My Favorite Post

This post, as you could have already guessed, is going to be about CANDY. So stick around! There will be pictures.

As you know, (if you read my summer Japan blog!) I love to sample new candies and snacks wherever I go. And in Egypt, this has become all the more necessary, because I am often hungry between meals here. (See the last post for a refresher on how long it takes to get from lunch to dinner here.)

In light of this additional requirement, that my snacks be filling and maybe not just sugar, my favorite discovery in Egypt is the Datto.


Isn't it pretty? You may not be able to tell from the packaging, but a Datto (we all say date-o, even though it's spelled dat-o. You'll figure out why pretty quickly.) is a Fig Newton with date filling instead of fig. The cookie part of the Datto is a little dryer and harder than a Fig Newton (or, a Fig Newman, anyway, since that's the only kind I've had in a long time...) and the filling is quite sweet, but Dattos are delicious. They also feel somehow healthy, as opposed to like candy, so they are wonderful for packing to take to the excavation. (Christine and I like to munch on a Datto, or something else small, at around 9 or 10am, and then we make it to lunch at 11:30 much more easily.)

The next picture features the real candy, for the first time. There are, it turns out, plenty of chocolate bars available in Mut, so we have been enjoying ourselves testing them out. The following selection is of favorites, except for the "G.R." chocolate bar (top of photo, under other bars). It tastes like powdered hot cocoa mix in bar form. Which is terrible, in case you weren't clear on that - grainy and not quite real chocolate-tasting.

The other three types of chocolate are intriguing/delicious, though. The Gersy bar is something like a cross between an Almond Joy (minus almonds) and a Charleston chew. It's a chewy coconut inside covered in chocolate, and it's strangely delicious. The Cadbury Dairy Milk bar, which features hazelnuts, is just plain good milk chocolate with hazelnuts in it, so obviously that's delicious. (Something we've come to recognize is that while milk chocolate is readily available, dark chocolate doesn't exist in Egypt. So I've come to respect high quality milk chocolate, even if it just makes me want dark chocolate even more intensely.)

And finally, the Moro bar. This is just a pretty generic candy bar, featuring caramel and nougat covered in chocolate. But, as the packaging notes, there's "energy inside!" Which I find hilarious. Also interesting, Moro bars cost a whopping 3 Egyptian Pounds, which is equivalent to roughly fifty cents. The Gersy bar costs 1 EP. Snickers bars, which are only sold at a single overpriced store, cost 7 EP, so we don't usually buy them. (Sometimes I can't resist a Twix, though!)


Next, the unexpected discovery of marshmallows! And who do we have to thank for them? Well, of course, Muhammad himself! Sometime last week, as I understand, was Muhammad's (yes, THAT Muhammad) birthday. Which means that all the stores set up extra awnings stretching into the street to fill with birthday candy to sell. Among these candies, we discovered the above specimens. Which are undeniably... marshmallows! They are, I admit, covered in coconut. But I'm really not complaining. They are delicious. We recently made peanut butter cookies (which turned out a bit strangely, despite my foolproof Forrest Gump Cookbook 3-ingredient recipe... ) in which we placed tiny bits of marshmallow instead of chocolate, because we didn't have enough chocolate to make a batch of pure Kissy Cookies. And they were intriguing/delicious! (I think I have lower standards in Egypt. But still, I liked them...)

And finally, the most entertaining of all Egyptian discoveries, the BORIO.


Can you guess what cookie/candy the Borio resembles? I know you know... Yes, the Borio is almost exactly like an Oreo. However, it is a little smaller (truly bite-sized, unlike the Oreo) and a little dryer. I can't exactly describe the difference to you, but Borios are unique. Nonetheless, they are extremely delicious. I also love that there are little flecks of chocolate in the cream, although you can't taste it from eating one. I didn't realize they existed until I opened one up to take this picture...

And those, my friends, are my first and favorite candy discoveries in Egypt. I promise to keep you updated as I discover more delicious snacks.