The Old Egyptian Village Restaurant

Without knowing it, we stumbled upon an absolute gem of a restaurant that became one of our most treasured memories from our month in Egypt. I read about The Old Egyptian Village Restaurant on the internet but it wasn’t clear to me exactly what kind of place it was. The name implied that it was a restaurant, but the reviews hinted at it being much more than a restaurant.

I found a phone number on Tripadvisor and contacted the owner Mohammed on Whatsapp. He said we were welcome anytime so I made a reservation for the following day. We were planning to go for lunch so Mohammed asked us to come a few hours in advance to help cook. Did someone say “Help cook?” I knew my kids would be totally down for that.

To reach the Old Egyptian Village Restaurant, we had to drive through some very narrow village dirt roads lined by local dwellings and shops. To me, they didn’t seem to be wide enough for vehicles. The driver in the local van that we were in expertly maneuvered through the neighborhoods that were bustling with life – women buying things from a shop, men talking on the side of the road, children playing and the call to prayer in the background.

The place was a little difficult to find. It was somewhere inside the labyrinth of narrow roads so Mohammed drove his motorcycle out to personally escort us to the front door. When we arrived, we were warmly greeted by Mohammed’s brother who was waiting to welcome us. He brought us into a shady courtyard with tables on one side, a clay oven in one corner and a long row of cushioned seating along the back. We felt like we had been invited into the courtyard of a traditional Egyptian home. And indeed, this was Mohammed’s family home. Mohammed introduced his brothers and extended family who worked in the restaurant. He referred to all of the men as his brothers.

Mohammed’s vision for the restaurant is to give visitors an authentic Egyptian experience with real Egyptians in an actual family home, learning to prepare fresh and healthy authentic Egyptian food. Most tourists come to Egypt to learn about the ancient history and visit the archaeological sites and museums. Apart from the hotel staff, the local guides and the shop vendors, I wonder how many Egyptians a typical tourist will actually encounter.

During our time in Egypt, there were certain practices that my family found difficult to get used to. In particular, the overt expectation and demand for tips was something that made my family oftentimes feel uncomfortable. Everybody, it seemed, demanded tips for doing anything and everything. What we thought were acts of hospitality or kindness turned out to be ways to demand a tip. I don’t know if it is part of the culture or a habit that developed in interactions with tourists. I believe that Egyptians are hospitable, kind and generous people and we felt that sincerity from Mohammed and his family.

As the kids explored the courtyard, Mohammed served us water in hand-made clay bottles that naturally “sweat”. Leo used a larger version of this kind of clay water pot when he lived in Mali. It is a natural way to keep water cool because the clay is naturally porous and the water continuously evaporates through the tiny holes in the clay. Through the evaporation process, heat is lost from the water inside the pot, lowering the temperature of the water.

Mohammed’s brother pulled some piping hot sweet potatoes out of the clay oven. I could tell they were sweet because the flesh was soft with natural sticky syrup oozing out from cracks in the skin. Mohammed then offered us karkade, or hibiscus tea. The bright red drink is made from the hibiscus flower that is grown right in their garden. It has a naturally tart flavor and can be enjoyed cold or hot. It is believed to have many health benefits like lowering blood pressure, promoting liver health and stabilizing liver function due to its natural antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. When Leo lived in Mali, he drank hibiscus tea every day and turned it into “kool-aid” by adding sugar.

Before we began cooking lunch, Mohammed showed us the old-fashioned hand-operated stone grinding mill. In the “olden days”, wheat was placed between the two grinding stones to produce flour that could be used for baking bread. In the modern times, families typically just buy flour if they will bake their own bread or buy ready-to-eat pita.

Now it was time to begin cooking lunch. Mohammed’s brother who had been keeping the oven hot with small twigs taught us how to bake a kind of Egyptian flat bread. The only ingredients we used were flour, water and salt. This bread was different from the pita that we baked in Fayoum because it was rolled out to a large size and folded over many times to produce a layered effect. This was supposed to make the bread less tough. We made one plain version of the bread and another buttered version for which we used melted fresh butter that was just made that morning.

While AY and EY were busy making the bread, RY and DY were recruited to help out in the kitchen. All of the vegetables were fresh from Mohammed’s family farm. He emphasized the importance of eating fresh vegetables and meat, instead of packaged or processed food. He believes that home cooking is always superior, both health and taste-wise, to eating out. I tend to agree with him. RY helped cut all of the fresh veggies and herbs that were needed for the dishes and prepared two kinds of tagine, beef and vegetable, on the simple gas burners. DY was tasked with preparing the Egyptian salad (tomato, cucumbers, bell peppers and herbs) and baba ghanouj by combining the eggplants that were baked in the clay oven with tahina, garlic and herbs. In addition to the mezze and beef and vegetable tagines, we had several meat dishes – chicken grilled over charcoal, stuffed pigeons and stuffed chicken.

At one point, the wife of one of the relatives came to the courtyard with her newborn baby to find her husband. It felt like a blessing to see the new mother and her 20-day old baby. Every time I see a baby, I love looking at it and try hard to remember what it felt like to be the mother of a tiny new life.

As we were busy preparing the food, the bread baker’s children came home from school. He has two daughters and a son. They were curious about us as our children were curious about them. They looked at each other and probably would have played together if there was a bit more time.

The food was ready so all of the delicious food that we had prepared together was brought to the table. It was a table of bounty, of cooperation and a celebration of family. After we stuffed our bellies, we still had many boxes of leftovers to bring home.

I could see that Mohammed had a vision to build something sincere and good that is rooted in the Egyptian culture. Spending time with Mohammed and his extended family and seeing how a local Luxor family lived and made a living was a refreshing departure from the commercial tourist track. It was a good reminder that the legacy of a civilization is shaped by many individuals with goals and dreams of their own.