Vocabulary

Learn New Words FAST with this Lesson’s Vocab Review List

Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.

Or sign up using Facebook
Already a Member?

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everyone! I’m Peryhan and this is the Arabic Top Words. Today, we’re going to talk about 10 Egyptian foods.
1.
بسبوسة
(basbūsah)
"Basbousa"
The first Egyptian food is -
بسبوسة
(basbūsah)
"Basbousa"
Basbousa is made of corn flour and then you put some sugar and nuts and then you put it in the oven and after that, you put honey and lemon on top of it and it’s really, really sweet. For a sentence, you can for example say -
النهاردة الحلو بسبوسة.
(elnahārdah el-ḥelū basbūsah.)
"Today's dessert is Basbusa."
2.
بيض بالبسطرمة
(beīḍ bel-basṭermah)
"eggs with pastrami"
The next word is -
بيض بالبسطرمة
(beīḍ bel-basṭermah)
"eggs with pastrami".
For example, you can say -
هنفطر بيض بالبسطرمة.
(hanefṭar beīḍ belbasṭermah.)
"We’ll have eggs with pastrami for breakfast."
3.
حلاوة طحينية
(ḥalāwah ṭeḥīneyyah)
"Halawa"
The next one is -
حلاوة طحينية
(ḥalāwah ṭeḥīneyyah)
"Halawa".
In Egypt, we usually use the word -
حلاوة
(ḥalāwah),
but the
طحينية
(ṭeḥīneyyah)
part is actually to address the type of
حلاوة
(ḥalāwah).
In the Middle East, we make
حلاوة
(ḥalāwah).
out of sesame paste. For example, you can say -
بحب الحلاوة الطحينية.
(baḥebb el-ḥalāwah el-ṭeḥīneyyah.)
"I like Halawa."
4.
حمام محشي
(ḥamām maḥšī)
"rice-stuffed pigeon"
The next word is -
حمام محشي
(ḥamām maḥšī)
"rice-stuffed pigeon".
For example, you can say -
هنتغدى حمام محشي.
(hanetġaddā ḥamām maḥšī.)
"We will eat rice-stuffed pigeon for lunch."
5.
شوربة عدس
(šūrbeẗ ʿads)
"lentil soup"
For example, you can say -
شوربة العدس بتدفي في الشتا.
(šūrbeẗ el-ʿads betdaffī fi el-šetā.)
“Lentil soup keeps you warm in winter.”
Lentil soup in Egypt is very traditional dish. You can eat it with bread. You can eat with rice and you can even eat with pasta, but mostly, we eat it with bread. You just cut the bread apart and you just put it on the soup and you stir a little bit and it’s so delicious.
6.
طاجن بامية
(ṭāgen bāmyah)
"okra tajin"
For example, you can say -
طاجن بامية لو سمحت.
(ṭāgen bāmyah law samaḥt.)
"Okra tajin, please."
I don’t know why, but nobody likes bāmyah, like, nobody likes okra especially children. When like a mom wants to punish her children and she cannot really do anything about it, she’s like okay, “For lunch I’m going to make you some okra.I’m going to make you some
بامية
(bāmyah)
and everyone is like no!
7.
فتة
(fattah)
"Fatteh"
The next one is -
فتة
(fattah)
which means “Fatteh”. It’s also a traditional Egyptian food.
For example, you can say -
في عيد الأضحى بناكل فتة.
(fī ‘īd el-’ aḍḥā benākol fattah.)
"In Eid al-adha, we eat fettah."
Fattah is a traditional dish we usually make specially for that day, for the Eid al-adha Day. It’s about this big and it's rice and on top of it there is bread and then some tomato sauce and then you put like huge, like big chunks of meat like this much one chunk of meat, like all around it. I don’t know. You just put lots of meat because it’s a meat feast.
8.
فول و طعمية
(fūl we ṭaʿmeyyah)
"foul and falafel"
Foul is foul beans and falafel is made of foul beans as well mixed with corn, some veggies,some green stuff, I dont know its name, and eggs and you mix them all in a blender and then you fry it. You just fry this foul bean paste. It's a traditional breakfast for Egyptians like usually for breakfast, they almost always have foul and falafel. But it's not good because it makes you get into food coma at 7:00 o’clock in the morning.
For example you can say-
هعزمك على فول و طعمية.
(haʿzemak ʿalā fūl we ṭaʿmeyyah.)
"I'll invite you to eat foul and falafel."
9.
كشري
(košarī)
"Koshari"
The next word is -
كشري
(košarī)
"Koshari".
Also, it’s one of the most famous traditional food and it’s very similar to Fattah except that it doesn’t have meat inside or it doesn’t have as much meat as Fattah does, but it’s also starting with a base like rice as a base and then some… oh yeah, rice as a base and then some fried bread and on top of it, there’s a tomato sauce, fried onion and some lentil and maybe minced meat as well, but I don’t know. I think the inexpensive one, the cheap one is without meat and the expensive one is with meat, but overall, it’s a very inexpensive meal. You can have it on the go.
For example, you can say -
الكشري من أكتر الأكلات اللي بحبها.
(el-košarī men ʾaktar el-ʾakalāt ellī baḥebbahā.)
"Koshary is one of my favorite foods."
10.
مسقعة
(mesaʾʾaʿah)
"Mesaqa'a"
The next word is
مسقعة
(mesaʾʾaʿah)
"Mesaqa'a"
It’s basically
طاجن
(ṭāgen),
but instead of
طاجن
(bāmyah),
instead of “okra”, we use eggplants also with minced meat and some tomato, tomato sauce and garlic and just like okra
طاجن
(ṭāgen),
mostly, children don’t like it and mostly served as a punishment. I really don’t like it.
For example, you can say -
المسقعة دسمة أوي.
(el-mesaʾʾaʿah dasemah ʾawī.)
"Mesaqa'a is very fatty."
That’s it for today. I hope you liked it. Why don’t you tell us in the comments below about your favorite traditional Egyptian food dish. Bye-bye!

Comments

Hide