hrissa هريسة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“hrissa” (هريسة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning hot red chili paste.
Meanings
- hot red chili paste
- harissa lûz: sweet almond cake
Usage
Hrissa is a paste of dried red chili peppers, pounded with garlic, salt, caraway and coriander, then covered with olive oil. It goes with almost every dish: couscous, ojja, sandwiches, and is also eaten on its own with oil and bread. Hrissa arbi refers to homemade harissa, as opposed to the canned kind. Not to be confused with hrissa lûz (or just hrissa in some families), a sweet pastry made from semolina and almonds. By extension, the word evokes spiciness, and even, colloquially, "Tunisian identity".
Example
حطلي شوية هريسة في الكسكروت.
7otli chwaya hrissa fil kaskrout.
“Put a bit of harissa in my sandwich.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “hrissa” but also “harissa”, “hrisa” and “hhrissa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “hrissa” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “hot red chili paste”; “hot sauce in general”: hrisa in Algerian.