8 most popular sweets in Egypt to taste while holidaying in the country

Egypt is famous for its sweets and deserts since ancient times, so traditions of preparing sweets go as far as Pharaohs times. Let's check 8 most popular sweets of Egypt that you can try while holidaying in Egypt. 

1. Om Ali – One of the most famous & delicious  Egyptian deserts dates back to the rule of Shagarat el-Dour.  She invented the sweet to celebrate her taking over her husband (sultan of Egypt).  Om Ali in Arabic means "Ali's mother", she was the first wife of the sultan of Egypt Ezz al-Din Aybak who became sultan after getting married to Sultana Shajar Al-Durr.  After the sultan was killed Shagarat el –Dur offer people a desert made of Egyptian Bread (Roqaq) soaked in milk with sugar with nuts.  Since that time the dessert was named after her "Om Ali". Now the desert is usually prepared from Egyptian flat thin bread soaked in whole milk with sugar and nuts and then baked. The easiest and most delicious way to cook Om Ali is to use a ready made mille-feuille (can purchase in any supermarket in Egypt) and top with sour or sweet cream.

Where to buy:
In Sharm el Sheikh you can taste it in most restaurants, check el Masrein restaurant in the Old market, they always have it warm and delicious.

                                                                                                                        Om Ali desert


2. Atayf  - Arabic pancakes are usually filled with cream or nuts and served with a sugary syrup or honey.  It is originally famous in Egypt and can be found everywhere in the streets usually during Ramadan time only.  Especially interesting to watch local guys preparing atayf for sailing in the streets before breakfast time, so you do not need to bother yourself with it, just buy half-ready pancakes and fill it in at home with anything you like.  It is really easy to cook and so delicious to taste . Unfortunately it is difficult to find atayf in Egypt in other time rather than Ramadan, but you can always cook it yourself as it is so easy, just make small pancakes half fried (from one side only), then make a con from it and fry from all sides until ready. When it is a little bit cold, put it in syrup for some minutes and fill it with anything you like, here it is, your Egyptian atayf!

 A man cooking Atayf in the street

Where to buy:
In Cairo you will find half-ready atayf in the streets near most small ovens. People will cook it in front of you before the breakfast time during Ramadan only, so you will have to come early to get your turn and buy it. Usually it will not be ready atayf, just small pan-cakes which you have to fill in yourself. Most famous shops like Twinky will sell really atayf with different fillings.

In most shops atayf looks like this

In Sharm el Sheikh you will probably not find it at all even during Ramadan time. I never saw it here....

3. Kakh – Another traditional Ramadan sweet or cookies which will so rare can be found in shops of sweets after Ramadan time. You will not believe but it dates back to pharaonic times!  When wives of pharaohs were used to cook this kind of sweet for priests who guarded tombs of their husbands (pharaohs). Kakh cakes were found in different tombs, they were of different shapes, with different filings and ornaments.
Nowadays people start to cook kakh one week before the end of Ramadan and bring cakes to their relatives by the end of the holly month.  Kakh is made of flour and lots of butter. 

Where to buy:

In Cairo during Ramadan all street ovens will sell this kind of sweet, closer to the end of the month as a rule. During the year big chains of sweets shops will offer kakh as well, but not may be all the time you will be able to find it.

In Sharm el Sheikh you will probably not find it at all , but during Ramadan time on the Old market some ovens will definitely cook it, but it will not be that tasty like in Cairo.

4. Baspusa or its variety Harisa (famous in Alexandria mainly) is Egyptian semolina cake cooked with butter and yoghurt.  If you want to cook it yourself a ready mixture is always available in most supermarkets, you just need to add butter and yoghurt, stir it well and bake in the often, then after it is a little bit cold put over sugar syrup.

Where to buy:
In Cairo there is a well known, one of the best mark called ”Kweider”. You can find the shops in Mohandeseen, Nasr city and Downtown.  Over three generations of perfection... It  all started a long time ago in Damascus, when the great grandfather Mohamed Selim Koueider created a unique kind of oriental sweets. A remarkable milestone took place in the history of the koueider's family when the great grandfather decided to move to Egypt, where he founded his first shop in Cairo in 1928. Since then the name Koueider  became a synonym to the best sweets made by the best  ingredients. Mohamed Selim Koueider's son Abdel Rahim Koueider carried on with his father's Profession, he continued the development of the art of fine pastries, and introduced new products. Today , the grandson Nasser Koueider is continuing the developing  process, improving the quality , and always using the original unique recipe. 

In Sharm el Sheikh I do believe you can taste it in your hotel during dinner time if you check Oriental sweets corner in the restaurant, if no then in the Old market area there are some shops offering Oriental sweets.  

5. Kunafa - A sweet made from spun shredded wheat and can be filled with different fillings. In Egypt as a rule it is filled with cream or different nuts and then covered with sugar and lemon syrup. As it is a traditional sweet it can always be found in oriental sweets-shops all over Egypt.  There are several ways to prepare kunafa differed from the one you will find in a sweets-shop. This kind of sweet is mainly cooked by people during Ramadan time.  Locals do not use nuts or cream and prepare kunafa  in so called “Ottoman way” when you break kunafa into small pieces and then fry it with butter  until brown and then put sugar syrup over and mix all together.  It can be served with sour or sweet cream.  Very delicious. 

 During Ramadan you can watch locals cooking this sweet.

Where to buy:
In Cairo in most sweets shops almost all the year round, ex. Twinky sells really tasty kunafa with nuts or cream. The shops is located in Pyramids street, in the beginning, closer to Giza. So, on your way to the  Pyramids, you can always ask your guide to stop at the shop to taste Oriental sweets.
Should you wish to cook it yourself, many supermarkets sell half-ready frozen kunafa all the year round, but it will be not that delicious as the one, cooked in front of you by a local. 

In Sharm el Sheikh you definitely saw this sweet in your hotel restaurant but were afraid to taste! Now you know what it is all about and do not hesitate to try! If you do not find it in your hotel restaurant during dinner time, then sweets shops in the Old market will give you a chance to taste it.

 

Nabq Protactorate, Sharm el Sheikh, South Sinai

My daughter enjoying the sea

Some days ago, I was a little bit free and decided to explore some areas of Sharm el Sheikh. As we live in Nabq bay, I decided to go to Nabq Protectorate to explore the area especially I have never been there before. Nabq is famous for its big colony of Mangrove trees, the biggest in fact is in Indian Ocean. Yes, they are a lot there, not like Ras Mohammed, where there is just a small channel with trees
http://www.sharm-club.com/ras_mohamed.php

So in the morning, before the main heat I took my family, we got into our 4x4 Tiguan and moved to the destination. Well, the entrance or exit is just 10 minutes drive from our home, near el-Farana Heights hotel and behind Tiran hotel. So in 10 minutes we had to stop near a police check point and a ticket book-office to buy tickets. As we are considered to be locals, tickets were just 5LE per person + car. For tourists 5$ per person but from the 1st April will be 40LE.
My husband stayed around 10 more minutes discussing with the sales-man the situation, if someone comes to the area and so on. At the end we got some promotional booklets as being a Travel company.

We entered Nabq Protectorate and moved ahead, on the next check point we found some tourists on quads, having their Quad-biking adventure (http://www.sharm-club.com/quad_biking_sharm.htm), I thought about the same, to offer it to our guests, but later changed my mind. We moved deeper into the protectorate to discover nice places and beautiful beaches as I expected but I was really disappointed to see all that dirtiness, plastic pockets, trash and other things along the shore, and they call it PROTACTORATE! Ras Mohammed (http://www.sharm-club.com/ras.htm), if compare to Nabq is so clean and nice place to visit.

A group of bicyclists passed by us, they were coming back already :) Very good idea to explore the area on bicycles.

Mangroves

There is a nice, sandy beach in the beginning of the protectorate, but Bedouins or fishermen build huts along the shore and spoiled all the view as well as the beach, plastic pockets are everywhere. Than deeper inside the protectorate the cleaner the area in fact. As no one stays deep inside the area shore becomes cleaner and nicer to walk along, you can see some rare birds, such as osprey. I had an opportunity twice to take a close shot of the bird! but twice when i was ready to shoot it flew away. I took some pictures of them on the nest, there is a special area where some nests are equipped for the birds.
http://www.sharm-club.com/birds.htm

Maria Shroder ship wreck

Another interesting place of Nabq is a ship wreck of Maria Shroder, you can come very close to it to see the remains of the ship: "On 11 April 1956, while enroute from Aqaba, Jordan to West Germany, the ship ran aground on a reef at Nabq at position 28.10N/34.30E. Attempts to refloat the ship were unsuccessful and she was declared a total constructive loss." .
For Divers: The Wreck Today: The wreck of the Maria Schröder lies atop the reef approximately 100-meters offshore from what is now the Nabq Protactorate. Most of the ship is still above water with a debris trail located on the starboard side of ship which leads down to a depth of about 24 meters. At the base of the wreck in the surrounding coral there is a wide variety of aquatic life to be seen. The site is popular with bird-watchers and snorkelers and is on the tour route for local tourist agencies. Should you wish to visit it just book Tiran island boat trip from Sharm el Sheikh (http://www.sharm-club.com/tiran.htm)

Visitors center, view from the beach

Then we decided to visit Visitors center, my husband remember that when some years ago, around 5 years in fact, when he was used to come here as a guide, Visitors center was really an interesting place to come, to see its museum and to get some useful info. Now the center is abandoned, absolutely! We crossed the see or small lagoon to check the center and found abandoned building, I climbed up to see some panoramic views of the sea, saw some mangrove cannels ahead and the desert. 

Mangroves, how they grow

We continued after the Visitors center to another area of Mangroves,  my husband wanted to drive us as close to the trees as possible but when we moved along the shore and came close to the mud he noticed something strange … black spots started to move…. When I got out of the car and walked toward the trees I discovered that all the area, sand, mud… all is in halls, small crabs are living in the halls, but when we came closer they all disappeared. Later on we saw them again, we started to move with the car and saw from far away how black dots disappearing very fast, crabs were taking their claw away, hiding themselves down. Sometimes you can see it in Ras Mohammed as well, but not in SUCH quantity! Will be very interesting to put camera to take a video.

Spring, everything is blooming, even the desert!

On the way back we passed some nice plants blooming already in the middle of the desert. About flora of Egypt you can read on our site (http://www.sharm-club.com/flora.htm)

In general, it was a nice discovery, we saw something new but not virgin already as I expected, spoiled by people in fact, but if you are a bird watcher, then yes, it is a place to visit especially in the season you can find many birds there to watch. 

Fossil, I do believe, I found in the sea

Walk from Bab el Futuh to Bab el Nasser,
Babylon Fortress discovery &  Nilometre uncovered

Bab el Naser, old Cairo city gate

                                                                                                                                                       

Yesterday, before coming back to Sharm el Sheikh I decided to take Cairo city tour and to visit places I went before, around 5 years ago and see how they changed since that time. Honestly, they changed a lot, some to better some to worse, some lost their authentic atmosphere, became more touristic destinations then before. But let us start from the beginning.

In the morning as it was Friday, the city was really empty, so we could reach so many places just in a couple of hours. I took my hubby and daughter and we went to Khan el Khalili area, but this time I did not want to enter from the bazaar, I decided to take a tour from one Cairo city gate to another, exactly from Bab el Foutuh to Bab el Nasser via street called el Muaz el Din. The street is known for its Islamic monuments, old mosques and sabils, beautiful nobles houses. So we started from el Hakim mosque toward el Hosein area. The street now is clean and paved, became wider then some years ago when I was there last time. Now cars can pass by, so not that safe place to walk became, but still it is the place to be and to discover all those sabils, kuttabs and madrasas. Just to see the changes and take pictures as I lost my pictures archive recently, we spent one hour walking around.

Bab el Futuh, Old Cairo city Gate

Our next destination was Old Cairo, it is really close to Khan el Khalily area, so we took just 15 minutes to reach our next destination. The place surprised and amazed me at the same time, so many changes, and all to the better. Old Cairo is famous for its Christian monuments such as Hanging church el Mualaka, St George and St Barbara churches. Also you will find ancient synagogue there. But again, the aim was not the Christian monuments, the aim was more ancient place, fortress known as Babylon! I do believe you heard about it (remember the TV series Babylon 5? :)) At last I saw the ruins of this famous fortress, shame to me, I visited Old Cairo so many time but could not do a couple of steps to see the fortress.

The remains of Fort Babylon, Old Cairo, Egypt

And now the place arranged better with easier excess to the monuments than some years ago when I was there. There is a wide and cars free street along which you can easily walk and observe huge churches. Entrance to all churches here is free of charge and you will always find there Egyptian Copts, especially they are many on weekends. So, our goal was reached.

I took a lot of pictures and we moved to another very interesting location. I heard about the location, I read about the location, I even passed by the location but never entered! It was my mistake, to wait for so many years before I discovered the place, amazing place called Nilometre.

Nilometre, view from inside, from down

Nilometre is situated in a very distant place, not on touristic trap at all and is not that easily to be reached, we spend around 1 hour searching for it, even Google maps did not help us, we passed by so close, but still could not find the entrance! At last, after so many circles around Manial island, where the building is located we could manage to find the entrance to the place. To tell the truth, the time, wasted to reach the location worth every minute. Nilometre is amazing, very unique structure and deserves to be on touristic maps. I will just tell you that the structure was used to measure the Nile, to see if there will be flood or no. And the unique feature of the structure is that exactly here the 1^st time in Egypt Kufic script was used for inscriptions. Here are some pictures to get the idea.

On the way home, we passed by one more interesting structure, but pictures unfortunately are not that good as the structure is situated on a busy highway, so not that easy to take good picture. I am talking about Aqueduct. It was use to bring water to the Citadel of Salah el Din from the Nile. The structure remains is long enough and very well shown from many streets, you can pass by it easily, but again – not a touristic trap.

Aqueduct, to the right side

More pictures later on I will put in the album
in my Google + profile, do not miss it.

Marsa Alam Discovery

In February my family and I went to South of Egypt to discover new places for potential business. Our targeted destination was Marsa Alam, South od Egypt, 350 km far from Hurghada. We took it by road, from Sharm el Sheikh in one day, via Suez city, the 1st time I saw Suez canal from another side, very beautiful in fact, unfortunately I did not take any pictures, hope next time to have camera by my hand. So we moved in the early morning, passed Suez city, Hurghada, Safaga and then by evening reached Marsa Alam. We stopped for some days in a nice hotel Resta Resort. It is situated not in Marsa Alam exactly, but around 25 km far from it and just 1 km far from the International airport of Marsa Alam which we also explored and had even some problems with security there:) As we were really tired we left city exploration for the next day.

So in the morning after the breakfast we got in our jeep and forwarded to Marsa Alam city, honestly there is no city as we understand it and as we expected to see it. But we saw much more than just a "city", as so called Marsa Alam city is located around 20 km far from the hotel we stayed it took some time to reach the destination, and the area we passed by was really great. Not that many places in Egypt still have virgin nature, sandy empty beaches, long white sandy beaches and NO ONE around. Hotels there are located some km far from each other, so between them you still find long shore, you can stop any minute, get off your car and swim in the red sea, as it was February, we did not want to try that option as it was really cold and windy (for us, locals) but we saw several brave divers who did it :)In fact that were the only people we met on our way to Marsa Alam city. We reached the city fast enough but did not actually find anything in the city, some shops, some buildings, hotels along the shore, unfortunately all hotels were closed or unfinished, so no guests at all. The area in general reminds Sharm el Sheikh 10 years ago, when we just moved there: few hotels along the shore, long distance between them and no people and entertainments at all. There is still no development for the area, hope our new government will pay some attention to this great area with such potential for tourism. Now only brave and lazy tourists, who wants to relax and go nowhere just to the beach come to the area. But there is a big plus of the area! It is very warm there even in winter, as it is more to the south than Sharm el Sheikh, very close to Luxor and other Upper Egypt attractions.
There is a nice place worth mentioning called Port Ghibli, aimed more for Arab than European tourists. There area has some famous hotels inside, shopping promenade and artificial lagoon for yachts parking (sorry, do not really know how it's called in English exactly). So, if you have your own yacht you can come to Port Ghibli for holidays. There is also similar yacht parking in Taba Heights.
So, all in all, for now there is still nothing to do in Marsa Alam, just relax on a private beach of your hotel and no go around at least for the next 5-10 years. The nearest place (350 km far from the area) is Hurghada where you can have a lot of entertainments.