Long weekends mean a number of things to Egyptians in the summer – Sahel (North Coast playground of choice) will be packed, the Sahrawy (Desert Road to connecting Cairo with Alexandria) will be trafficky. And the feteer line at Wahet Omar, the popular highway rest-stop, is going to be a nightmare.
At least, that’s what I learned on Saturday afternoon as a diverse multitude of people gathered in front of the purple granite counter, shouting and yelling for Aam Ahmed to bring them feteer mishaltit, a buttery cross between bread and pastry, hot and fresh from the ovens.
With the grabbing and yelling, it’s surprising anything gets done at all. Aam Ahmed says it’s common for people to take more than they ordered. He gathers all the little receipts at once and can’t keep track of each one. It’s all up to personal honesty and the feteer hoarders were in evidence the day I went. Afte rall if you are going to yell I want my one feteer” it looks really strange when you walk off with two or three. While I was standing there, one man ‘told on’ another – but the feteer smuggler had already left.
What is it that makes people so crazy about feteer? “It’s strange that this is how they organize it, the feteer is not cheap,” claims Mona, a woman in the crowd who was on her way back from her house in Rowad. And it’s not: a whole feteer costs 30 L.E., a quarter 9 L.E. – whereas feteer in Cairo is often 10 if not 20 L.E. less than that.
The crowd grumbles quietly to one another till Aam Ahmed appears again and it’s like a scene from a stock market floor or a gathering outside a subsidized bread stand. Suddenly, a disturbance – one angry customer notices a leak in the mishaltit onto plates for the clients seated in the restaurant area. “Feteer is coming out from over there!” He exclaims. The mob turns… they notice the plates of feteer, a large group break off and head out to investigate. They surround the waiters and start yelling and shouting – literally grabbing at the plates.
But the skirmish is short-lived as Aam Ahmed appears with a new batch of feteer boxes. “I’ve been here for 2 hours! Two and a half hours!” Yells a man from the back. Everyone snickers: he just walked up 20 minutes ago.
