Garantita

Garantita, more properly karantika (القرنطيكة) and sometimes spelled karentika, is a popular Algerian street-food pancake made from chickpea flour, water and olive oil, baked in wide shallow pans and served hot. It is the Oran version of a chickpea pancake that exists across the southern Mediterranean as Italian farinata, Niçois socca and Gibraltarian calentita, having been carried to Algeria during the period of French rule and adopted into local cuisine. The batter, a thin slurry of chickpea flour, water, salt and a generous slick of olive oil, is poured into a round tin and slid into a wood- or gas-fired oven; it sets into a thin, golden disc with a crunchy top and a custardy, almost molten centre, then is cut into wedges and dressed at the counter.

Karentika is classically finished with a shower of ground cumin and a spoonful of harissa, the two condiments that mark it as Algerian rather than French. It is most strongly associated with the port city of Oran, where it is sold from carts and tiny window counters, especially around Place du 1er Novembre and the streets of the old medina, from late morning into the evening.