Food and drink and restaurants in Luxor

Luxor is missing one attribute from an otherwise impeccable CV as a tourist destination; and that's any epicurean swagger. A geographical conspiracy deprives the city of good fresh fish, and being sandwiched between two deserts limits Luxor 's agricultural fertility. However all is not lost.

The best food is generally served in the top-end hotels, whose architectural finesse can jar with the majesty of the surrounding temples. A more serene alternative is to wait for the daily tourist crush to dissipate and catch a felucca across the Nile to the West Bank. Here the restaurants concentrate on what they know best, indigenous Egyptian cuisine, and the only tangible drawback is the problem of getting home at the end of the evening.

Back on the East Bank Peace Abouzeid Restaurant on the Corniche is a popular riverside haunt. As the majority of Luxor's restaurants are attached to hotels getting served alcohol shouldn't be a problem, however it may be worth a cursory check before you sit down to order.

Mulukhiya
Not many dishes can claim to elicit as polarised emotions as mulukhiya. You'll either love it, but more likely you'll hate it. The main ingredient are the leaves from the eponymous plant, which are commonly boiled into a thick broth, heavily spiced(some may argue to camouflage the plant's flavour) with garlic, bay leaves and coriander. Variations on the mulukhiya theme include preparing the dish with rabbit, chicken or fish and serving it over rice. If any further reasons are needed to test your culinary mettle the ambience of the hotel Al-Gezira's rooftop restaurant, on Luxor 's West Bank, should do the trick.

Stuffed Vine Leaves
Mashi forms the cornerstone of any self-respecting meze. Rather unceremoniously it translates as 'stuffed' and usually refers to vine leaves wrapped round a mixture of rice, pine nuts and dill, then rolled into the shape of a stubby cigar. As a rule of thumb, the more slender the mashi the greater the chance that it will be a vegetarian affair, as those containing ground lamb tend to be more stocky and arrive hot from the oven.

Asiir( fruit juices)
In a country where the majority of locals are on the wagon, non-alcoholic drinks have been elevated to an art form. Juice stalls are found in most streets and easily identified as they're garlanded with their raw ingredients: bags of oranges( bortuaan), staffs of sugar cane( asab), bowls of strawberries( farawla) and bunches of bananas( mohz). The fruits are blended, squeezed or - in the case of sugar cane - mangled, then cooled with ice before being served either 'straight' or as a 'punch' - the ideal excuse to bring in some of the more exotic fruits such as guava( guafa), mango (manga) and pomegranate (rumman).

Bamya( okra)
By first soaking the bamya in vinegar, the Egyptians have found a way of distancing the texture of okra from that of glue, transforming this often marginalized legume into a succulent national staple. For many its tastiest incarnation is as a constituent of a tagen, a clay pot which western eyes would liken to a casserole. Other ingredients commonly finding their way into the tagen include hunks of lamb or beef, garlic, onions, tomato and cumin. Served on a bed of rice the final touches are a liberal dousing with lemon juice and a sprinkling of freshly chopped mint.

Basturma
At a spot equidistant between Luxor and Aswan many tourists' jaws have been known to drop. For some it's the resplendence of Kom Ombo's riverside temple, for others it's simply the quickest way to administer their basturma fix. A not so distant cousin of pastrami, basturma is a speciality of the region and a symptom of its location, at the terminus of the arduous '40 day road' from the Sudan. The road's traffic, and cargo, are camels heading for the neighbouring Daraw Camel market, where some are destined to end up dried, spiced and sliced as basturma.