It’s a Small World

Navigating the intricacies of eating during Ramadan in Egypt

Traditional Food

Egypt knows good food. And it’s cheap. When we ate better, things like large shawarma wraps or massive bowls of Koshary, with a side of coke, it was right at $2USD a person. For the meals when food was scarce and our only options were Falafel or Ful pita’s with a drink, we could eat till we were full for $1USD

I think everyone knows what shawarma is, though in your world it might be called doner kebap, or gyro, or even al pastor. Regardless, it’s that giant rotisserie of meat that twirls and cooks in front of a flame, and the cook shaves off tasty bits as it cooks. From there it’s turned into wraps, or eaten with sides of rice and salad, or placed in a bowl along with rice, crunchy fried pita bits and an amazing garlic sauce that will get you humming. In Egypt our options were normally chicken or meat, which they said was beef. I have no reason to disbelieve that. It tasted like beef, although I’m not sure I’d recognize the camel taste if I had it. Needless to say, we saw a lot more camels than beef cows, but then again, this wasn’t an agricultural tour.

Koshary is Egypt’s National dish and a very popular street food. When it’s not Ramadan, this bowl of goodness is available 24/7 and there’s always a shop within walking distance that sells it. Since it’s extremely carb centric, macaroni, rice, lentils and chickpeas, topped with crispy fried onions, tomato sauce and spicy chili sauce, most people forego it in favor of higher protein fare during the fast. Understandable, but disappointing at first. We did find it in Luxor, and visited the place a couple times. It was a little puzzling though. We couldn’t communicate well, and the first time we headed to the dining room one of the workers suddenly got mad as hops, threw his spoon down and walked three quick circles before continuing to kindly serve us. We approached with caution the next time, wondering if we’d commit the same, or an even worse outrage, causing four or five circles before he could calm down. Seems we didn’t, as no strange rituals occurred.

Do supermarkets come under the title traditional food? I don’t know. But I do know that one day we were stuck between eating at a boring, overpriced tourist restaurant located at a boring, overpriced tourist trap, thus killing an hour of precious time staring at other tourists, or we could dart into a supermarket and make do. We chose to make do. Hard experience has taught us this. The supermarket may have been a little more limited than we had hoped, in fact it was just your basic hole in the wall essential and junk food stop, but it had cold drinks and a few bites to keep the blood sugar up and the tempers down. Sustenance.

And then there was the night we went for street pizza! If you don’t know what to choose, google translate the menu and pick the most interesting things.

Yup, we ate Mix Jane, The leader is the problem, and Alexandrian Sausage pizza. All delicious. What is wrong with America and their basic food names?

Or maybe, if you want to feel risky…

Fantastic Fish Feast

Fresh fish from the Red Sea. We’d been dreaming of having this again ever since Heath and I had a memorable meal in Sinai in 2018. Now we’re back, and all ten of us are sitting at a large outdoor table at Ebn Hamido’s , wondering what the “feast” we ordered will consist of. This type of place is a family style joint, where you take your time gazing at the fresh offerings laid out on ice, point to some particularly attractive ones and they do the rest. Or, as in this case, you negotiate a price, ask for a feast and then sit down and see what materializes. The weather was a little nippy with the sun down, and I shivered with cold and anticipation. One of the most exciting things in the whole world is awaiting an unknown, exotic meal. The fish net strung above us swung in the breeze and somewhere an Imam called for prayer.

It started slow, with little plates of dates and some Tamarind juice and orange fruit juice to break our fast. This was followed by baskets of pitas and a nice variety of dips such as peanut dip, potato dip, unidentifiable dip, etc. We had all got a good lick in when out came the warming cumin and chili flavored broth soup. Delectable! By now there was a near constant parade out of the kitchen of food. Salads, apple beet salad, coleslaw, roasted eggplant and bell peppers, tomato and cucumber, marinated tomato wedges, some bread triangles with cheesy melted goodness, french fries, and some random pickles made their appearance. Our eyes were starting to widen just a touch, but then they’d close in delight as we bit into yet another new and astonishing flavor. Enter, cheesy pasta dishes with seafood pieces, elaborate plates of steamed mussels, sitting beautiful in their open shells. And then it was heaping plates of fried calamari, two types of fried fish, some stuffed calamari nestled on a bed of rice, and Nette was near panic. “If any more comes, I’m gonna be so overwhelmed I’ll just leave”. The foodies among us had dazed, delighted looks on our faces, our image of Heaven a little clearer than it had been an hour ago.

That’s when the crowning moment came. Out came the black and white waiters and cooks bearing little altars of seafood. Guilt boxes with foil covered racks on top for the food and glowing charcoal inside to keep the seafood at prime temperature as we waded through it all. Unbelievable. Grilled fish, baked fish, beautiful butterflied shrimps still sporting all their body parts, some were smothered in delectable sauces or roasted with vegetables to make amazing flavors. Jane nearly wept. We ate. We talked. We compared. We were no longer cold. We feasted. Feasted in the true sense of the word. Feasted till we could feast no more, and then still tried a little something.

We did our best, and the food took a huge hit. But we simply couldn’t lick the platters clean. Finally, with groans, we staggered out into the night, grateful we could at least walk home and shake some of it down. With a healthy tip, the meal came to $12USD/person. Burger King anyone? Bacon King Meal Deal? Really, it might pay to fly to Egypt instead.