What Does Cairo Taste Like? We Fed It to Mena Massoud to Find Out

Some people come to Cairo for the pyramids. Others come for the soul-stirring chaos. Mena Massoud came for the promo tour of his new Egyptian action flick Fe Ez El Dohr - and left with indigestion, spiritual clarity, and a new appreciation for street vendors.

In a noble effort to answer the eternal existential riddle - what does Cairo really taste like? - we kidnapped the Aladdin star and subjected him to a full day of culinary and cultural hazing. He ate ta’ameya the size of a CD, got lost somewhere between Old Cairo and memory lane, and contemplated the meaning of life over a molokhia so viscous it could legally be classified as a non-Newtonian fluid.

He also visited iconic spots he’d somehow never seen before, despite every Egyptian auntie insisting he’d been there “as a child.” We fixed that. Dramatically.