The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

With an ever-increasing Syrian population in Egypt, Cairo has witnessed a rise in the number of restaurants and fast food venues offering dishes from the Levant. Craving some authentic Syrian eats for breakfast, we headed over to Al Jinani, a restaurant in the Syrian district in 6^th of October city.

Taking a stroll right across from El Hussary Mosque, we entered said Syrian District a busy area boasting dozens of restaurants and fast food venues with typical Syrian choices on the menu, including shawerma, fattah and kebab halabi amongst others.    

At every corner of the district, there are grocery shops selling Syrian goods including cheese, nuts and olive oil, not to mention dozens of confectionaries offering Syrian desserts including Konafa Nabulsiya and Halwa Al Jibn.   

Like most of the restaurants in the district, Al Jinani has a simple outdoorsy setting on the sidewalk. We sat down to enjoy the sun and the cool morning breeze.

After the friendly waiter’s recommendation, we opted for a platter of regular Syrian foul (8LE), foul with milk (8LE), falafel (5LE), Tase’yee (10LE) and Mosabaha (7LE) – Syrian hummus – which were all served with a side of pickles.

Cooked with chickpeas, chopped tomatoes and drizzled with olive oil, our foul was quite flavourful with the garlic, parsley and lemon giving it just the right punch. The foul with milk had essentially the same ingredients as the regular foul, only with the addition of yoghurt and tehina and was even more flavourful than the first, with the tehina yoghurt twist perfectly complementing its components.   

Unlike the Egyptian version, Syrian falafel is made out of chickpeas instead of fava beans, which gave it a lighter green colour and it was hot, crunchy and as delicious as any you’ll find in Cairo. With a texture similar to the tehina paste, our Mosabaha made with chickpeas was light, creamy and overall quite enjoyable.    

The coup de grace, however, was the Tase’yee. Served with essentially the same ingredients we tasted in our foul – chickpeas, tomatoes, parsley and tehina –  but without the foul and with the addition of fried bread pieces and margarine on top; though it was quite heavy, it was by far the highlight of our breakfast and we couldn’t get enough of it.     

All in all, our breakfast experience at Al Jinani was quite delightful and as much as we think nothing can beat our good old Egyptian foul medames, we really enjoyed the distinctive Syrian flavours introduced in Al Jinani’s dishes. It’s an experience you’re likely to repeat more than once, especially if you’re a fan of Syrian cuisine.