Food

If you’re not a stickler for taste and sanitation, you’ll need but 25pt to fill your stomach in Cairo on fuul and falafel (ta’amiya). Pizza-sryle/aftr, with vegetables and meats piled on top and stuffed inside, is far tastier than the imitations of Italian pizza in town and, at LF.5-10, usually much cheaper. Kushari, a mixture of rice, noodles, and toppings, will set you back about LEI.50. Even at more expensive restaurants, you can create a handsome meal out of fyummus, tahina, baba ghanoush, and salad for under LE5.

To track down these delicacies, just look in shop windows: pUes of rice and macaroni betray a kushan house; falafel,/«w/, and other treats pose seductively for the famished tourist on counters and street stands. Wash it all down with exhilarating fruit juices, on offer anywhere you see bags of fruit hanging around a storefront. Orange juice costs about LEI; more exotic fruits retail at LE1.25 or so. At gastrocenters that do not have waiters, pay first and then exchange your receipt for Ibod. There is a 5% tax on everything and a 10-12% service charge in sit-down restaurants, always included in the bill.