Sayadeya
A dish that is mainly cooked in coastal cities like Suez, Portsaid, and Alexandria. It is made of white fish such as bass or bluefish, and cooked with yellow rice, onion, spices, and tomato sauce. It is then baked in an earthenware pot.
Kushari
Kushary plate is a mix of rice, pasta, tomato sauce, onions, lentils, chickpeas and garlic. The plate contains a lot of ingredients, but it has a very good taste and it is cheap too, maybe the second most common food in Egypt after Ful and Ta’meya. The Egyptian streets are full of restaurants that serve Kushary, which can be eaten any time of the day. This plate idea comes from 100 years ago when the British army was in Egypt, the pasta, the tomato, the rice all of those come from other countries, but the Egyptian people mixed them together and made this Kushary dish.
Fattah
If you are familiar with Biryani, then this should be easy. It is the same concept: bread, meat, and rice layered one on top of the other with vinegar and tomato sauce. The bread is, again, Baladi bread, and the meat used is mostly beef, veal, or lamb.
Hawashy
Hawashy is one for the meat people type, this one is made of bread baked in a regular oven and contains minced meat in it. This developed through the days and people made Hawashy in other ways; they put sausage in the baked bread, and sometimes pastrami. Most of the butchers make Hawashy in their shops nowadays, and it is also made at home.
Ful wa Ta’meya
Another common food for Egyptians is usually served with Ful. The Ta’meya or Falafel is mainly prepared out of crushed fava beans mixed with other ingredients, then it gets fried. It is usually served with tahini and salad with Egyptian bread.
Kabab wa kofta
Succulent grilled meat cubes and seekh kebab typically made out of veal or lamb, they are usually served with bread (baladi) and an assortment of green salads and dips, mostly tahini, baba ghanoush, and tzatziki. They are grilled over charcoal and they are a must for any meat lover visiting Egypt.
Fattah – A traditional dish eaten on festive occasions, particularly Eid al-Adha. A mixture of rice, chunks of lamb meat, eish baladi cut up into pieces and prebaked in the oven, all covered in a tomato and/or vinegar-based sauce.
Besarah
Besara is made in Egypt for a very long time, from ancient times. It is a green creamy paste which is a mix of crushed fava beans, onions, green bell pepper, coriander, parsley, dill, and leek with spices. People make it as a side dish sometimes for dinner and eat it with bread, and some people like to eat it with a spoon.
Mulukhiya
Mulukhiya is made from the leaves of jute and corchorus plants that grow in East and North Africa. In Egypt, Mulukhiya is prepared by chopping the leaves with garlic and coriander and cooking it in an animal stock such as chicken, beef, or rabbit, and served with Egyptian bread or rice.
Shakshouka
Shakshouka (also spelled shakshuka, shakshouka) is a dish of eggs poached in a sauce of tomatoes, chili peppers, and onions, often spiced with cumin. Its present egg and vegetable-based form originated in Tunisia. It is popular in the Middle East and North Africa. Shakshouka is a staple of Arab cuisine (Libyan, Tunisian, Algerian, Moroccan, Egyptian, Saudi, Levantine) and Israeli cuisines, traditionally served in a cast iron pan or tajine as in Morocco with bread to sop up the tomato sauce.
Ful Medames
One of the most common primary foods for Egyptians, this dish consists of lava beans prepared with oil and lemon juice. You can also add garlic or onion if you prefer. Ful can be prepared in many different ways, and people eat it with butter, spicy oil, olive oil, tomato sauce, pepper, pastrami, parsley, sausage, and boiled or fried eggs. It is believed that Ful was cooked all the way back in ancient Egypt.
Halawa
Halawa is a common dessert in the Middle East, especially in Egypt. It is made of sesame paste and it has many types like the hair Halawa, Halawa bars, and Halawa blocks.
Umm Ali
This is a quite common dessert in Egypt, it is made by the wife of Ezz El Den Aibak, she made it to celebrate the death of her rival Shagaret el Dor, the second wife of Ezz El Den Aibak, it was made from layers of bread and milk with nuts, raisins and sometimes with cream, it gets baked first then served hot, now it’s one of the best Egyptian desserts, and always served in the Egyptian weddings, people sometimes travel especially from Cairo to Alexandria in Egypt to try along with other desserts like ice cream at Famous Alexandrian places like Azza and El sheik Wafik shops.
Basbousa
Basbousa is a sweet Egyptian food (semolina cake) that tastes so delicious and unique, that Egyptian people like to eat it as a dessert after lunch or dinner. It is made of semolina soaked with syrup made from rose water or sometimes honey and lemon, and sometimes coconut is added to complete the magic. Basbousa is the real 7th wonder of the world.
Konafah
This one is from Egyptian sweets, and it is made in so many ways, the common way is that it is served as very thin noodles, it is put in the oven and then you can add sugary cream, honey, or caster. it can be made from coal, the new Konafa is made with chocolate like Nutella or can be ˀˀˀˀ(Muslim’s calendar month), and so many shops make Kunafa only in Ramadan and sell it. It is so tasty and light and fulfilling after any meal.
Kanafeh
Kanafah is a traditional Palestinian dessert made with cheese pastry soaked in sweet, sugar-based syrup. It is popular throughout the Arab world, especially in the Levant and Egypt, principally in Palestine.
Roz bil-Laban
A simple yet delicious dish made with just rice and milk. Something like the Indian Kheer. You can find them in households or small restaurants. Top them up with cinnamon and nuts, and stick into the fridge for a few hours.
Kar Assaly
Kar Assaly is a Middle Eastern pumpkin pie. It is a mixture of pumpkin, butter, milk, flour and sugar. This pumpkin delight is baked to total sweetness. This pie has no crust. It is sometimes eaten with heavy cream and garnished with pistachios.
Gullash
This dish in Arabic is called “Gul-lash” or in English “Meat pie. The dish is eaten during big celebrations or parties because it is very simple to make enough to feed a lot of people. The dish layers beef, chicken, or pastrami between sheets of phyllo dough with cheese and peas.
Qatayef / Zalabyah / Balah El-Shaam
Qatayef is sweet a dumpling often filled with Akkawi cheese or any unsalted cheese. It can also be filled with nuts. It is commonly fried, yet, some cultures bake it. Qatayef is drizzled with honey, sweet sugar syrup, or powdered sugar.
Fakhfakhina
Fakhfakhina is the mother of all fruit salads. In Egypt, it is consumed voraciously on the streets, with a spectacular layering of the most colorful and fresh seasonal fruit, dried fruits, fresh fruit juices, and at the top scoops of ice cream.
