What to eat in Cairo
Cairo eats cheap and filling: koshari from a cart, ful and taameya for breakfast, molokhia, stuffed pigeon, om ali and tea in an ahwa.

[ ] Eat koshari
    Rice, macaroni, lentils and chickpeas in one bowl under tomato sauce, garlic vinegar and a heap of crisp fried onion. The national dish, entirely plant-based and costing next to nothing.
[ ] Try ful medames
    Fava beans simmered overnight and mashed with olive oil, lemon, cumin and garlic. Egypt's leading breakfast, eaten with flatbread straight from a shared bowl.
[ ] Eat taameya
    Egyptian falafel made from fava beans rather than chickpeas, which makes it green inside and noticeably softer. Fried until crisp and served in bread with salad and tahina.
[ ] Try molokhia
    A soup of jute leaves chopped to a green, slightly viscous mass, finished with garlic fried in ghee with coriander. The texture is unfamiliar; the flavour is herbal and deep.
[ ] Try hawawshi
    Flatbread stuffed with minced meat, onion, pepper and spices and baked until crisp, with the fat soaking into the bread. Street food eaten hot and by hand.
[ ] Try mahshi
    Vegetables — courgettes, peppers, tomatoes, vine leaves — stuffed with herbed rice and stewed in tomato. A home dish that plain restaurants also serve.
[ ] Try stuffed pigeon
    Pigeon stuffed with green wheat freekeh or rice and roasted whole. A celebratory dish with restaurants in Cairo dedicated to it.
[ ] Eat shawerma or kofta
    Spit meat in bread, or grilled minced kofta with tahina and salad. The meat alternative to the bean-based street food, slightly pricier but still cheap.
[ ] Try baba ganoush and tahina
    Smoked aubergine mashed with tahina, lemon and garlic, plus tahina itself, sesame paste thinned into a sauce. Both open any meal, with flatbread.
[ ] Try feteer meshaltet
    A many-layered pastry made with ghee, stretched until translucent and folded dozens of times. It comes plain, savoury with cheese, or sweet with honey and icing sugar.
[ ] Eat om ali
    A hot dessert of pastry soaked in milk with nuts, raisins and coconut, then baked until browned. The Egyptian answer to bread pudding.
[ ] Try basbousa
    A semolina cake soaked in sugar syrup with an almond on top. Dense, wet and very sweet, taken in a small piece with unsweetened tea.
[ ] Drink karkade
    An infusion of hibiscus: deep red, sour, drunk hot or iced. Egypt is a major producer, and here it comes out stronger and sharper than usual.
[ ] Drink tea in an ahwa
    Strong black tea in a glass, with or without mint, drunk at a street café over backgammon. The ahwa is an institution: people sit for hours and nobody hurries them.
[ ] Try Egyptian coffee
    Finely ground coffee brewed in a pot and served with the grounds settled at the bottom. Sweetness is stated when ordering and cannot be changed afterwards.
[ ] Try sobia or sahlab
    Sobia is a cold milky coconut drink popular during Ramadan; sahlab is hot, thick, with cinnamon and nuts, and belongs to winter. Both are sold from street shops.

Checklist from Unload: https://unloads.me/c/food-cairo