Koneifa

Koneifa is soooooooooo fabulous. And when it is mixed with a layer of eshta, it skyrockets right off the fabulousness chart.

Pistachios top off the rapturous perfection that is Koneifa with Esta

Basically, Koneifa is tiny bits of shredded phyllo dough baked and covered with gooey sugary love. It sort of reminds me of eating Shredded Wheat cereal - but only a whole lot more yummy and sinful for the waistline.

Dishes with Béchamel

When you hear the word béchamel, usually you think of a wafter thin sauce that lightly coats pasta. In Egypt - not so!

Béchamel in Egypt is THICK, maybe an inch or up to an inch and a half. It is so thick it does not coat the pasta, but sits broadly atop it, like a proud king regally sitting atop his thrown, crowned with a golden layer where the oven bakes it to fabulous perfection.

Béchamel can cover pasta, and in this case there is usually a layer of meat added, and occasionally a thin layer of tomato sauce as well (depending on how your family prefers it) and even sometimes a bit of cheese. It is also used in other dishes with ground beef, such as fried aubergine or fried zucchini (yum, yum and more yum). The most delicious dishes of "casserole" I've ever had.

Uum Ali

Uum Ali, when well prepared, is one of the best - and more calorific - desserts you will ever feast on. Puff pastry, heavy cream, pistachios, almonds, pine nuts, condensed milk all cooked to a golden crisp in the oven (think of the taste of marshmallows over the campfire, peeled back to reveal lots of other melt-in-your-mouth yummy stuff added inside that forms a sweet bread-pudding-like milky goodness)

The Story of Uum Ali, so I've been told, is quite interesting as well, a historic tale of a fight over ascension to the thrown in Egypt and a mother (Uum Ali, the Mother of Ali) desperate to secure her son's place, driven to murder another woman with a ShipShip (wooden sandal used for the baths).

I am not sure how this nasty story got associated with this heavenly dessert... :( but most certainly don't let that stop you from eating it!

Desserts with Eshta and Dates

The sweetest combination of desserts - Eshta and Dates together. Yum.
Often, as in the picture below, also combined with vanilla ice cream, pistachios/slivered almonds, some cake or creamy rice pudding. The dates often make me feel less guilty about the calories for some reason. Mind you, I've been told that the Eshta - in small doses - is actually very healthy also, full of Vitamin A, and of course, calcium.

Eshta (clotted cream)

Eshta figures prominently in many of the Egyptian Ramadan desserts, like qatayef for example. Basically, it is the layer of cream that rises to the top when you heat the milk.

Source: Ethnic Gourmet

Eshta is equivalent of "cool" or "sick", when something is fabulous, you say it.

Here is a recipe from Beirut on how to make clotted cream.
For more information on varieties of yummy creamed dishes, read this nice article from the Washington Times on creme de la creme.

Juice Shops

The fresh juices in Egypt are faaa-bu-lous!

For any inductee to Egyptian juice stands, there is one which is very delicious and a must-try is a drink called Fahfahina, which features a blend of seasonal fruit (but usually something like banana and strawberries, mango juice, guava juice, melon, apples, maybe pomegranate seeds, even some crushed nuts and icecream)

My personal favorite is Asab juice (sugar cane). (This guy has captured an awesome photo of it here: Shawnbaldwin.com) They literally take the whole sugar cane stalk and push it into a big juicer that churns out this green yummy sugary and refreshing drink.

Yogurt

It seems like a really trite thing to mention, but it's something I love and so I am giving it a whole post: Yogurt. Before living in Egypt, I used to eat yogurt, but more out of health considerations than out of pure love. But in Egypt, it is a love affair. The yogurt here is the best I've eaten.

On another note - one of my favorite drinks here is Zibedi wa asal (yogurt with honey), its a great healthy alternative to a milkshake, terribly refreshing, served in almost any restaurant and cafe, and absolutely delicious.