Égypte

Koshary

Rice, lentils and macaroni under tomato sauce, fried onion and vinegar-garlic dakka.

Ful medames

Fava beans simmered overnight and mashed with oil, lemon and cumin at breakfast.

Ta'ameya

Falafel made from fava beans rather than chickpeas, green inside and herb-heavy.

Molokhia

Jute leaves chopped to a green slick and cooked with garlic and coriander.

Mahshi

Courgette, pepper and vine leaf stuffed with herbed rice and cooked in tomato.

Fattah

Rice and toasted bread under lamb, garlic and vinegar sauce, served at Eid.

Hawawshi

Spiced minced meat baked inside baladi bread until the crust crisps.

Feteer meshaltet

Many buttered layers baked into a flaky pastry, eaten sweet or savoury.

Kofta

Minced lamb on skewers grilled over coals and served with tahini and bread.

Hamam mahshi

Pigeon stuffed with freekeh or rice and roasted, a delicacy since antiquity.

Shawarma

Meat shaved from a vertical spit into bread with tahini and pickles.

Eish baladi

Whole-wheat pocket bread baked in a hot oven, subsidised and eaten with everything.

Torshi

Pink pickled turnip, carrot and lemon set on the table before the food arrives.

Om Ali

Pastry soaked in milk with nuts and raisins, baked until the top browns.

Basbousa

Semolina cake soaked in syrup and cut into diamonds with an almond on each.

Kunafa

Shredded pastry over cream or cheese, baked and drenched in sugar syrup.

Roz bel laban

Rice pudding set thick in small bowls and dusted with cinnamon.

Karkade

Hibiscus steeped deep red, drunk hot in winter and iced in Aswan's heat.

Sahlab

Thick hot milk drink with orchid starch, topped with coconut and nuts.

Asab

Sugarcane juice pressed at green-tiled shops and drunk within the minute.