Before the Phoenicians settled in North Africa, the territory was occupied by Berbers, nomadic tribes that lived on beans, lentils and corn, with which they prepared cuscus, the most well-known dish of the area. The Romans and Arabs who arrived in the 7th century from Spain had a great influence on Maghrebi eating habits, bringing spices, along with the aromas of orange blossom, flowers and sweets of all types, with almonds and honey as the basic ingredients. In the 16th century, Jews and Arabs were expelled from Spain and settled in North Africa, bringing their centuries-old customs and a cuisine which featured many products brought over from the New World. The Ottoman Empire added Persian influences and in the 19th and 20th centuries, the French added their gastronomic experience to a rich and varied cuisine.

The most well-known Berber dishes include meat dried or cooked in fat called khli (the local version of French confit), which consists in slowly cooking the meat in fat. Cuscus is a dish known the world over consisting of a stew of meat, vegetables and chick peas prepared in a double pan with a perforated upper compartment which steam cooks the cuscus, a corn-based semolina mixed with flour and sifted into grains) which is served with the rest of the ingredients. The local salads are highly appreciated and always served at the start of meals. Not to be missed is slata michwiya, a salad of grilled peppers, tomatoes and onions, zaalouk, an aubergine salad, or the Tunisian salads of marinated carrots. In the north of Morocco you can find a thick vegetable soup called harira.

Almost as popular as couscous are tagines of chicken or lamb, which are stews of vegetables and fruit, cooked in a pot with a conical top from which the dish takes its name. The strange shape of the top helps to condense the steam and ensure the cooking is slow and that no steam is lost, so that vegetables cooked this way always turn out juicy. On occasions, the tagines are served with thick-skinned salt-encrusted aromatic lemons. During celebrations m�choui, roast lamb, is served. Pastilla or pastela is a Moroccan dish of thin strips of pasta, which are painted with butter or other fats and stuffed with a pigeon, lamb or chicken-based mixture. Once ready, the pastilla is cooked in the oven and served with cinnamon or icing sugar sprinkled on top.

Similar dishes are to be found in Tunisian cuisine, although here they are called brik. Egg brik consists of an egg wrapped in a layer of pasta and fried in oil until crunchy and golden. Tunisian cuisine is not similar to either eastern or western Mediterranean cooking. Most common are fish dishes, while harissa is a spicy sauce used to flavour many dishes. Other popular condiments are ras el hanout, a mixture of up to 30 spices whose formula is kept secret by each cook, and tabil, a Tunisian mixture of caraway, coriander, garlic, onion other ingredients. Algerian cuisine provides dersa, a mixture of cumin, red pepper, salt and garlic.

Maghrebi cuisine differs from Mediterranean cuisine in the lack of pork dishes and is known for its delicious mint teas. The most popular north African drink is served with very sweet cakes stuffed with dried fruits, such as the popular gacela, halva and baklava.