Stuffed Pigeon Dinner

Wherever we have travelled in Egypt, we have seen standalone pigeon houses, or dovecotes. They are constructed from mud brick and are supposed to resemble the rocky ledges and crevices in which the birds like to roost, nest, mate, and rear their young in the wild. Actually to me, they just look like big pine cones sitting in farmers’ fields.

Egyptians have been eating pigeon, a popular delicacy since 3000 BCE, and continue to do so even today. Hamam Mahshi is pigeon stuffed with rice and onions and spiced with nutmeg, cumin and coriander. Actually the 6 week old birds in Egypt are stuffed with a interesting grain called freekeh, not rice, which is a cracked green wheat that has a unique flavour, almost nutty. The pigeon is then fried or grilled and served. Sounds tasty as long as the pigeon is healthy and has some meat on its bones.

We have been saving eating this delicacy for our last night in Egypt, and tonight’s the night!

We have been advised on numerous occasions, to eat this meal at a Cairo hole in the wall restaurant called Gomhorea that is known for its pigeon dish and is close to our hostel. An alternative place would be at the Kababgy El Azhar Farahat restaurant.

Well, we did find the place by looking at Goggle Maps but we never would have found it on our own as It’s sign is in Arabic. Of course, the place was packed and everyone stared and smiled at us as we entered as we were the only non Arabic people in the place. It was really a hole in the wall type of place. In fact, the waiters entered the eating area through a low hole in the wall. Lol.

We got a mug of pigeon broth to start and then we had to wait and wait, and wait before we could even order. Maybe, they had run out of pigeons? We watched how other people were eating their bird and then going to a big sink to wash their hands and faces. Finally, a waiter took our order - one grilled pigeon with rice and one beef plate. A salad of tomatoes, cucumbers, onions and cilantro came with pickles, pita bread and dips. And we waited some more. Resident street cats wandered in and out looking for tidbits. And we waited some more.

Finally, a little tiny pigeon came and a good amount of braised beef. It was really hard to find the meat on the pigeon but the few bites that we had were good. The rice was excellent and so was the beef.

We now understood why people lined up to wash their hands and face. We were only given a fork and spoon and noticed that other people were eating the pigeon with their hands. A knife would have been useless.

We were a little underwhelmed by the dinner but, while in Egypt, we had to give it a try. It was another new experience for us.

I also want to add a little note about some of the tasty drinks that we had here.

The first one is Karkade, a hibiscus-flower infusion with a lovely ruby color and can be served cold or hot. Mexico has a similar drink called, jamaica. The dried hibiscus flowers in Egypt come from Aswan. By the way, Karkade is known for lowering high blood pressure.

A second drink is called Sahleb. It is a warm milk-based beverage that we had in Luxor that is topped with chopped nuts and raisins and is better than a dessert. It is made from the ground roots of an orchid plant. Sahleb has several healing qualities and is said to help with heartburn and indigestion.

The limeade here is even better than Mexico’s limonada. I am surprised that I could even say that as we love this drink in Mexico.

We have enjoyed the food and drinks in Egypt as there is a lot of choice and food is always served very hot and well cooked. We have heard of people who have had Egyptian Tummy issues but we were fortunate not to have had this I. The month that we were there. Was it the Dukoral or due to the fact that we were careful by drinking bottled water and avoiding raw foods unless we bought and washed them ourselves? Czytaj więcej