Kushari -- Egyptian Noodles

El Tahrir, a Kushari restaurant

Vivian and I fall into the broad bucket of Gen Y entitled yuppies-before-our-years, and into the more specific sub-segment of foodies; a generation of Americans who grew up in food-focused households, who never new a supermarket aisle without Arugala, and who view food as a past-time. Beyond the implications to my "bottom line", this also means that we talk about food fairly frequently. And one of our more common topics is the similar "food types" (the consultant in me wanted to write "food delivery platforms"), which appear in various world cuisines. Meat-on-a-stick is a common one (kebab, churrascaria, yang rou chuan, etc). Another great one is the meat-wrapped-in-bread (potsticker, empanada, piroghi, etc). America, despite its poor culinary reputation, is the only cuisine to produce a meal that falls into both of those two categories: the corn-dog (Hot dog on a stick, wrapped in bread. Or maybe wrapped in corn. Whatever, it's gross).

Another global phenomenon is... the noodle. Indigenous, perhaps, only to Italy and China, it is eaten all over the world in various forms. Today I found the Egyptian franchise: Kushari. It is often prosaically described as a mixture of chopped noodles, rice, beans, friend onions, and tomatoes, but that's kind of like describing a hamburger as a mixture of flour, yeast, raw beef, and vegetables.

A better description for the food is  "Egyptian Chilli", the aforementioned ingredients are layered together upon a wide bowl, to be mixed together by the diner, together generous pourings of chilli and garlic sauces. The result, actually, is a lot like chilli -- yet a lot easier to digest.

The dish is served in specialized ("verticalized?") eateries which serve nothing else. As I walked into this one, in downtown Cairo, the owner, from behind a table where he was counting receipts asked "Do you understand our menu?" I said I didn't, even though I knew it wouldn't be hard for him to explain.

"We only have Kushari, nothing else. It is 'Egyptian Chilli'. When the waiter comes, just tell him 'small, medium, or large.' He will understand. I nodded and passed upstairs to the dining room, where I found myself among a plain-looking set of Egyptians, taking a respite from whatever shopping or errands had brought them downtown on a weekend Friday.

My order was taken as promised, and the result was predictably excellent.

Update: I just met up with some friends for dinner. They picked the restaurant. Their choice: Kushari!