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Sandwich · Spiced Offal

Kebda Eskandarani (Alexandrian Liver)

Kebda Eskandarani (Alexandrian Liver) — street food from Alexandria, Egypt
Photo: Turnopoems / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Local lore credits its invention to a single Alexandria sandwich cart parked outside the city's main train station as far back as 1825.

Chopped beef or veal liver is flash-seared with garlic, green chili, cumin, and bell pepper until just cooked through, then piled hot into a soft eish feeno roll with the garlicky pan oil spooned over the top. Alexandria's liver-sandwich stalls sear it in full view, plate by plate, for a constant line of standing customers.

Why it's made this way: It grew out of Alexandria's port-city butcher trade, where offal was cheap and plentiful, and the sandwich became the city's signature answer to Cairo's meatier street foods.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries. Something wrong here? Tell us in the comments below. Photo credits.