Quick answer
A traditional Egyptian breakfast is a spread of small plates eaten with warm baladi bread: ful medames, ta'ameya, eggs, white cheese, salad, pickles and something sweet such as halawa or black molasses with tahini, all with sweet tea. It is the big shared meal of Friday mornings, the pre-dawn suhoor meal of Ramadan, and easy to try at local cafés or in the Egyptian corner of hotel and cruise buffets.
What do Egyptians eat for breakfast?
Egyptians eat a savoury breakfast built around beans and bread: a bowl of ful medames, a few hot ta'ameya, eggs, cheese, salad and pickles, with sweet tea. On a weekday that might be a ful sandwich eaten standing at a cart on the way to work; on Friday it becomes a long family spread.
Breakfast (fetar) tends to be later and more substantial than an Australian cereal-and-coffee start, because lunch in Egypt is often eaten mid-afternoon. A plate of beans with bread keeps you going for hours, which is exactly why it suits a morning at the pyramids or a temple. The beans themselves deserve a proper read: our ful medames and ta'ameya pages explain how they are made and the regional styles.
How do you build an Egyptian breakfast plate?
Order a few small plates to share rather than one dish each: one or two kinds of ful, a plate of ta'ameya, eggs, cheese, salad, pickles and plenty of bread. Here is what you will see on the table.
| Plate | What it is | Tip |
|---|---|---|
| Ful medames | Stewed fava beans with oil, cumin and lemon | Try ful bel zeit el-har (with flaxseed oil), bel tahina or eskandarani (with tomato, capsicum and onion) |
| Ta'ameya | Fava-bean falafel, green inside | Eat them hot; they go soft fast |
| Beid bel basterma | Eggs fried with slices of cured, spiced beef | The classic meaty option; basterma is heavy on fenugreek and garlic |
| Shakshouka or eggah | Eggs in tomato sauce, or a thick herb omelette | Easy for cautious eaters |
| Bessara | Green purée of fava beans and herbs topped with fried onion | More common in homes and villages |
| Salata baladi and torshi | Chopped tomato, cucumber and onion; pickled vegetables | Skip at basic places if your stomach is new to Egypt |
| Potatoes and aubergine | Fried chips (batates) and fried eggplant slices with garlic vinegar | Often stuffed into the bread with ta'ameya |
Everything is eaten with warm baladi bread, torn and used as a scoop; our Egyptian bread guide explains how.
Which Egyptian cheeses come with breakfast?
The everyday cheese is gebna beida, a salty white cheese similar to feta, with gebna rumi, a hard, sharp aged cheese, and the pungent fermented mish for the brave.
- Gebna beida (white cheese): soft and salty, often made in the Domiati style from Damietta in the Delta. Often served drizzled with oil and with tomato slices.
- Istanbuli: white cheese mashed with tomato, green chilli and onion; a great dip for bread.
- Gebna rumi: a firm yellow cheese aged for months, with a sharp, salty bite, eaten in sandwiches with fino bread.
- Mish: aged cheese fermented in brine or whey with chilli and spices, sometimes for a year or more. It is very strong, salty and loved by older Egyptians; try a tiny amount.
- Areesh: a fresh, mild curd cheese made from skimmed milk, common in village breakfasts.
Vegetarians should note that some cheeses may be made with animal rennet, which is hard to check in Egypt; see our vegetarian guide.
What sweet things do Egyptians eat at breakfast?
The sweet end of the table is halawa (sesame halva), honey, jam and asal aswad, a dark sugar cane molasses mixed with tahini and scooped up with bread.
Halawa comes in blocks, plain or with pistachios, and is often eaten in a sandwich. Asal aswad, literally black honey, is made from sugar cane juice boiled down in Upper Egypt, where the cane fields line the Nile, and stirring it into tahini makes a sweet, nutty dip that children love. In the south and in villages, feteer meshaltet with honey or molasses and cream is the luxurious breakfast you are served as a guest.
Pastries and cakes are not really breakfast food, though hotels and modern cafés serve croissants and pancakes. Fresh fruit and juice are also more of an afternoon thing in local life.
Why is Friday breakfast special?
Friday is the weekly day off and the day of congregational prayer, and a late, generous breakfast of ful and ta'ameya with the whole family is a ritual across Egypt. Someone is sent out early to the ful cart or the neighbourhood shop with a pot to fill, and the meal can stretch for an hour or more.
For travellers, this has two effects. Ful shops are at their busiest and most atmospheric on Friday mornings, and many other businesses open late, especially before midday prayers. A Friday morning walk in a residential neighbourhood with your guide is a lovely way to see daily life before heading to a monument.
During Ramadan, the morning meal disappears for those who fast and is replaced by suhoor, eaten before dawn. Ful is the classic suhoor dish because it is filling and slow to digest, and ful shops stay open through the night. See our guide to travelling during Ramadan.
Where can you try an Egyptian breakfast?
Try it at a local ful and ta'ameya café in Cairo or Alexandria, at the Egyptian station of your hotel or Nile cruise buffet, or as a guest in an Egyptian home.
- Cairo: Downtown has ful and ta'ameya cafés that have served the same breakfast for decades; Felfela, near Talaat Harb Street, is one long-running sit-down option, though menus and quality change, so ask your guide.
- Alexandria: the city's breakfast shops are an institution. Mohamed Ahmed, a long-established ful and ta'ameya restaurant near Raml Station, is a frequent recommendation at the time of writing.
- Hotels and cruises: most large hotels and Nile ships have an Egyptian corner with ful, ta'ameya, white cheese, baladi bread and pickles alongside the international spread, which is the gentlest way to start.
- Village and desert: a breakfast of sun bread, eggs, feteer and molasses in a Luxor west-bank village, or fresh bread and tea in a desert camp, is a highlight for many travellers.
Breakfast before an early start, such as a 4am Abu Simbel departure, is usually a packed box from the hotel, so save your Egyptian breakfast for a slower morning.
Frequently asked questions
What is a typical Egyptian breakfast?
Ful medames and ta'ameya with baladi bread, eggs, white cheese, salad, pickles and sweet tea. Halawa or molasses with tahini adds something sweet at the end.
Is an Egyptian breakfast vegan?
Ful, ta'ameya, bessara, salad, pickles, bread and halawa are all normally vegan. Ask whether butter or ghee has been added to the ful, and skip the eggs and cheese.
What is basterma?
Basterma is cured beef coated in a paste of fenugreek, garlic, chilli and paprika, sliced thin. Fried with eggs, it is one of the classic Egyptian breakfast dishes.
Do hotels in Egypt serve Egyptian breakfast?
Most larger hotels and Nile cruise ships include ful, ta'ameya, white cheese and baladi bread on the buffet, alongside eggs, pastries and fruit.
What time do Egyptians eat breakfast?
Usually between about 8am and 10am, later on Fridays. Workers often grab a ful or ta'ameya sandwich on the way to work.
