Lunch Time in Cairo

Some of you fabulous Devoted Readers have asked about the local foods here in Cairo. I have previously blogged about the yummy, carb-filled goodness that is Koshari - or as we like to call it in the Typ0-Hubby household “Sunday dinner before South Beach made us miserable.” But neither expat nor local can live by carbohydrates alone, so today I thought I would take you to visit some local snack shops.

First up, we have The Juice Guy. These juice shops are a common sight in Cairo. For a nominal sum, you can have everything from a freshly squeezed glass of orange juice, to a bottle of mango juice for take-away. The fruit juices are incredibly tasty and since they’re made right in front of you contain zero preservatives.

Further along the street is The Nut Guy or as Hubby calls him the purveyor of Crack Nuts. They’re the ones with the silver spoon in the following photo.

If you visit this shop at the right times, you can actually see the nuts being freshly roasted and turned in the giant cookers. During the winter months, we would often buy a ¼ kg of chocolate covered nuts, a ½ kg of pistachios, and another ½ kg of the aforementioned Crack Nuts, which are candy coated, sweet peanuts. This week’s worth of fresh nuts would cost no more than 47LE or about $8.50 USD.

Our brief tour today will conclude with the Ta'miyya Guy. Ta'miyya is what the locals call falafel. He also makes sandwiches with the döner meat that turns on a spit in front of his shop.

Like the Nut Guy and the Juice Guy, every neighborhood has its own Ta’miyya Guy or two. Hubby’s favourite is located in Zamalek where he can get a falafel sandwich (4 falafels in a pita) for LE1.5 or about thirty cents US.