Concerning clothing and food in Egypt

A lot of the worries we had before moving to Egypt concerned not only our practical living environment, but also women’s clothing and food. As it turns out, we had very little to worry about.

All Muslim women wear veils covering their hair but not their face, long pants or skirts and long sleeved blouses or a long dress. Occasionally we see Muslim women wearing a Burkha with black gloves covering their hands, but more often young women in jeans, a tight top and a more popular looking veil. Expats, other non-Muslim women, and even Muslim women from other traditions wear anything they want, although most sensibly refrain from wearing short skirts, shorts and/or tank tops. I wear long light pants (if it’s not too hot outside, even jeans) and a quarter length sleeved blouse accompanied with sunglasses and flip flops. Although it’s obvious I’m an Expat, I get treated gracefully and with respect.

We are still exploring the food here in Egypt. For meals carefully planned we’ve gone out searching for the ingredients in various stores and markets, and we’ve always eventually found what we were looking for; some things surprisingly cheap, some things obviously imported and very pricey. We’ve been able to make most of the quick meals we’re accustomed too, such as Spaghetti Bolognese, keeping a few key ingredients in stock, although some products we use frequently, such as canned tomatoes, have proven to be quite expensive (due to being imported). We are still figuring out alternatives in this respect. Whenever the importance of planning has been entirely overlooked – this would happen in the middle of a busy week in Belgium and we would take out kebabs; cheap and good food - it has been very, or rather too easy to resort to American fast food restaurants. Hardee’s, McDonalds, KFC, Chili’s, Papa John’s and Pizza Hut, only to mention a few, are just a phone call away. Everybody delivers straight to your door for free, and it’s usually cheaper than in the US, and certainly cheaper than in Belgium.

Having said all this, we did enjoy that first Papa John’s bite, seeing that it has been well over 4 years since we last visited the States, and most importantly, we’re enjoying our culinary exploration here in Egypt.