The Algerian meal is not divided into starter-main-dessert but is organized around a shared cereal-based centerpiece (couscous or bread), preceded during fasting or festive times by a soup (chorba), surrounded by small accompaniments, and closed with mint tea and honey-and-date sweets. People eat together from the same dish, sharing taking precedence over the order of dishes.

Fermented clarified butter (smen), which powerfully perfumes slow-cooked dishes, and the spice blend ras el-hanout ('the best of the shop') — ginger, cinnamon, clove, pepper, sometimes rosebud — define the cuisine of western Algeria, where Ben Bella came from, near Maghnia and Oran.