My name is Emily, and I’m a koshariholic.
It all started when I was living in Egypt, and excavating at the Great Pyramids. When you’re digging up the dead, you can really develop an appetite.
My koshari addiction started as all koshari addictions do–with the occasional koshari when walking through Tahrir Square, and at home for dinner a night here and there.
But gradually, my habit became so bad that I even ate koshari for breakfast (with my colleagues–I wasn’t alone) on the Giza Plateau–securing my morning fix from the backpacks of young kids selling it besides Khufu’s temple, as Re was rising in his blessed solar barque.
So what’s this stuff that’s had a hold on me for years?
Considered the food of peasants in Egypt, koshari is a mix of rice, lentils, pasta, chickpeas, garlic tomato sauce, and crispy fried onions (my favorite part). It’s a guaranteed (and delicious) overdose of carbs, and a real punch of protein.
Tonight in Beirut, I was having a serious koshari craving, and I was in luck–because a new koshari restaurant recently opened just five minutes from my house. These are some of the photos I took of the koshari–both undressed and dressed.
A few years ago, I volunteered to make koshari for like 70 people–and while it was a success (and insane), I’m just sticking to cooking koshari for a few friends these days.
But even my Egyptian friends have admitted–I make a mean koshari. I’m not sure what mystical alchemy occurs when I’m making it, but maybe it’s just my addiction that gives it that special taste. For a while, I thought of opening a koshari restaurant next to a college campus, and calling it “Voulez-vous koshari avec moi?”
To see koshari being prepared online, you can watch this video–and make your own koshari along with Magda. When my family followed this recipe this week, they produced their own killer koshari.
Photo by Robert O'Dell
Koshari is easy to make at home–and it’s also fun, because you get to throw rice, pasta, lentils, chickpeas–the works–into the same bowl. Koshari sure is krazy, and that’s just one reason why I love it.
