Ojja

http://clockendkitchen.fc2web.com/tunis.htm

Ojja is one of my favorite dishes here in Tunisia. I love its simplicity and its ability to fill me up (an occasionally difficult task). I'd liken it to one of the best "bachelor" dishes - up there with scrambled eggs, spaghetti and tomato sauce, or rice and beans (bachelor meaning easy and filling food a guy can make with minimal culinary experience - discounting frozen burritos, of course).

Here's a couple of recipes to try:
Ojja Merguez (in French)
Ojja Merguez (In English)
Also, I should have posted this earlier - Cuisine of Tunisia.

The basic idea is the same - you need some garlic, a can of chopped tomatoes (or freshly chopped), olive oil, and egg. I'd also suggest some harissa, green pepper, spices, and either sausage or chevrettes - mini shrimp (my favorite type of Ojja). There's also Algerian Ojja Cervelle with brains, but I'm not brave enough to try it yet. Ojja's also quite similar to Shakshouka.

Everyone has their favorite Ojja place. I like the Ojja over by Passage - there's a good place on the West side of the park. Look for the long lines.

Be careful about are the undercooked eggs (as in Brik). For example, on Satuday night, Mehdi, Nizar and I went to a pretty rough and tumble part of Bab el Khadra for some very tasty Ojja Chevrettes. The eggs, as always were served less than fully cooked. The two Tunisians left them and I ate them. Luckily I came out OK that time, but you never know.

Also watch out for merguez. It's spiced sausage, and occasionally it can give people trouble. As a general rule, I never eat merguez, but I'll touch pretty much anything else.

Always do a quick survey of the restaurant if you're not sure about its cleanliness. I normally go to places that are recommended by people - I don't do a lot of random culinary exploring. Even nice suburbs such as Manar have restaurants that have problematic cleanliness records. In the States, I always check out the bathrooms of a place, and if they're not clean, it's a pretty good indicator of the restaurant in general. Here, I wouldn't necessarily recommend that...