My Egypt Story - Part 2 - Egyptian Food
Food is a very important factor while planning our travels - we need to know whether we can rely on food available at our destination or do we need to carry the food we like. Since the cuisine and taste varies by region; I will detail the food I sampled and observed in each place of my stay after a generic overview of commonalities across Egypt.
Before you read any further, please know that I am an out and out foodie - the kind that can climb mountains if there is good food at the top. So expect this to be a long post!
Egypt has a huge hangout culture; you will come across a lot of places where all they serve is tea, coffee and hookah; some places just tea and coffee. And they are hugely popular across age groups and socio-economic groups. Take for instance below place in Alexandria.
We walked in here after an overnight bus journey from Hurghada hoping to get some breakfast and FYI- Most folks do not understand English in Alexandria; we had to communicate using sign language. But all they could serve us was some tea (you only get black tea here); so we settled down for 2 cups of tea. The place was filthy; you could see litter everywhere. Then there were cats here and there. While we sat, there were locals just sipping tea doing nothing; some started off on a hookah as early as 8 a.m. What surprised me was many people dressed in full business formals also dropped by for a cup of quick tea; similar to the culture of folks grabbing coffee on the way to work.
One interesting observation; the chairs are placed at right angles to the table; which I think means they want people to look around and socialize while sipping on tea or having hookah and not talk to each other!
There are a lot of open air places; wherein you can just go and chill. They also serve beverages and hookah if you want- no compulsion to order; you can get your food and eat here. I've mainly seen students sitting here; either studying or hanging out with their friends or their date.
The first time we went here was on the first day; we grabbed a shawarma and came here for some tea.
Shawarma is something you will get throughout Egypt- mainly in Chicken and Beef. We chose chicken because being Hindus we treat the cow as holy; it is a strong mental block. The shawarma here has a lot of fresh juicy tomatoes but you may not always have mayo or some dressing. The tomatoes don't always make up for it and leaves you wanting a beverage.
Another thing across Egypt were juices- Mango and Hibiscus (called Karkadeh). Had the best mango juice at Cairo and the best Karkadeh juice at Aswan. In Aswan, we had some amazing Hibiscus tea made with dried Hibiscus petals.
I ordered for Turkish coffee at a cafe in Aswan on a whim- it looked interesting on someone else's table. It is really small; smaller than a salt shaker; but supremely strong. Felt like I was having one week's worth coffee. Didn't help that I don't add sugar; nevertheless way too strong and kept me awake all night even though I had it at lunch.
Throughout Egypt; we got only black tea; we are used to adding ginger or cardamom seeds to our teas as well and of course, milk.
Another item we had more than we would have liked is bread. And the bread here is on the sweeter side. They have crazy variety of breads and you see breads being sold at literally every nook and corner. We had left for Abu Simbel at 3:30 a.m. in the morning; the first thing our ferry guide handed us was freshly baked Egyptian bread and in fact, the packed breakfast we had was - bread with feta cheese, bread with chicken, bread with eggs and....plain bread! We were so tired of breads, that I vowed to not have breads for a full month after my return.
Ful- boiled fava beans served with french fries, fresh onion and tomato salad, hummus, lemons and Egyptian bread (resembles the Indian roti) was an omnipresent breakfast item; this was a breakfast option at every hotel, hostel, resort we stayed at without exception. Another popular breakfast item was Tameya- which is basically Egyptian falafel made of a deep fried mixture of ground fava beans, onion and coriander.
Below is a video of a street vendor preparing ful. This is just after we landed; in Cairo opposite Meramees hostel a vendor who seemed pretty popular with the locals.
Another thing that came handy was chips- they have chips in various flavors; very similar to the Lays available in India. We purchased chips and water mainly from supermarkets.
Cairo: Cairo is a metropolitan and capital city; here you will not have any problem in finding the cuisine of your choice. One item I really loved here is the koshary at a small place "The Koshary" near Tahrir square. It is difficult to spot the place as it has no sign board; all you see are glass doors. Koshary is one of the heartiest meals I've had in Egypt - it's like comfort food you can have that instantly cheers you up or something to look forward to after a long, tiring day. You can make it spicier by adding it spicy or tangy by adding lemon juice.
In Khan-el-Khalili bazaar, there is a place as a tribute to the Nobel prize winning Egyptian writer Naquib Mahfouz. It is called the "Khan El Khalili Restaurant & Naquib Mahfouz Cafe" operated by the Oberoi chain. The funny thing is there is always a huge crowd of people standing firmly outside the place refusing to budge; not letting anyone go in or out; and the door keeper does not do anything about it. The next day we called in advance and made a reservation for dinner. However, the people plonked outside would not let us communicate with the door man. We literally had to scream out that we had reservations and our details. After validating, we literally had to squeeze our way in. I found the people there very snooty. There is strictly no photography allowed. The ambience was good and they had live music. Food was very good and reasonably priced. We ordered a 3 course meal- Egyptian lentil soup, some mutton with potatoes and baklava for dessert. The soup was good, mutton- really soft and succulent and the baklava was really hot and nice- not overly sweet. We also ordered some mango milkshake - the best we had; and that is saying something since we come from Bombay- the land of the famous alphonso mango.
Another renowned place at Khan-el-Khalili bazaar is Egyptian Pancakes which serves as you can guess Egyptian pancakes - both sweet and savory. We came here on the day we were rejected by the Naquib Mahfouz Cafe. Rummy cheese is an Egyptian cheese and we had Rummy Cheese pancake and a chicken pancake. We did not try a sweet one. It is basically like stuffings in a rolled out dough and later put in an over; resembles an Indian paratha. This is an open area seating. They do have an English menu as well and a server or two who can speak English. It is intriguing to watch the skill with which this "pancake" is made. You might be slightly inconvenienced by vendors peddling their goods while you enjoy your meal.
Below video displays the chef skillfully handling multiple pancakes.
You also get amazing Mediterranean and Continental food. On our first day since we hadn't slept for around 40 hours we ordered some pasta using room service- and it was just perfect. And a lot of cafe's around serve wonderful hot chocolate and coffees.
Aswan: Aswan is down south and very close to Nubia (currently part Egypt part Sudan). Here we had hearty Nubian meals. A Nubian meal consists of a reddish rice, some meat, tomatoes and a tomato salad. Along the banks of the Nile, on the east coast there are a lot of cafe's and they serve all types of cuisines. You can enjoy a nice meal with the Nile in the backdrop and feluccas going by. We also had one at our guest house prepared by our hosts. The quantity was a bit much for us and we could not finish even half of our meal. If you eat small portions, two can share one meal. This will prevent wastage.
At the East Bank, there is a mall which has a food court and many restaurants which serves different cuisines. We had a burger and pizza there for lunch. Also, there are multiple stalls by the promenade that serve excellent fries, shawarma and gelato. I don't remember the name of the place but it was very popular with the locals and the food had good taste. The gelato was very refreshing in the Aswan heat.
Luxor: Luxor was one place where we did not eat out much. On the second afternoon, at around 3 p.m. most restaurants were shut when we stumbled on an Indian place- A Taste of India. They offered us a buffet meal as that was the only thing they had left. We agreed and the food was really good- potatoes, spinach, rice and flatbread. The ambience was wonderful with images from Bollywood and Bollywood songs in the backdrop. It felt so good to hear some Hindi after a week- the whole experience made me feel a little happier.
However, after we got back to our hotel we got really sick and I could not eat anything; even the sight or aromas from food made me sick. I will tell you this- there are numerous cafe's here- you will get good Mediterranean as well as Egyptian cuisines easily.
Hurghada: Our resort in Hurghada took care of literally every need we had in terms of food and drinks. This is what it looked like.
We reached on Christmas eve and they had a wonderful Christmas eve party with a live singer and we had some wonderful dances. Tried veal and turkey.The feast was too huge and widespread; got a bit overwhelmed and didn't end up clicking too many pictures. Beach side lunches were just a perfect break from sun bathing.
Post check-out, we headed out to the Hurghada Marina. There we came across a cafe at the very end with an ice-cream rolls stall that looked super tempting. We felt like children here; and observed many passers-by stop to have one.
Alexandria: Alexandria was the place we had our best food in Egypt. Co-incidentally it is also the place which has grown on me and has a place in my heart. It could be because it is uncannily similar to my love, Bombay! Back to food- we had some amazing sea food here.
Samakmak is a wonderful sea food place owned by Zizi Salem; the retired queen of the Alexandrian belly dancing scene. We had grilled fish here; we were given the option to pick out the fish we would be interested in having.
Alexandria is known for its Greek influence; after all the city of Alexandria itself is named after Alexander the Great. Here in this city, M. Sofianopoulo opened a coffee store in 1908 called Sofianopoulo. 100+ years later, it stands strong and has withstood the test of time. The roasted java beans aroma drifts in the air and this place takes you back in time.
Another stellar sea food place we visited was called "The Fish Market". The concept here is that like in a fish market you can choose what you want and how much you want- then you can specify how you want it cooked. And voila! the meal appears at your table. This was the most expensive meal we had in Egypt. This place has a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea.
There are a lot of bars as well which serve delicious sea food along with a beer or a nice drink. We had lunch at one such bar.
Suez: We had Tameya here. It is a street side, inexpensive food item and very filling. We did not have much time to spend here and hence had to grab this quickly. Along the Red Sea promenade, there are a lot of cafe's which serve wonderful sea food. Opposite the bus stop there was a nuts place- which served all kinds of seeds and nuts- we bought chocolate coated peanuts and tasted a variety of seeds ranging from pumpkin to watermelon.
For my vegetarian friends: As you can see, most of the items are vegetarian- ranging from ful, hummus, tameya for breakfast, koshary, soups, salads, vegetables for meals. You should have enough options for all your meals at every location.
The food we carried: We carried the below items with us:-
1. Maggi Cup Noodles: In case we were too tired to venture out or wanted to save time on a meal but still have a nice, hot meal. We took around 4 packs- could have used a few more.
2. A 500gm Plum Cake: My colleague, Shruti Shalini bakes these wonderful cakes by soaking dry fruits and fruits in rum for one month. I had cut it neatly into slices; we usually had a big slice around lunch time when we were busy exploring a place and did not want to spend time on a meal or get out of the place and go have lunch. This lasted us around a week. In retrospect, I would have taken a 1 kg cake instead to last for the entire duration of the trip.
3. Besan Ladoos: Indian sweet made of chickpea flour, raisins, clarified butter, cardamon powder and sugar. These were made at home just a day prior to our departure for Egypt. This in addition to the cake slice completed our meals. This was quite filling.
4. Assorted Dry Fruits: We carried around 200gms of assorted dry fruits- almonds, raisins, pista, cashew, dates, dried apricot. This was to take care of sudden cravings we had in the middle of the day and it really helped.
5. Dark Chocolate Bar: We carried a huge bar of dark chocolate; whenever we felt like having a quick bite- we had a piece or two
6. Kachori, Bhakharwadi- Savory snacks in case we got tired of eating all the sweet stuff or just for a change.
7. Tea and Coffee Premix: We anticipated not getting tea and coffee according to our taste; hence we carried some premix which can be made by just mixing hot water.
In the next part, I will talk about the essentials for Egypt- forex, transport, safety, accommodation, shopping, hacks within Egypt etc.
P.S.:- All the pics / videos are clicked on my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
Before you read any further, please know that I am an out and out foodie - the kind that can climb mountains if there is good food at the top. So expect this to be a long post!
Egypt has a huge hangout culture; you will come across a lot of places where all they serve is tea, coffee and hookah; some places just tea and coffee. And they are hugely popular across age groups and socio-economic groups. Take for instance below place in Alexandria.
 |
| Tea / Hookah Parlor in Alexandria |
We walked in here after an overnight bus journey from Hurghada hoping to get some breakfast and FYI- Most folks do not understand English in Alexandria; we had to communicate using sign language. But all they could serve us was some tea (you only get black tea here); so we settled down for 2 cups of tea. The place was filthy; you could see litter everywhere. Then there were cats here and there. While we sat, there were locals just sipping tea doing nothing; some started off on a hookah as early as 8 a.m. What surprised me was many people dressed in full business formals also dropped by for a cup of quick tea; similar to the culture of folks grabbing coffee on the way to work.
One interesting observation; the chairs are placed at right angles to the table; which I think means they want people to look around and socialize while sipping on tea or having hookah and not talk to each other!
There are a lot of open air places; wherein you can just go and chill. They also serve beverages and hookah if you want- no compulsion to order; you can get your food and eat here. I've mainly seen students sitting here; either studying or hanging out with their friends or their date.
 |
| Open air hangout in Cairo |
The first time we went here was on the first day; we grabbed a shawarma and came here for some tea.
 |
| Chicken Shawarma |
Shawarma is something you will get throughout Egypt- mainly in Chicken and Beef. We chose chicken because being Hindus we treat the cow as holy; it is a strong mental block. The shawarma here has a lot of fresh juicy tomatoes but you may not always have mayo or some dressing. The tomatoes don't always make up for it and leaves you wanting a beverage.
Another thing across Egypt were juices- Mango and Hibiscus (called Karkadeh). Had the best mango juice at Cairo and the best Karkadeh juice at Aswan. In Aswan, we had some amazing Hibiscus tea made with dried Hibiscus petals.
 |
| Hibiscus and Mango Juice (L to R) |
I ordered for Turkish coffee at a cafe in Aswan on a whim- it looked interesting on someone else's table. It is really small; smaller than a salt shaker; but supremely strong. Felt like I was having one week's worth coffee. Didn't help that I don't add sugar; nevertheless way too strong and kept me awake all night even though I had it at lunch.
 | ||
| Turkish Coffee, next to a salt shaker; for perspective on size |
Throughout Egypt; we got only black tea; we are used to adding ginger or cardamom seeds to our teas as well and of course, milk.
 |
| Sipping tea outside the Catacombs in Alexandria |
Another item we had more than we would have liked is bread. And the bread here is on the sweeter side. They have crazy variety of breads and you see breads being sold at literally every nook and corner. We had left for Abu Simbel at 3:30 a.m. in the morning; the first thing our ferry guide handed us was freshly baked Egyptian bread and in fact, the packed breakfast we had was - bread with feta cheese, bread with chicken, bread with eggs and....plain bread! We were so tired of breads, that I vowed to not have breads for a full month after my return.
 |
| A man selecting the breads from a handcart vendor |
Ful- boiled fava beans served with french fries, fresh onion and tomato salad, hummus, lemons and Egyptian bread (resembles the Indian roti) was an omnipresent breakfast item; this was a breakfast option at every hotel, hostel, resort we stayed at without exception. Another popular breakfast item was Tameya- which is basically Egyptian falafel made of a deep fried mixture of ground fava beans, onion and coriander.
 |
| Ful, served with french fries, hummus, tomatoes and lemon |
Below is a video of a street vendor preparing ful. This is just after we landed; in Cairo opposite Meramees hostel a vendor who seemed pretty popular with the locals.
Another thing that came handy was chips- they have chips in various flavors; very similar to the Lays available in India. We purchased chips and water mainly from supermarkets.
Cairo: Cairo is a metropolitan and capital city; here you will not have any problem in finding the cuisine of your choice. One item I really loved here is the koshary at a small place "The Koshary" near Tahrir square. It is difficult to spot the place as it has no sign board; all you see are glass doors. Koshary is one of the heartiest meals I've had in Egypt - it's like comfort food you can have that instantly cheers you up or something to look forward to after a long, tiring day. You can make it spicier by adding it spicy or tangy by adding lemon juice.
 |
| Koshary: rice, noodles, macaroni, lentils and fried onion garnishing with tomato sauce on the side |
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| Lemon juice in front and spices in oil at the back |
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| The champs preparing koshary |
In Khan-el-Khalili bazaar, there is a place as a tribute to the Nobel prize winning Egyptian writer Naquib Mahfouz. It is called the "Khan El Khalili Restaurant & Naquib Mahfouz Cafe" operated by the Oberoi chain. The funny thing is there is always a huge crowd of people standing firmly outside the place refusing to budge; not letting anyone go in or out; and the door keeper does not do anything about it. The next day we called in advance and made a reservation for dinner. However, the people plonked outside would not let us communicate with the door man. We literally had to scream out that we had reservations and our details. After validating, we literally had to squeeze our way in. I found the people there very snooty. There is strictly no photography allowed. The ambience was good and they had live music. Food was very good and reasonably priced. We ordered a 3 course meal- Egyptian lentil soup, some mutton with potatoes and baklava for dessert. The soup was good, mutton- really soft and succulent and the baklava was really hot and nice- not overly sweet. We also ordered some mango milkshake - the best we had; and that is saying something since we come from Bombay- the land of the famous alphonso mango.
 |
| Baklava under a flame at Naquib Mahfouz Cafe |
Another renowned place at Khan-el-Khalili bazaar is Egyptian Pancakes which serves as you can guess Egyptian pancakes - both sweet and savory. We came here on the day we were rejected by the Naquib Mahfouz Cafe. Rummy cheese is an Egyptian cheese and we had Rummy Cheese pancake and a chicken pancake. We did not try a sweet one. It is basically like stuffings in a rolled out dough and later put in an over; resembles an Indian paratha. This is an open area seating. They do have an English menu as well and a server or two who can speak English. It is intriguing to watch the skill with which this "pancake" is made. You might be slightly inconvenienced by vendors peddling their goods while you enjoy your meal.
 |
| Egyptian Pancakes at Khan-el-Khalili |
 | |
| Rummy Cheese Pancake |
Below video displays the chef skillfully handling multiple pancakes.
You also get amazing Mediterranean and Continental food. On our first day since we hadn't slept for around 40 hours we ordered some pasta using room service- and it was just perfect. And a lot of cafe's around serve wonderful hot chocolate and coffees.
 |
| Red Sauce pasta at Hotel Cleopatra, Cairo |
Aswan: Aswan is down south and very close to Nubia (currently part Egypt part Sudan). Here we had hearty Nubian meals. A Nubian meal consists of a reddish rice, some meat, tomatoes and a tomato salad. Along the banks of the Nile, on the east coast there are a lot of cafe's and they serve all types of cuisines. You can enjoy a nice meal with the Nile in the backdrop and feluccas going by. We also had one at our guest house prepared by our hosts. The quantity was a bit much for us and we could not finish even half of our meal. If you eat small portions, two can share one meal. This will prevent wastage.
 |
| Aswan Moon Cafe: L-rice and fish, B- rice and chicken in tomato gravy with Egyptian bread |
 |
| Nuba Dool: Nubian meal; rice, chicken, spinach soup |
 |
| Aswan Moon Cafe on the banks on River Nile |
At the East Bank, there is a mall which has a food court and many restaurants which serves different cuisines. We had a burger and pizza there for lunch. Also, there are multiple stalls by the promenade that serve excellent fries, shawarma and gelato. I don't remember the name of the place but it was very popular with the locals and the food had good taste. The gelato was very refreshing in the Aswan heat.
Luxor: Luxor was one place where we did not eat out much. On the second afternoon, at around 3 p.m. most restaurants were shut when we stumbled on an Indian place- A Taste of India. They offered us a buffet meal as that was the only thing they had left. We agreed and the food was really good- potatoes, spinach, rice and flatbread. The ambience was wonderful with images from Bollywood and Bollywood songs in the backdrop. It felt so good to hear some Hindi after a week- the whole experience made me feel a little happier.
However, after we got back to our hotel we got really sick and I could not eat anything; even the sight or aromas from food made me sick. I will tell you this- there are numerous cafe's here- you will get good Mediterranean as well as Egyptian cuisines easily.
Hurghada: Our resort in Hurghada took care of literally every need we had in terms of food and drinks. This is what it looked like.
 |
| Our All Inclusive at Marlin Inn Resort |
We reached on Christmas eve and they had a wonderful Christmas eve party with a live singer and we had some wonderful dances. Tried veal and turkey.The feast was too huge and widespread; got a bit overwhelmed and didn't end up clicking too many pictures. Beach side lunches were just a perfect break from sun bathing.
 |
| Part of the dessert spread at the Christmas eve party |
 |
| Turkey kept under red light probably to keep it warm |
Post check-out, we headed out to the Hurghada Marina. There we came across a cafe at the very end with an ice-cream rolls stall that looked super tempting. We felt like children here; and observed many passers-by stop to have one.
 |
| Ice Cream Rolls: These were our options! |
 |
| Ice-cream rolls: Yoghurt base with blueberries and salted caramel topping |
Alexandria: Alexandria was the place we had our best food in Egypt. Co-incidentally it is also the place which has grown on me and has a place in my heart. It could be because it is uncannily similar to my love, Bombay! Back to food- we had some amazing sea food here.
Samakmak is a wonderful sea food place owned by Zizi Salem; the retired queen of the Alexandrian belly dancing scene. We had grilled fish here; we were given the option to pick out the fish we would be interested in having.
 |
| Fish selection process at Samakmak |
Alexandria is known for its Greek influence; after all the city of Alexandria itself is named after Alexander the Great. Here in this city, M. Sofianopoulo opened a coffee store in 1908 called Sofianopoulo. 100+ years later, it stands strong and has withstood the test of time. The roasted java beans aroma drifts in the air and this place takes you back in time.
 |
| Sofianopoulo |
Another stellar sea food place we visited was called "The Fish Market". The concept here is that like in a fish market you can choose what you want and how much you want- then you can specify how you want it cooked. And voila! the meal appears at your table. This was the most expensive meal we had in Egypt. This place has a beautiful view of the Mediterranean Sea.
 |
| Fish market simulation |
 |
| Grilled Sea Bass |
There are a lot of bars as well which serve delicious sea food along with a beer or a nice drink. We had lunch at one such bar.
Suez: We had Tameya here. It is a street side, inexpensive food item and very filling. We did not have much time to spend here and hence had to grab this quickly. Along the Red Sea promenade, there are a lot of cafe's which serve wonderful sea food. Opposite the bus stop there was a nuts place- which served all kinds of seeds and nuts- we bought chocolate coated peanuts and tasted a variety of seeds ranging from pumpkin to watermelon.
For my vegetarian friends: As you can see, most of the items are vegetarian- ranging from ful, hummus, tameya for breakfast, koshary, soups, salads, vegetables for meals. You should have enough options for all your meals at every location.
The food we carried: We carried the below items with us:-
1. Maggi Cup Noodles: In case we were too tired to venture out or wanted to save time on a meal but still have a nice, hot meal. We took around 4 packs- could have used a few more.
2. A 500gm Plum Cake: My colleague, Shruti Shalini bakes these wonderful cakes by soaking dry fruits and fruits in rum for one month. I had cut it neatly into slices; we usually had a big slice around lunch time when we were busy exploring a place and did not want to spend time on a meal or get out of the place and go have lunch. This lasted us around a week. In retrospect, I would have taken a 1 kg cake instead to last for the entire duration of the trip.
3. Besan Ladoos: Indian sweet made of chickpea flour, raisins, clarified butter, cardamon powder and sugar. These were made at home just a day prior to our departure for Egypt. This in addition to the cake slice completed our meals. This was quite filling.
4. Assorted Dry Fruits: We carried around 200gms of assorted dry fruits- almonds, raisins, pista, cashew, dates, dried apricot. This was to take care of sudden cravings we had in the middle of the day and it really helped.
5. Dark Chocolate Bar: We carried a huge bar of dark chocolate; whenever we felt like having a quick bite- we had a piece or two
6. Kachori, Bhakharwadi- Savory snacks in case we got tired of eating all the sweet stuff or just for a change.
7. Tea and Coffee Premix: We anticipated not getting tea and coffee according to our taste; hence we carried some premix which can be made by just mixing hot water.
In the next part, I will talk about the essentials for Egypt- forex, transport, safety, accommodation, shopping, hacks within Egypt etc.
P.S.:- All the pics / videos are clicked on my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
It's good to b a foodie. Come to vasai we have high end goodies neighourhood
ReplyDeleteThis is superb angelichuman ��
ReplyDeleteWow! What a wonderful post! I will truly keep this post for many years to come! So much wonderful advice and information.
ReplyDelete