Koshari: This is the only Egyptian cuisine that is truly Egyptian. All their other traditional dishes have been borrowed from other cultures (at least that is what I’ve been told). It is a mixture of spaghetti noodles or some other pasta, macaroni, rice, lentils, chickpeas, and tomato sauce. Most people who try it think it is delicious. I think koshari looks like the stuff that collects in the sink when you handwash dishes after a big meal. Absolutely disgusting, therefore I refuse to try it.
Fuul is a staple of Egyptian cuisine. You can order fuul with garlic, fuul with corn oil, fuul with tahina, and probably a number of other ways. I’ve had it with garlic (which was just beans with sautéed garlic and not my favorite) and with corn oil, which tasted like refried beans. There is a guy who goes up and down our street in the mornings and at lunchtime yelling. Initially it sounded like “FORE!” or “All aboard!” to me. It drove me nuts because I knew it was the same guy every day but I couldn’t figure out what he was yelling. I decided to find out one day and sort of chased him down when I heard him. Turns out he sells fuul from a cart. He’s got this huge metal jug of it on his cart and when someone wants some he ladles it into a plastic bag and hands it to them. Probably costs 20 cents for one bag. He’s yelling “FUUL!”
The other day a friend asked if Cairo smells bad. Initially my answer is no, but I think that’s because I’m used to the smells. It smells like exhaust a lot. I don’t notice it much when I’m out walking unless a car drives by and I smell it, but when I picked Luke up the other day and smelled his hair it smelled like diesel fumes. We have some new neighbors who smell when you get close to them, too. Here they are:
Yes, there’s actually a small herd? of goats living across the street from us. I am guessing that they’re there in preparation for the big feast coming up this month.
Here are some of the people and things we see each day:
If you look back at the early pictures of our apartment you can see the big canister of gas under our sink. This is what powers my oven and stove. When it runs out (like it did while I was cooking pizza two weeks ago) you can ask the bawa’ab for a new one. He brings it in and takes the other one away. Jason hooked the new one up. The new bottle cost $1. Every morning and afternoon trucks loaded with the bottles (called “butagas”, I assume for butane gas) go up and down the street. The men riding the truck bang on the bottles with a wrench to let everyone know they’re around in case anyone needs the butagas.
Cats are everywhere, as I’ve already said in an earlier post. These were sleeping in the median on our way home today, all cuddled up and cute.
We saw this one in Alexandria. I was afraid this was going to be a very sad picture at first, but then I realized the cat was just asleep in the trash.
This is a bawa’ab who lives about three buildings down from us. He always smiles happily and speaks to Luke. He has a little daughter or granddaughter (probably daughter) who sits outside with him a lot, and who comes and kisses Luke and tries to speak to him. She’s the one on the right. Do you see the dark spot on the center of the man’s forehead? That is a callus that many Muslim men get because they pray so many times a day with their heads on their rugs.
This is another man I meet nearly every day on the street. He is very old—probably in his seventies, I’m guessing—and I think he may have Parkinson’s. He has tremors in his arm. I am not sure if he has a home, but he always asks for money. I usually turn these people away, but there is something about this man that speaks to me. I give him a little bit every now and then. I gave him a pound for letting me take his picture today, which is the equivalent to about 20 cents, but might be able to buy his fuul for the day.
Luke enjoys playing with the bawa’ab’s children. Sometimes they come in to play in our living room with Luke’s toys. I’m not sure they have any toys of their own. I know they have school books and a ball, but other than that I’ve never seen them playing with anything. I want to bring some toys back for them at Christmas. I think there are 4 girls and 2 boys in the family. Two of the younger children play with Luke. Here is a picture of Mohamed and Yasmeen keeping Luke entertained.
I used to shop for groceries once a month at home. I’d make a trip back halfway through the month for milk and fruit, but other than that I was set. Here I go at least once a week, and most weeks two or three times. This is one of our grocery stores, Miriam Market. It sells quite a few American products, but some of them are really expensive.
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