At the beginning of this month, I decided to finally pick up on the idea of looking into sexual harassment in Egypt through my work at almasryalyoum.com/en. I wanted to figure out what was going on with sexual harassment – what was the root, where did the disrespect come from and what was the anger and viciousness behind the vulgarity and aggression. And as the weeks continue, we explore it more – with articles like The Sexual Harassment File: Bringing up the obvious?and The Sexual Harassment File: Can’t you girls take a little flirting?, I tried to poke a little at what was going on behind the rampant disrespect.

Since then we’ve looked into some of the upbringing issues with Ali Abdel Mohsen’s Sexual harassment starts at home and have talked about the cultural background surrounding this kind of behavior in Steven Viney’s Can culture be blamed? We plan to continue this week with talking to some of the men about what they hope to gain from harassing women and the legal framework for bringing in a harasser.

And as soon as I started seeing the enthusiasm in the office about tackling the issue and the enthusiasm in the responses I was getting about the series, I thought I had started getting things under control. I thought that I would know exactly what to do when the next harasser reared his ugly head to spew venomous garbage at me in the middle of a Cairo street. I walked a walk that wasn’t angry but ready for discovery and confrontation. I looked potential harassers in the eye rather than looking markedly ahead of me and pretending to be a horse in traffic, protected merely by peripheral vision blinders. Days passed – on one I was out photographing in the streets of Cairo for an upcoming exhibition and I used the long sturdy lens of my camera as a weapon against the “welcome to egypt” that’s just dripping with “come do me, baby”, snapping shots of harassers and turning ego-maniacal and invasive stares into discomfort.

Most of the time I spent cooped up in my car, blasting music loud enough to distract me from any of the creepy stares from the younger generation and the disgusted “let me cleanse my eyes of your prostitute-like presence” from the older and more “religious” set.

You know, in all my writing, I know I’m being harassed on a daily basis but it all merges into one constant feeling of panic with only the very extreme cases standing out. I think women’s ability to withstand and forget the pain of childbirth applies with their ability to withstand and forget the pain of the daily psychological sanding they take from looks, comments, gestures in the streets of Cairo. Because men who deny the existence of harassment have to understand that the problem goes beyond an actual grab in the street… a man standing at a kiosk will size you up and smirk at what he can imagine himself doing with you and while that can neither be quantified nor sued for or tried against, it is can be the most heart wrenching and respect destroying moment of your day. Not that that one situation is enough to break a woman, that that one situation is yet another reminder of how women are regarded and treated on the street. ONE MORE REMINDER OF WHAT YOU ARE WORTH.

So, this afternoon, I’m driving to the gym. I’m in my car, I’m in Maadi, I’m in a bit of a rush. A motorcycle with three guys on it buzz around me like a bee and the guy on the back turns to me with a wolf like hunger in his eyes and puts his fingers together and kisses them and pulls them way. He bites his lower lip “seductively” as they buzz around for another look in the car. I resist the urge to hit the motorcycle with my car but I won’t. As they buzz away, he laughs. And once again I’ve lost. I’m furious and traumatized and angry and disgusted and fuming and miserable. I want them to get trampled by an army of stampeding women. I want them to get slapped by their mothers when they get home for such lewd behavior. I want to call for sentences of vasectomies for sexual harassers, some sort of guarantee that they won’t have some poor little toddler looking up to them for guidance and learning that women are stupid, useless pieces of trash that can just as easily be raped as they can be disregarded. 

I want flyers plastered on every street in Cairo – a decree -

WOMEN WILL HENCEFORTH BE RESPECTED. WOMEN ARE HUMAN BEINGS. WOMEN WILL NOT BE GROPED, TOUCHED OR APPROACHED WITHOUT THEIR CONSENT. WOMEN WILL NOT BE LOOKED AT RUDELY AND WILL NOT BE TREATED WITH CONTEMPT FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN THEIR SEX.

And in the end, women should not thank you. Women should not feel lucky to be with a guy who doesn’t push them around or touch them without their consent. Women should not thank people for allowing them to run for parliament or president or anything because it’s not the ‘men’s’ decision. It is our right as human beings to be respected. If they will not give it to us, we will have to take it ourselves.

We were a small group gathered together during those days – we would separate for a few hours midday – to feed cats or pick up groceries or take a trip through the army tank ridden streets – and then regroup in the early evening for dinner and to settle in for another night of anticipation.

Needless to say – dinner meant cooking and when the fabulous Fatma (the cook who works with my parents) couldn’t pop by to make breaded chicken by the kilo for our little camp, I cooked!

We had pasta with tomato basil cream sauce one night and threw together beef with broccoli another night. We had tikka masala chicken at one point and munched on crackers and cheese when none of the random ingredients available in the supermarket seemed throw-together-able.  We sipped wine and beer on the balcony and when things got really rough, threw bourbon and scotch in a glass for a tougher punch.

In any case, as the millions of people and pieces of the revolution start to regather and we rebuild our beautiful country, there’s always a need for delicious food!

So let the cooking begin!

xx Nina

PS – if this is any tribute… let this little post be dedicated to Rahmy, Clare, Yasmine and Lily – to Lara and Sophie the alarm clock and of course to Sennoo the chopper (with a samurai sword)

Shrimp salmon bites

Inspired by the random discovery of ‘Old Bay’ at a local supermarket – which reminded me of some killer crab cakes I ate in Baltimore – I did some research and picked out my favorite ingredients (and those available in Cairo) to make a little snack for myself and the family about a week ago.

Ingredients

3 eggs, lightly beaten

2 salmon steaks (gourmet) skin removed and chopped in little pieces

250g shrimp, chopped up in little pieces (tails chopped off too)

soft breadcrumbs

2 tablespoons of dijon mustard

1 tablespoon regular mustard

2 teaspoons of Old Bay spice

salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Mix all these ingredients together – leaving out the breadcrumbs in the beginning.

2. Add in breadcrumbs bit by bit and mix with your hands till the mixture sticks together but is not too goopy.

3. Leave the mixture to sit for a few hours – you don’t have to do this but it will help the flavors really take hold of the salmon and shrimp.

4. Heat up sunflower oil and wait till it bubbles a little at the bottom.

5. Fry little patties of the mixture to make small shrimp/salmon cakes and turn them over so they are golden on each side. They should cook for a few minutes on each side since both shrimp and salmon cook quickly.

6. Leave them to cool on paper towels (yes, try to get rid of a little of that oil).

7. Serve them with: soya sauce, dill cream sauce, tartar sauce….

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

3 loaves of baladi bread (Egyptian pita bread… )

2 tablespoons of butter

Sunflower oil

4 cloves of garlic, smushed or chopped super fine

4 yoghurt pots (the little ones – or one very large one)

1 can of chickpeas (whole)

1/2 can of hommus (smushed chickpeas with some tahina)

1/2 cup of pine nuts (optional)

Directions:

1. Prepare the ingredients – smush all the garlic and put it in a little container so you can use it throughout the recipe. Empty the yoghurt pots in a bowl if they are not in one big container, etc. Do not empty the whole chickpeas from the can yet.

2. Rip up the bread with your hands and fry it in a mixture of butter and oil with a sprinkling of smushed garlic. Remove when slightly crunchy and browned.

3. Mix yoghurt with 1/2 can of hummos (the smushed chickpeas with tahina) and the remaining garlic.

4. Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan with the pine nuts.

5. Layer – Take a casserole dish and spread the fried bread across the bottom. Cover the bread in the liquid from the can of whole chickpeas – just enough to coat the bread. Pour the yoghurt/hummos/garlic mixture over the bread. Pour the entire can of chickpeas over the yoghurt (you may have a little liquid left in the can after you pour some onto the bread – drain it, you don’t need that liquid on top of the yogurt). Pour the melted butter and pine nuts over the top.

6. Eat! (Or serve, if you are so generous.)

*** Pictures (of every step) to come!

That being said – I have found that some pretty general rules apply to the rice that is sold here in Egypt.

So – if you are struggling with rice and you have Cairo supermarkets available to you…

Doha Short Grain Rice

This is like the regular Doha rice. It is what is used for ‘traditional Egyptian rice’ which had little vermicelli (shaareya) in it.

Things you will need:

1 shayata (a metal circle with a wooden handle that covers the flame to dissapate the heat)

1 slightly heavy bottomed pot with a lid and steam-hole (preferably a transparent lid so you aren’t tempted to take the lid off to see the rice and potentially ruin it)

Ingredients:

1 cup El-Doha white short-grain rice (the regular, everyday Egyptian rice)

2 handfuls vermicelli (shaareya)

2 tablespoons butter

a sprinkle of salt

2 cups water

Directions:

1. Put 1 tablespoon butter and two handfuls vermicelli into the pot and fry them until the vermicelli browns to your liking. It is advisable to move the vermicelli and butter around with a wooden spatula while it fries so that it colors itself evenly.

2. Once the vermicelli is ready, toss in the cup of rice and the other tablespoon of butter.

3. Sprinkle all with salt and stir about so that the vermicelli is mixed in with the rice and the butter is evenly distributed.

4. Pour in two cups water and allow them to heat up to almost a boil (still uncovered at this point).

5. Light up the smallest flame on your stove and set it to its lowest possible setting.

6. Cover the flame with the shayata.

7. Put the lid on the rice pot and move your pot to the lower flame, placing it on the shayata.

8. Set your timer for 30 minutes and walk away from the pot.

9. Come back and check the status of the rice by smelling the steam coming out of the steam-hole–but don’t take the lid off.

10. When 30 minutes are up, turn off the heat, take off the lid and taste the rice. If it’s still very hard, add another 1/4 cup of water and turn on the heat on low again. Leave for 10 minutes.

Nahrain Basmati Rice

Things you will need:

1 shayata

1 slightly heavy bottomed pot with a lid and a steam-hole

Ingredients:

1 cup Nahrain golden basmati rice

2 1/4 cups water

1 teaspoon butter (optional)

1 cube chicken stock (optional) or a sprinkle of salt

Directions:

1. Pour 2 1/4 cups water into the pot and heat to a boil.

2. Add in whatever you have chosen from the optional items–salt, chicken stock, butter or oil–and make sure the chicken stock is no longer in cube form by crushing it with wooden spatula.

3. Add in 1 cup basmati rice (this combination works for Nahrain, but not for El-Doha basmati)

4. Allow water to boil again while you set up your smallest flame, on low, with the shayata on top.

5. Move the pot to the low flame and set the timer for 30 minutes.

6. Walk away from the rice and come back in 30 minutes to turn off the flame.

7. Open the pot, move the rice around with a fork to give it some air, and… enjoy!

Doha Basmati Rice

Follow the same directions as Nahrain Basmati  rice but to 1 cup of rice, boil 1 3/4 cups of water and cook it for 40 minutes!

ENJOY!!

my version (which turned out shockingly like the restaurant version I love)

2 tablespoons olive oil
3 cloves of garlic, smushed
1 teaspoon ginger powder
1 teaspoon paprika
2 tablespoons curry powder (half yellow, half mixed)
2 tablespoons flour
water to consistency

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan.
2. Add garlic till golden and add in ginger.
3. Add in curry, flour, paprika and stir to make a paste.
4. Add in water till a little soupy and leave to cook for 5 minutes.
5. Pour over your panko breadcrumb fried chicken breasts!

I made them with some reheated rice (in a pan with a little oil) and added some pine nuts and powdered mint to the rice. Very nice flavor mix!

*This recipe tastes different in one way – it’s much less spicy (which works for me) – if you want to spice it up, I would suggest 1/2 teaspoon of chili powder?

chicken katsu curry!

1 package ladyfingers (make sure they are kind of soft inside) opened up as if you were making a ladyfinger sandwich so they lie flat on the bottom of the dish

2 cups whipping cream

6 egg yolks

1 cup white sugar

2/3 cup milk

250 grams mascarpone cheese (you can find this at Gourmet… also the ladyfingers)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup espresso

2 tablespoons Kahlua (or other coffee liqueur – optional)

cocoa powder for dusting

– the amounts of the ingredients will differ based on the size of your serving dish but these amounts served 10.

1. Start by making the yolk mixture – combine egg yolks and sugar over a low flame with a whisk and add in milk, stirring constantly until the mixture boils.

2. Allow to boil for 1 minute then remove from heat and cool.

3. Cover mixture tightly and refrigerate for one hour.

4. Beat whipping cream with vanilla extract until stiff peaks form (this is where I had trouble… good luck!)

5. Whisk mascarpone into yolk mixture (the one in the fridge) until smooth.

6. Combine espresso and Kahlua if you’re using it.

7. Arrange ladyfingers on the bottom of your serving dish and drizzle with espresso/Kahlua mixture.

8. Spread 1/3 of the yolk/mascarpone mixture over the lady fingers.

9. Spread 1/3 of the whipped cream over that.

10. Repeat – Ladyfingers, drizzle, yolk, cream, ladyfingers, drizzle, yolk, cream and then even out cream and sprinkle with cocoa powder.

11. Cover and refrigerate for 4-6 hours.

xx

AND – there are these little machines they sell in Cairo that make foam out of milk… they’re like this little beater or something – a plastic thing that separates into two at the end and whisks madly – I’d liken it to a mechanical toothbrush in its size and shape… anyway – you can make fluffy whipped cream with it (I only realized that when I came to the final layer of my tiramisu) but it sprays the cream about so cover the bowl with your hand to keep things from getting too messy.