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

Ramadan Kareem Dish of the Week and Cairo360 readers! Another week, another dish of the week! This week’s mood is all about trying to turn frowns upside down. We’re just getting used to Ramadan and all the inevitable tiredness that comes along with it. Of course, we all love the festive holy month, but one cannot deny that fasting and long commutes don’t get along well with this unstable weather we’ve been witnessing for the past week. Because this week is all about trying to reach that light at the end of the tunnel, we thought what better way to embody that mood than with everyone’s all-time favourite side dish, sambousak.

Also, to shed light on every year’s linguistic debate, it’s definitely sambousak, not sambousa—and that’s that! Even though many people tend to highlight its Indian origin, samosa, this deep-fried triangle of goodness that some people think belonged to India, is actually a delicious and well-travelled immigrant. From tales of merchants and migrated Middle Eastern chefs to accounts of Ibn Batuta and Persian heritage, they all refer to this crowd pleaser’s royalty flavour profiles. Honestly, no matter what sambousak’s origin is, we are all quite happy that it made it to our modern-day Ramadan table. 

Now that you’re caught up with this dish’s eventful history, let’s talk a little about how it’s made. It is essentially a small filo pastry filled with either meat or cheese, fried in hot oil. However, each country, especially in the Middle East, has its own take on the fillings. In Egypt, we tend to stick to our good old cheese with mint or the less-favoured meat filling. But of course, other countries vary their fillings, from mashed potato and peas to feta cheese and onions. 

Sambousak is one of those dishes you can never really go wrong with; even when the whole meal is pretty mediocre, sambousak always tastes so good. And just when it seems like everything during the working week went wrong, just like the weekend, sambousak is always around the corner to give you comfort and a glimpse of hope. So, it’s safe to say that even though this week hasn’t been the best, the weekend just arrived, and we are all ready to kick back, relax, and perhaps enjoy a few cheesy crunchy sambousak. 

So, how did your week go by?