When in Egypt...

Eat as the Egyptians do! I'm going to preface this post by telling you that I don't remember the name of either of the restaurants that I am going to be writing about. But I will try to find out and add them to the post if/when I do. The first restaurant was in the heart of Khan Al-Khalili, a tourist trap of a bazaar in Cairo which specializes in towering water pipes, blown glass perfume bottles, shimmering belly dancing costumes, and colorful hijabs, all made in China. There is more kitsch here than a precious moments catalogue. But if make your way through the narrow streets lined with stands and kiosks displaying these cheap goods and if you manage to escape the aggressive clutches of the hawkers you will come to a wonderful little restaurant in the heart of the bazaar. I have come to realize that every meal in Egypt is prefaced by the arrival of a huge basket of Aish (bread) and hummus, tahina, or lebnah, or all three.

Lebnah

Tahina

Aish

Good Aish is served warm and so puffy that with one poke it deflates like a popped balloon. It's a rich, floury bread that seems to go well with every dish served in Egypt.

Beautifully made Aish

Time to puff up!

These dishes are not even considered appetizers here. This beautiful bread and the accompanying smooth dips seem to be the equivalent of the boring bread basket served at higher class American restaurants. I don't know about you, but I'd take this stuff any day.

The real appetizers here are meals unto themselves. Vegetables stuffed to the seams with rice and spices, warm stuffed vine leaves (below left) and savory bulgar wheat deep friend around a steaming center of minced meat (below right). Sometimes plates arrive full of food and half is a mystery dish even after you eat it. The other day at a restaurant here in Alexandria a plate of appetizers arrived brimming with intriguing and colorful delicacies. Not until most of the plate had been devoured did one of our Egyptian guides inform us that the round, deep reddish brown bites we had all partaken in was sheep's stomach. Probably better we didn't know first though, because it was delicious!

Kibbeh

Warak Einab

But the real gems in this restaurant in the Khan Al-Khalili market were their main courses. Their specialties are classic Egyptian dishes like kushari, grilled meats, and pigeon. Yup, pigeon. Apparently considered a delicacy in this part of the world, we were told that if we wanted to try it, this was the place to do so. I think you can see where this is going:

My pair of stuffed pigeons

Fit to burst!

Now, as you can maybe imagine, I am not an expert on eating pigeon. It is a very small animal with limited meat on its bones and there is a definite technique and finesse required to properly dismember and devour these birds. Luckily, we had an experienced pigeoneur in our group who graciously instructed me:

Mr. Momdua, my pigeon coach

Proper form

Practice makes perfect!

I think my plate speaks for itself:

After a fantastic Egyptian dinner, the only proper ending was a steaming cup of sweet turkish coffee, stewed beside the table, served black as the night:

Turkish coffee is prepared with unfiltered grinds, which leave a thick, gooey substance at the bottom of the cup. It has a foul taste and leaves your teeth covered in a black soot if you drink it, but it does have one good purpose:

Reading your fortune in the grinds!

One of the girls in the program is from Turkey and her grandmother taught her to read the grinds. To prepare the cup, you place the small plate on top, swirl it lightly a few times, and quickly flip the cup upside down while still holding the plate to the top. Then you let it rest until the cup is cool. Your fate can be predicted by the patterns made in the inside of the cup and by the way the goo runs off the plate back into the cup when you pour it. My cup predicted many difficult decisions ahead of me and one path that would lead me back to where I started. But my plate assured that when I made the right decisions there would be a clear path and a good outcome. Insha'allah.

I think that white streak in the middle is my clear path

The second culinary adventure I want to tell you about was a less extravagant, less expensive meal, but it was equally delicious. The office of my study abroad program is located in the quiet(er) Cairo neighborhood of Dokki, near Giza. It is on the same street that I will be living on when I move to Cairo in the spring and I am sure this restaurant will be seeing much more of me come next semester. Just around the corner and down the block is this wonderful fish restaurant. When you walk in the door, the waiters immediately bring you to the back of the restaurant, where you find this display:

Some of the selection included eel, snapper, prawns, and tilapia

From this tantalizing array you select not just the kind of fish, but the exact fish that you want to eat. The tilapia was plump and looked fresh so we ordered one each (four total). After selecting our meal we were seated at a table and served, you guessed it, aish and tahina. They also gave us a little plate of lemons for our fish and I loved the idea of serving them like this, so I took a picture. 

Egyptian lemons are small and have many seeds, so this cloth allows you to squeeze out the juice and not worry about the seeds getting into your food. The little bundles are so cute!

Our fish arrived, heads still attached, with some slices of potatoes. The potatoes were completely unnecessary; the fish was the real star. It was grilled to perfection, seasoned with just the right amount of salt and pepper, and tasted just that much better because we had picked them out ourselves. Oh yeah, also, our total was about $15, so each fish was less than $4 (still a pricey meal by Egyptian standards!). 

Delicious!

I haven't yet had a chance to explore the many possibilities of Alexandria's culinary offerings, partly because I am on a meal plan here. But I did go downtown yesterday to one of the most amazing pastry shops I have ever been in. No pictures at the moment, but you can be sure I will be back there again soon and this time I'll bring my camera! Also, Alexandria is known for its fantastic seafood (the Mediterranean coast seems to have that effect on places) and I can assure you I will take advantage of this. School has just begun and I anticipate a busy week, but I will do my best to post again ASAP. Keep the comments coming, it's nice to know people are reading!