Flavors of the Maghreb: Mouna and her delicious Moroccan couscous

Sunday 12th January 2025 06:52 AM

Mouna Boutouil opened a small business in September, Flavors of the Maghrebon the ground floor of the building where she lives and works on rue Saint-Vallier Ouest. In particular, you can order Moroccan couscous to take away.

“My goal was to introduce the flavors of Morocco to my neighborhood,” says the lady who has lived in Saint-Sauveur for 20 years.

Freshness

“I make the couscous myself. So I don’t freeze anything, everything is fresh. If I have an order, for example, I do it the same day,” explains the woman who works as a secretary in the same building for the antique furniture store. Ray Furniture.

Carrot, zucchini, cabbage, turnip, chickpea: Mouna prepares her couscous with vegetables. She serves it with chicken and offers a vegetarian option. She also offers couscous with merguez sausage.

“Merguez is not Moroccan, but given that in Quebec, in the neighborhood, I get asked a lot: “do you make it with merguez” (sic), I put up with everything the world and I also do it with merguez,” adds Ms. Boutouil.

This dish is accompanied with “a little sweet and sour”: caramelized onions and a sauce that come on their own”, so that people can then reheat their couscous at home.

Mouna also specifies that she did not sell couscous a priori when she opened her business.

“At first it was just liquor and coffee. Then a lot of people asked me if I made couscous […] So, I told myself that I was going to try some couscous. I respond to the request… and the request is couscous and baklava,” says Ms. Boutouil.

Baklava and nougat sold at Flavors of the Maghreb come from suppliers.

Ms. Boutouil also makes her own homemade crepes.
Photo credit: Thomas Verret

She likes it “having her little one business »

Mouna is proud to have her certificate to operate a business at 334 rue Saint-Vallier Ouest, because it is something she enjoys.

“I’m an adventurer, I like having a little business to me and move forward, so why not in the neighborhood! »

Trade Flavors of the Maghreb is located opposite Durocher Park. This quiet location appeals to Mouna, who likes to get closer to her community. Recently, she prepared several Moroccan couscous for a meeting of a neighboring organization, the Center des femmes de la Basse-Ville.
Photo credit: Thomas Verret

Couscous is a very important dish in Morocco. We eat it every Friday, a holy day in this country. When we visited on Friday, Mouna’s daughter was devouring couscous and seemed to be enjoying it as much as the author of this text did, who enjoyed her dinner.