Egyptian cuisine
Egyptian cuisine makes heavy use of legumes, vegetables and fruits since Egypt's rich Nile valley and delta produce large quantities of these crops in high quality.
History and characteristics
The history of Egyptian cuisine begins with Ancient Egypt. Archaeological excavations have revealed that workers on the Great Pyramids of Giza were paid in bread, and onions, apparently their diet as peasants in the Egyptian countryside. Dental analysis and the desiccated loaves occasionally found in excavated tombs confirm this, in addition to indicating that ancient Egyptian bread was made with flour from emmer wheat.
Bread
Bread made from a simple recipe forms the backbone of Egyptian cuisine. It is consumed at almost all Egyptian meals; a working-class or rural Egyptian meal might consist of little more than bread and beans.
The local bread is a form of hearty, thick, glutenous pita bread called Eish Masri or Eish Baladi or Baladee (Egyptian Arabic: عيش [ʕeːʃ]; Modern Standard Arabic: ʿayš) rather than the Arabic خبز ḫubz. The word "[ʕeːʃ]" comes from the Semitic root ع-ي-ش ʕ-Ī-Š with the meaning "to live, be alive." The word ʿayš itself has the meaning of "life, way of living...; livelihood, subsistence" in Modern Standard and Classical Arabic; folklore holds that this synonymity indicates the centrality of bread to Egyptian life. In modern Egypt, the government subsidizes bread, dating back to a Nasser-era policy. In 2008, a major food crisis caused ever-longer bread lines at government-subsidized bakeries where there would normally be none; occasional fights broke out over bread, leading to fear of rioting. Egyptian dissidents and outside observers of the former National Democratic Party regime frequently criticized the bread subsidy as an attempt to buy off the Egyptian urban working classes in order to encourage acceptance of the authoritarian system; nevertheless, the subsidy continued after the 2011 revolution.
