Photo Essay: The Unique Abaza Lentils Dish

Produced by Nora Elbadawy

     Long time ago my mother family ‘Abaza’ created their own dish of lentils, which no one can make expect them so they called it ‘The Abaza Lentils’. There are different stories that circulate around the family about the history of this unique dish. As the Abaza family is formerly originated in Abkhazia, which is a small country next to Russia; it is said that back in time a member of the family created a new recipe using lentils to keep them warm and energetic during the cold winter, and called this dish “the Abaza lentils.” And since then this recipe is kept secretive between the family members and passed on from generation to another. Even after the family migrated to different countries the Abaza lentils recipe kept closely guarded and never changed. Another story about this dish’s history, also known within the family is that long ago when the Abazas came to Egypt they where located in Sharqia governate; and one day an Abaza men unexpectedly invited guests over for lunch and the wife was not prepared so she decided to put all –food- available together and at the end she created the Abaza lentils, which afterward became famous among the family.  As growing up the Abaza lentils was the main dish that is always severed in almost all family gatherings – in different family members' homes .- Every women in the Abaza family knows and should know how to do this dish. That’s why my grandmother taught my mother the recipe and my mother decided to pass it on to my sister and I. This dish is unique because it is only known among my family and no one can make it perfectly as my family members.

Photo Essay: Cooking Koshary, The Egyptian Tradition

Author: Alaa Adel Elsayed

     Koshary is one of the dishes that is invented entirely by Egyptians. Its history of invention is what makes it unique. Egyptians are said to collect all the remaining uncooked food ingredients at the end of every month and cook them all together. This historical story, in my opinion, has an economic value as well as a cultural and traditional value. Economically, the story highlights a way through which middle-class households sustain their living during the last days of every month when their monthly salary is over as the case with almost all working classes. It also served as an investment in what they have remaining instead of throwing it away in the trash.  The story of inventing koshary has also a strong cultural meaning as it shows how working-class Egyptians tended to handle their living when they are almost out of money at the end of each month. Additionally, it highlights some of the differences between social classes in Egypt. It would not be surprising for upper-class people to throw these ingredients away and not to care much about their possible uses. But the perceptions that the working classes have for things are always different, which is shown through the Egyptians’ investment that yielded in a new Egyptian dish.

     Although koshary was originally invented by middle-class Egyptians, it has gained huge popularity and become one of the favorite dishes for all Egyptians. In specific, it is one of my family’s favorites. It is a family tradition that my mother cooks koshary for special events, such as Eid al-Fatr and Sham El-Nassem (the spring day). Although it is common for Egyptians to eat a certain type of fish during this last feast, my family eats koshary, the tradition that has become a traditional celebration of Sham El-Nassem. Accordingly, this year my mother has decided to cook koshary for us as part of our celebration of this day.

    Furthermore, the process of cooking koshary is interesting to examine. It is one of the dishes that has many components used to decorate the final dish. Not only that, these decorative components are also to be cooked first as the cooking process starts before cooking the main ingredient which is rice.

    The presented slideshow shall illustrate more closely the process of cooking koshary for lunch for my family in celebration of Sham El-Nassem.

Food Safety in Egypt: A Lecture at AUC

By: Amira Mahmoud, Farah Abdelkader, and Farrah El Essawi



Cairo, Egypt – On Monday, March 31, the Chemistry Club at the American University in Cairo hosted a lecture on “Food Safety in Egypt” given by Dr. Tarek El-Arabi, assistant professor of agriculture at Ain Shams University. El-Arabi shared his own opinions about the “safety” of the food industry in Egypt.

El-Arabi has been trying to raise awareness about the gravity of hazardous food in Egypt for many years. He has stated that food safety should be applied in each stage of the food supply chain, beginning with how we produce the food until we dispose of it. But apparently, this is not the case in Egypt.

Egyptian food contains different forms of hazards, including physical or chemical hazards, such as small rocks and nails found in our bread or polyvinyl chloride, a chemical used in plastic packaging. This chemical causes “severe health damage,” explains El-Arabi and it even “takes around two million years to degrade.”

The food safety in Egypt is below zero and the only thing we do is count on personal references for where to eat, which El-Arabi believes is highly dangerous. Just because somebody did not get sick eating at a certain place does not mean that the underlying affects of the hazardous foods will not eventually show.

El-Arabi was asked, “Would word of mouth create awareness, though?” He responded by explaining that while he believes this is not enough, it is definitely a start. He added that when there is a demand for a certain service by the people, the food industries will eventually have to comply. Yet, this demand is not currently prevalent.

Madonna Nassif, head of the Chemistry Club, had contacted El-Arabi to give the lecture. Nassif believes that this topic is important because it “would interest all students, not only chemistry or science students,” and according to the information El-Arabi had to share, one could say it would. This lecture was educational to those attending seeing as it enlightened them on the safety of food which is something we are exposed to everyday.