FOOD FOR THOUGHT……..

Slices of cheese in Eish Fino with a side of pickles

Winter, in Cairo extends from December through February with average temperatures of around 20 C, cold enough for those of us from Malaysia. Narimah says that “after lectures in winter we used to buy hot bread yang panjang tu and finished it by the time we reached home. Muda, lapar, sejuk. Semua boleh makan masa tu. She must be talking about eish fino.

Aish Baladi

Unlike her, Che Nooraini had a different experience in Tanta. “Rumah sewa saya betul2 berhadapan dengan kedai membuat roti. Setiap awal pagi akan kedengaran bunyi bising pekerja menjerit2 menjual roti..disahut pula oleh pembeli2 yang beratur panjang. Biasanya tak lama ..semua roti abis dijual. Setiap pagi juga saya dapat bau aroma harum roti yang dibakar…sedappp. Aish Baladi di mesir ni serupa macam roti pita….bulat dan leper. Diperbuat daripada tepung gandum dan dicampur dengan air untuk diuli menjadi doh roti. Suatu hari di awal pagi, saya mengintai kedai roti tersebut dari tingkap bilik rumah sewa. Terkejut saya melihat seorang pekerja melompat2 dalam bekas besar adunan roti dan menguli2 doh dengan kaki….seluarnya diangkat tinggi2…nampak kaki..kaki….eeee saya dah tak berselera nak makan bila tengok macam tu. Agaknya sekarang dah moden..mungkin mereka dah pakai mesin kot.” Now we know why the bread tastes so good….

The Bread Riots in Egypt 1977

Aish baladi can mean the difference between health and starvation to the Egyptians. In 1977, there was a spontaneous uprising by hundreds of thousands of  people protesting World Bank and IMF-mandated termination of state subsidies where the price of Aish Baladi rose from 1 piastre to 2 piastres. The government backed down in light of the Egyptian “bread riots”.

Ta’amiyyah in pita bread and salad

Another all time favourite street food in Egypt is falafel or ta’amiyya which is best served with pita bread, tomato, onions, and tahini. Fadzillah recalls that she loved the falafel sold on campus. She misses ta’amiyya and Noraini Raimi (Noren) says “sekarang we long for it”. However, it was not exactly love at first sight. Noren recalls “first nite orientation in Manial, our batch..seniors beri ta’amiyya sandwich in pitta bread, kita tak boleh telan… sumbat bawah carpet…” So dear seniors, after 40 years, you now know who messed up your carpets in Cairo!!

Still on the subject of ta’amiyya, Fuziah says “I remember when we first got to Alex, Dr Nik Nazri and Kak Asma brought us to a restaurant (tak ingat nama apa) to taste kacang ful with telur mata kerbau and aish baladi. Masa tu, first time tengok waiter letak aish baladi atas meja saja. Did anyone cerita how the waiter buka botol coke?  Guna the bottle opener but place the bottle in between his legs?  Macam tak jadi minum pulak.

According to Hayati, there was a pizza restaurant in Alexandria called Astoria. The pizza is out of this world. It had flat thin pieces of beef, tomato sauce and lots of cheese. They have juicy grilled pigeon too. The ice cream is called “Chocolamo”. It has 2 large scoops of choc ice cream, melted chocolate and fresh cream. The cream caramel is yummy with real burnt caramel. It is right in front of the cinema so lepas makan, tengok wayang. Fuziah agrees: “ I second to that! Sedap pizza dia. Tak sama dgn Pizza Hut langsung. Wahidah says:  banyak memories…masih terkenang2… lepas makan pizza terus masuk panggung wayang “Metro”.. or another cinema called “Amir” a short distance away.. If it was a weekend, Norhayati says they binged on movies at both cinemas.

It looks like, back then, the girls in Alex knew how to have a good time. According to Eni, “there was a shop in Ibrahimyah that made very nice roz with kebab/kofta and hamaam mashwi. Opposite side is cinema Odeon I think. Zai, Fuzi, Jah and I used to go there Friday nights. Nearby is a shop that sells well made leather shoes, not local. 20 EP / pair. Big deal in those days tapi beli jugak!

Sabariah Faizah says this restaurant serves the best lamb chops and grilled pigeon. Nothing beats it and the roz … until now I haven’t found a place as good as that small restaurant at Imbrahimyiah. Yes we go there frequently. I wanted to tell about this restaurant as well.  Kak Eni, you forgot the cream caramel yang sangat sedap. Sekali makan, macam nak 2nd one. I also tried their roz bi laban. Also ada menu “reish”, grilled ribs I think pun sedap. Lepas tu pi tengok kasut leather (Italian I think) lepas perut dah kenyang and bila dah happy, terbeli jugak kasut di situ – cantik and berkualiti. We all balik semula ke Azarita naik tram.

The favourite restaurant of Malaysian students in the seventies: Courtesy Mohamad Hatta Shaharom

Whether we were from Cairo, Alexandria, Tanta, Mansoura or Zagazig, whenever we had the means, we would all go out and eat Chinese food. Jamil Yassin remembers “ada dua Chinese Restoren kan. Fu Ching dan Peking. Tapi Fu Ching lagi popular among Malaysian students.”

Like many of us, Fuziah agrees with Jamil. “Whenever Jah and I pi Cairo, we made it a point to go to Fu Ching Restaurant and had the shark’s fin soup beside d nasi goreng. Masa tu tak terfikir pasal how the fins were obtained. Cuma their meals ada MSG la which can be tolerated. Tak pening kepala lepas a visit to Fu Shing.”

Looking back, we realise that Fu Ching was not a very “Chinese” restaurant. As Fadzillah says “Not Chinese at all. I ingat soup dia, sharks fin konon nya…” At that time, 40 years ago, we were yearning for anything that felt and tasted like home and Fu Ching was the nearest to that memory of home.

Jamil Yassin was a bit more high-end. His dream was to eat and sleep at the Nile Hilton.  “Masa 70’s Cairo Hilton boleh di kira the best hotel in town. Lepas tu baru ada Meridien and newer ones. Nagwa Fuad the top belly dancer performed at the Nile Hilton then. So masa student dulu angan2 jugak nak duduk kat Nile Hilton ni.Tak kesempatan and of course cannot afford.

For me the “dream” was realized semasa UKM participated in an education fair

Pergi berempat dengan NC TS Sharifah (dia order saya pergi sebab- you kan grad Cairo!). Thinking quickly I checked with her officer on where we will be staying and recommend Nile Hilton because of the location (along the Nile and close to Cairo Museum Kalau nak visit) Yup, I fulfilled my dream of staying in Hilton on the Nile on that trip

Lepas tu cari pulak grilled pigeon. Tapi tak der masa/ kawan nak keluar makan kat Shaheen in Awal Manial (Sapa ingat nama Cif waiter dia?) So checked room service. Ada pigeon tapi bukan grilled. Tapi Egypt being Egypt, we can get it for you sir! Two hammam min fadlak! Selesai dua ekor sampai, tengok TV dalam bilik! Baksheesh to the bellboy!!”

Note from Shaidan: “hammam Turkish bath; hamama pigeon hehe”. Says Jamil: “Ha3 My bad.  Sib baik waiter tu hantar pigeons”.

Did we unfailingly love Egyptian food? Not quite….

Mulukhiyya: slimy green soup with aphrodisiac properties

Sabariah recalls that “when we first came to Alex, Shukur brought us to this restaurant makan mulukhiya.. at that time it was one of the most vile food I have taken. But now sedap juga… So it looks like some of us can learn to like the food.

Fuziah also has memories of mulukhiya. “I remembered mulukhiya as dark green thick slimy soup. I also remembered one lecturer asked me about their food (we were sitting in front) and mentioned this mulukhiya soup. I honestly said I didn’t quite like it and d whole class laughed. Not sure why they laughed. Tengku Wook Zawiyah (Kuye) thinks they laughed because “ maybe they didn’t like it either but you were truthful. Dia orang x berani kata”. Or maybe it was something else…. It is a well known fact to most Egyptians that this was the food of royalty and said to be the favourite dish of Muawiyah ibn Abi Sufyan. But the were not laughing because of that. Most likely it was your “innocence” of the fact that it was once outlawed in Egypt because of its alleged aphrodisiac effect. Until today, it is considered as a strong aphrodisiac amongst Egyptians.

Why do we still remember the foods that we ate more than 40 years ago?

Food is much more than calories, vitamins or energy. Food is much more than what it seems. It is a catalyst that brings us together, to reconnect and rejuvenate old friendships. After more than 40 years, we can bond again though our memories of the foods we once ate in Egypt.