As Mohamed always says, "Glorious Food!!!"

In all the time that I have spent in Egypt, I have come to love a variety of certain foods. Rice, plums, Egyptian bread, guava juice, and Egyptian “Cheese & Spices” Doritos are among some of my favorites. However, I must admit that while I greatly enjoy the food which each day provides, there are still times when I miss certain foods from America. A few nights ago, when attempting to shop for new types of foods, Mohamed and I made a trip to a small grocery store that I have mentioned before called Metro. We made a deal that if I would choose the food that I actually would enjoy consuming, then I could use one hundred pounds to do so and have free reign of the store. Before I continue onto my choices of food, perhaps it should be noted that because I am such an indecisive person when it comes to choosing things such as food, I spend roughly three or four hours in Wal-Mart trying only to fill one hand basket, and though the size of Metro and Wal-Mart cannot be compared on any measure, we did spend more than one hour staring at the items on each shelf until we were both sure we had memorized Metro’s inventory list.

On a hidden isle near the rice and vegetables, we came across the Egyptian version of Ramen noodles. I told Mohamed that if he would buy some of the packages then he would be saving my life. Seconds later the basket was loaded with packages of two different brands of Egyptian Ramen noodles. One brand is called Indomie Instant Noodles and the other is called Jenan Instant Noodles. Both were only 1.25 pounds per package ($0.25 USD). I believe that Jenan is actually the better choice, as the flavor seems to be more pronounced, though we took the only two packages of Jenan that we saw on the shelf. The other brand comes with four packages of flavoring inside, soy sauce, chili powder, seasoning, and oil with spices. The instructions of course say to use all four packages, though I chose to avoid the chili powder and the soy sauce.

In the fridge section we found Danette chocolate hazelnut pudding, and packages of American cheese made by a company called President. I therefore have been enjoying the president’s cheese… We also bought frozen steaks from a company called Three Chefs, apple and cherry juice, a bag of Tang powder, and two bottles of water. In the end, our entire basket cost less than fifty pounds, a price which astonished Mohamed to no end. According to him, the food is not only better and offers a new variety to myself to keep me from becoming bored of any certain line of food, but it is also much cheaper than the foods purchased in the local shops.

On our way back to the house, we stopped at fruit stand that Mohamed has grown fond of because the merchant offers the best bananas at a cheaper price. Along with two bunches of bananas, we also purchased a kilo of deep red apples which were texturally amazing as they radiated crispiness even to the last bite.

There were a few select items which will be useful in the future that I was happy to see on an Egyptian shelf. One of these was mustard, along with cake mixes, foreign teas, cereal, Heinz ketchup, Windex, paper towels, and even brown sugar, which I have been told on multiple occasions does not exist in Egypt. One thing which we are still on the lookout for is peanut butter, and while I have no hope of finding it in this country, Mohamed refuses to give up the search.