Egyptian Cuisine
The Egyptian culture is as much festive as it is longstanding and complex. Egypt has been collectively influenced by just about every great civilization in Africa and Eurasia and still stands as the media, economic, and socio-cultural focal point of the Arab World. This stems from the fact that Egypt has stood as the cultural hub of the near East since the Greek’s Golden Age. This historical reality is transmuted into every facet of Egyptian society and Egyptian food in particular.
The majority of contemporary Egyptian cuisine is influenced by the agriculture of the land. Egypt boasts a consistent harvest because of its geographical plane- namely, the NILE which runs through the entire country. Egyptian farmers have yielded a multitude of crops including dates, chickpeas, figs, grain, olives, barley, beans, and peas. It’s yearly harvest of staples once provided for the entire Roman Empire, and have left the Egyptian people with a long history of bread and beer production.
Also, fish and poultry are plentiful in the region and nutritious foods such as fava beans and spinach have kept this nation-state sustained for millennia. A few well-known examples of Egyptian cuisine are Foul Madammas, which are Fava beans cooked in olive oil accompanied by vegetables, goat cheese, and sometimes poultry eggs. Nile fish has been prepared for centuries either cooked or dried.
The dried fish is seasoned with salt and left out to dry in the blistering, Arabian sun and called Faseekh. Spinach is prepared into a stew called Molakheya and can be served with rice or bread. The Egyptians are also fond of herbal teas and, due to the Ottoman invasion, boast various forms of Baklava including: Baklawa made with Phyllo pastry layered in between sugar, coconut, and pistachio and covered with a honey glaze and Basboosa- a light yellow cake coated with a sugar glaze .
There are many more examples and variations of Egyptian foods. Egypt was gifted with a cornucopia of fruit, vegetable, and staple harvests as well as a yearly flooding of the Nile. The people of the land have known about these gifts for centuries and have capitalized. This is why Egyptian culture is as influential as it is and moreover, why Egyptian cuisine is so delicious!
