When in Egypt, eat as the Egyptians do.
So I have, as I’ve been here for just under two weeks. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Some of the traditional breakfast food is actually not so different than what I eat at home, which usually is plain yogurt with fresh fruit or dried apricots. There’s lots of yogurt here for breakfast, all plain rather than being mixed with so much stuff that you can’t taste the yogurt.
But for breakfast here there’s also hummus, baba ghanoosh, tahini, olive salads and falafel, so I’ve been having a feast. I love all that food, but normally it’s for snack or hors d’oeuvre, not breakfast. This will change my company brunch menu for sure. All of these dishes are ones I can make ahead so there’s no fussing when people are over.
Think New Year’s weekend.
One of the more interesting breakfast dishes is the variety of feta cheese mixtures. I love feta cheese. But it’s the kind of cheese I crumble into a salad or spinach pie. In Egypt they mash it up and mix it it with lemon juice and olive oil to make it creamy, add some chopped tomatoes, scallions and sometimes parsley or mint and it becomes a spread for pita bread.
Terrific breakfast food. Great change from toast and jam.
The photo shows the way it’s served: with a drizzle of olive oil and chopped tomatoes. Try it. The recipe is something like this — use amounts of lemon juice and olive oil that suit your fancy and make the feta as creamy as you like.
Mash 6-8 ounces of feta cheese with about 2 tablespoons olive oil and about 2 tablespoons lemon juice. Beat until creamy. Add plain yogurt if desired for a creamier consistency. Add 3 chopped scallions, 8-10 chopped cherry tomatoes and 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or one tablespoon chopped fresh mint if desired. Mix thoroughly. Serve drizzled with olive oil and chopped tomatoes. Serve with pita bread. Makes 6 servings