Egyptian Street-Food

Poor Man's Diet, Rich Man's Delight.
"O Moses, we can no longer tolerate one kind of food. Call upon your Lord to produce for us such earthly crops as beans, cucumbers, garlic, lentils, and onions".
He said: "Do you wish to substitute that which is inferior for that which is good? Go down to Egypt, where you can find what you asked for" [2:61] The Heifer (Al-Baqarah)
Egyptian cuisine's history goes back to Ancient Egypt, as mentioned in this verse from the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book.

The land in Egypt was very dry, and relied mostly on the Nile River to water its crops and thus create a collection of strong-tasting vegetable dishes, mainly based on garlic, wheat, beans, barley, onions and so on.

For that reason, Egyptians consider Kushari (a mixture of rice, lentils and macaroni, and all the mentioned ingredients) to be their national dish. But actually the Foul, or the native beans (pronounced 'Fool') is the most famous of Egyptian dishes. It can be cooked in several ways, always boiled first. The most popular way is with regular, hot, or olive oil, then salt and lemon, and conveniently eaten in dishes or sandwiches. Another favorite is to mash it in 'Balady' butter (see meaning below) instead of oil and lemon.

Yet more elaborate dishes of 'Foul' would include a mixture of vegetables, then mashed with onions, tomatoes and spices, even minced meat – moreover, to that mixture, an egg will be added for breakfast. Alternatively, "Foul" beans can also be soaked, softened, mixed with spices, formed into patties called Taamiya (or falafel as widely known), then deep-fried. These patties, garnished with tomatoes, lettuce and Tahina sauce, are stuffed into bread and sold on the streets.

E'ish Balady is the national bread – the word 'Eish' is derived from the Arabic verb means "to live"; and 'Balady' meaning "National" in street-slang, normally referring to foodstuff that is that of the country ... which obviously means locally bred meats and poultry, and locally grown fruit and vegetables, basically in the open fields and not in greeneries.

Bread forms the backbone of Egyptian food, and is consumed at almost every Egyptian meal, especially with the working-class and rural Egyptians, whose meals might consist of very little more than bread and beans.

In modern Egypt, the government subsidizes bread, dating back to a socialist 'Nasser Era'. As of 2008, however, a major food crisis has caused extremely long bread lines at government-subsidized bakeries where normally there would be no bread to be found; occasional fights would break out over bread leading to fear of what became known as "Bread Riots; a crisis swiftly rectified and put under control.