Excellent stuff, cous-cous. It has a less refined, whole grain wheat cousin called Bulghur, another circum-mediterranean staple. Wheat is parboiled, dried, and ground into a meal that is coarser than cous-cous, but finer than rice or barley. Lots of whole grain goodness, degraded somewhat by the boiling. Hydrates by soaking in hot water for 20 minutes or so. Needs no cooking, will rehydrate slower but well in cold water.Often used as a ground meat substitute in vegetarian chili, main player in Tabouli, a bulghur-parsley salad dressed with mint, olive oil, lemon juice. Often mixed with ground meat and used to stuff peppers, grape leaves.