and more eating in egypt...

fiteer is often inadequately described as an 'egyptian pancake' on restaurant menus. in fact, even the best fiteer place in cairo is called the egyptian pancake house. however, fiteer is far from a pancake... thinly rolled and hand tossed dough, loaded with a wide variety of savory or sweet toppings and baked in a wood fired pizza oven - the result is a crispy, ultra thin, bubbly dough filled with your choice of ingredients. some of our favorites are a savory version stuffed with lamb kofta, tomatoes, olives and onions - another is sweet, filled with pastry cream, hazelnuts and golden raisins - then loaded with butter, sugar and milk curds after baking.



egypt has a vibrant coffee house culture. drinking super sweet mint tea, caffeine loaded turkish coffee and smoking a sheesha (water pipe) loaded with apple tobacco is a regular part of every egyptian's day. the norm is to be served a copper, brass or silver tray holding your drink order. then all you have to do is sit back and let a few hours pass by before deciding where to go eat lunch or dinner... no wonder egyptians smile and laugh so damn much.



koshari is everywhere... it is the heart and soul of egyptian quick eats and does for egyptians what biscuits and gravy do for me... koshari is a carbo load mixture of browm rice, lentils, chickpeas, tube pasta and brown vermicelli, doctored up with fried onions, cumin spiced tomato sauce, chile pepper sauce and fresh lemon/lime juice. the best comes from abu tarek in downtown cairo - a four story restaurant that serves nothing but koshari - and it is packed all day long... we ate there more than a few times, but also managed to sample other versions of it outside of the capital...



baklava comes in all shapes and sizes throughout the mediterranean and middle east. they are all basically, mixed fruit or nuts layered with phyllo dough, baked and then soaked in honey. they are sticky and super sweet - perfect served with egyptian or turkish coffee and guarantied to induce a food coma when you over indulge in them...