Egyptian Food: What to Eat, Where to Eat It, and What to Skip

What Egyptian food do people actually eat every day?

Breakfast is ful medames: fava beans cooked slowly overnight, then mashed with oil, lemon, cumin and whatever the shop adds: tahina, tomato, a boiled egg. It comes with baladi bread, which you use as a spoon. Alongside it, taameya: Egyptian falafel made from split fava beans rather than chickpeas, green in the middle and heavier than the Levantine version.

Koshari is the national dish and the one most visitors end up eating twice. Rice, macaroni, lentils and chickpeas in one bowl, topped with tomato sauce and fried onions, with garlic vinegar and chilli sauce added at the table. It is vegan without anyone having to think about it, and it costs a fraction of what a hotel restaurant charges.

Which dishes take some getting used to?

Molokhia divides people. Jute mallow leaves are chopped fine and cooked into a green soup, finished with garlic and coriander fried in ghee, and served over rice with chicken or rabbit. The texture is thick and slippery, closer to okra than to spinach. Try it once. If it is not for you, that is a common verdict and not a failure of taste.

Mahshi is stuffed vegetables: courgettes, aubergines, peppers and vine leaves, filled with rice, herbs and tomato and served warm or at room temperature. Feteer meshaltet is a layered pastry, folded and baked until it shatters, eaten savoury with cheese or sweet with honey and cream. Both are home cooking more than restaurant cooking, so the best versions turn up at family tables and small bakeries.

Where should you eat each dish?

Cairo has the widest range. Downtown koshari shops do one thing all day and do it well. Ful and taameya carts work early mornings and late nights. Hawawshi, spiced mince baked inside bread, is a street-corner meal rather than a restaurant dish. Ordering is mostly a matter of pointing, and the queues move quickly.

Alexandria is where you eat fish: chosen by weight from the ice, then grilled or fried and served with salads and bread. Aswan is the place for Nubian cooking and for fish out of Lake Nasser, the reservoir behind the High Dam just south of the town. Luxor's food is plainer, and the strip nearest the temples is aimed at people who will not come back. Walk two streets away for something better.

Two things are usually not worth the money. Hotel buffets flatten everything to the same mild standard, and dinner cruises sell the view rather than the cooking. Food on the Nile boats follows the same rule: safe, plentiful, and not the meal you will remember. Eat those meals for convenience, and do your real eating on land.

Is street food in Egypt safe to eat?

Mostly, if you use the judgement you would use anywhere. The safer bets are stalls with a queue, food cooked hot in front of you, and shops that sell out and restock. The riskier ones are salads rinsed in tap water, ice from an unknown source, cream cakes standing in the heat, and anything lukewarm that has been sitting since lunch. Cairo summers sit well above 35C in the afternoon, which shortens the safe life of everything.

Fresh juice is a real pleasure and a common cause of trouble, because of the ice and the rinsed fruit. Sugarcane juice from a busy stand is usually fine. Tap water is not for drinking; bottled water is sold everywhere and costs very little.

What if your stomach turns anyway?

Assume it might. A few days of digestive trouble is common on a first trip, and it is usually the change of water and bacteria rather than one bad meal. Pharmacies are everywhere, well stocked, and used to the question; oral rehydration salts and plain fluids do most of the work. See a doctor if there is fever or blood, or if it lasts more than two or three days.

Plan for it rather than around it. Put the hard days where a rough night would not wreck them: an early start at the Valley of the Kings, a long drive, an internal flight. Keep one flexible day in the middle of the trip, and eat lightly for the first day or two while your stomach settles.

Is Egypt easy for vegetarians?

Yes, more than most countries in the region. Koshari, ful, taameya, mahshi, lentil soup, baba ghanoug, tahina and salads are all meat-free by default, and they are everyday food rather than a special menu. Vegans should ask about ghee and stock, which turn up in molokhia and in some rice dishes. Gluten-free is much harder, because bread and pasta are in nearly everything.