Amany Abdel-Moneim adds bite to her Iftar "It looks like the kids won't break their fast today -- hurry up, will you." Thus Ragia El-Sayed, 35, a working mother said. She was standing in line at one of many pickle shops that have introduced colourful tents to mark the month of fasting as she said this. Later, she explained, "for me, torshi (hot mixed pickles) is one of the most important rituals of Iftar, and so is mayet daa (pickle syrup) -- they pave the way for the fatty dishes we have going on here all through Ramadan, and they get the juices going -- nothing beats them as appetisers." Nagwa Abdel-Wahab, nutritionist, would seem to agree: pickles are an essential part of folk medicine, she says. Believed to counter the unpleasant effects of alkaloids and clean the digestive tract, "raw, lacto-fermented vegetables (pickles)" do help inhibit microbe growth. Fat- and cholesterol-free, they are low in calories and boast a high concentration of vitamin C; they also facilitate iron absorption and, since they contain vinegar, can help with weight loss. Everything in moderation, though: those who suffer from hypertension, kidney disorders or gastrointestinal disturbances are especially advised not to overdo the pickle factor -- whether at Ramadan Iftar or at any other time. "Pickling," supplies Ahmed Sayed Abdel-Gawad, owner by inheritance of what may well be Cairo's most famous pickle shop, "is one of the oldest forms of food preservation, discovered at the dawn of civilisation; now pickles are everywhere. We sell our product all year round as it is a staple of the Egyptian diet. And aside from vegetable price increases, we still offer tangy, crunchy delight in a bag for no more than LE1." Passionate enough to abandon a career in accounting for what remains, in the eyes of many, a less than respectable job, Abdel-Gawad tells his story in the same tone: "My father started this business in the early 1950s, and being a close friend of the great actor Hassan Hosni's, who by the way just loves mayet daa, made a name for himself among celebrities. Ok, so this shop is known as Stars' Pickles, as a kind of unofficial tribute to it..." Abdel-Gawad has kept up the PR as well as the pickle quality, befriending comedian Mohamed Saad and pop stars Hakim, Hamada Hilal and Essam Karika, in addition to famed businessmen and senior government officials -- connections that facilitated professional upward mobility, with five-star hotels and celebrities' private parties catering as well as supermarket supplies, not to mention markets in the Netherlands and the US as well as Italy, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Great names have passed there, he tells me: Adel Imam, Ahmed Adaweya, Fouad El-Mohandes, even the late Salah Mansour. The list goes on: "The young actor Ahmed Helmi and his wife actress Mona Zaki come for the taste of pickled cucumber and radish. Musician Selim Sahab prefers mayet daa, especially the radish juice. As for popular singer Shaaban Abdel-Rehim, he likes olive and onion." And on: El-Mohandes, Abdel-Gawad remembers, would insist on picking the pickles with his own hands, something that brought him into the staff-only area of the shop, every time he came. Like Saad, actress Ilham Shahine has a soft spot for safflowered lemon -- a somewhat acquired taste -- while belly dancer Fifi Abdu will kill for makdous (nut- stuffed pickled eggplant). Unlike Hakim, singer Mustafa Amar likes spicy pickles, and film star Ahmed El-Saqqa -- olive harisa. Abdel-Gawad believes his pickles are like Nile water: taste it once and you are bound to come back for more. Himself a pickle fan, pickle promotion came easily to him, and his success story all the smoother for it. He has invented new varieties, enriching the age-old tradition with his own late-in-the-day innovations: okra, green beans and garlic. He also added variations to green olive, among many other inventions, or semi-inventions. He managed to introduce not only chutney but pickled mango, grapes, dates, strawberry, apple, cherry and peach. "Pickling goes so far back," says anthropologist Al-Moatassem Rabie, "its earliest origins, probably some 5,000 ago, remain shrouded in mystery. Prior to refrigeration, pickles were a form of winter salad; and pickling was a necessary form of preservation. As early as 850 BC Aristotle praised the healing properties of pickles, and Cleopatra believed in their ability to induce health and beauty. Napoleon valued the health benefits they could impart to his army, and George Washington kept 476 kinds of them in his cabinet. During World War II, no less than 40 per cent of British pickle production was reserved for the use of soldiers on the war front, so important were they for health." Yet not everyone is a pickle fan. "I've never liked pickles," confesses Roba Ali, 44. "In fact, I've always thought they looked, smelled, and tasted downright nasty. When I was a child somebody told me that a piece of human waste was routinely added to the recipe to make pickles taste better -- and the image has stayed with me since." A common story, Abdel-Gawad reassures me that it has no basis: "This rumour is based on the fact that there used to be a foreign pickle trader named Kharalambo [a word immediately evocative of the most common Arabic term for faeces]. You can laugh at that as much as you will, but our product is extremely clean and subjected to quality control. I personally try every single product before sending it to the market to make sure it tastes right." Tips and recipes: - Pick a raw fruit, cut and soak in lemon salt, then in regular salt, and finally a solution of salt, spices, vinegar and lemon salt. For mango chutney taymor or founs are the preferred varieties. Add curry, paprika, olive or corn oil and garlic powder. - Never throw away pickle syrup -- it can be used as a drink, as salad dressing or as marinade. - For a crunchy pickled cucumber, make two small holes at both ends with a clean needle, then soak in water and salt for 3-4 days. Rinse then add spices, celery, garlic and vinegar per taste. - Pickled lemon: cut the lemon and soak in water. Layer into a large jar alternating with a mixture of black seeds, ground salt, minced paprika and safflower. Cover with oil on top to prevent oxidation. Seal tightly for at least three weeks. - Pickled radishes: 1kg radish, one cup vinegar, two medium beetroots, half cup salt, five cups water and one tablespoon of salt. Wash the radish, slice off part of the root. Divide each radish into two or more segments, leaving the bottom part attached. Place in a sieve and sprinkle the salt on top. Leave for four hours. Arrange the radish in the pickling jar alternating with a quartered beetroot. Stir salt in water and pour over. Seal jar tightly for four days. Open jar, add the vinegar and reseal for another four days. - Don't use iodised salt for pickling.
