This week, I was blessed with two foodie adventures courtesy of the fam. On Monday, I ventured to one of my favorite cozy cafes, Thistle, and on Saturday, I attended the local Egyptian Festival for some delicious eats. I covered Thistle in a previous post, which you can find here.
Special thanks to my mom, dad, and Aunt Bee for the incredible times.
Let’s Head to Thistle
Mondays usually suck, but not this Monday. I’ve become accustomed to being an early bird lately, so at 9 am on this lovely Monday morning, I drove down to Thistle Bookshop and Cafe for coffee and catchup. I met up with my aunt and we sat outside. The warm, morning sun hugged us as we sipped our drinks and indulged. It’s never too early for any type of baked good.
She ordered a black tea with the Caramilk stuffed cookie. I had an oat milk latte (my go-to order) and the cherry crumble. At my last visit, they were all sold out of the cherry crumble so I was excited to finally get my hands on it.
After our delicious after-breakfast snack, we headed down to the water and took a leisurely stroll on the beach. If every Monday was like this, I’d be in heaven.
15th Annual Egyptian Festival
On Saturday, I attended the 15th Annual Egyptian Festival. It’s located at a local church. As you drive up, there are local vendors outside selling everything from clothing to personal care items. Once you enter the building, you can venture around a giftshop containing Egyptian books, jewelry, and other artifacts. They also offer a free tour around the church.
Egyptian Food is AMAZING!
Let’s get to the burning question. The food. I can’t even begin to say how incredibly impressed I was. The food was absolutely out of this world and I definitely will be returning next year. They offered an extensive menu, but I only snapped a picture of what we ordered so I could remember it. Now that I’m writing this, I realized I should’ve taken a picture of the entire menu. My apologies. There was a variety of sandwiches, falafel, chicken, beef, and vegetarian dishes. For drinks, you could have coffee, tea, water, mango juice, or a hibiscus drink.
We ordered the grilled chicken, beef shawarma, and Koshary. I thought the Koshary was an interesting blend, but it worked so beautifully. It’s a delicious and heavenly mixture of rice, pasta, chickpeas, and lentils, coated with tomato sauce and fried onions. I was skeptical once I read the description, but WOW, I was blown away at this sublime blend of ingredients.
Egyptian Desserts are Top Tier
Next up, the desserts. I have the biggest sweet tooth, so I had a hard time deciding between the Basbousa and the Zalabia. I ended up deciding on the Basbousa, a sweet semolina cake. There is a Greek Festival happening in September, so I’ll grab the other stuff then. I think it’s known as Loukoumades in Greek. Simply put, it’s fried dough coated in honey. Perfection.
There was also a small table selling cookies, lentils, and other Egyptian goods. Naturally, we grabbed a pack of cookies to go too.
Overall, it was a fantastic week. I had an amazing time at both Thistle and The Egyptian Festival. I’ll be returning to both and already look forward to next year.