Fateer and Old Cheese

One of our friends has been developing a restaurant in the old village near the pyramids.   He wanted to give us a tour of the project and suggested we sit in the courtyard and have" fateer and old cheese."

 Fateer is perhaps best described as "Egyptian pizza."  It consists of many layers of filo dough, filled with cheese for dinner or something sweet for a dessert.  We have blogged about it previously.

Fateer and old cheese is a very special treat.  The secret ingredient is obviously the "old cheese." We went with our friend to the source - a tiny shop on a corner where two local ladies bake the fateer and brew the cheese. I say "brew" because it is quite a process to make old cheese.

The fateer comes out of the oven piping hot, flaky and ready to be sliced like pizza.

  

 

Our order consisted of fateer, white cheese and old cheese.  Regular "white cheese" - an Egyptian term, is a variety that tastes very much like feta.  Sold freshly made, it makes delightful Greek salads and the like. It can also be purchased in supermarkets but nothing can beat freshly made cheese scooped out of the milky brine by these ladies.

Old cheese or "mish" is made from curdled cheese layered with salt in an earthenware jar. The jar is then filled with a pickling solution of buttermilk, sour milk, whey, and red and green peppers. Some old mish is added to start the fermentation. It is then left in a sealed container for a year or more. Our cheese merchants cracked open a pail and fished out a fragrant hunk for us.

 

 

We left the shop and headed for the restaurant site. A colorful tablecloth graced the table set up for us in the courtyard of the "soon-to-be" restaurant. We spent the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and one of the finest picnic lunches to be found anywhere.

 

 

We used the fateer to pick up the cheese or to dip into molasses (known locally as black honey) to add a sweet flavor. Mish tastes very much like the white cheese but with a bit more of a bite.