Yesterday was a day that was everything I love about being here. It began with breakfast at 3pm, where, joy oh joy be still my beating heart, we had feteer and teen barshoomy (figs).
Now, feteer is an Egyptian institution. It’s kind of like Egyptian pie—layers of pastry baked in an oven with honey and cream, and then you dip it in molasses or sugar. I love it when lots of layers are used, and it’s called mewara’ (literally ‘paper-y’) because I love the inside layers and not the crisp outer layers. I haven’t had nice feteer in ages and this was feteer right out of the oven. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
And then we had figs! I’ve been craving them for months and months and they weren’t available yet so my first bite into a juicy fig was divine.
In case you didn’t realize, food makes me happy.
And then I spent the rest of the day ba2anta7′ (bumming around) with my family. We each lie on a sofa on the terrace basically doing nothing.
My brother and I had a blast listening to old old songs (Think Backstreet Boys’ “Everybody” and Christina Augulera’s “Genie in a Bottle”). It reminded me of ‘The’ Pizza Hut CD—the very first CD we’d ever listened to which was a present from Pizza Hut and which we replayed over and over for months. My dad amused himself by swatting flies while reading a mountain of newspapers. I convinced my mom to play pool with me. And then we’d flop back on the sofas and drink tea with milk.
I wasn’t in the mood to swim, but I did have a go on the humongous trampoline my dad just had installed. And I know I must have looked silly, but it was sooooo much fun. Pure, unfettered joy. The hair in your face, the sun beating down, and jumping up and down like I did when I was a kid. Vairy vairy fun.
Around 9:30pm we went to Porto Marina, which is like a mini outdoor mall right along the coast with outdoor restaurants. We went to see Adel Imam’s new movie Bobos, which wasn’t as horrendous as I expected. There are tons of really good Egyptian movies out now, but most are serious ones dealing with problems in Egyptian society, so we went to see Bobos because it was a comedy.
But even though it was funny, there was a very serious message in it I appreciated—the contrast between the rich Egyptian millionaires and the average Egyptians who struggle to make a living.
The movie ended around midnight and then we went to eat. We settled on Johnny Carino’s and had to wait 10 mins for a table, it was that crowded and the summer hasn’t even really begun! We stuffed ourselves with food while listening to the DJ play songs like “Matchy catchy combo, ya caa chicky chicky chicky chicky cha” (what is the name of that song?!). A turtle cheese cake at the end made the day perfect. Went home, straight to bed, and woke up today at noon. And now I’m off to swim. Bliss.
hahah….omgg my mouth is watering thinking about that Feteer…it’s sooo freakin goood lol…..Marina is awesome….its like the place to go when you wanna just get away from everything…..its so quiet and peaceful…except for those noisy ass frogs at night lol….bes to be honest their croaking is kinda soothing in its own mysterious way
im sorry… but do you live in a house or a resort?
lol Ange…a house of course. It’s just that this is a summer house so it has a garden and swimming pool. My parents are trying to get us interested in exercise so hello vollyeball net and basketball ring thingy, but only the trampoline and pool table are attracting our attention.
I want feteer again now. And yes, I agree the frogs at night are sometimes soothing
oh a ’summer’ house. here in the real world we only have one house, not one for different seasons. sounds liek a resot – im jealousssssssssssss.
i miss trampolines. such fun.
im such a dick and can not type.
like*
resort*
Yummm..feeter sounds a little like Baklava? That is heavenly..of course I live withn walking distance to a little family owned Greek restaurant..Greek food is so delicious. I have a question: Is 10 minutes considered long to wait for a table? Weve had to wait over an hour on a Sunday before, but I’d say 10-20 minutes is avg. in a midsized city midwestern US?
I wonder if you guys are hearing tree frogs? Those are cute, too.
Here’s another stupid question, but one that I am being seriously serious about. What are the most common foods in Egypt. An example: I live in midwestern USA. Steak, potatoes, green beans, and corn I am guessing are the most common on dinner tables. I kid you not, in rural areas, some people eat that every evening. Fish=not big, rice=not big. I know I am generalizing, but I have friends from the rural areas, and they are not into eating “different” things…we eat rice with chinese food and mexican food and maybe mushroom chicken or something. My question is: what are “normal” foods in Egypt and maybe a few examples of what is “different”?
My brother-in-law never had tried asparagus until he met my sister..
Oh! and homegrown tomatoes!! A summer necessity! I will show photos of mine when they are ready..people believe it is the soil that makes them so much better than others..serious tomato gourmets here
don’t be jealous Ange, I’ll take you there when you come to Egypt
@ Coco: Baklava is more crunchy and more sweet. Feteer is like a sweet version of bread, if that makes sense.
It’s not a stupid question. Most common food is beans and falafel for breakfast (fuul and ta’meya), and koshari for lunch. It’s a rice-pasta-chickpeas-onion-salsa carb fest. We also like fata, which is rice with salsa and friend pieces of bread with meat.
the trampoline and pool sound fun. i generally don’t enjoy whole days spent with my immediate family tho. my sister and i usually try to escape for part of the day.
ditto. Weekends are more than enough we mesh beyshoofo weshy the rest of the week