At Home with our Tunisian Chef Naima Remadi

At Home with our Tunisian Chef Naima Remadi Female: Oh, this is my favorite part. Now, we’re going to play dress up Male: Naima isn’t just a great cook and hostess. She is also a fashion designer so visiting as a double treat. Female: We have some of the most amazing pieces of fashion that Naima brought with her from Tunisia. Naima: Yes. Female: And starting with this. This is beautiful. Tell me about this. Naima: This is made or green pearl, green coral from Tunisia and it has an inspiration Berber. Female: Berber? Naima: Yes, and details that antique Roman money that is all around the band. Female: It’s amazing, it’s so beautiful. Naima: It has also a cross as you notice—with the Christianity and all other religions of Tunisia. Female: It’s such a cross mixture of culture and flavor and style, it’s amazing. So, I want to know about this. This is spectacular, what is this? Naima: Yes, this is a wedding dress from—we wear it usually, it’s very inspired by also Berber as the colors and this is all handmade so it takes almost like two to three years to finish one dress embroidering it with the hands, with the payet, the gold, thread, the coral, pearls and all is also intersect material, with holes made by hand as you can see. Female: That is spectacular. Naima: And nobody usually can do this unless you learn it since you are a child. Female: This is such a crowd. Naima: Yes, it is gorgeous. It’s true. Female: And you have a background in fashion so this is like your life. Naima: Yes. Female: And this is all lace. Naima: Yes. This is a natural cotton with a silk thread and made called ‘cantu’ on the holes as you see. It’s all hole. And these pants go under this beautiful dress. It’s called ‘zouave’ pant. Male: This gorgeous vest is fashioned so ornately but it’s more like a treasured piece of jewelry than clothing. Female: This vest is incredible. Naima: This is a beautiful vest made with ‘kebabet’ we call it. This goes a tradition from a mother to the daughter for centuries and only few people know the secret to do this ‘kebabet’. So now, you can see also this golden thread made by hand and this is mixed with such beautiful silky sata which is all made also by the gold brown, all the colors that give the secret to the beauty. Female: So, who would wear this? When would somebody wear this? Naima: We wear this usually for also the girl that is not married. Female: Okay. And tell me about this hat. I love this hat. Naima: Yeah, this hat also is for a wedding, all for other ceremonies. So, this hat usually, we wear it. It has also this. Female: Tassels, yeah. Naima: Yes, it’s all handmade as well. Female: This is spectacular. Naima: And there are so many types of hats. This is not only one. This beautiful cashmere as you can see is done. And this bird, this is a peace bird called and this is when people marry, they love to wear this beautiful hat handmade. Female: That is so lovely. I want to hear about this. They are in the same sort of style of such ornate carvings, this is silver tray. Naima: Yes. This silver tray is a tradition to serve tea to the people. Female: And tea is a big tradition in Tunisia. Naima: It’s a very big ceremony, tea has a place where we sit and we enjoy the tea which is done with the green tea of course, with a lot of mint, and pines. Female: Really? Naima: Yes. You’re going to taste it? Female: Good. Naima: Because we did it already, this is also handmade in Tunis. Female: That is beautiful. Naima: And this is made glass, like murano glass. Female: Sort of like an Italian again influence. Naima: Yes. And we have also beautiful decoration which is very Tunisian. Female: And then what about this? Naima: This is a pottery and this is done also in Tunis. Female: This is a traditional pattern of pottery. Naima: Yes. We have a lot of potteries. We are a land of pottery that’s Berber came there because the land is so soft and it’s the first job of the Berbers when they visited North Africa. Female: Really? Naima: Yes. And they steal. Female: Wow! What are these here? These are beautiful. Naima: This is also handmade and it is made by disabled adults in Tunis. Our first lady is the president of this association that promote the products done by disabled adults and this is a hand of Fatima. It’s all encrusted by hand, by these beautiful disabled. Female: And this is a Goodluck charm. Naima: Yes, it is. Definitely it is a Goodluck to wear the hand of Fatima. It’s a tradition. Male: Three favorites, salad mashua, ‘mamahoria’ and baklava are famous dishes loved around the world. Female: Guys this looks amazing. Thank you so much for coming. Female: No problem Male: Thank you. Naima: Alright what was it that you brought? This is my first meal by the way that I never had. My first Tunisian meal so I don’t know any of this stuff is. So, what did you bring? Male: We bring, this is called— Female: It’s a salad. Male: Yes, it is a salad made from roasted tomato, roasted green pepper, extra virgin olive oil, tuna, onion, roasted onion, the olive is from Tunisia and another loaf. Female: That looks so good and what about this? I mean carrots but what it’s called? Female: [Foreign Language] And it has peppers and we boiled the carrots and we cut them into slices. And we seasoned it with peppers and pour an olive oil and some— Female: Very spicy, I can’t wait now. Is there always bread on the table? Naima: Yes, definitely. Tunisian table never missed the bread. Female: Always bread. Naima: Yes. Female: And now, we’ve made Couscous so I know this. What is this part right here? Naima: This is Baklava, the sweet, soft—we have like 25, 35 baklava little babies, it’s called the bay baklava. Female: Okay. Naima: It’s three colors,almond and pistachio and pink. Female: Now, is this dessert always follow dinner? Naima: Yes, of course. Female: And then you serve it with tea. Naima: Yes, with tea, mint and pine. Female: Pine nuts in the tea. Naima: Yes. Female: That is so delicious. And now, you said that you never have the actual desert in a tea at the table that you have. Naima: No, we never have it at the table, no. We move, we’ll go to the sitting room and we relax because green tea will give you a lot of digestion first of all. Female: Right, right. Naima: And relaxation. Female: After a nice rich meal. Naima: Yes. Female: Well guys I know that we have a couple of more people coming to join us, and we still have some more to do left in the kitchen. Naima: Yes. Female: So, stick around and join us we’ll be right back