Travel Africa – Bellion Travels

Most Delicious African Cuisine

This is strictly my opinion. I have tried Moroccan, Sudanese, Egyptian, Kenyan and other few African cuisines but Ethiopian is my ultimate favourite and I’m sure a lot of people will agree.

My first Ethiopian experience was at home in UAE. Our helper was from Ethiopia and one time we went to her local restaurant and bought Injara (Ethiopian Bread) and she cooked a spicy potato stew and I immediately fell in love with Ethiopian cuisine. The first time, Tim and I had Ethiopian food was at Harlem in New York City with my friend, Marwah. Tim really enjoyed it so we tried several restaurants in U.A.E and his favourite thing about their cuisine is their famous coffee. One of the best coffees around the world.

When we had the opportunity to travel to Ethiopia, the first thing that crossed our mind was ‘OMG!!!! We are going to have authentic Ethiopian cuisine’.

Our first day in Addis Ababa, we learnt that Ethiopian Christians fast on Wednesdays and Fridays which means they only have vegan food on those days and avoid meat. I LOVED it because I really enjoy vegan food. My favourite dish is called ‘Shiro’, it is a stew made out of chickpeas. Our first meal was ‘Wat’ which is a spread of the injera bread with lots of stews for everyone to share. Since we landed on a Friday, we had vegetarian stew and their cooked spinach was soo…. delicious.

Tim is a meat lover and especially a red meat lover. At the age of 14 years old, I decided to become ‘pollo-pescatarian’. A person who eats only white meat. That’s why I married a white man LOL. Just Kidding. It was for health reasons and also I was never a fan of red meat anyway. When I married Tim, I tried some steaks from his plate but honestly, I couldn’t have more than a bite except in Tokyo; he begged me to eat a whole Wagyu Steak and once his step-mum cooked steak at home which I ate and it was good too but that did not convince me to like red meat. After turning 30, I decided that I want to cut down my meat intake so I starting having vegetarian or meatless meals on weekdays and eat fish or chicken on a Saturday. My family and friends found it weird but I feel happy so when I knew that Ethiopia had a variety of vegetarian and vegan dishes, I was so pleased.

Ok meat lovers, I won’t bore you. Tim’s favourite dish was ‘tibs’, meat mixed with vegetables and our tour guide told us that the meat are all organic and that I should give it a try. I had a piece and honestly, it didn’t taste fatty at all and really had a fresh taste to it. Tim also liked ‘Gored Gored’ which is a beef stew.

For breakfast, we had ‘Fir Fir’ which is Ethiopian and Eritrean meal. It is basically made out of shredded bread, butter and Berber spice. Berber spice is the most famous spice in Ethiopia. Another breakfast meal is ‘Kinche’ similar to an oatmeal.

EFood01 — Fermented Banana Bread. Technically it’s scrapped from ‘fake’ banana trees. It a tree that looks like a banana tree that does not grow bananas.

When it comes to Ethiopian beverages, all we think about is their coffee and yes, their coffee is extremely delicious. They also have a coffee ceremony.

Another famous drinks are their honey wine called ‘tej’. Ethiopia has a variety of beverages and dishes but this is what I encountered during our trip and I love it and I highly recommend it.

Let me know your favourite Ethiopian dishes.

March 22, 2020March 23, 2020

Nissreen2 Comments

Ethiopia through the lens of BellionTravels

January 23, 2020January 23, 2020

Nissreen2 Comments

A Weekend in Cairo

Egypt as they call it in Arabic ‘Em El Donya’ which translates to ‘The Mother of the World’. is the third African country we travelled together.

During the UAE National Day holiday, we both decided to travel to Egypt. The main reason we travelled to Egypt was because the visa was easy to obtain (LO). Tim managed to get a visa on arrival while it took me 4 working days to obtain a visa from the Egyptian Embassy in Abu Dhabi. Since we could only travel for 3 days, we narrowed our trip down to Cairo.

We heard from a lot of people how Cairo can be chaotic so we booked our tour with Fly Travel. 3 Days and 2 Nights in Egypt and we managed to have a blast. Our tour guide Karam, is very well educated and also has a sense of humour. He cracks jokes when explaining the history of the Pharaohs and Egyptian Civilisation which makes it fun and I guess it’s the best method to make people listen.

So below is our Cairo Weekend Itinerary 🙂

Day 1:

We visited the Pyramids, Sphinx and Papyrus Institute and a Cotton Store.

Try to avoid the Cotton Store, it was a major waste of time but we bought cushion covers which you can find in any market. Anyway the highlight of that day was seeing the Pyramids. OMG! GIZA indeed has some supernatural vibes. We highly recommend you enter the Pyramids, it is worth it. Although it’s narrow and could be annoying, it is worth the visit. Unless you are claustrophobic, so yeaaaahhh don’t go in. We also visited the Khufu Ship which is walking distance from the Pyramids.

EGYPT02 — 30 min ride to get better view of the Pyramids

After lunch, we did a quick stop at the Papyrus Institute and attended a workshop on how they make the paper. Tim and I bought a small art work to hang in our place. We have a habit of collecting artworks from all around the world and whats cool about the papyrus paper is that it’s waterproof.

At night, Tim and I scheduled an uber to take us to the Nile River. We decided to go on a boat ride along the Nile and they played Egyptian music. The locals were having a great time singing and dancing. The funny part, Tim and I were the only non-Egyptians on that boat and being half Middle Eastern I had to join and dance.

Day 2 of the Tour:

The historical tour that made us go OH WOOOW!!!

The tour began at the Egyptian Museum where we learned a lot about the Egyptian History and if ever you visit, I recommend you take a guide with you because you will learn a lot more.

The Museum preserves the mummies in a very cold room and we were not allowed to take pictures. I actually didn’t feel comfortable and I believe that the mummies should be put back in their tomb.

We later visited Citadel, Muhammad Ali Mosque and Sultan Hassan Mosque. We sat with our tour guide in the mosque to listen to the ‘Call for Prayer’ and had a deep discussion about Abrahamic Religions.

Before heading to the famous Khal El Khalili market, we went to the Perfume and Jewellery stores and bought a box of perfumes. After that we requested our driver to drop us to Khan El Khalili where we spent the night exploring the market and smoked shisha at a Sha’abi (Local) Coffee Shop just like what we see in Egyptian movies hehehehe.

Day 3:

WE FLEW BACK TO ABU DHABI

Our trip to Egypt was indeed very short and we would love to visit again and explore other areas of the country. If you are visiting Cairo, I highly recommend you either have an Arab friend or an Arab guide. It’s difficult for a non-Arabic speakers to navigate around the city.

*Not a Sponsored Post