Egypt Food Guide

The quick answer

Egyptian cooking is a bean, grain and vegetable cuisine before it is a meat one, built on bread and eaten in company. If you try four things, make them ful medames, ta’ameya, koshari and molokhia. That is not a tourist list — it is close to what a lot of Egyptians eat in an ordinary week.

Breakfast

Ful medames is the national breakfast: fava beans stewed slowly, dressed with olive oil, lemon, cumin and whatever the cook prefers, and scooped up with bread. It is cheap, filling, ancient and everywhere, from a street cart at dawn to a hotel buffet.

Ta’ameya is Egypt’s falafel, and the difference from the Levantine version matters: it is made from fava beans rather than chickpeas, which makes it greener inside and softer. Eaten in bread with salad and tahina, usually alongside the ful.

Both come with aish baladi — the round wholemeal flatbread whose name simply means “country bread”, though aish also means “life”, which tells you what bread means here.

The dish to eat standing up

Koshari is rice, lentils, macaroni and chickpeas layered together, topped with spiced tomato sauce and crisp fried onions, with a garlic-vinegar sauce and a chilli sauce added to taste. It is Egypt’s great urban meal — vegetarian by construction, sold from dedicated shops, and the thing to order when you want to eat what the city eats.

The rest of the table

Molokhia is a soup of finely chopped jute mallow leaves, cooked to a distinctive texture that visitors either take to immediately or never quite settle with, served over rice, often with chicken or rabbit. Mahshi is vegetables stuffed with spiced rice — vine leaves, courgettes, peppers, aubergine. Fattah layers rice, bread and meat with a garlic and vinegar sauce, and is a celebration dish. Hamam mahshi, stuffed pigeon, is a delicacy that people either seek out or firmly avoid. Grilled meats, kofta and kebab are common in restaurants; along the Red Sea and in Alexandria, fish and seafood come to the front.

Small dishes fill the gaps: tahina, baba ghanoush, pickled vegetables (torshi), fresh salads and good cheeses.

Sweets and drinks

Om Ali is the dessert to know — a warm bread-and-milk pudding with nuts and raisins that is Egypt’s answer to a bread and butter pudding, and better than that comparison makes it sound. Basbousa is a semolina cake soaked in syrup. Feteer meshaltet is a layered pastry served either sweet or savoury and worth seeking out. Baklava and kunafa are widely made.

Tea (shai) is drunk strong, sweet and constantly, and being offered it is a social act rather than a transaction. Karkade, cold or hot hibiscus, is the other national drink and is excellent in the heat. Fresh sugarcane juice (asab) is sold from street presses and is a genuine local pleasure. Egyptian coffee (ahwa) is served Turkish-style; say how sweet you want it when you order, not after. Alcohol is available in hotels, licensed restaurants and some bars, and Egypt makes its own beer and wine, but it is not part of everyday public life and should not be assumed anywhere.

Eating carefully without missing out

The CDC’s standing advice for Egypt is care with food and water. In practice that means drinking bottled or properly treated water, being thoughtful about ice and about raw salads washed in tap water, and preferring food that is cooked and served hot. None of that rules out street food — a busy stall with high turnover cooking to order in front of you is usually a better bet than a quiet restaurant with a long menu. Bring rehydration salts; the combination of heat and an unfamiliar diet catches most people at least once.

Eating during Ramadan

If your trip falls in the fasting month, daytime eating in public is limited and it is courteous not to eat, drink or smoke in the street during daylight. Hotels and tourist restaurants serve normally. In exchange you get iftar, the meal that breaks the fast at sunset, which is one of the most generous and sociable things in Egyptian life and which visitors are very often invited to join.

Common questions

Is it easy to eat vegetarian?

Unusually easy. Ful, ta’ameya, koshari, mahshi and most of the small dishes are naturally meat-free. Vegan is harder but manageable, mainly because of ghee and dairy.

Is the food spicy?

Not in the chilli sense. It is aromatic — cumin, coriander, garlic, dill. Heat is added at the table if you want it.

Should I tip in restaurants?

Yes. A service charge may appear on the bill and a further tip is still normal.

Seeing it on a LABUSA Travel journey

We build meals into our Egypt journeys as part of the itinerary rather than a gap in it — including the koshari shop and the ful stand, not only the hotel dining room. If you have dietary requirements, tell us at booking and we will arrange around them.