Egypt, a Postscript

Egypt was the end of my journey around the Mediterranean and I ask myself what I have learned about Egyptian food. Well, the average Egyptian eats a lot of bread and the many varieties of Egyptian bread are some of the best in the world. Egyptian soups, the mainstay of the diet, are largely pulse-based - lentils, chickpeas, dried broad beans, etc. A dish of rice will be cooked in much the same way as in Spain, but more heavily flavoured with oriental spices such as caraway, cinnamon, cumin, saffron, turmeric and cardamom. The stews and casseroles are thicker, richer, spicier and sweeter and the use of fruit and nuts more prevalent than in the Western part of the Mediterranean. The influences of the Turks, the French and the Berbers, along with the effect of Cairo’s geographical, and therefore trading, position in the world would be felt, from Asia to the East and Europe to the West, while the consequences of wars, conquests and trade and the unique fertility of the Nile valley have worked together to create a bizarre, exciting cuisine - sadly, now often found only in cookery books and on television screens. But, as Bo Diddley said in his famous song, you can’t judge a book by looking at its cover.