Merhaba sevgili okur.
Öncelikle; yeni kültürlere, tarihe, mistisizme meraklıysan, bu ay doğru yazıya geldin. Bu seriyi beğenirsen, devamını da severek getireceğimizi şimdiden belirtmek isterim. Bu yazıda yemekten inanca dair kültürel pek çok şey bulacaksın.
Ara verip dönmüşken, Ağustos ayını yepyeni bir şeyler deneyerek karşılamak iyi olur, diye düşündüm. Bir süredir ilgi duyduğum Mısır kültürüne, Mısırlı genç bir bireyin perspektifinden bakmak harika olur, diye düşündüm. Abdel Rahman ile, harika cevaplar aldığım, kısa ama çok şirin bir “soru-cevap” yaptık. Biz çok keyif aldık. Umarım sende ilgi ve keyifle okursun.
Başlamadan önce beni kırmadığı için kendisine çok teşekkür ederim. Shukran! 🙂
***
1-) What is your name, could you introduce yourself to us?
-My name is Abdel Rahman “El Che” (this one is for my “Mamma Mia” friends 😉
I’m a 26 years old male freshly-graduated doctor from Egypt, land of the Pyramids and the tastiest “Foul and Taa’meya” (AKA Falafel) in the whole world (yes you guessed it : I LOVE food! But my only taboo regarding food is “Pineapples on Pizza”. It’s a total no for me. Keeping it as Italian as it should be hahaha.)
I love classical music and my favourite composers are “Antonio Vivaldi” and “Mozart.”
I’m deeply into emotional soft instrumental music as well.
You could call me a history nerd as well.
2-) Tell us about your country, how is the daily life over there?
-Well, Egypt is known for its rich history, tasty food, heartwarming friendly people (they can turn out to be even overfriendly sometimes) and a daily life full of action (especially on the road: we tend to drive like a fast and furious movie).
You wake up and eat your routine Foul (special type of cooked beans) and Falafel breakfast along with cheese, local bread and some veggies, go to work while enjoying a nice music jam in the car by Amr Diab (check him), and in the weekends meet some friends after work in one of “Heliopolis” famous “Korba” (a famous district in Cairo) Cafés or maybe enjoy a nice movie night and have dinner in one of the cost-efficient restaurants overlooking the Nile river, or even enjoy a romantic night with your Life-Partner in one of Maadi’s cozy Bistros or restaurants.
If you want to take it a step further, then a fancy dinner by the Pyramids would be better 😉
Imagine having dinner while the Sphinx is guarding you… Magnificent, isn’t it?
While doing all that, you shouldn’t forget that you will have to have some mini-races and small fights with the microbuses’ drivers because hey, we’re in fast and furious mode while driving in Egypt, remember? Hahahaha
And of course if you’re into football, then “Al Ahly” playing means that almost 70% of Egypt is watching the game and cheering for the most successful club in the history of Africa. It’s like the Galatasaray or Besiktas in Turkey. We recently won the African champions league for the 10th time.
3-)When you think the World, which country is similar to yours? Why do you think so? (Extra question): What do the Egyptian people know-thing about Turks?
-I don’t think that we have too many similarities with other countries, but if I’ll have to choose then it’s definitely the mediterranean countries like Turkey, Greece, Italy, Spain and Syria/Lebanon and Palestine.
We all have common food and let’s not forget that we all like to speak loudly (people from other countries would think that we’re fighting, when we’re just having a quality time and enjoying the moment) and we all have strong body language, especially with our hands. Let’s not deny that hahahaha.
*Most if not all Egyptians love Turkish people!
We have SOOO MANY similarities and common traditions than we might think!
Even our languages are commonly influenced by each other.
Yes, of course a big part of it was due to colonialism, but these dark times are over and we have good relations as people of the two nations (even though politically the situation might not be that great).
If you ask any Egyptian, they would tell you that people of other Arab countries and Turks are the closest to us.
You’re always welcomed here in Egypt.
4-) Can you tell us something that most effects you about ancient Egypt history?
-I’m still fascinated that our ancestors were able to build such marvelous “out of this world” civilization.
I can’t express how I’m proud of our history as one of the oldest still remaining civilizations of the world: I mean the Pyramids, The Tempels in Luxor and Aswan, their scientific advances in astronomy, medicine, physics, geology, agriculture, diplomacy, military etc. in a time when all that was almost unthinkable and could’ve been considered a fantasy.
That’s a sentiment of pride that I carry every day as an Egyptian and it affects me by giving me the strength to ALWAYS keep moving forward.
5-)Do the Egyptians have any beliefs that they have been carrying out since the time of Pharaoh?
-Yes we actually do !
The “blue” colour was considered a sacred colour by the Pharoes.
We’re still actually using this colour for objects that we can hang for example in the car or in our houses to push away the “evil eye”.
It’s more an ancient tradition than a true belief.
6-)Do you think that you have any ”extraordinary” tradition in your country?
-Another old Egyptian tradition is eating EXTEMELY salted fish with green onions during what we call “Sham El Nesim”: it’s like our own version of “Easter” which is celebrated once per year, and it’s even better since it dates back to 3000-4000 years BC.
It’s an old Egyptian tradition living up to this day.
AND this would eventually be our “extraordinary tradition” hahahaha.
And I quote: “Whatever extremely salted fish that doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger and…THIRSTY “.
7-)Could you give us your “favorite traditonal food” recipe shortly?
-One of my favourite traditional Egyptian food is “Koshari”:
You need pasta, rice, lentils and lattice.
You cook all of them then mix them in one bowl.
Then prepare your red sauce which is mixture of tomatoes, lemon juice, salt, pepper, vinegar.
The sauce is cooked and left until it gets thicker, then added over the rice/pasta/lentils/latrice mixture along with a mixutre of vinegar, lime and garlic.
And then you finish this AWESOME recipe with carmalised crispy onions on top along with spicy chilli flakes. YUMMY!
8-)What do you think the most important thing that “being Egyptian and having Egypt traditions” contribute to your life?
-If I could summarise that in two words it would be:
Resistance and Strive for Glory!
Resist because we’ve been always resisting against invaders all through our history and we always get our freedom at the end because freedom is like air for us.
And “strive for glory” because we’ve known glorious moments throughout our history: not only in the times of the pharoes, but in the plotemic, islamic, post-Rennaissance and modern phases as well.
We’re just like the “Mo Salah” in Liverpool: We keep running and never stop until we score the goal…
NOTE: All questions in this Q&A are sincerely answered and this article is the work of two people; Thank you Abdel Rahman for your contributions 🙂
See you in September/Eylül’de görüşürüz!
DİLEMMA 