I was about to post about the lack of culinary feats in Egypt, but then Abu Tarek served up some delicious fare.
In the second floor of the rapidly expanding eatery and established Egyptian diner, Eleonora explained the traditional process when our 10 EGP or $1.5 meal came in one steaming plate, three small dishes and two bottles of sauce.
The base of koshary – or mix in Arabic – reminded me of college food. Macaroni bits, spaghetti noodles and rice with a pile of lentils on top. Find the small plate of deep-friend onions to begin building on this carb-heavy base. Squeezing a small Egyptian lemon, really a miniature lime, on the chickpeas, then you upend the golden kernels onto the main dish. Pour half the tomato sauce on the rising pile of food, and add vinegar to the remaining sauce before dumping it on top of your now assembled koshary. One last step though: swirl it all together and carefully drip red chile sauce to kick it up a notch.
Definitely a gut buster, but this vegetarian dish had me sold instantly.
