Food and Entertaining 195individual. In this case, do not pass on a course or dish
when it is being served, just deal with it after it is on
your plate. Rarely will a servant refuse to remove your
plate when the next course is served just because you
haven’t eaten all of the previous course. Many informal
dinners at the home of a friend are served family style.
In this case, many of the dishes will be passed around.
For other dishes, you will pass your plate for the person
closest to the dish to place some on your plate. In this case,
you can say something like, ‘I’ll get some of that in a minute,
but fi rst I want to try such and such’. With luck, they won’t
notice that you do not ask for some later. Alternatively,
of course, just take some. Of course, with buffets, less
attention will be drawn to the fact that you simply ‘skip’
a particular item.
I seem to consistently have vegetarians travelling
with me. They can run into a particular problem. Many
Egyptians do not eat meat with every meal, but do serve
it when guests are present as a sign of respect and/or
generosity. If you are vegetarian and meat is served
to you, again it is probably best to take a little and then
just don’t eat it. If, for some reason, you are asked
why you are not eating it (highly unlikely), then just
indicate that for medical (or religious) reasons you do
not eat meat.
If you are the host of Egyptian friends or colleagues, there
is one principal rule for good etiquette—never, ever run out
of food or appear to be stingy with what you offer! Make
many dishes and more than you ever expect to be eaten.
If you are having four people for dinner, cook enough of
each dish for six or eight. There should always be a lot of
food left after the meal. Once, when explaining to a friend
about a wedding I attended, I commented that I had never
seen so much food at one place in my life. She told me
categorically that ‘there should be as much food left as
was eaten after the wedding party was over’. This was ‘to
show that you had enough for the occasion’. Of course,
leftover food will not go to waste. You can always eat some
of it the next day. Besides, if you happen to have servants,