Fateera

This is my daughter's favorite food, after pizza and moloheya (see an upcoming post for moloheya).

Fateera is made by this ultra thin buttery pastry cooked in layers (a bit like phyllo), with lovely cheese, vegetables and olives stuffed inside it. There are so many variations on this - with chicken, beef, tuna or sweet versions filled with apples. You can also eat thick layers of fateera on its own, as a nice (fattening) breakfast, dipped in honey or molasses (what they call black honey here in Egypt).

Mother of All Sweetness

The Mother of All Sweetness

Egyptian sweets (called Halawiat - from the word Halaowa literally meaning something sweet and beautiful) are fabulous.

Doused in a sugary honey syrup, sometimes filled with cream or covered with pistachios, then these gooey yummy treats are nice following any meal or even make for a fabulous quick breakfast.

The Egyptians can eat literally platefuls of these. Myself, I tend to max out after two or three. Nevertheless, I consider halawiat to be the mother of all sweetness and so they are way up there in my list of fabulous things about Egypt.

I would add a note here, that I think WHERE you buy the halawiat makes a difference, I've found a nice shop where the sweets are very light and just melt in your mouth. So, if they don't appeal to your tastebuds at once, believe me, divine and fabulous halawiat do exist, you just haven't found the right shop yet. Keep looking.