Apart from getting some really fantastic pastries, I also picked up some snacks imported from Algeria from Bahdja Market. It’s surprisingly tricky to find Algerian snacks – I had gone to a few Middle Eastern and African grocery stores in Ottawa and I kept on finding stuff from every other country in the Maghreb but Algeria! However, I have a nice little selection of Algerian snacks now that I’ll split into two posts.

Selecto – Selecto seems to be the favourite cola in Algeria, I’ve seen it on several Algerian vlogs. It comes from a local company that’s been making drinks there for almost 150 years. It also tastes completely unique – it’s flavoured with apple and caramel, and has much less acidity than other colas. The lack of acidity makes it seem sweeter than other pop, and it truly is something different. I polled some friends and they said that it strongly reminds them of cola gummies.

Bimo Chocolate Wafer cookies – Bimo is the big cookie brand in Algeria, and they make classic wafer cookies in a few flavours. I snagged chocolate, of course – these are quite nice, they’re not overly sweet and there’s some really good quality chocolate in them – almost a slight coffee taste.

Bimo Galette Senior – The packaging says a “golden milk cookie” and looks like a waffle. It’s a thick sugar cookie-ish biscuit, almost like a richer, sweeter vanilla digestive? It’s hard to articulate but it tastes very familiar. It’s very tasty, with a lingering creamy vanilla flavour. The packaging also says it’s the “biscuit of champions”, so….will it make me good at soccer?