Kushari and Ful Medames on the West Bank
The streets and simple eateries around Jazirat Al Awamiyyah and the West Bank ferry landing serve some of the most honest, delicious Egyptian street food you will eat anywhere along the Nile — and for a price that will make you order seconds without a second thought.
Kushari: Egypt's National Dish
Kushari is Egypt's great democratic dish — a layered bowl of rice, lentils, macaroni, crispy fried onions, spiced tomato sauce and a sharp vinegar-garlic dressing that somehow adds up to much more than the sum of its parts. Small kushari shops operate out of tiny storefronts near the West Bank ferry landing and in the streets behind El-Souk on the East Bank, serving it from giant pots for just a handful of Egyptian pounds.
The ritual is half the pleasure: the server ladles each component in sequence, you customise the heat of the tomato sauce, and the whole thing arrives in a metal bowl within sixty seconds. Eat standing at the counter like a local, or take it to a nearby bench overlooking the Nile — either way, it is one of the great cheap meals of the world.
Ful Medames for Breakfast
Ful medames — slow-cooked fava beans mashed with olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and cumin — is the breakfast that has powered Egypt since the time of the pharaohs, and the West Bank's small local cafés serve it from dawn with fresh baladi bread, sliced tomato and a glass of sweet mint tea. It is warming, filling and costs almost nothing.
Pair it with ta'ameya (Egypt's green-herbaceous take on falafel, made with fava beans rather than chickpeas) for a breakfast that will keep you going through a full morning of tomb-crawling. Look for the cafés that have a queue of local workers outside — that is always the reliable sign of quality in Egypt.
Karkadé and Ahwa: Drinks of the West Bank
No meal on the West Bank is complete without a glass of karkadé — the deep-crimson hibiscus tea served hot in winter and ice-cold in summer — or a small cup of ahwa (Egyptian coffee), thick, cardamom-spiced and served in a glass with a sugar cube on the side. Both are available at every café and tea house in the Al Awamiyya area for pennies.
The Nubian-themed cafés on Luxor's East Bank, visible from the souk, also serve these drinks alongside mint lemonade and sugarcane juice pressed fresh to order. Sitting with a cold karkadé and watching the feluccas cross the Nile is one of those simple Luxor pleasures that no amount of temple-visiting can replace.
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