I first set foot in Africa in this country in 2007. I had a suspicion that the Egyptian pyramids would be a great disappointment, because for such landmarks that we have seen many times we have formed idealistic ideas and often there is a discrepancy with reality. Alas, to my delight, this did not happen in the least. Moreover, I was enchanted by history and the monuments left over from the time of the great civilization of the pharaohs.
In the interest of truth, I was most impressed by the Valley of the Kings and the temple at Karnak. There are so many hieroglyphs, columns, sphinxes in one place nowhere in the world. Before I went to Egypt, I had read a lot about the pharaohs, their dynasties, the greatest of them. I had watched a lot of popular science movies. Even from memories just before we left, there was a National Geographic series about Egyptian history. I was prepared factually for this trip, but not emotionally. I did not believe that I would be so impressed by the antiquity around me. It’s true that I’ve been traveling a lot more since then, but I still think that going now will make me feel like I’m in a movie with Indiana Jones. 😀 I have never felt a more scorching heat anywhere than it was in the Valley of the Kings, nothing trembles in the air, there is no memory of a breeze, and around – a desert. As far as the eye can see. When we arrived, I was disappointed that we would only enter three tombs with the tickets we had. After an hour, I was grateful that there were only three. I would probably die of heat stroke if there were more. The tombs are empty. There are only paintings on the walls. Marauders have existed since ancient times, they still exist today. Therefore, it is difficult to find an intact tomb like that of Tutankhamun. Most were stolen in antiquity. If something is saved somewhere, it has not been found yet. 🙂
The temple at Karnak is the largest open temple with a colonnade in the world today. I have never seen so many tourists in one place – the crowd is like the Nile in its freshet. Each group has a guide who holds an item high and this way you can find out where your people are. If you get loss about something that has impressed you around, there is a real chance that you will not be able to find your band. It’s very crazy. Even in Jerusalem, I didn’t feel as crowded as Karnak. Before entering the temple complex you pass along an alley on which sphinxes with ram’s heads are placed on both sides. Many of them lack heads. This mutilation of statues all over Egypt made me very sad. Any conqueror who passed by here plundered ugly, and when he could not steal the whole statue he took only the head only or only the precious stones which were the eyes. Terrible picture. There is an interesting place in the complex where you can do a certain ritual to make wishes come true. 🙂 There is a huge scarab that you have to go around 7 times in a counterclockwise direction and your wish will come true. There was no way I couldn’t go around it. 🙂 My wish came true. 😉
The other place that left me speechless was the museum in Cairo. We only had three hours to look inside the exhibits and the building itself is not the biggest, but what treasures it hides… In fact, it takes almost an hour to see the treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb – to line up in front of a specially air-conditioned room and enjoy of the beautifully preserved parts of the sarcophagus of the young pharaoh. Apart from this top attraction, there is an overflow of objects – statues, jewelry, vessels, parts of ancient vehicles, preserved mummies of people and animals… Honestly, my head was dizzy, I was like a child in a pastry shop and I did not want to leave this place. I could wander all day and soak up all the beauty around. And how much history there is in each small object, how many secrets he hides, how many events he has experienced.
The pyramids are for dessert in our program. As I began my story – I was impressed and not in the least disappointed. They are impressive – with their size, with their grandeur, with their antiquity. The only surviving ancient miracle of the 7. A man with a height of 175-180 cm looks insignificant to a stone of the whole structure. Only up to one. And when you think about how it’s all built, you feel even more respect for the people who built it. And her view is magical, mystical and on the verge of the unreal. A unique feeling that I will remember for a lifetime. In my provisional ranking of places visited, only Machu Picchu is ahead of Egypt. But let me stop here with the story. You will get bored because the post is getting long and I haven’t started talking about food. 🙂 So I will allow myself only one piece of advice – do not leave this world before you have been to Egypt. You will miss something amazing as an experience.
Now for the food – I didn’t like it at all. Not to mention that I was almost constantly hungry. Thus praised saffron is in almost every dish, felt in the air, felt on the palate… There I literally hated it, although it is considered a very special and expensive spice. I didn’t buy one for home, but I bring something from almost every place I go. I just didn’t endure it in the end. The kitchen is strangely forged. Seafood is not used, a lot of goat and sheep are eaten, and I don’t like these meats. There are also foods like chicken with rice – you say boring, but I will rent another surprise – it is seasoned with cinnamon. I love cinnamon, but in desserts. Or, if it is present in the dishes, it should simply be imperceptible in aroma and taste, and not take over my dish. One of the top starters is lamb testicles, which are eaten with bread. In Egypt, a lot of bread is eaten, which is mainly wheat. There are three harvests a year in the country and practically no fruits and vegetables are canned. I was especially shocked when the neighbors of our five-star hotel raised goats and cows on the roofs of their houses in the metropolis of Cairo. 😮 At first you are shocked, but on the second day you get used to it, because that’s how it is – beautiful hotels and houses along the Nile alternate with dilapidated and unfinished houses, which betray the extreme poverty of its inhabitants. Sad was the Egypt I saw, very poor. Years after I went, events happened that made me think that things were even worse now than they were then…
During the time of the pharaohs in Egypt, beer was the national currency. This is the oldest and most consumed alcoholic beverage in the world. It probably appeared in the middle of the 10th millennium BC. in Ancient Egypt. After the Arab invasion, beer consumption was no longer respected. Currently, tea is the national drink in Egypt, and even coffee can not compete with it. In Egypt, tea is called “shay”. The teas packaged and sold in Egypt are almost entirely imported from Kenya and Sri Lanka. Egyptian tea is available in 2 varieties: Koshary and Saiidi. Koshary is popular in Lower Egypt, being prepared by the traditional method of brewing black tea in boiled water. It is almost always sweetened with cane sugar and is often flavored with fresh mint leaves. The addition of milk is also common. Saiidi tea is common in Upper Egypt. It is prepared by boiling, for 5 minutes, on high heat. Saiidi is an extremely strong tea, with the approximate amount for one cup being 2 teaspoons. It is also sweetened with a generous amount of cane sugar (as it is a very bitter tea). When prepared, it has a very deep black color. Another particularly popular tea is Hibiscus. Even I bought one from there. 🙂
Desserts in Egypt are rather derivatives of baklava. And the cake I chose to make is no exception. It’s called “Egyptian Lenza”, and here are the necessary products:
For cake base:
1 1/2 tea cups of flour
1 tea cup coconut
200 grams of butter
1 tea cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
vanilla
pinch of salt
For the filling:
2 tea cups fresh milk
4 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cream
For syruping:
1 tea cup sugar
1 tea cup water
peel of one lemon (if you have)
Steps of preparation:
We start with the filling. Mix all the ingredients in a saucepan and put them on the stove at medium heat. Stir constantly with a whisk until the cream thickens. Remove from the heat and place foil on top for fresh storage so that it does not catch the crust while it cools.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Beat the butter and powdered sugar into a fluffy cream. Add the eggs one by one and after each beat until the mixture is homogeneous. Mix the dry ingredients and add them. Mix well with a stirrer, but not too vigorously.
Grease a pie pan with oil. Separate about 2/3 of the mixture or more to make the base of the cake. The mixture is quite sticky, so wet your hands and shape the base. You will even have to wet them a few times because it sticks a lot.
Pour the cooled filling, being careful to keep it under the edge of the base so that it does not burn during baking.
Fill a bag with the rest of the mixture for the base and spray diamonds or lines on the cake. Whatever you like and how much the mixture is enough for you.
Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven to cool well. Meanwhile, prepare the sugar syrup. It should not become too thick.
Arrange strawberries / raspberries / cocktail cherries on the cake. According to the original recipe are cocktail cherries. I couldn’t find it and decided to use strawberries as there are plenty of them now. Spread the syrup with a brush, spreading the fruit for shine. Finally, you can garnish with ground pistachios.
The cake is very tasty and with a balanced sweetness. It is light and airy. Great dessert when you lie down on a hammock in the yard, the grass around you is green with the most beautiful spring green I love, and the sun is smiling through the treetops. 🙂 But even if you are in another place and under other conditions, do it again, because it takes little time and effort, and the pleasure is great. Go to Egypt. Take a cruise on the Nile to enjoy a centuries-old history. Or just dive into the Red Sea, where corals and colorful fish are beautiful, and the water is a shade of blue like I’ve never seen anywhere else. Believe me, this place is worth a visit. 🙂
Next destination – Ecuador.
