04Experiences

Experience

At the Egyptian table

Egyptian cooking is generous, everyday food built on pulses, bread, rice and vegetables, and its daily dishes bring people together at home and in the street alike. Koshary is the national dish and the most famous street food: rice, pasta, vermicelli and brown lentils, topped with chickpeas, a garlicky tomato sauce, garlic vinegar and crispy fried onions, with hot sauce for those who want it. Ful medames is the country's everyday breakfast: fava beans cooked slowly and served with olive oil and cumin, finished with lemon, garlic or parsley, and traditionally ladled from a large metal jug. Molokhia is a green leaf cooked into a thick soup with chicken stock, sharpened at the end with garlic and coriander fried in ghee, and eaten with white rice and lemon; it began in Egypt and spread across the region. For guests and holidays there is feteer meshaltet, dozens of thin layers of dough and ghee, eaten with honey or cheese. Try koshary in a specialist shop, and start the day with a plate of ful in a local diner.