Regional/Cultural Day
Ruz el Karantika
Oran's street religion: chickpea flour custard sliced from a tray, doused in cumin and harissa, eaten with bread. If you have not had karantika in Oran, you have not been to Oran. The vendor cuts a square from the slab, wraps it in paper, hands it over, and you eat it standing. The texture is between flan and polenta, savory and peppery, and the cumin hits before the heat does. Karantika is also the story of Oran itself: Spanish, Ottoman, French, and Algerian layers compressed into one city that refuses to be any single thing.
