Egyptian cuisine — thousands of years old, dating to Pharaohs. Fava, falafel, koshari, molokhia. Turkish, Greek, Levantine influences.
Koshari
Koshari — top national dish. Rice + pasta + lentils + chickpeas + fried onions + tomato sauce + garlic and vinegar. People's food, cheap, filling.
Fava and Ta'meya
Ful medames — national breakfast (fava beans with olive oil, lemon, cumin, pepper). Ta'meya — Egyptian falafel made with fava (not chickpeas). Fava and falafel sandwich.
Molokhia
Molokhia — green soup from jute leaves, cooked with meat, chicken or rabbit. With rice and bread. Popular in every household.
Meats
Alexandria liver, stuffed pigeon with freekeh or rice, meat tagine, shawarma, kebab and kofta. Camel meat in desert.
Bread
Eish baladi — national bread, white from wheat. Eish shamsi sun-bread. Eish fino French influence. Bread essential to every meal.
Sweets
Kunafa, baklava, basbousa, om Ali (elite Muslim dessert), luqmat, zalabia, fatir meshaltet. Ramadan sweets.
Drinks
Red tea (koshari), Turkish coffee, karkadeh (cold red tea), sahlab (hot winter drink), licorice root, tamarind. Street sugar cane juice.