ABSTRACT
As we knock on the door, my assistant and I hear a rumbling noise from inside, like the sound of a vacuum cleaner. Abu Mahmood opens the door and greets us with the usual is-salâmu ‘alêkum (peace be upon you). We respond, appropriately, wi ‘alêkum is-salâm (and peace be upon you). Inside the apartment smoke is belching out from two steaming pots on two gas stoves in the middle of the living room. Um Mahmood is cooking couscous in large quantities today as a gift to her close neighbors and friends. She is sitting on the floor and her face is dripping with sweat. She is dressed in an unbuttoned soft gallabiyya, with her slip underneath. She wears a matching veil, tied in a rural style, and it complements her clothing. Um Mahmood is a large, robust woman who looks older than she is. She has a warm and generous smiling face, despite the absence of her front teeth. The steamy activity makes the hot room feel like a small factory. Um Mahmood is working hard, together with one of her husband’s and co-wife’s two adult daughters. The women are pouring out the couscous, which has already been steamed. We are invited to join them with the preparations, so we wash our hands and sit down on the floor with them. The steamed couscous is now piled on a larger tray to cool. After a while it is time to pour some into a colander. Um Mahmood tells us to work faster. Then she starts kneading the couscous through the colander to make it finer before it is steamed again. The procedure is repeated three times. Um stresses how important it is to repeat this procedure. Like other women, she says it is necessary to work the couscous into a soft and smooth dish. After the couscous has been steamed a third and last time, Um Mahmood adds a large amount of clarified butter. The couscous is now ready, shining with fat and of perfect consistency-namely, soft and smooth. Um Mahmood, who seems just as hot and steamy as the couscous, peeks at me and exclaims: “If you make tâhara you will be clean, just like you
are when you make sweets. It is the same thing. You will be just as qiśta [cream/ beautiful]. Fat and sweet and soft, just like couscous.”
