At the futuur meals we have invariably been spoiled with generous hospitality and scrumptious things to drink and eat. To drink there are usually several fruit juices of orange, guava, apricot or grapefruit; the wonderful karkarday (chilled, sweetened, hibiscus herbal-tea); and something called "abri" made from soaking wafers baked from dura-flour in sugar-sweetened water. There are two colours. The red wafers give a slightly burnt taste and are filtered out. The white is served unfiltered and resembles a cloudy liquid with torn up tissue paper swirling within. In some quarters it is referred to as toilet-paper drink. On the food front, nibbles usually begin with dates and soaked sultanas, occasionally hot, spicy tomato-soup or watermelon. This is followed by a generous selection from the following: "aswad" (aubergine: deep-fried, then beaten into a paste), "balila" (small red beans), [feta] cheese, "moodufra" (stringy cheese), deep-fried spring rolls, deep-fried chicken, eggs, "ful" (brown beans), horn-shaped pizzas, meat stew, mini pasties, samosas, "sijuk" (beef sausages), "taamiya" (falafels). All this accompanied with bread and salads of: tomato and peanut-butter, cucumber-tomato, "ropp" (cucumber-yogurt), potato salad, and rocket. But seemingly no futuur is complete without "assida" and sauce. This is a wad of cereal starch (known elsewhere as mealie-meal, ugali, or inshima), comically served in a roulade-jelly mould, with a spicy, tasty sauce. After eating guests tend to keel over, or crawl onto conveniently arranged beds. Rounds of sweet tea, coffee, and sweetened goats' milk are often served.