1133 Tastes Amazing (1/2)

A Chinese man holding a silver Arabian hookah with a cat and dog following beside him was extremely out of the norm, but all of Zhang Zian's focus was on looking for food and not on noticing the weird looks that he had been getting from the passersby.

With this many strays in Egypt, it was evident that they had basically no pet laws at all, so there was absolutely no issue with him walking Famous down the streets even without a leash.

Zhang Zian kept looking back as he walked, worried that the few Egyptian men would look for revenge after they applied the Cooling Ointment to places that they shouldn't. Besides, those weren't Cooling Ointment at all, they were some unknown substance called Cooling Oil, and only God knew what would happen to them.

Richard laughed at him for being a coward, swearing on its life that those few men definitely would not come after them.

Along the way, they did see a few people selling Egyptian biscuits, the price unbelievably low. The flour, oil, and sugar used to make these biscuits were all sent to them for free by the richer Arabian neighboring countries after all. Since the cost was zero, their price naturally dropped under the competition. Even one penny earned was money too, after all.

This was to stabilize the situation in Egypt and to make sure that the Egyptians, surviving on an average income of a few hundred Egyptian pounds per month, wouldn't riot due to hunger. As the country with the highest population in the Middle East, and as an important Arabian country, if there was any rioting in Egypt, it would be a disaster.

The Egyptian biscuits were actually named aish baladi. They didn't look delectable, but more like bread that hadn't been leavened, and they did nothing for Zhang Zian's appetite at all. The elfins showed disinterest towards these starchy foods too.

Aish baladi was the staple of poor people's meals here. It was extremely filling, and the poor usually bought a few at a time, eating them with a sesame dipping sauce with lemon, garlic, salt, and pepper. This was usually their breakfast or even dinner every day.

When Zhang Zian and his group walked past, they saw a few poor people ripping open the aish baladi and dipping it in something before devouring the piece. They ate it with a glass of fruit juice, since Egypt's fruit juice was ridiculously cheap too. Most fruits weren't even selling for more than one dollar per kilogram.

Other than aish baladi, there was another smaller type of bread called pita. Pita bread was a thousand times more delicious than aish baladi. It looked like a flatbread that had a hollow center, and you could add in fillings based on your own preference. Grilled meats, vegetables, tomatoes, and a sauce, and it would taste just like a mix of a burrito and a hamburger.

Zhang Zian remembered that while on the streets of Berlin, he had eaten Turkish grilled meat. In Egypt, they had Turkish grilled meat too, but these weren't authentic. Instead, they had been modified to suit Egyptian tastes. It was called shawarma here, or the Egyptian hamburger.

The elfins had a great impression of the Turkish grilled meat, so he stopped to order a few sets of shawarma when he saw a street vendor selling it.

The shawarma was complete when the vendor expertly shaved off pieces of grilled meat from the spinning grill and mixed it with pickled vegetables, raw vegetables, and bean paste, clasping it within a skin that was crispy yet soft, and a spicy red sauce was drizzled on.

It was sweet and spicy, and an extremely appetizing sourness filled your palate when you bit into it, proving to its devourer why it was one of Egypt's most popular street foods.

Of course, the true most popular food in Egypt was koshari. Koshari was a mixture of rice, macaroni, broad beans, peas, vinegar, and chilli sauce. You could also add sausages and olives according to your own tastes. It seemed a little like fried rice, but not quite stir-fried.

Koshari was also very popular with the poor people, as it came in a hefty portion despite being cheap. It could satisfy the carbohydrate and vegetable requirements at once, and it was one step higher-class than aish baladi, but it was also a bit more expensive.