Travel Betty

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You’ve climbed through a million temples and your fair share of tombs, navigated the constant swarm of the Luxor felluca hawkers, and hurdle-jumped copious piles of horse manure produced from the calèches clip-clopping through the streets. Now you’re starving and delirious and in need of something hearty. Something authentic. Something truly Egyptian that doesn’t start or end with the word kabob. But what?

That’s easy. The only answer is Koshary!

Imagine sitting down to a nourishing bowl of macaroni, vermicelli, rice, lentils, chickpeas, onions, and garlic (Dr. Atkin’s isn’t too popular here). Now liberally spoon on the tangy tomato sauce.

No, you’re not done yet.

There are still the fried onions to sprinkle on top (think Durkee French Fried style at Thanksgiving) and the BEST part, the hot chili sauce. If you’re feeling frisky, pour it on thick. Otherwise, it’s best to add and taste slowly until you hit your heat limit.

Our awesome guide Emad took us out not once, but twice for Koshary in Luxor so that we could have the repeated pleasure of shoveling spoonfuls of this fantastic concoction into our ravenous maws while bemused locals stared at us and asked to take our pictures.

As I think about it now, saliva is damming up behind my teeth and if it weren’t for the 20+ hour plane ride I knew I’d have to endure to have it again, I’d currently be eating it while writing this very paragraph.

Put simply, if your plans to travel Egypt don’t include eating Koshary, re-plan.

Travel Betty Basics

Here’s a recipe if you’d like to make it at home. For real Egyptian ambience, you might want to have someone stand near you and ask repeatedly “Felluca ride? Felluca ride, lady? Good price for you.”

Travel Betty Banter

What foods have you gotten addicted to while abroad? Tantalize us with a description in the comments section.