Layered Pastry · Bakery Stall
Feteer Meshaltet
Photo: Turnopoems / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Some food historians trace its flaky, folded technique as a forerunner of the croissant, carried to Europe via the Mamluk era.
Feteer meshaltet is a pastry of paper-thin dough layers brushed with ghee, stretched by hand, then folded and baked until it puffs into dozens of crisp, buttery sheets. Cairo's feteer shops, many clustered near Khan el-Khalili, serve it split open and filled either savory — with minced meat, cheese, or egg — or sweet, with honey, nuts, and cream.
Why it's made this way: The layering technique is said to date back to the pharaonic era, when flatbreads were offered to the gods in temples, making feteer one of the country's oldest surviving street bakes.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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