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Papua New GuineaFlavors · Egypt
Slow-cooked dried fava beans until tender, partly mashed and seasoned with oil, cumin, lemon and garlic. It’s the most common breakfast in Egypt, served with baladi bread in homes, small restaurants and street carts.
Traditional dish from Egypt
Also known as: Ful, Foul, Foul medames, Ful mudammas, Fūl medammis, فول مدمس
Illustrative images. The pictures in this guide are illustrations based on the real place, not photographs, and may differ from it.
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Ful medames — Egypt
Ful medames is made with small dried fava beans, slowly cooked until very tender. When served, the beans are partly mashed and seasoned with oil and cumin and, depending on the place, with lemon, garlic, parsley, tomato or chili. The texture is between a stew and a paste, and the bread is used to scoop the favas.
Egypt’s official tourism describes ful as the country’s most common breakfast, eaten with baladi bread. Writer Claudia Roden, born in Cairo, calls ful a national dish and notes that it is eaten at any time, in the countryside, in village homes and in cities. At the morning table it often appears alongside ta'ameya, another fava recipe.
In towns, ful is sold in small restaurants and from street carts that serve the dish or the sandwich in bread, with salad and tahini. The traditional cooking is long, over low heat.
Fava has been eaten in Egypt for a very long time, and the dish’s link to antiquity appears in several sources. The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan cites an Arabic proverb saying the fava “satisfied even the pharaohs” and considers it likely that the recipe dates to the dynastic period. Claudia Roden mentions a pre-Islamic dish also claimed by the Copts. These are scholars’ interpretations: the exact form of ancient ful is not known.
Egypt
The most common breakfast in Egypt, eaten throughout the country.
Small dried fava beans, oil, cumin and salt. Depending on the place: lemon, garlic, parsley, tomato or chili.
With baladi bread, used to scoop the favas, often alongside ta'ameya and salad. Also served as a sandwich in bread, with salad and tahini.
Mainly at breakfast, but it appears at any meal.
Your questions
Both are made from fava beans. Ful medames is a dish of cooked, seasoned favas eaten with bread; ta'ameya is a fried patty of ground favas with herbs — the Egyptian falafel.
Yes. The base is fava, oil and seasonings.
At home and in small restaurants and street carts, especially in the morning. It’s served on a plate with baladi bread or as a sandwich in bread.
Flavors of Egypt
Layers of toasted bread moistened with broth, rice and a garlic, vinegar and tomato sauce, topped with cooked meat. It’s the Eid al-Adha dish in Egypt and also appears at Coptic Easter and other family celebrations.
A multi-layered puff pastry made with samna, the clarified butter, baked until golden and crisp. It’s eaten plain, with honey, molasses or ashta, or with savory fillings; traditionally baked in clay ovens.
Young pigeon stuffed with rice or fireek (green wheat), with onion and giblets, cooked in broth and then roasted or grilled until the skin browns. A classic on Egyptian tables, it is usually served in pairs.
Round buttery cookie, dusted with powdered sugar, plain or filled with ajameya (honey and walnuts), dates, or pistachio. It’s the sweet of Eid al-Fitr, at the end of Ramadan, prepared at home or bought at bakeries and patisseries.
Rice, short pasta, lentils and chickpeas, topped with tomato sauce and crispy fried onions, served with garlic vinegar and a spicy sauce on the side. It is Egypt’s most popular everyday dish, sold in specialty shops and street carts, and was inscribed by UNESCO on the Intangible Cultural Heritage list in 2025.
Thick green soup made from very finely chopped jute leaves, cooked in broth and seasoned with toasted garlic and coriander. Served with rice or bread, often with chicken or rabbit, it is for many Egyptians the quintessential home dish.
Fried patty made from ground dried fava beans and herbs, crunchy on the outside and soft inside. It’s the Egyptian version of falafel and, together with ful medames, forms Egypt’s most common breakfast, often served in a baladi bread sandwich.
Beef liver cut into thin strips and quickly fried with garlic and bell pepper, seasoned with cumin and lemon. It’s named after Alexandria and is served as a sandwich on the city’s thin bread, with tahini.
A dark-red drink made from dried hibiscus calyces steeped in water, with a tart flavor, sweetened and served cold or hot. In the Aswan region, among the Nubians, it is the welcome drink offered to arriving guests.
