Desert Couscous · Dried Meat

Kuskusu bil Gideed

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Because fresh meat can't survive the Saharan heat for long, this couscous is built around gideed — meat that's already been salted and sun-dried into jerky.

Steamed couscous is served with a lighter, vegetable-scarce sauce built around gideed (salted, sun-dried camel or goat meat) rather than fresh cuts, sometimes made with barley couscous instead of wheat — a practical style shaped by Fezzan's desert supply lines.

Why it's made this way: Sabha's Saharan location has always meant fewer fresh vegetables and greater reliance on preserved, long-lasting ingredients like dried meat, a Bedouin and Tuareg-influenced habit that still defines Fezzan's cooking.

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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.