10 days of Egyptian food
Not all adventures have happy endings
Day 1
Morning – Egyptians often eat the same thing for breakfast every day: Flatbread with eggs, yellow and white cheese, fava bean stew called foul, falafel also made from fava beans, tahini, tomatoes and cucumbers. Today we added Nutella brought from France, coffee from our Italian stovetop espresso maker (also brought from France) with full cream milk from a local farmer, unhomogenized but boiled.
Evening – Stuffed cabbage leaves called mahshi, beef. Grandpa gets up from the table and spends the next hour tuning his radio. He says he got it during his military service days in his 20s.
Dessert – We leave the apartment for the first time since arriving in the city of Mansoura. We go to a covered wholesale market with a lot of fruit vendors and a few horses inside. We buy a double-layered box of light green guava and a box of mangos.
Late night – The boys are hungry so they quickly find the Egyptian equivalent of Uber Eats and order liver sandwiches which come on long, soft rolls covered in tahini. Grandpa eats one, too. I’m not much of a liver person.
Day 2
Morning – Breakfast is delayed after grandpa passes out in the bathroom. He is stiff as a board and has to be carried to the couch. He comes around a few minutes later and says “That liver sandwich must have been made of cats!”
Afternoon – Roasted eggplants and spicy peppers, stewed okra in tomato sauce with beef.
Snack – Mango juice blended from the previous day’s purchase.
Dessert – Caramel and chocolate pastries with a shredded wheat bottom, fruit, whole fava beans. We’re trying to figure out who left the toilet pump on. You’re only supposed to flip the switch when you need water because leaving it running could break it.
Day 3
Morning – I go out with my mother-in-law and her aunt to buy fish and falafel. There is a long line because everyone is getting their breakfast.
Afternoon – Fried fish, rice, and salad. I am in charge of chopping the vegetables but I’m too slow so they send someone to help me.
Evening – Mango juice, rice pudding, and fresh dates at the aunt’s house. I can’t bring myself to tell them how much I dislike the starchy texture of fresh dates. On TV in the background, the military channel is showing a montage of soldiers and tanks set to patriotic music. Upon our arrival back home, our key breaks off in the door. After some fussing, we are able to open it.
Day 4
Morning – Excited to go to a resort on the Red Sea. We snack on foul and falafel sandwiches in the mini bus on the way there.
Evening – Two honeymooning couples are the only people staying at the resort with us. The water is clear and beautiful. In the distance, we can see cargo ships lined up to enter the Suez Canal. Dinner is a buffet with beef tenderloin, carrots, peas and potatoes in rice, Baba Ganoush, vermicelli soup, battered fish and chopped salad with dill.
Day 5
Morning – I welcome a change from beans for breakfast and fully embrace my choice of pancakes, cinnamon rolls, French toast, corn flakes and yogurt.
Evening – Beef chunks in gravy, okra in tomato sauce, orzo soup, cucumbers, three Egyptian desserts which have different shapes but one flavor: sugar.
Day 6
Morning – More pancakes. We leave the resort. While on the highway, we miss our exit. The police tell our driver to take the on-ramp which leads to the other road. I fear for my life as we drive on the wrong side of the road.
Afternoon – We stop for koshary which is a combination lentils, chickpeas, pasta, rice, fried onions topped with tomato sauce. It can be considered the national dish of Egypt in the same way the hamburger might be called the national dish of the U.S. – it’s easy, delicious, and ubiquitous. After eating in the car, we stop at a camel butcher and the driver buys a piece of meat hanging out front.
Evening – I’m still very full after the koshary when we get to another aunt’s house where we’re severed béchamel pasta and chicken stuffed with rice. I don’t want to be rude so I try to finish my plate. I’m starting to have a horrible stomach ache.
Dessert – Feeling sicker but managed to eat a few bites of fruit salad. My mother-in-law says, “Please dear, stop eating. You look like you’re going to burst.”
Day 7
Morning – Three of us are terribly ill. I can barely keep down a sip of water. It must have been the koshary. Even Egyptians don’t dare eat it off the street, someone tells us. That information comes too late.
Afternoon – A few sips of 7-Up.
Evening – We are invited to some cousins’ apartment for a seafood feast. I can’t imagine eating anything but it’s too late to cancel. The apartment has an elevator, but there’s no inside door so you can see the floors moving past. From the balcony there is a beautiful view of the university and the city. We drink a blended mint lemonade and I manage to eat one shrimp and a bite of fish.
Day 8
Morning – The same cousins invite us to their sports club where we can walk along the Nile. They bring cheese-filled croissants and other pastries for breakfast along with cucumbers and juices. I’m feeling well enough to eat a round vegetable pizza and it’s delicious.
Evening – Shawarma on rice. My stomach feels better but my teeth are hurting. What is going on?
Day 9
Morning – Smoked fish, cheese, cucumbers, honey, and flatbread. We’ve left the city and gone to a village. Everyone eats from a tray on the floor. The fish is salty and delicious, but my face is really hurting.
Afternoon – Grandpa makes tea in the living room while watching WWE.
Day 10
Morning – I wake up at the crack of dawn. The pain is unbearable. I need to go to the dentist, but it turns out they don’t open until 5 p.m. Grandma spends two hours walking around the village trying to find cloves to chew on to relieve my tooth ache. She bring me back a small handful in a piece of paper. Grandpa wakes up and pulls a whole bag of them out of his jacket pocket.
Evening – The neighbor gives me a banana. Finally, I see the dentist. My teeth are fine but I have a sinus infection. He sends me to another village for an x-ray. We take a tuktuk 20 minutes down the road. On the way back, the driver stops to buy grilled corn. The owner places the tank of gas on top of the open flame. We cover our faces with our hands hoping the corn will be ready before the tank explodes.
Beautiful narrative!