In April 2010, myself and my good old pal James visited Egypt and I have to say it was truly spectacular from the minute we arrived in Luxor to when we left 8 days later in Cairo.
Our first morning we hopped onto a tour bus and went to visit The Valley of the Kings, The Valley of the Queens, Hatchepsut’s Temple and The Colossi of Memnon and that was all before we had our first traditional Egyptian lunch…Falafel, of course and chicken shish tawook.Throughout the week we sampled some really amazing foods. Every meal I had was local and beautifully fresh. The Egyptians grow fields upon fields of cucumbers and tomatoes and you would always get a fresh salad with your meal, just what you need on a hot day in the desert.
Living in the Middle East for the past year has opened up a whole new world of tastes and flavours for me. So I knew when I arrived in Egypt we were in for a treat!
Falafel, a staple for many Arabs, Eggplant Tajine (pronounced Ta-geen in Egyptian), Hummus, Baba Ghanoush, Grilled Sea Bass, Carp Tajine, Chicken Shish, all kinds of Kababs and finally Kushari….which was my favourite Egyptian meal, we ate it on our last day in a restaurant called ‘Abu Tarek’ which is famous for serving some of the finest Kushari in town!
A local Cairene, Mohammed, whom we randomly met in the street told us all about it and I had been dying to try some all week so off we went to find this “Temple”.
Kushari is a very healthy but cheap vegetarian dish; It is a mix of lentils, noodles and rice, topped with chick peas and lemon, crispy fried onions, a spicy tomato sauce and garlicky vinegar. As you can imagine it tickles every taste bud in your mouth and is extremely satisfying. The flavours all work so well together. A medium sized bowl cost around 2 Euro and kept us going all day.
Fuul Medames is another of their local dishes, well, it is a common dish throughout the whole of the Middle East, it is a blend of fava beans and is very common to be eaten at breakfast with hard-boiled eggs, quite a distinct yet earthy flavour but still very tasty!
And of course, EVERYTHING is served with a generous basket of Arabic bread…hard to resist especially when it is fresh out of the oven 😛
After that week of spoiling myself with some of the most delectable foods I have eaten, I have decided to test out as many of these recipes as I can at home.
As well as that I have many recipes which I have been meaning to put up for a very long time, so be prepared to get some tasty, colourful treats on your screens very soon 🙂
Carolanne's Kitchen 