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Staples
Staples are what remains when preference is removed.
What Is Always There
A Tunisian household does not begin each day by deciding what to eat.
It begins from what is already present.
Bread is assumed.
Oil is assumed.
Grains, legumes, basic vegetables, and simple proteins are expected to be available, even when nothing else is.
These foods are stocked for continuity.
Their role is to make eating possible without planning.
Meals Without Deliberation
Staples reduce the need to think.
When bread, oil, eggs, preserved fish, or legumes are present, meals assemble themselves.
No recipe is required.
No negotiation takes place.
Food appears because the conditions for it already exist.
This is not efficiency.
It is stability.
Substitution Is Normal
When something is missing, it is replaced quietly.
Legumes stand in for meat.
Bread replaces other starches.
Preserved foods replace fresh ones.
The absence of an ingredient does not interrupt the meal.
It only changes its composition.
Life continues unchanged.
Repetition as Intelligence
The same foods return daily, sometimes unchanged.
This repetition is not a lack of imagination.
It is a way of conserving attention, time, and effort.
Staples allow households to eat even when energy is low, money is tight, or time is short.
They function as a base layer – reliable enough to disappear from notice.
What This Makes Possible
Because staples exist, food does not need to be managed constantly.
Meals do not need to be optimized.
Eating does not require justification.
Staples hold the system together so that everything else can vary.
They are not special.
They are sufficient.
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