This is the little vegetable market where we like to do our week's shopping. Since there is a subway line that runs through Maadi, we have to cross over the tracks on an elevated ramp to get to this side of the neighborhood. There is about a one block span that feels a little rougher around the edges (more like the real Cairo), but then it transitions right back into fancy restaurants, tall apartment buildings, and cute boutiques.
Zach is locking up our bikes while we fill up on produce. On the way back, our baskets will be overflowing with fruits and veggies.
The vegetable purveyors are particularly proud of their displays. They are always friendly and I (Rachel) get to practice some basic Arabic. Nuss kilo is a half kilo; ruba kilo is a quarter. Berengen is eggplant and felfel is pepper. These eggplants are 4 LE/$0.80 per kilo, while the peppers above are 10 LE/kilo.
Zach is chowing down on kushari, Egypt's big thumbs down to the Atkins diet. This bowl is filled with rice and three different kinds of pasta (spaghetti, small tubes, and vermicelli). Then they sprinkle lentils, chickpeas and lots of friend onions on top, and give you a small personal bowl of spicy tomato sauce (empty here). Finally you can dress your kushari with vinegar (small pitcher) or oil with hot peppers soaking in it.
Here is a typical juice stand. You can tell which fruits are in season based on what's hanging from the bags. When we first arrived there were mangos and guava everywhere. Now it is pomegranate (called roma) and orange season. The big sign says Jewel of Maadi.
They press the pomegranate in halves just like an orange. It took three pomegranates to make this one glass of juice, which cost about $0.60. Anti-oxidant magic!
1 comment:
Just saw a great documentary about a newish theory on how the Great Pyramids were built. Instead of the traditional thought of a long external ramp, a French architect has brought up the idea (and with some interesting results; not conclusive, but interesting) of an internal ramp. I caught it on the National Geographic channel.
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