Ful Medames and Cairo

I'm out of time and place. 15 hours on a jet took me a half-day into the past, and into a city that wasn't here. I wake up too early and really hungry. What to eat? Hotel breakfast buffet of the usual Teflon eggs and shoe-leather bacon?

I turn the corner and there it is! A deep brass vessel on a burner, keeping hot the breakfast of Egyptian champions: ful (pronounced fool). The last time I ate ful, I made it for my 6th grade Ancient Civilization students as part of our Egypt Unit. We had learned that in Modern Cairo it is a popular breakfast, eaten with flat bread. So I made the rich fava bean stew, and served it to my mostly Hispanic students, who devoured it with pieces of tortillas and chopped cilantro.

I'm not sure how ful came to Dubai. It is associated with Cairo because it used to be cooked in huge pots buried in the embers of fires that heated the Princess Baths, and ladled into your bowl by street vendors.

For sure, the version that filled my bowl here in Dubai was far more flavorful than the one I conjured up. I hope someone in Cairo is taking bowls of ful to the protesters in Tahir Square.