Emily Goes Baladi

May 17, 2006

Emily has been slowly discovering the food here in Egypt.. and one of the more surprising discoveries is that she likes the more "country" foods better than the expensive stuff. The nicer restaurants set out white bread rolls.. and Emily turns up her nose. But give her some good cheap (and whole wheat) peasant bread and she is happy.

So today after our morning seeing ancient Egyptian ruins, we decided that it was time to stock up on some bread.. and we get into a taxi and I instruct the driver to help us find some "aish baladi".. that is, "country bread." So we get a ride to the open market, where a group of countryish women.. wearing their head scarves.. sat presiding over a big pile of fresh country bread. We rolled down the window and asked to see some of that stuff. A young girl brought over a loaf of it and handed it through the window.. like an illicit drug deal. The bread got into Emily's hands and she pinched a side of the bread to test its whole wheat value.. It was deemed good, and we took four large round loaves of the stuff.

The taxi brought us to our hotel, and we had to walk a bit. Emily carried her piled up loaves in front of her. Several Egyptians (who work in shops next to the hotel) commented on the bread.. and then we had to walk through the busy hotel lobby, where more people got to see this American girl who obviously liked good country bread. And in the mornings, Emily ignores all the nice European white breads set out for our breakfast buffet, and eats a big piece of her country bread.

[short addendum: The next day as we stopped at a restaurant next door to our hotel, the young man gave us a seat looked at Emily and said: "Are you the woman with the bread yesterday?" So we figure the news has gotten around about her tastes.]