Beautiful Money

C'mon, where else on earth can you find Tutankhamen on a dollar coin, or the Sphinx on a 100 pound note?




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Bumper Cars

Remember all the fun you had as a kid driving bumper cars? Well, in Egypt (and in Cairo especially) driving on a daily basis is a bit like that. ;-) Fortunately the car shops are really great with repair work.

Little old men who sit at cafes all day

Speaking of cute, I just love the little old men who sit at cafes drinking tea and coffee and sipping shisha all day, very cute old guys.

Kosherie

Kosherie is a staple of the Egyptian diet, and its wonderful. The word kosherie apparently means a mixture of many different things (a great symbol for Egypt really...). To make it, you need small round pasta, lentils, rice, chick peas, some burnt onions and garlicy spicy tomato sauce to throw on top. See this post more about Healthy and Delicious fast food in Egypt.

Kosherie often scooped into plastic cartons and served to go!

Kids leaning over a kosherie cart in Old Cairo

Woodwork

Egyptian crafstmen are masters when it comes to woodworking, especially in designing wood lattices and turnery (which apparently is woodworking with a lathe). The below examples are taken from the Bayt al Shuyami Area, however they abound throughout Egypt. You will often find symbols or words (like the name of God) written inside the latticework. Here's more information on The art of Egyptian Turnery from the Egyptian State Information Service.

 

Bayt el Suhaymi

Bayt el Suhaymi is a hidden gem, unbeknownst (unfortunately) to the majority of tourists who get dragged through Khan el Khalili. It is a true pity that most of Egypt's long and variegated history is overlooked by the tourists who tend to be exposed to very little other than its ancient artifacts.

Bay el Suhaymi is a restored Ottoman building dating back to 1648 AD nestled just behind Khan el Khalili amongst beautiful buildings from the Fatamid period.

This is the street that leads up to Bayt el Suhaymi

  When you enter the buildings complex, one of the first things you'll notice is how cool it is, despite the raging heat outside. The buildings were designed in a brilliant way that somehow naturally cools. It also seems to block a lot of sounds, it is very calm and peaceful inside the area, juxtaposed against the usual noise of Cairo.

Wooden window frames designed in a way to let the inhabitants
have a pleasant breeze and view the street while passerbys cannot see in

A Sunny Outlook

Optimism is the engine of hope and the driver of change, and Egypt is short on neither.

Maybe all those rays of sunshine help Egyptians always look on the bright side of life.

National Pride

Everyone and everything is wearing the flag of Egypt these days!

Non-violent protest

Here is a video: on the history of non-violence in the Arab world

Tamarind, Carob, Hibiscus, Apricot mmmmmmmmmmmm yummy drinks

I love this. In Arabic Tamarind is Tamra Hindi.
In Egypt they boil the Tamarind and make a delicious and very refreshing drink with it. Other similar traditional oriental health drinks (?I think? depending on the amount of sugar!) those made from Carob, and also from apricots and hibiscus. You can buy them easy peasy (like I do) at the grocery store in cartons such as the below, or bottled, or make it the natural way yourself.

A man walking through the streets selling cups of Tamarind drink

Window shopping

In Egypt, they take window shopping seriously, as you can see from the below storefronts.

Maybe a bit hard to see with the photo minimized,
but these are shoes on display (click to enlarge photo)

Innovation is everywhere.

Anything you can imagine is possible. See how the guy below adapted his car and converted it into his very own Jeep!

Moloheya

Moloheya is one of those things that looks gross because of it can be slimy (trust me, if eating it cold is NOT good), BUT, if you have a GOOD dish of moloheya, then it is the most truly delicious and healthy greeness possible, bursting full of essential minerals and vitamins and packed with garlicky taste. It is cooked with meat and is a bit thicker than a soup, eaten with Egyptian bread and/or white rice. It's easy to prepare delicious vegan and vegetarian versions too. YUM!

My daughter's bowl.

Amazingly, ALL of the children I know in Egypt LOVE to eat moloheya. Even my daughter, who is about the pickiest eater on the planet. So its a great food for parents to prepare for their children to ensure they get enough of the daily vitamins and minerals they require.

Basket pulley systems

In Egypt, most people live in apartment buildings. Often, without elevators. To avoid going up and down the stairs, many of the apartments on the upper floors have devised fabulous pulley systems to bring things up and down from below.

Outdoor Lawn Movies

I have never seen a drive-in here in Egypt, but what there are tons of all over the place, at nearly every club, are large movie screens and plastic lawn chairs where everyone sits out at tables or in chairs and watches movies together - outdoors in evenings - year round, in Egypt's fabulous weather.

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).

Turkish Coffee

Turkish coffee is fabulous. Next to it, Nescafe (or American coffee) seems like flavored stale water. As they prepare the Turkish coffee in Egypt, it is so incredibly flavorful and strong, they add amazing spices which include delicious cardamom in the coffee grind.


The best made coffee has a nice little thick bubbly layer on top, called wissh (or face in English). You can put a few drops of cold water into this with your finger - I am not sure why this is done, but I think it has something to do with getting the grains to settle at the bottom.

Be careful, do not drink the cup to the bottom! Leave the grains behind!

Interesting facts:
- in Albania they drink the same coffee but with milk

- if you get tummy troubles while traveling in Egypt, be sure to ask for a cup of Turkish coffee prepared with lemon - all of the Nile cruises are well acquainted with this natural remedy.

- Egyptian fortune-telling is done by turning the remains of a clear glass of coffee cup upside down and reading the patterns in the grains.

Unexpected Greenery

In Cairo so many streets are lined with beautiful trees. In the springtime, the trees are at their most fabulously beautiful, particularly in the month of May, when the flowers are in full blossom and a lot of the trees have gorgeous red, pink, orange, yellow, blooms.

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.

Amazing fruits and vegetables year-round

I grew up in Canada. Then I moved to rainy Europe. I can really say, that I don't think I ever really tasted a tomato until I went to Egypt (for more reasons on why North American tomatoes are so bland read this nice article on how "industrial farming has destroyed the tasty tomato". Compared to Egyptian tomatoes, all other tomatoes taste like water, really. In the past, I used to be dazed by people who could just eat a full tomato like an apple, but after living in Egypt I can start to understand why.

Palm Trees

 

Gorgeous. Love them. Palm trees always make me feel like I'm on vacation, even when I'm not.