Egypt Street Food

Ancient staples turned into the country's most common street meal.

5 street food dishes from Egypt — what each one is, why it's made that way, and what to expect when you order it.

Signature street foods of Egypt

Pharaoh's Punch · Hibiscus Tea Karkade It's served two completely opposite ways depending on the season — steaming hot in winter and heavily iced in summer, from the very same dried… Karkade is a tart, ruby-red infusion made by steeping dried hibiscus calyces in hot water, then sweetening and either chilling or serving it warm. Street vendors and juice stands across… Main · Assembled Koshari (Rice, Lentils & Pasta) A whole meal made by combining three separate starches in one bowl. Rice, lentils, and macaroni layered together, topped with a spiced tomato sauce, chickpeas, and crispy fried onions, sold from dedicated koshari carts found on nearly every Cairo street. Breakfast · Stewed Ful Medames (Stewed Fava Beans) One of the oldest continuously eaten dishes in the world, dating back millennia. Slow-cooked fava beans mashed with olive oil, lemon, garlic, and cumin, scooped up with fresh bread — sold from carts with beans kept warm in large copper pots all morning. Stuffed Flatbread · Butcher-Stall Classic Hawawshi (حواوشي) It's named after the Cairo butcher, Ahmed al-Hawawshi, who is said to have invented it at his own stall in the 1970s — a street food with a… Hawawshi is Egyptian flatbread split and packed with spiced minced meat, onion, garlic, chili and herbs, then baked or grilled until the bread turns crackling-crisp and the filling cooks… Fried Snack · Breakfast Cart Ta'ameya (Egyptian Fava Bean Falafel) Egypt's fava-bean version predates the chickpea falafel eaten across the rest of the Middle East, which many food historians believe was adapted… Ta'ameya is made from skinned dried fava beans blended with fresh herbs, onion, and garlic rather than chickpeas, giving it a strikingly vivid green interior once fried. Cairo breakfast…

More street food in Africa

• Morocco
• Nigeria
• South Africa
• Ethiopia
• Kenya
• Ghana
• Senegal
• Tunisia
• Algeria
• Tanzania
• Uganda
• Zimbabwe
• Cameroon
• Ivory Coast
• Mali
• Rwanda
• Zambia
• Mozambique
• Sudan
• Libya
• DR Congo
• Somalia
• Madagascar
• Botswana
• Namibia