more interested I got in the work of the family, what they were doing that made their food so good; because ultimately it was the food, not the story that kept driving me back to delve ever more deeply into this thing. I mean, everyone in our industry says (and most truly believe) that they make really great food, but not all that many are able to deliver on those good intentions. After having tasted seven or eight different products (the highlight of which was still that almost-too-intensely-good-to-be-true harissa), I was getting ever firmer in my belief that these guys were really making it happen.

Via email, Majid continued on his tender but firmly stated mission to get me to Tunisia. The best time to visit, he insisted, was January. It wasn't ideal for me, but the more Majid and I talked, the more I wrote about the food, the more the energy all seemed to flow in the direction of just making it happen. The old Nike slogan stuck in my head, and one day I just decided to "just do it!" With about fifteen emails and even more phone calls to travel agents and airlines we made it work. I really didn't know what I'd find there, but the risks seemed small, the upside big and, from a very practical level, the weather HAD to be better than it had been around here this past winter.

Visiting their farm and the modern little "factory" they've built on it was impressive. While I knew that they grew many of the ingredients themselves, I hadn't realized that they actually grow even more than I thought. The wheat for the couscous for example actually comes from their farms and is a special varietal that they grow organically. They use their own extra virgin olive oil in all the sauces, and I can guarantee from experience that that adds to both the flavor and the cost. Peppers and tomatoes are all hand seeded and literally sun dried for five to seven days. They prepare all the sauces and spreads on site in immaculate conditions.

I was rather taken with Tunisia. And that energy has carried forward. Nearly everyone who tries the couscous, the harissa, the sauces or any of the other great Mahjoub items contacts me to tell how good they are. And, the latest piece in the now freely flowing energy pipeline is that we've arranged an Ann Arbor visit for Majid and Onsa during the first week of June. They'll be bringing their passion for their country and its traditional foods here to town. We've set up a whole range of ways you can meet them and taste their food — Onsa will be doing a class on traditional Tunisian sweets and flatbreads at BAKE! (the hands-on teaching bakery at Zingerman's Bakehouse on Plaza Drive) on Sunday May 31. On Tuesday June 2, Majid and Onsa will team up with the Deli kitchen crew to cook a whole range of Tunisian dishes to be enjoyed as part of our monthly Zingfeast. I can pretty much guarantee that this will one of the only chances you'll have in Ann Arbor to have a great Tunisian meal, and also that the food will be exceptionally good. What follows are just a few of the dishes that could appear at the events.

Feel free to come to both events — each will be a bit different and each will be great! And the energy, I know will be positive, and flowing very freely!

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