Imagine, mixing into a single dish, pasta, rice, lentil, chick peas, onions and garlic
  and adding to this chili sauce. The idea sounds horrific, until one tries out an Egyptian favorite called Koshary.

“I had always heard about Koshary, and its importance to Egyptians. You
can see it in movies and you would hear Egyptians in Saudi Arabia
describe it as the most delicious traditional dish, so I was keen to
try it the moment I came to Egypt. Now I’m an addict,” said Wael Fawaz,
a Syrian medical student at Misr (Cairo) University for Science and
Technology. “You can’t visit Egypt and not eat Koshary, you’ll miss a
lot,” he added.

Koshary is a traditional Egyptian meal that
consists of a strange combination of macaroni, spaghetti, rice, black
lentils, chick peas, garlic sauce and a spicy tomato chili sauce, all
topped with fried onions. It is sold from carts by street vendors, in
restaurants or even made at home and each is considered a different
taste experience.

The
Koshary man stands in front of the large containers that hold each of
the dish’s ingredient. Usually, there is a line of people waiting to be
served. Once you place your order, you stand in a row waiting to give
the Koshary man your receipt that states the price of your dish. At the
moment you give him the receipt the Koshary man grabs a bowl, and
scoops a little of each ingredient into the bowl and sends it to your
table. Each Koshary dish takes about five seconds to prepare (of
course, after the ingredients are cooked).
                  
His speed can be surprising to you. “I have worked here since we opened
10 years ago, and before that I sold Koshary on a street cart, so I
have to be fast. My hands are accustomed to the same movements I do all
day everyday, so you can say that I memorized the movements rather than
think about them,” said Aziz Awad, a Koshary man in one of the
restaurants downtown.

As
the Koshary man scoops, he knocks his metal spoon against the sides of
the bowls, making the Koshary symphony that you won’t hear elsewhere.
When the Koshary man prepares an
order of more than four the restaurant fills with sound as if it was a
rehearsal for a concert. “The restaurants of Koshary are very noisy.
One sits to eat while the Koshary man practices his drums in your ears.
It’s weird but I guess it’s a part of the Egyptian identity which you
get used to in time,” said Fawaz.
                  
At
the table, all the dishes are aluminum except the two glass bottles
that contain two different kinds of sauce, one made from vinegar and
oil, the other from spicy red pepper. “The chili is a whole new
dimension for the meal. You can eat Koshary and it would taste good,
but for it to be this delicious you have to use chili. That creates all
the taste,” said Waleed Abdullah, an office boy.

Koshary
is considered a meal that is inexpensive yet fills up the stomach of an
average Egyptian. “Koshary is something I love; I can have it for
breakfast, lunch and dinner. It’s eaten anytime, anywhere. I can eat it
standing, sitting, at work or at home,” said Abdullah. “It’s a meal
that is both affordable and delicious.

Editor’s note:

On Tour Egypt, we have several recipes, one in our recipe section and another from our famed cook, Mary Kay Radnich, which is probably
                  the better of the two.

The essence of procrastination is very well
reflected in this quote by Bernard Meltzer:
"Hard work is often the easy work you did
not do at the proper time."

Are you affected?

Have you ever seen your most important tasks
being put off until later and then later and
later, while you are getting busy with many
not so important activities?
Did you hope
that you may have more time and better mood
in the future to start the task and do it
properly? Does an approaching deadline mean
a crisis for you? Do you keep hesitating
every time you make a decision?

If you often see
yourself in such low productivity situations, then there is a
big chance that your life got under control
of the procrastination habit. And those
situations are only the most explicit
symptoms.

What is it?

A basic definition of procrastination is putting off the things that you should be doing now.
This happens with all of us time after time.

Yet, what makes  a big difference for your
success is your ability to recognize
procrastination reasons and expressions in their different forms, and
to promptly take them under control, before this
bad habit steals your opportunities, damages your
career and pride, or destroys your relationships.
So why do not you do it now?

Causes of procrastination

What are typical reasons why you procrastinate?

Here are a few of the most common situations
to consider in your anti procrastination efforts.

It can be as simple as

• Waiting for the right mood
• Waiting for the right time

Then look at the way you organize your work.
You may notice other reasons for procrastination like

• Lack of clear goals
• Underestimating the difficulty of the tasks
• Underestimating the time required to complete the tasks
• Unclear standards for the task outcomes
• Feeling as the tasks are imposed on you from outside
• Too ambiguous tasks

And there are also many connections with

• Underdeveloped decision making skills
• Fear of failure or fear of success
• Perfectionism