Koshary in Cairo

Koshary is the dish Cairo eats when it is hungry and in a hurry: rice, brown lentils and small pasta layered in a bowl, topped with chickpeas, a spiced tomato sauce and a heap of fried onions, with a garlic and vinegar mixture and a chilli sauce added at the table to taste. It appears to have come together in the nineteenth century out of an Indian lentil-and-rice dish brought by soldiers, Italian pasta and Egyptian pulses, and it became the standard cheap meal of the city. It is sold from shops that make nothing else, with the components in great trays behind a counter and a man assembling bowls at speed. Several downtown houses have been running for the better part of a century and are institutions in their own right.

What you actually see

• Layered bowls assembled at speed - rice, lentils, pasta and onions.
• The garlic vinegar and chilli - added at the table, not in the kitchen.
• Single-dish shops - houses that make koshary and nothing else.
• Long-established downtown houses - some trading for close to a century.

When to go

Year round; it is an everyday meal, not a seasonal one. Lunchtime is the peak and the queues move fast. One hour including the wait. Shops are open late into the evening across the city.

Honest expectations

It is vegetarian by default but not light; portions are large and heavy. Hygiene varies between shops, so pick busy ones with high turnover. The famous downtown houses charge more than neighbourhood shops for the same thing. Seating is basic and often shared.

Nearby

Downtown Khedivial Cairo holds the best-known houses; every district has its own.