A Street Food Tour Around Cairo
The best way to experience a country is through its food. Specifically, its street food.
There’s something pure magic about being able to indulge in a local delicacy as you’re walking. You’re hungry? Good news, there’s a kiosk or walk-up window that you can grab something delicious from nearly instantly.
No worrying about stuffy white tablecloth restaurants or breaking the bank on food. Street food is going to be closer to what locals eat on a daily basis, because it’s inexpensive and quick. It might introduce you to flavor combinations that you’ve never thought about before, but that are commonplace in whatever culture you’re experiencing.
Unfortunately, we don’t have much (or any) of this street food culture in Indy. So when I travel, I go all-in.
When I was in Egypt last year, I toured downtown Cairo with Bellies En-Route and tasted some of the best street food in the city. Here’s what we ate. (All of the locations are linked via Google Maps!)
Koshari & Sougok
Before we dug into our bowls of koshari, Egypt’s national dish and favorite meal, we took shots of “salad water” or Muyyet Salata. This is a classic street food amuse-bouche, more drink than salad. The mixture of vinegar, oil, chili, garlic, lemon, dill, salt, and pepper is meant to get your taste buds raring to go for a day of eating.
Koshari is hearty and well-loved in Egypt. It’s inexpensive and filling, two characteristics that are common in street food. It’s also vegan! The dish is a mixture of macaroni, spaghetti, vermicelli, lentils, rice, chickpeas, and fried onions topped with tomato sauce and a garlic and vinegar dressing called “da’ah.”
We also enjoyed sougok, an Egyptian beef sausage that was served in a way reminiscent of fajitas, with cooked onions, peppers, and tomatoes.
Salad water, koshary, and sougok
The falafel shop where they fried chips fresh for you, right in front of the store
Fava Beans & Falafel
My favorite stop of our street food tour was here, with our fava bean falafel. Most falafel is made with chickpeas, but Egyptians eat falafel made with favas.
The falafel, known as taamiya, is made with blanched fava beans (ful) that are crushed with fennel, onions, garlic, fresh cilantro, and spices. The mixture is formed into patties and deep fried right before you, served on a flatbread.
As someone who mostly felt indifferent about falafel, I didn’t expect much from this stop. Boy, was I wrong. I loved this falafel. It was full of flavor and not dry at all (my core complaint with most falafel). It was the perfect thing to enjoy standing on the street in front of their storefront.
Arabic Coffee
After filling up on two carb-heavy, protein-heavy stops, it was time for a little caffeine break.
From the small corner shop on a busy street, you can smell the coffee beans roasting. Typically Arabic coffee is lighter roast, almost drinking more like tea than coffee. Coffee shops also add cardamom to their coffees for flavor.
This coffee shop offered both green coffee and darker roasted coffee. The green coffee was almost tea-like, while the darker roast drank more like a typical cup of coffee. This roaster also sells coffee by the bag, so you can bring some home with you as a reminder of your trip.
Vegetable Stew & Roast Chicken
When you enter this open-air restaurant, you walk through the kitchen first. You can see fresh chickens being roasted, vats of vegetable-y deliciousness, and a friendly chef. We sat inside the restaurant for this meal, up the stairs where we had a birds-eye view of the kitchen.
We enjoyed a tomato-based vegetable stew loaded with spinach and potatoes, along with plenty of perfectly-cooked rice mixed with vermicelli noodles, a common sight in Egypt. The chicken was incredibly tender, with crisp skin, and served with flatbread.
Roast chicken with plenty of side dishes
The view from the chicken shop’s second floor
Fresh Juice
To beat the heat, the Egyptians turn to juice. Just like your standard American juice shop, this is geared toward grab-and-go shoppers. All of the juice is freshly made.
Sugarcane juice is a favorite of Egyptians, given that the crop grows in Egypt. Sugarcane juice must be freshly produced through a special machine, ensuring freshness for drinkers. At this stop, we also enjoyed sobia (similar to horchata), hibiscus, tangerine, and tamarind juices. The Egyptians love their drinks to be sweet, so most of these juices included additional sugar.
Find El Sharbatly juice shop here.
Baba Ghanoug, Molokhiya & More
The first thing you’ll notice when you are presented with molokhiya is its bright green color. It’s a deep yet vibrant green that just screams “fresh.” The second thing you’ll notice is the texture.
Molokhiya is a soup made from jute leaves, tasting similar to spinach with a differently mouthfeel — thick, maybe even a little slimy. If you’ve eaten okra, you’re familar with this texture. Dubbed the “food of the gods,” the King of Egypt banned commoners from eating the soup because of its alleged aphrodisiac effect.
At Felfela, we also enjoyed baba ghanoug, a smoky eggplant dip that’s creamy, rich, and delicious. The dip is made with tahini, spices, lemon, oil and eggplants that are roasted, smoked, or fried.
Kunafa, Basbousa & More
The kunafa, basbousa, zalabya and balah el sham that we enjoyed at this dessert stop are actually Turkish in origin, but are well-loved in Egypt, especially during Ramadan.
Drenched in butter, ghee, or sugar syrup, these desserts aren’t for the faint of heart. Kunafa, or knafeh, is made with spun pastry called kataifi, soaked in a sweet, sugar-based syrup called attar, and typically layered with cheese and pistachios. Basbousa is a soft semolina-based cake that’s soaked in a rosewater or orange flower water syrup.
Middle Eastern desserts
Beers at a Rooftop Bar
We wrapped up the tour at the Carlton Roof Garden, a lounge atop a hotel in the heart of Cairo. When you enter the hotel via the ground floor, you’re greeted with an old-world, charming look with plenty of dark wood. Ride the old-fashioned elevators to the top floor and you’ll arrive to great views of the city. Order an Egyptian beer — a Stella (not to be confused with Stella Artois) or Sakara.
Find the Carlton Roof Garden here.
Chocolate Covered Dates & More Desserts
Full disclosure: This wasn’t part of the food tour I took. But I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention it! After trying one of their chocolate-covered dates, I stopped at Mandarine Koueider to purchase two more boxes of dates to bring home as a gift for family. They’re that good.
On top of those delicious dates, they also have classic oriental desserts, Turkish delights, and homemade gelato. Don’t skip this spot if you have a food lover that you want to bring a treat home for.
