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

One of the perks of the quarantine is being able to pick up a neglected hobby, or even better, discover a new one. From arts and crafts and gardening to cooking, several local brands are offering you a DIY edition of their products, to keep your hands busy and your mind clear.

Mashtal:

Mashtal provides you and your family with The Family Kit: a massive kit that includes five different seasonal seeds, soil, several pots and planters, a sprayer, and a trowel. The original price of The Family Kit was 972LE, but it’s now on sale, costing 570LE. Check the kit here, or visit their website and Instagram account.

Art Café Egypt:

Art Café Egypt is known as the ultimate go-to venue for anything related to arts and crafts, so it’s no wonder that the place is providing a variety of quarantine-friendly art kits that will help you find the Picasso within.

The brand’s range of kits includes the Decoupage, and Dot art kits (120LE each), Corona Precaution Kit (150LE), Creativity Kit (200LE), Ramada Decoupage Kit (220LE), and Candle Making Kit (250LE). Add to the price a delivery fee of 40LE for Maadi, and 90LE for anywhere else in Cairo.

Place your order through Facebook, and check Art Café Egypt’s website and Instagram account.

Earth Gallery:

Earth Gallery offers four different DIY kits that cater to all artistic tastes; Accessories, Wall Clock, Dream Catcher, and Tote Bag DIY Kits. While prices are a mystery that you can solve with a private message on Facebook or Instagram, we were able to get our hands on the costs for the Wall Clock and Tote Bag DIY Kits, which are 280LE, and 220LE, respectively.

Markazzy:

Online hardware store, Markazzy, offers a kit called the Countertop Bundle, with which you can create a DIY countertop. The bundle is 320LE, which includes a kilo of epoxy resin, two mica powder colours of your choice, wood boards, wood popsicle sticks, and a digital gram scale. Check and order the bundle here, and watch the how-to here.

Vinny’s Pizzeria:

Who hasn’t tried making their own pizza and, like us, failed miserably,? Well, now you can master pizza-making with Vinny’s Pizzeria Make Your Own Pizza Kit (95LE), which, includes three dough balls, sauce, cheese, and pepperoni.

The kit makes two pizzas (one extra dough ball for practice), and other ingredients are available upon request. You can order here – but a word of warning: it seems like everybody is ordering at the same time, that’s why the link might not work.

TBS:

The Bakery Shop – AKA TBS – offers you the chance to create your own edible piece of art with the Colour Your Own Doughnut Kit, which includes four coloured frostings, and two cups of sprinkles, in addition to 4 doughnuts. The kit costs 95LE, and you can order it by calling 16679.

The Batter Half & Co:

The pastry shop offers all cookie monsters in town a couple of Cookie Making  Kits; the small one (200LE) includes cookie dough in two flavours (chocolatechip, and vanilla), four cookie cutters, and two cupa of sprinkles. This kit makes around 20 cookies.

The large one (375LE)includes cookie dough in 3 flavours (chocolate chip, vanilla, and chocolate), 12 cookie cutters, rolling pin, and 3 cups of sprinkles. This kit makes around a batch of 35 cookies per flavour.

The Batter Half delivers, call on 01024488878 (Zamalek), 01145944144 (New Cairo), and  01024577722 (October City).