Modern Egypt Food - Egyptian food and recipes
Spicy
and delicious, Egyptian cuisine is a rich and varied blend of Mediterranean
and Middle East flavors. Ful
mudammas, or mashed fava beans, is regarded by most Egyptians
as the national dish, and bread, called eish masri or eish
baladi, accompanies most meals.
Ancient Egyptians are known to have used a lot of garlic and onion in their everyday dishes. In modern Egypt, fresh mashed garlic with other herbs is used as an speciality of Egyptian cuisine in spicy tomato salad and also stuffed in boiled or baked eggplant. Garlic fried with coriander is added to mulukhiyya, a popular green soup made from finely chopped leaves. Fried onions are added to koushari, a dish consisting of brown lentils, macaroni, rice, chickpeas and a spicy tomato sauce.
Other popular Egypt food dishes include kebab and kofta, usually made of lamb meat, chops & minced meat on skewers grilled on charcoal. Egyptians are famous for stuffing spicy rice in vegetables like green pepper, eggplants, courgettes and tomatoes to make mahshi, rolled in grapevine leaves (mahshi warraq enab) or in cabbage leaves (mahshi koronb).
Shawerma is a popular sandwich of shreded meat or chicken, usually rolled in pita bread with tahini sauce.
Although Ramadan is a month of fasting in Egypt, it is when Egyptians pay special attention to preparing a great variety of dishes, since the whole family would gather on the breakfast table just after sunset. There are several special desserts almost exclusive to Ramadan such as konafa and atayef. In this month, many Egyptians will make a special food table for the poor or passerby, usually in a tent in the street, called Ma'edat Al Rahman which translates literally as Table of God, the Gracious and Merciful.
Christians of Egypt, mainly Copts, observe fasting periods according to the Liturgical Calendar that practically extend to more than two-thirds of the year. The diet is mainly vegetarian. During this fasting, Copts will usually eat vegetables fried in oil as they avoid meat, chicken and dairy products, including butter.
Where can you find real Egypt cuisine?
- In Alexandria: Mohammed Ahmed,
Kadura, Zephyrion
- In Cairo: Felfella,
Andrιa's, Alfi Bey, Samakmak.
- In Luxor: Muhammad Cafeteria, Peace
Abuzeid.
- In Aswan: Al-Masry.
- In Sharm El-Sheik: Fish Restaurant.
Couscous and Vegetables: You can prepare 4 servings of this recipe within 40 minutes. Couscous and vegetables is easy to prepare and flavorful. Couscous came from grains and bran and it is normally cooked by steaming.
Greek Crostini: This recipe is perfect for 8 persons and you can prepare it in 35 minutes. It is a very flavorful and sumptuous dish inspired by the Greek feta croutons and black olives. This is also one of the easiest recipes to prepare.
Who serves the best street food - the Egyptians or the Turks?: A comparision of Egypt food and Turkish food served in the streets of both countries.
Restaurants in Cairo: Satisfying most edible desires, Cairo, Egypt is home to a never-ending source of eateries. Inexpensive food is always easily accessible everywhere about the streets, as restaurants and snack stalls are all over the place. The highest-rated dining opportunities are most often, but not always situated in hotels and Nile boats.
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MULTIMEDIA
MAKING FLOUR IN ANCIENT EGYPT
This is what it took to make flour
from emmer wheat in the period between about 1600 and 1100 BC in Egypt.
Take uncleaned spikelets of wheat from your store. Sieve or winnow them to
get rid of straw, chaff etc. Hand pick to take out weed seeds, stones, etc.
Now you have clean emmer spikelets.
Put the spikelets in a mortar, sprinkle with water, and pound with a long
pestle. This gives you a mix of chaff, freed grain, some large cracked grain,
all damp.
Put all this to dry in the sun or over heat.
Now winnow. Several times. This gives you grain with the heavier bits of chaff.
Now start sieving, scooping the chaff from the upper layers. Do this several
times.
Now pick out the last bits of chaff by hand. Now you have clean grain.
Now grind the grain on a simple grindstone.
Source: Rachel
Laudan

