Egyptian Cuisine

• 16 / 5 / 2023

Egyptian cuisine

Egyptian cuisine is famous for its variety of foods; it is not famous for one or two kinds of food, but it has many different delicious foods that are distinguished by Egyptian origin, but it also has some external influences from several countries, such as the countries of the Levant and countries on the Mediterranean coast, like Italy and its pasta or Turkey, and these days the popularity of Chinese restaurants in which the Egyptians have excelled as they are adept at many things.

In Egypt, there is something different, which is that each place has its distinctive food, as the cities on the Mediterranean coast have unique food, especially Alexandria, which is famous for the Alexandria restaurant in various meals, and the most important thing that is specialized, of course, is fish, and just as in northern Egypt there is wonderful food, there is also very special food in Upper Egypt, such as meshaltet feteer, which includes the wonderful Egyptian butter that you can eat with honey and cheese.

About Cairo or Central Egypt, it is a mixture of all places in the north or south, and there are also foods of foreign cuisines such as Italian, Turkish, and Indian cuisines as well.

Foreign Effects of Egyptian Cuisine

Italian cuisine

As we know, Italian cuisine is famous for pastries such as pizzas of all kinds, whether it's Margherita pizza, sausage pizza, or others, but the only difference is that pizza in Egypt is more baked than pizza in Italy.

In Egypt, one of the most important meals for lunch is pasta, which varies in forms and ways of preparation. There is pasta with white and red sauce and pasta in the oven, which in Egypt is called béchamel, which is almost taken from Greek cuisine.

Turkish cuisine

The Turkish effect on Egyptian cuisine can be found in charcoal-grilled foods; there is no place in Egypt that does not have a grilled food store, and the most famous of these foods are kofta and kebabs, as well as some Turkish sweets such as baklava.

Syrian or Shami cuisine

 The Syrians' presence in Egypt has allowed them to showcase their unique cuisine, which is famous for many wonderful Levantine dishes like shawarma and sambousek, as well as sweets such as meshbek and dumplings.

Egyptian expressions related to food

The word Qardehi means that the food does not contain any meat. 

The word cooking is for grains or vegetables such as peas, cowpeas, and even potatoes that are cooked in sauce and accompanied by chicken or meat.

There are words related to meat: meat is called kandouz when the animal is large, and chickens are sometimes called shamroot when the chicken is small.

The breakfast meal is characterized by traditional Egyptian foods, which are foul, taameya, and potatoes, along with eggs and fried eggplant, and there are also cheeses of various kinds, such as white cheese, turkey or turkey cheese, and the breakfast meal is always characterized by having a drink such as tea with milk, coffee with milk, or fast drinks such as orange juice.

As for the lunch meal, it is a meal full of different foods and it is the most basic meal for Egyptians, as it is a meal after which you cannot do anything else, as it is also famous that after it you must drink either hot tea or soft drinks that help in the digestion process after this fatty meal, but this meal depends more on the seasons; there are certain foods in a season that are different from foods in a season, and among the most important foods in the lunch meal are rice, stews, mahashi, pasta, koshari, and many foods that you should not miss, whether in the most famous Egyptian restaurants or even inside Egyptian homes.

Egypt's most popular dishes

Breakfast

Fol Medames

It is a basic dish in the Egyptian breakfast, which is a grain served with oil, cumin, and salt, and you can also put the beans with an Egyptian salad. This mixture is called Alexandrian fol, and it is one of the foods that are characteristic of Alexandria. It is said that foul was discovered for the first time in ancient Egypt, meaning that it is a pure Egyptian meal extending from the era of the pharaohs, but it is known that it was a basic meal in the Middle Ages, and foul is found in many places other than Egypt, such as Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and some southern European countries.

Falafel or Tameya in common Egyptian slang

This meal is considered the second meal after the breakfast meal; it is a dough fried in oil, and this dough is the original ingredient for it being beans, but it has a different taste than fava beans, and in the Levant countries they use chickpeas instead of fava beans, so it has a different taste, but Egyptian falafel is more wonderful and distinctive, especially in the cities of Alexandria, Cairo, and Giza.

Shakshuka

It is not a basic meal in all homes, but it is an ancient meal that is not compared to other foods, and this meal consists of eggs in the sauce, oil, pepper, onions, and garlic, and you can put some vegetables to give it a different taste, and according to historians, it was first present in the era of the Ottoman state.

Lunches

Mahashi

It is vegetables like zucchini and eggplant that are emptied, leaves like cabbage that are considered a winter food, and grape leaves that are considered a summer food. They are stuffed with rice placed in a mixture of sauce and some other ingredients, then they are placed in water and boiled until they are ready, and there are some houses put with chicken, whether it is grilled or boiled, and this meal is one of the most important and beautiful Egyptian foods, but it is also a meal that is not the same as koshari in the economic decline, despite that it is available to every family and any person regardless of his social class.

Koshari

It is one of the most famous Egyptian dishes in history, and the idea of koshari began in the last century and developed rapidly in the current century, as the shops that sell it increased greatly, which made it a basic meal for all Egyptians; even foreigners come to Egypt to try this meal, which is considered economic for all people of different classes, and koshari consists of pasta, rice, black lentils, fried onions, tomato sauce and frying, and the Tahrir Koshari shop in downtown is one of the most famous shops that sell koshari.

There is also another type of koshari called Alexandrian koshari, which consists of rice, yellow lentils, and some spices and is a light and quick-to-prepare but delicious meal.

Molokhia

One of the most famous and oldest Egyptian dishes, Molokhia, is a plant grown with a long stem and green leaves. It has been an Egyptian food since the Pharaonic era, and over time the molokhia spread from Egypt until it moved to other countries, especially in the Arab countries near Egypt, until it became a staple dish in many countries.

This food consists of the molokhia plant after it is chopped and placed in boiling water or chicken soup; some make molokhia with rabbits and put garlic and some spices in it and serve it most of the time with rice, but there is an Egyptian custom to eat molokhia with Egyptian bread that comes from Upper Egypt and is called solar bread because it resembles the sun a little, so there is no Egyptian home that disagrees that molokhia is one of the most beautiful Egyptian foods that we inherited from our ancestors, the pharaohs.

Desserts

Egypt is famous for its many delicious desserts that have existed since the Middle Ages and before, so this section is characterized by a great diversity between sweets that were transferred to Egypt from abroad and authentic Egyptian desserts.

For example, there is Mahlabiya, which is a milk-based dessert that is a delicious and light dessert that is indispensable after lunch.

There is also rice with milk, and from its name, it is clear that it is rice and milk, and sugar is put in it to give it a sweet taste. 

There are many other desserts, such as dumplings and mother on Qatayef, especially during the month of Ramadan.