Full on Fuul

Over the last two days, I have had some really interesting and tasty vegetarian Egyptian food. Of course, I have had the ubiquitous fuul and ta'miya countless number of times. Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Yemen all claim fuul and ta'miya to be “their” food; the preparation differs from country to country though.

Fuul is fava beans or broad beans that are boiled and then mashed with garlic, lemon, chilli powder and olive oil. At the Mohammed Ahmed outlet in Alexandria, you can choose from fuul with hummus, fuul Alexandria or fuul with fried eggs. The last one is my personal favourite and makes an extremely satisfying meal. Also the place has one of the crispiest ta'miya but beware!-You will not be able to stop once you have had one!. For the uninitiated ta'miya is boiled and deep fried fava beans patties. In Lebanon, it is referred to as felafel and chick peas are used instead of fava beans.

Hummus is chick peas blended with tahina, lemon juice and garlic and tastes absolutely divine; especially when it has generous amounts of olive oil drizzled on it. We had a completely different version of the hummus from a street side vendor at the Suez Canal. He prepared it by pouring boiling water over the boiled chick peas and then stirred in chili powder, lemon juice and tomatoes. He was very generous with the chilli powder, thinking that we are IndiansJ. It is guaranteed to thoroughly cleanse your system!

After having crossed to the east bank of the Suez canal at Qantara, we came across an eatery by the name of Nanoos. It is a very unassuming place but has the best baba ghanoug in Egypt!. The place is your equivalent to an Indian dhaba, the bread served here is soft and is just plonked on the tableJ. Just avoid the last bread and you should be fine. Also, the place serves a dish called “atts”-have googled but have not been able to come up with anything on it. It is like lentil soup with spaghetti thrown in and lightly spiced. I was told that Nanoos gets it just right-. I loved it and had two bowls of it. Here I have written the name as it is pronounced; will update you on this dish if am able to get any further information.

And the icing on the cake is that all the above are vegetarian!