Our last day in Cairo and we're scrambling to eat all of our favorite foods for the last time...

January 20, 2010 -- Our Last Day in Cairo Scrambling for some Good Food! --

Its our last day in Cairo and Wilson and I are enjoying a few things we love to eat here. Call us crazy, but once we find the things we love to eat, we're serious creatures of habit and have to have it over and over again!

In no particular order, here are a few food items we enjoyed eating / drinking and having in Egypt (and some we found again on our last day in Egypt)...

Wilson and I stumbled upon El ABD, a dessert shop located on Talaat Harb street in Cairo, and among the sweet cakes and breads, there was also ice cream. The fruit flavors -- mango and strawberry -- are OUT OF THIS WORLD. It was so fresh -- you could taste the fruit! It was sooo good; I wish we could have fresh fruit ice cream like this in the States... We also tried two other flavors, chocolate and vanilla. Chocolate was a close second, but finishes third between the four flavors. And, well, Vanilla -- there was nothing exciting about that. Cost 3 e.p.

Ah... the Egyptian rice. There must be butter in there... cause, its ridiculously good here. There are these noodle like things (in the photo, its the brown strips) that adds an interesting texture and flavor to the rice. We usually had the rice with grilled chicken, which was also one of our other favorite food finds on the trip. However, I'm not sure if we ordered the chicken only because of the rice; or did we order the rice for the chicken. Either way, both the grilled chicken and the rice were extremely yummy!

grilled chicken was always very juicy and flavorful -- full of lemon and salt and pepper seasonings. The best chicken and rice dish we had was in Bahariya Desert (our desert chef cooked up some amazing chicken and rice; and the other was on our way back to Cairo -- and I couldn't even name the restaurant if I tried). If you're in Dahab, Funny Mummy and King Chicken are pretty good! But seriously, you can't go wrong with chicken and rice in Egypt (or in Jordan!). Chicken and Rice Price: 18 - 35 e.p. Rice, if sold separately costs approximately 4-7 e.p.

Mixed Sandwich -- Fuul (essentially refried beans), french fries and felafel. Man, this sounds disgusting, but its just the perfect mixture of salty, sweet and crunchy. Don't knock this until you try it. This is easily found at Felfela Take-Away (which is where we had our last taste); or if you are at a local vendor, you will most likely have to pick and choose to put this into the sandwich. Price: 2-5 e.p. (though not pictured here, fuul with egg is also a great combo!! or fuul with mostly anything would be wonderful mix)

Ah, Koshary. From the first time we had this in Khan Al Kalilli, we were in love with it. Its a simple dish -- rice, macaroni, chick peas, lentil, those brown noodle like things covered with a light tomato sauce. So simple, so easy, yet so yummy. There is also a lemon-garlic sauce that you can pour over it if you need some extra flavor. This is available everywhere -- street vendors, Felfela (our favorite quick eats place and where we had it last), and their own stand-alone stores. This is an extremely popular dish in Cairo! If you're in Luxor, DO NOT MISS out on El Zayeem near the Nefertiti Hotel. Price: 2 - 5 e.p.

Not sure exactly what the name of this was. Muhabiyya? Its a sweet dessert - if I would venture a guess at what it was made out of -- rice, milk, sugar water, maybe some coconut ... and then it was topped off with pistachios. Oh so delicious -- and you can find it or a variation of it at a dessert shop. Price: varies on the size -- 0.50 to 1 e.p.

You may find this hilarious, but these cookies are no joke. Mcvitie's have been one of my favorite brand of cookies ever since I studied abroad in England and it just so happened that we found some while in Egypt and Jordan. HobNobs -- the Original -- Oatmeal type -- damn, good. Great for road trips, great for hiking, great for anything you do! And... I don't even remember how much it cost cause it wasn't important. Price: 4.5 JD / 7 EP somewhere around there?

My two favorite drinks on the trip were the fresh fruit drinks and the tea. If the fresh fruit drinks were not available, these bottled juice drinks were fantastic. Guava and Mango were my two favorite fresh fruit drinks -- it also had the fruit pulp, which made it taste real and not concentrated... The bottled ones are packed with a lot of sugar, but wow, were they good (maybe it was just the sugar!)! But if you could have your choice of coca cola or this fruit drink for the same calories, I'd choose the fruit drink all day long. Price: 5-10 e.p. depending on where you purchase the drink.

You can't leave Egypt without having a cup of tea. While here, you'll notice a lot of people walking around with trays filled with tea only to be hand-delivered to the workers at the butcher shops or even shop vendors.... you'll even find loads of people in coffee shops having their morning/afternoon/dinner tea... why? because tea is like water to them. That is, tea with sugar is like water to them. Yellow Lipton tea was what they served mostly everywhere; or there own mint leaf tea. Whatever form of tea you ordered, you almost always needed some sugar in it. For me, I learned two spoonfuls of sugar did it for me (for wilson it was one) ... and that was the drink -- tea with two spoonfuls of sugar (...makes the medicine go down, makes the medicine go down). Price: 1 e.p. to 12 e.p. (more than some foods!)

Diet Pepsi or Coca Cola Light was Wilson's beverage of choice. Everywhere we go, up Mt. Sinai, down the pyramids, at the Valley of the Kings or at a restaurant ... Wilson is never without a nice cold refreshing diet pepsi or coca cola light. In addition to this, I will include his cigarettes -- yes its not food -- but its sustenance for Wilson, or so it seems since he finishes a pack a day! wow! who knew! L&M Blue label, made by Philip Morris -- what tobacco isn't made by P.M.? -- was Wilson's cigarette brand in Egypt (Marlboro Light was too strong here). By the way, if you're buying Marlboro's in Egypt, make sure they aren't the fake ones. The fake ones you'll notice will "burn" through quickly, so I'm told. Price of Diet Pepsi/Coca Cola Light - 3.0 - 7 e.p.; Price of L&M: 5-20 e.p.

Its sort of interesting that we didn't include schwarma in the list of things that we absolutely had to have again before we leave. For some reason, I wasn't a fan of the schwarma here and I think the reason was largely due to my distaste of the beef and lamb. Those two meats just didn't taste good. The best type of entree to order in Egypt is either chicken or fish. Quail/pigeon is also a great alternative to beef and lamb. If you're stomach is ready for vegetables, the cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes are wonderful here. Extremely fresh and healthy for you! Overall, the food throughout Egypt was not as bad as I expected; though, I do admit, a lot of food served in Egypt is largely quick eats. There were some decent sit down restaurants that we tried, but they were mostly full of tourists, and the food was okay. There are many other foods that I enjoyed while here in Egypt and I'm just happy that I ate everything and am ending the trip without Pharoah's revenge. Until next time my Pharaoh, I shall bid a due and see you in the future!

-- Happy eating!