Thirty years ago, when I found myself in Egypt, I was warned by many a Masreyeen to avoid street food at all costs for fear of developing what translated to “Cairo Cramp,” an affliction that made Delhi Belly seem like the Shanghai Squirts. Or something like that. But there was no way I was leaving the bustling megalopolis without sampling koshary, Egypt’s national dish. When similar protestations were uttered by the chap in the soda-jerk cap ladling out bowls heaping with a mix of black lentils, chickpeas, rice, macaroni and spaghetti in a tangy tomato sauce topped with fried onions and a liberal blob of shatta (hot pepper sauce), “Nonsense!” was my reply. “In fact, make it a double,” I said, and in a matter of seconds, the staccato beeps of car horns and cacophonous shouts of merchants, not to mention the dulcet voice of Amr Diab, were drowned out by the riot of flavors and textures in the bowl. Like Cairo’s traffic, this was organized chaos.
Thirty days ago, I found myself on the corner of Wymore and Lee roads in Winter Park, behind the Chevron gas station and next to Salon Ciséaux, spoon-deep in a bowl of koshary served from The Cairo Express, a food truck operation run by Gigi Elgharbawy and her children, Iman, Mustafa and Omar. Gigi, in fact, was a cook at Makani on International Drive, the city’s only Egyptian restaurant, before a new ownership group took over and ran it into the ground. The restaurant permanently closed last summer. When I reviewed Makani in 2019, I noted the absence of chickpeas and fiery shatta in their koshary. But Gigi’s version ($10.99) took me back to that dusty Cairo street in 1995.
“No shortcuts here,” Gigi hollered through the window of the food truck. “Everything here is made from scratch.” And that includes the shatta, which Gigi makes from fried cayenne peppers, tomato sauce and salt. I used a fair bit of it (and a fair bit of tahini) on the grilled hawawshi ($11.99). The charred pita wedges may resemble quesadillas, but the stuffing of finely minced, seasoned ground beef lent a flavor more akin to samosas or empanadas. Dipping a wedge into a rustic, chunky baba ghanouj ($7) with a deep charred flavor made every bite even better.
Stuffing also came in the form of rice seasoned with warm spices, parsley, dill, turmeric and tomatoes in the grape leaves ($6). The leaves themselves are plucked from Gigi’s garden before being wrapped around the aforementioned, cooked in chicken broth and liberally bathed with lemon. Then there’s mombar ($8.99), tomatoey rice stuffed into beef casings that are boiled and fried. The snap, crackle and pop of these sausages made it an instant fave. Chicken and beef shavings of shawarma ($12.99) served over fragrant yellow rice with all the fixings — pickled cucumbers, pickled turnips, toum (garlic sauce) and tahini — came close to matching the superb platter served at Maroush. It’s arguably the most popular dish here, thanks in part to its familiarity. The shawarma may not be shaved off a spit, but that doesn’t take away from Gigi’s deft execution of this Middle Eastern staple. (She pan-fries the marinated shreds.)
Specials are always on offer and on this rainy day, molokhia ($16.99) — an earthy, herbaceous stew fashioned from the leafy greens of the corchorus olitorius (jute shrub), flavored with chicken broth, scented with bay leaves, anointed with garlic oil and lushed with butter, was every bit the superlative slurp Gigi said it was. It was served with grilled chicken and rice, both of which were largely shunned in favor of just slurping the green potable.
And while I appreciated a $3 piece of baklava at meal’s conclusion, I appreciated that the prices here were commensurate with street-food fare even more. The Cairo Express is a treasure, and those in search of a jewel of the Nile should find it buried deep within the recesses of Winter Park.
(The Cairo Express, 658 Wymore Road, Winter Park, 407-408-8824, instagram.com/the_cairo_expressfl, $$)
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This article appears in Oct. 8-14, 2025.
