Egyptian cuisine .

-Egyptian cuisine makes heavy use of legumes, vegetables and fruit from Egypt's rich Nile Valley and
Delta.

-Common meats in Egyptian cuisine are pigeon, chicken, and lamb. (These are often boiled to make the
broth for various stews and soups.)

-Lamb and beef are frequently used for grilling. (Grilled meats such as kofta , kabab, and grilled cutlets.)
(Cow and sheep brain are eaten in Egypt.)

-Fish and seafood are common in Egypt's coastal regions.

-A significant amount of Egyptian cuisine is vegetarian, due to both the historically high price of meat
and the needs of the Coptic Christian community, whose religious restrictions require essentially vegan
diets for much of the year

-Tea is the national drink of Egypt, and beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage.

-Popular desserts in Egypt include baqlawa, basbousa, and kunafa. Common ingredients in desserts
include dates, honey, and almonds.

- for the most part Egyptian cuisine is based on foods that grow out of the ground. (Egyptian cuisine is
notably conducive to vegetarian diets, as it relies heavily on legume and vegetable dishes. Though food
in Alexandria and the coast of Egypt tends to use a great deal of fish and other seafood)

-Egypt's Red Sea ports were the main points of entry for spices to Europe. Cumin is the most commonly
used spice. Other common spices include coriander, cardamom, chili, aniseed, bay leaves, dill, parsley,
ginger, cinnamon, mint and cloves. .( Easy access to various spices has, throughout the years, left its
mark on Egyptian cuisine. )

-Offal, variety meats, is popular in Egypt. Liver sandwiches, a specialty of Alexandria (are a popular fast-
food in cities.) Chopped-up pieces of liver fried with bell peppers, chili, garlic, cumin and other spices are
served in a baguette-like bread called eish fino.

- Foie gras, a well-known delicacy, is still enjoyed today by Egyptians. Its flavor is described as rich,
buttery, and delicate

CHEESE

Although many rural people still make their own cheese, notably the fermented mish, mass produced
cheeses are becoming more common. Cheese is often served with breakfast, it is included in several
traditional dishes, and even in some desserts.

Cheeses include

domiati the most widely-eaten in Egypt are

Areesh made from laban rayeb.

BREAD

-Bread made from a simple recipe forms the backbone of Egyptian cuisine.

-On a culinary level, bread is commonly used as a utensil, at the same time providing carbohydrates and
protein to the Egyptian diet. Egyptians use bread to scoop up food, sauces, and dips and to wrap kebabs,
falafel.

Common breads include:

-Bataw

-baladi Eish

-fino Eish

-merahrah Eish

-shamsi Eish

-meshaltet Feteer

Starters and salads

In Egypt meze, commonly referred to as muqabilat. salads and cheeses are traditionally served at the
start of a multi-course meal along with bread, before the main courses.

Popular dishes:

Baba ghannoug - A dip made with eggplants, lemon juice, salt, pepper, parsley, cumin

and oil.

Duqqa - A dry mixture of chopped nuts, seeds and spices.

Gollash - A phyllo dough pastry stuffed with minced meat or cheese.

Salata baladi - A salad made with tomatoes, cucumber, onion and chili topped with parsley, cumin,
coriander, vinegar and oil.

Tehina - Sesame paste dip or spread made of sesame tahini, lemon juice, and garlic.

Torshi - An assortment of pickled vegetables.

Hummus - A dip made from mashed chickpeas, it is often made with cumin in Egypt.

-Some consider kushari, a mixture of rice, lentils, and macaroni, to be the national dish. Ful medames is
also one of the most popular dishes. Fava bean is also used in making falafel (most commonly referred
to as ta‘ameya in Egypt, and served with fresh tomatoes, tahina sauce and arugula)
Ancient Egyptians are known to have used a lot of garlic and onions in their everyday dishes.

Desserts

- Basbousa is a dessert made from semolina and soaked in syrup. It is usually topped with almonds and

traditionally cut vertically into pieces so that each piece has a diamond shape

- Baqlawa is a sweet dish made from many layers of phyllo pastry, an assortment of nuts, and soaked in
a sweet syrup.

- Ghorayiba is a sweet biscuit made with sugar, flour and liberal quantities of butter, similar to
shortbread. It can be topped with roasted almonds or black cardamom pods.

-Kahk is a sweet biscuit served most commonly during Eid al-Fitr in Egypt. It is covered with icing sugar,
and can also be stuffed with dates, walnuts, or ‘agameya which is similar in texture to Turkish delight, or
just served plain.

-Kunafa is a sweet cheese pastry soaked in sugar syrup.

- Luqmet el qadi are small, round donuts that are crunchy on the outside and soft and syrupy on the
inside. They are often served with dusted cinnamon and powdered sugar. The name literally translates
to "The Judge's Bite".

-Atayef is a dessert served exclusively during the month of Ramadan, a sort of sweet mini pancake
(made without eggs) filled with cream or nuts and raisins.

- Rozz be laban is made with short grain white rice, full-cream milk, sugar, and vanilla. It can be served
dusted with cinnamon, nuts and ice cream.

Umm Ali or Om Ali is a type of bread pudding served hot made puff pastry or rice, milk, coconut, and
raisins.

CUISINE AND RELIGIOUS PRACTICE

-During ramadam, many Egyptians prepare a special table for the poor or passers-by, usually in a tent in
the street, called Ma'edet Rahman which literally translates to "Table of the Merciful", referring to one
of the 99 names of God in Islam. These may be fairly simple or quite lavish, depending on the wealth
and ostentation of the provider.

-Observant Christians in Egypt adhere to fasting periods according to the Coptic calendar; these may
practically extend to more than two-thirds of the year for the most extreme and observant. The more
secular Coptic population mainly fasts only for Easter and Christmas. The Coptic diet for fasting is
essentially vegan. During this fasting, Copts usually eat vegetables and legumes fried in oil and avoid
meat, chicken, and dairy products, including butter and cream.
BEVERAGES

Tea is the national drink of Egypt, followed by coffee

Egyptian tea is uniformly black and sour and is generally served in a glass, sometimes with milk. Tea
packed and sold in Egypt is almost exclusively imported from Kenya and Sri Lanka. Egyptian tea comes in
two varieties, kushari and sa‘idi.

Kushari tea popular in Lower Egypt, is prepared using the traditional method of steeping black tea in
boiled water and letting it sit for a few minutes. It is almost always sweetened with cane sugar and often
flavored with fresh mint leaves. Kushari tea is usually light in color and flavor, with less than a half
teaspoonful of tea per cup considered to be near the high end.

Sa‘idi tea is common in Upper Egypt. It is prepared by boiling black tea with water for as long as five
minutes over a strong flame. Sa‘idi tea is extremely strong and dark with two teaspoonfuls of tea per
cup being the norm. It is sweetened with copious amounts of cane sugar necessity since the formula and
method yield a very bitter tea.

Preferred drinks of the pharaoh is Karkadeh (a tea of dried hibiscus sepals)

COFFEE

Coffee is considered a part of the traditional welcome in Egypt. It is usually prepared in a small coffee
pot, which is called dalla or kanakah in Egypt. It is served in a small cup made for coffee called fengan.
The coffee is usually sweetened with sugar to various degrees; ‘al riha, mazbout and ziyada respectively.
Unsweetened coffee is known as sada, or plain.

JUICE

- In Egypt, sugar cane juice is called ‘aseer asab and is an incredibly popular drink served by almost all
fruit juice vendors.

- Sobia is another beverage traditionally served during Ramadan. It is a sweet coconut milk drink (usually
sold by street vendors.)

A sour, chilled drink made from tamarind is popular during the summer called tamr hindi. it literally
translates to "Indian Dates", which is the Arabic name for tamarind.

ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGES
-Islam is the majority religion in Egypt, and while observant Muslims tend to avoid the consumption of
alcohol, it is readily available in the country. Beer is by far the most popular alcoholic beverage in the
country, accounting for 54 percent of all alcohol consumed.

-A beer type known as bouza based on barley and bread, has been drunk in Egypt since beer first made
its appearance in the country, It is not the same as boza, an alcoholic beverage found in Turkey and the
Balkans.

-Egypt has a small but nascent wine industry. Egyptian wines have received some recognition in recent
years, having won several international awards. In 2013 Egypt produced 4,500 tones of wine, ranking
54th globally, ahead of Belgium and the United Kingdom. Most Egyptian wines are made with grapes
sourced from vineyards in Alexandria and Middle Egypt, most notably Gianaclis Vineyards and Koroum
of the Nile.