Double article - Quails / Benyamin

El- BIYASSA

Grilled Quails

Attarine is one of the most culturally mixed neighbourhoods of Alexandria. Essentially working class, it is close to the Cairo train station Mehatet Misr, so that migrants arriving from Upper Egypt or the countryside often just stepped off the train and sought rooms in nearby Attarine. In addition, there were a variety of inhabitants from the foreign communities, especially the Greeks and the Shawam, as the Lebanese and Syrians were called, as well as Jews. Lively and bustling, it is full of women calling to each other out of windows, and laundry hanging from the balconies to dry, along with the bunches of garlic and onion.

This is the colourful setting of Alexandria’s most famous quail restaurant. Originally owned by the Lebanese Elias, it took its name from its location. The tiny square which is a cloth and bales market by day, known as El Biyassa (from the Italian piazza, or square), is transformed by night into a grill, which offers quails, beqfiquoes and pigeons to people from all walks of life.

From September to November migrating quails are offered, but during the rest of the year only the raised local variety – not as tasty – can be had. The place is as simple as can be. Unassuming tables and chairs set in the small square, with the grill close by, and the cats weaving in and out of the tables and your legs.

The owner is now Egyptian, and the name of the restaurant is Malek el Semman (King of Quails) but nobody knows the name. It is called, as it has been for generations, El Biyassa, in another tongue La Piazza, which by force of habit and cross-cultural influence seems to have better stuck in the Alexandrian mind as to usurp the place of King of Quails.

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BENYAMIN / MOHAMED AHMED

If Tamvaco and Clenzo changed their identity when they changed ownership, Benjamin rose to greater heights when it became Mohamed Ahmed. One of the most famous ful shops in Alexandria, Egypt.

Mohamed Ahmed really began in two places. This is how it happened. The senior Mohamed Ahmed started his business in 1918. His first shop was in Manshieh in Midan Street, which is now El Nasr Street. It was a ful and falafel shop which continued to function there until 1957.

Restaurent Mohamed Ahmed / Benyamin Alexandria

Benjamin started as a foul shop in 1932, on 17 Shakour Street off Ramleh Station. The shop was situated in its present location near the Jewish synagogue. Benjamin was a rabbi and it was convenient for him to be near his foul shop.

When he left Alexandria in 1957, he asked the two sons of Mohamed Ahmed if they wanted to buy him out. They bought his shop and still own it. The shop is still famous for its ful and falafel. However, new items have been added to the menu: fried cheese, lentil soup and eggs.

Falafel 

Its clientele are from all walks of life. Tourists and visitors to Alexandria make it a point to go and eat there. It is the Mecca of ful and falafel in Alexandria. Famous characters such as Queen Sophia of Spain, Prince Henrich of Denmark, Naguib Mahfouz the Egyptian Nobel Laureate, Demis Roussous the Alexandrian/Greek singer, Fouad el Mohandess the comedian, Soad Hosny the actress, Mustafa and Ali Amin the journalists, Ahmed Zoweil the Egyptian Nobel Laureate, and the children of Gamal Abdel Nasser have all patronized Mohamed Ahmed.

Ful or Foul

When Mustafa Amin walked one day into Mohamed Ahmed, nobody recognized him. He ate his meal and left. Two days later he wrote an article in the daily paper Al Akhbar in his column “Fikra” all about his experience in the eatery. He said that eating ful was like eating turkey. He pointed out that the shop caters for all kinds of people, and that ministers and porters are all treated the same.

In 1979 Benjamin’s daughter came to Alexandria. She went to the shop, and after she had eaten, she introduced herself to the owners. Every time she comes to Alexandria, she goes there to eat ful.

Credit goes back to Original Articles from the site "Gastronomy" Bibliotheca Alexandrina