In a filmed quiz, Manchester City star Riyad Mahrez challenged teammates Zack Steffen and Bernardo Silva to test their knowledge of culinary heritage. They had to guess the country of origin of a soup (the Algerian chorba). While the former had no idea, Portuguese midfielder Bernardo Silva immediately thought of Morocco following tasting the soup. “I like Moroccan food, this soup can be part of this type of cuisine,” he reacted immediately, also expressing his admiration for Lebanese cuisine before making up for it by choosing Algeria.
Thinking of Morocco, Bernardo Silva implicitly says that the Algerian chorba might be among the Moroccan gastronomy. In recent months, a fierce debate on cultural heritage around the appropriation of the cultural, historical, cultural, clothing and folk heritage of the Maghreb. This debate is essential especially in the social networks and it is all the more pregnant that we are witnessing more and more attempts to expropriate Moroccan heritage as shown by the episode of the Caftan.
Made from crushed green wheat and meat or fish, chorba frik or tchich as it is nicknamed is eaten in eastern Algeria and even in Tunisia, especially during the month of Ramadan. It looks like the Moroccan “Hrira” although the ingredients are different.
