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Everybody's Fuul
by
Juergen Stryjak
As a traveler in Egypt or as a tourist with
at least minimal contact with the locals, sooner or later
you will get asked by an Egyptian: "Did you eat Fuul
and T'aamiyya yet?" Your answer could be vitally
important for you, so I would like to use this restaurant
column for giving you some necessary information. At first,
the basics: As you will have guessed it from the word 'eat',
Fuul and T'aamiyya are about food. They are something to
eat, but not any sort of a dish, no, they are the basis of
the Egyptians' nutrition, a myth, a kind of a religion, with
all features of a religion, believers, unbelievers, fanatics
and renegades. One can think about Fuul and T'aameyya, what
he or she wants, but nobody can ignore these classic
elements of the Egyptian diet.
Fuul (pronounced fool), is the famous Arabic fava bean. T'aamiyya is the
Egyptian way of making Falafel, little fried balls, but
more crisp, more green and fresh than is served in other Arabic
cuisine, due to the use of special ingredients such as ground
beans, coriander leaves, parsley or other greens refined with
sesame, spices and maybe egg - very delicious. Once you have
sampled the real T'aamiyya, you will wish you could nibble it at
home while watching television, instead of the standard junk food.
No hope, there is no real T'aamiyya outside of Egypt, very least
of all in the so-called Egyptian restaurants throughout the
Western world. I don't know why.
Egyptians have Fuul and T'aamiyya for breakfast and throughout
the whole day, on a plate or as a sandwich wrapped into a pita
bread - the perfect, versatile, vegetarian food. Whatever you
reply to the above mentioned question "Did you eat Fuul and
T'aamiyya yet?", your answer can result in only one
consequence. If you say no to the inquiring Egyptian, you
probably will get invited to his home for having
these dishes. If you say yes, you'll maybe get invited, too,
because you have disclosed your identity as a true lover of
Egyptian culture, a friend, so to speak.
If you don't have the possibility to accept this invitation,
but you want to try Fuul and T'aamiyya on your own at another
place, you have three choices. First, a five star hotel
restaurant, which is certainly not the authentic atmosphere for
trying traditional Egyptian food, although it is readily available
and tasty in most of them. Secondly, at those typical Fuul
and T'aamiyya snack bars and, lastly, at one of the sidewalk
carts, which can be seen catering Fuul and T'aameyya every morning
to an estimated three million Egyptians throughout the whole
country. It is difficult for me to recommend one of these carts,
but as for the snack bar, I have the ultimate recommendation: the
Al-Tabei Restaurant in downtown Cairo.
Al-Tabei, founded in 1926, is one of the most popular Fuul and
T'aamiyya places among Egyptians. Actually, this fact says it all
and I could close my review here with no other evidence for the
quality of Al-Tabei's food. Let me only add some further
negligible information. The atmosphere there is similar to what
you have in Western fast food outlets. Unfortunately, the
restaurant's owner replaced half a decade ago the nice wooden
chairs and tables by more modern, glaring painted metal furniture.
Guest room and toilets are clean and the service is quick. Very
quick, not three minutes after you made the order you will have
the food placed in front of you. The menu, in English or in
Arabic, offers a wide range of all sorts of Fuul and T'aamiyya
dishes, as well as French Fries, fried eggplant, lentil soup,
omelet plain or with mushrooms or meat, and Shakshooka, a kind of
very scrambled eggs with vegetables, very delicious.
T'aamiyya comes as little pieces or as a big one, with tahina
(sesame seed paste), hummus (chickpea dip) or egg, as you
like, and Fuul is available plain or with chickpea or oil or
butter or some other ingredients, futile to mention all – the
menu offers more than 40 items. But I don't want to miss the
chance to recommend my personal favorite: "Fuul be-beid wa
basterma", fava beans with egg and pasterma, a spicy Egyptian
meat similar to pastrami. It is served in a bowl, coming fresh out
of the oven. All dishes are served with pita bread.
If this all is not vegetarian enough, Al-Tabei's salad bar was
recently rated by an English language weekly as Cairo's "best
baladi salad bar, without any doubt". (Baladi means typically
local.) The salad bar is not very large, but contains all
necessary things: tahina, babaganoush, lentil salad, beans salad,
beets, potato and green salad – and Turshi, the Egyptian
variation of mixed pickles.
The price for all that? I will not start to list examples, let
me tell you only this: You cannot stuff more into yourself, which
finally could cost you more than 10 Egyptian Pound (around 3 $),
including a soft drink or a tea or a coffee. Unless you are a
glutton.
AlTabei's. 31, Ahmed Orabi Street. Downtown, Cairo. Located
between Taufiqiyya Square and Ramsis Street, 200 meters/650 feet
after Taufiqiyya Street at the right side. Telephone: (202)
575-4291 or 575-4211. Home delivery: 304-1123 or 304-1223. Another
Cairo branch in Mohandessin, 17, Gamiat Al-Dowwal Al-Arabiya
Street. Telephone: See home delivery!
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