198 CultureShock! Egypt
Breakfast
A typical Egyptian breakfast consists of beans, bean cakes,
eggs and/or pickles, along with bread and nawashef (dry
foods) or fuul. Nawashef complements the basic breakfast
and includes dry food items like olives, cheeses (such as
labne which is a yoghurt-based cheese), jams and perhaps
slices of cake. Hard-boiled eggs (never soft-boiled), omelettes
or fried eggs, onions soaked in vinegar and mixed pickles
usually accompany fuul.
’Eish baladi, fuul and ta’miya constitute the unoffi cial
staples of the Egyptian diet. The word ’eish (sometimes
spelled aysh) means bread and ‘life’ in Egyptian—‘life without
’eish is not life’. ’Eish baladi is a pitta bread, but you can
also fi nd ’eish fransawi or French bread throughout much
of Egypt.
Fuul (sounds like the American word ‘fool’) is boiled broad
or fava beans. There are three main types of broad beans,
the basic ingredient in fuul and ta’miya. Fuul roomy are large,
fl at and whitish; fuul baladi sa’idi, or local Upper Egyptian
broad beans are whitish and middle-sized; fuul hamam are
small, round and dark brown in colour. All of these types of
beans taste essentially the same, but require different cooking
times. When making fuul, beans are boiled whole for six to
nine hours over a slow fi re, then mashed with oil, lemon, salt
and other fl avourings such as crushed garlic, graded onions,
chopped tomatoes and cumin.
Ta’miya (also called felafel) are bean cakes. These are
deep-fried flat discs made from skinned white broad
beans or chickpeas. Felafel is as much a modern day dish
as it is an ancient one, although today’s versions tend
to use chickpeas instead of the traditional broad beans.
After the legumes are soaked overnight, they are drained
and minced with dill, coriander, onions, garlic, parsley,
leek and other spices. In addition to being delightful by
themselves, ta’miya are great as sandwiches with either
fuul or tahina sauce (a sauce made from sesame seeds) and
salad (chopped lettuce and tomatoes). If you buy these on
the street, be sure to tell the vendor whether you want hot
peppers added.