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Aswan Cuisine is a varied confluence of the native Egyptian culinary tastes and international preferences as evinced by the burgeoning tourists to this popular destination. Breakfast may consist of home baked breads, beans, eggs, dates and other dried fruits such as prunes, raisins and apricots, pickles, cheeses and fruits or fruit preserves such as jams and marmalades. Lunch and dinner are simple affairs and the locally available vegetables and fruits play key ingredients. The food of Aswan tends to be well cooked and slightly dry. Flour and refined flour are sacrosanct in making breads and a variety of pita breads and loves are baked in the average Egyptian household. A delicious filling of honey, date syrup, vegetables and fruits makes excellent sandwiches. Aysh is the favored bread and a variety of beans and legumes are used in Aswan cuisine. The beans are added to salads or mashed with vegetables, eggs and cooked with herbs to create side dishes and stuffing. Alternatively these may be pureed to form sauces and gravies. Other commonly used vegetables include Molokhiyya, lettuce, cucumber, beets and peas. A variety of herbs are grown in kitchen gardens in the city and these enrich the Aswan cuisine with their strong flavors. Do remember to sample the roasted and stuffed pigeon and Umm Ali, two highlights of Aswan cuisine. Potatoes and rice are versatile in the sense that they are used across various courses of the meal. Traditionally the cuisine of Aswan is cooked slightly dry with minimal use of water. Milk and yoghurt are used instead in the gravies. Due to the recent tourist trends and growing numbers of tourists to the city, a number of good eateries and restaurants have mushroomed in the city catering to Italian, French and other European cuisines. The average tourist can dig into authentic Aswan culinary delights or simply pick a restaurant specializing in the cuisine of his/her native country.
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