Mawlid Pudding · Flour & Date
Assida Bidha (White Assida)
Photo: MedaliKaouaja / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Families take the presentation as seriously as the taste — decorative patterns are piped onto the surface of each bowl before it's given away as a gift.
A smooth, pale pudding is made by cooking flour slowly in olive oil, then sweetening it with sugar or honey and folding in chopped dates. Bowls are exchanged between neighbors and family in Kairouan during the Mawlid festival.
Why it's made this way: Kairouan is considered Tunisia's "capital of the Mawlid," drawing huge crowds for the Prophet's birthday each year, and while many Tunisian towns make the darker pine-nut assida zgougou for the holiday, Kairouan families most commonly prepare this simpler white version.
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