Restaurant La Nostra

There is a kind of rule in Tunisia: whenever you really need a taxi, you can't find them, while they are normally everywhere. Today, I seem to be having the same problem with pancakes. Yesterday, I promised Rihanna Gaga we'd go and eat pancakes today, but every restaurant or café we pass today doesn't serve them. While normally, it really is a kind of exception to be eating somewhere where 'crêpes' are not on the menu. We're walking through the fancy part of La Marsa - where Bistro Breizh is located, among several other fancy eateries - and really none of the places here serve pancakes. 

So, we walk on towards what could be considered La Marsa's main square, just around the corner from café Safsaf, a busy square with cobblestones where no cars are allowed. Several cafés are located at this square, some are simple coffee houses, other more elaborate restaurants. As we walk, Rihanna Gaga is singing loudly in her stroller, as she often does. Suddenly I realise she's singing Sur le pont d'Avignon, a French children's song. As Tunisia is so vastly francophone - with some of the rich families speaking better French than Arab - many of the songs she learns at her daycare are French. I join in, which she really seems to enjoy, and we sing the song loudly together, much to the entertainment of the people around us, who seem surprised at so much cheerfulness. 

We sit down at the terrace of Restaurant du peuple, which has the typical pancake maker in front of it: a small counter-like installation with two large black iron circles on top of it that are heated through a gas fire underneath. I'm handed the menu and Rihanna Gaga loudly shouts 'pancake!'. We have to wait a while before the waiter returns, but he brings bad news: there are no pancakes today. He offers us pizza instead, but I know Rihanna Gaga is not going to accept that, so we walk away.

At the end of the series of cafés and restaurants is Restaurant La Nostra, which seems to be the only place other than the Restaurant du Peuple with pancakes. La Nostra, on the corner of the cobblestone square and the larger square on which the Safsaf and the big mosque of La Marsa are located, is a bit of a dodgy affair. They haven't put the terrace out, but there are a few chairs under the arches beneath which the cafés have their indoors parts. We sit down right next to the pancake counter and order a tuna and cheese pancake.

The weather has become much warmer recently and it is a bit of a pity we have to sit under the gloomy arches, but this really seems to be the only pancake place we're going to find today, so I suppose we're good. Rihanna Gaga first is fascinated by how the man is making our pancake, but when I tell her she has to watch out a little bit for the hot plates, she wants to sit on my lap.

She brought her little white lamb, one of her favourite toys and she holds it up so that it can watch how the pancake is being made. She'll often do this with her animals, especially when she sits in her stroller and is being driven somewhere, holding them up so that they can have a good look at their surroundings. She gives the lamb several kisses and lets the lamb kiss her. When I tell her this is sweet of her, she looks at me with her brightest smile and tells me that daddy is sweet too, after which she kisses me. She's been affectionate for a few weeks now, always wanting to sit on our laps and telling us how much she likes us.

The pancake is brought and Rihanna Gaga eats most of it, which is fine by me - I'm not very hungry anyway, right now. She also wants water, so we ask for a bottle. She eats large chunks of pancake and flushes it away with water - which really is her favourite drink these days. As we sit and enjoy our pancake, the camel of the café Safsaf walks by, on its way to its afternoon shift at the Safsaf. Behind us, the square is noisy, but in a cozy way: classic Arab songs play from an old radio (the best way to enjoy this kind of music, really) mix with the friendly buzz of the men and women sitting at the terraces. We pay and walk towards the playground, with what promises to be a very pleasant afternoon together ahead of us.