Koshari or kosheri is a very simple dish which is commonly eaten all over Egypt. You can buy it in specialised shops called Kosharias. It's a simple, tasty and filling dish, and quite inexpensive. If you want to eat it as a meal it's nice to serve it with a salad.

There are many variations but this is how I made it a couple of days ago:

• one small can or jar of cooked lentils (yes, I took a shortcut there)
• similar amounts of rice and pasta (preferably a small kind)
• one or two onions
• three or four tomatoes
• two cloves of garlic
• one red pepper, medium hot
• olive oil
• small can of tomato puree
• salt, pepper, cumin, coriander (all ground)
  

Cook both the pasta and the rice, making sure they'll be ready at about the same time.

Peel and cut the onions and the garlic, heat a few spoons of oil in a frying pan or skillet, and fry them.
Cut the red pepper in small bits and add those. Leave the seeds in if you like it hot.
Wash and dice the tomatoes and add those as well. Simmer for a while, and then add tomato puree and half a mug of water. Season to taste (salt, pepper, ground cumin seeds and ground coriander seeds spring to mind). Let it all simmer to form a sauce.

By now, the pasta and rice are probably done. Drain the pasta and add the rice (or add the pasta to the rice, depending on which is in the larger pot). Add the lentils, mix gently and heat on low heat.

Serve the lentil/rice/pasta mixture with the spicy tomato sauce on top.

[Error: unknown template 'qotd'] I would have hit the brakes, instead of counting on the sheep to stay where they were. So they would not have crossed the railroad I was riding my motorbike on, right in front of me; and I would not have hit one of them and fallen down. I wouldn't have hit my shoulder on the iron rail, tearing a muscle, and the sheep would not have had its leg broken. And the sheperds would not have come to make us pay for the sheep.

Oh well. It makes for a good story now.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
Those of you who can read Dutch, and enjoy the few Africa tidbits I have posted here, might like to visit my Travel Scrapbook. It has lots of stories.
Information of a more factual kind about this trip can be found here.


The pic shows me riding through a banana plantation in Ghana.

(Originally posted on MySpace)
...during my motorcycle trip in 2000, among others:

- various monkeys, mainly in Mali
- 1 elephant (not in a park) in Burkina Faso
- a wolf-like animal that was running along with us for a while, in Mauretania
- a bright green snake that was crossing the road
- flamingoes and pelicans and other birds in Mauretania
- a desert fox, very pretty, in Sudan
- giraffes in Niger
- small white herons of the kind that keep the parasites off the cattle
- an ant-eater in Chad (very briefly)
- a tiny little cameleon, bright green, in Chad
- a very big scorpion without a tail, looks like a spider, inside our mosquito net... the scorpion didn't survive this encounter
- a LOT of frogs in a toilet/bathroom in Senegal, which was good because they kept the cockroaches away
- wonderful vultures in Chad Lake!