Forget bacon and eggs - this breakfast dish of millions is truly great

Sydney Morning Herald

16-06-2025

The dish: Ful medames, Egypt
Plate up What are you having for breakfast most days? Bacon and eggs? Toast? Weet-Bix? You haven't lived. What about starting your day with a heaving bowl of slow-cooked beans, a rich stew carrying aromas of cumin, olive oil, garlic and lemon? Perhaps you could pair it with fresh bread, or boiled eggs – or just with a large spoon? If your answer is 'please give me that', there's a good chance you're either Egyptian or from another North African nation, and you understand the greatness of ful medames.
This seemingly simple breakfast dish is a staple for millions in the likes of Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Somalia and more. Its creation, as with so many staple meals of the world, is relatively simple: onions and garlic are softly sauteed in olive oil, before spices like cumin are added, then sometimes chopped tomatoes, and then pre-soaked fava beans, which are cooked with water and salt for hours until they break down to form a creamy stew. The finished product is topped with diced tomatoes, parsley, onion and lemon juice, and breakfast is served.
First serve This dish goes way back. There's a theory that ful medames was being eaten during Ancient Egyptian times. Evidence of the consumption of fava beans has been found from more than 2600 years ago, and there's written history of ful being eaten in Jerusalem in the fourth century. Legend has it, too, that in the Middle Ages ful medames was prepared overnight in Cairo at a popular bathhouse, where cooks would use the embers leftover from the fires used to heat water for the spa.
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Order there In Cairo, try this popular breakfast staple at the equally popular eatery Zooba (zoobaeats.com).
Order here In Sydney, get yourself to Cairo Takeaway in Newtown, which does a great ful (cairotakeaway.com). In Melbourne, head to the excellent Khartoum City Cafein Footscray (khartoumcitycafe.com.au). In Brisbane, try the Ethiopian version at Arhibu (arhiburestaurant.com.au).
One more thing Eagle-eyed Egyptians would have spotted a mistake in this story. The bean used traditionally in Egypt is not technically a fava bean, but rather a native brown bean called, you guessed it, ful medames. Fava beans are the substitute in the rest of the world.