Entertainment & Spa

What Egypt eats for breakfast

‹ Back to all articles
AV
Anorya Team · 30 avr. 2025 · 1 min read

Fava beans, falafel and flatbread, for about a euro, from a cart on a corner.

Ful medames is the national breakfast and has been for a very long time — dried fava beans, slow-cooked overnight, mashed with oil, lemon, cumin and whatever the cook favours. It is served in a bowl with bread and eaten with your hands.

What Egypt eats for breakfast

Alongside it comes taameya, the Egyptian falafel, made from fava beans rather than chickpeas. It is greener inside, lighter, and cooked to order so it arrives hot. Add eggs, a plate of tomato and cucumber, some pickles and a glass of sweet tea and that is the meal.

The bread is aish baladi — wholemeal, puffed hollow in a very hot oven, and used as a spoon rather than a side. Aish means both "bread" and "life" in Egyptian Arabic, which tells you something.

What Egypt eats for breakfastWhat Egypt eats for breakfast

Ful medames is the national breakfast and has been for a very long time — dried fava beans, slow-cooked overnight, mashed with oil, lemon, cumin and whatever the cook favours.

Hotel buffets serve none of this properly. Walk to a ful cart in the morning — every neighbourhood has one, they open before six, and a full breakfast costs less than a bottle of water in the resort.

What Egypt eats for breakfast
Share:

Keep reading

Giftun Island: what the snorkelling is actually like Sea excursions Giftun Island: what the snorkelling is actually like Read article → Twelve Red Sea fish you will almost certainly see Sea excursions Twelve Red Sea fish you will almost certainly see Read article → Swimming with wild dolphins, without harming them Sea excursions Swimming with wild dolphins, without harming them Read article →
Good to know

Frequently asked questions

We really have some of the lowest prices that can be offered while keeping the quality of service high. We are an online booking company working directly with large organizers in Egypt, so we can offer very favorable prices thanks to the large flow of tourists. Buying from us, you get quality service and don't overpay intermediaries.
The organizers' fleet has plenty of vehicles - cars, minivans and large comfortable buses. Vehicles for short, medium and long distances are equipped with air conditioning and safety systems, and buses with toilets are provided on long routes. All vehicles are regularly serviced and sanitized, hold the necessary tourist permits, and drivers are inspected before every trip.
We work without prepayment. Group excursions are paid on the bus or during the trip. The exceptions are individual excursions where plane tickets or documents are involved. The organizer comes to you - there is no need to look for anyone to pay. You can pay in cash in dollars or euros, and an alternative payment method can be arranged.
Egypt is heavily regulated when it comes to tourism. For a car or yacht to run a tour, daily permission from the police and military is required, and organizers without a license don't get permits. That is why on some tours we may ask for voucher and passport details (this applies to marine excursions, individual tours and some group tours that leave the city). For other excursions only the number of people is needed.
Some hotel guides wrongly claim insurance does not apply to third-party excursion organizers. That is not true. Your travel insurance is valid throughout Egypt, and once you are on the organizer's ship, bus or transport they carry full insurance responsibility for passengers - otherwise they could not obtain a tour permit at all.
Please check your belongings when you leave the bus or boat at the end of the tour. If something is lost it is hard to recover, as vehicles leave immediately to be cleaned. We will always help you look, but we cannot guarantee a 100% return - so please be careful!
We have a large daily flow of bookings, so most excursions run every day (or on set weekdays per the program's schedule). After booking we send the exact hotel pickup time. Many trips are shared with small hotel groups who bought the same tour from operators - the only difference is that our price is 40–60% lower.
Tour photographers are independent and do not work for the company, so any arrangement with them is your responsibility. We do not recommend paying in advance unless you are sure the photos will be delivered. If you do not want photos, tell the photographers early to avoid any pushiness.