Kushari History

Kushari History

Hobson-Jobson sites the Moroccan explorer Ibn Batuta (circa 1300) mention of kishri as a dish in India composed of rice and mung beans. Kishri is also described in the writings of Afanasiy Nikitin, a Russian adventurer who travelled to the South Asia in the 15th century. It is widely believed that the dish was brought to the United Kingdom by returning British colonials who had enjoyed it in India and introduced it to the UK as a breakfast dish in Victorian times called Kedgeree. It became part of the then fashionable Anglo-Indian cuisine.

In the 19th Century colonial Egypt under British rule, Cairo was a cosmopolitan city very much like New York is today, where dishes and flavours of the different Mediterranean cultures converged. The British colonials introduced the Kedegree to Cairo and soon enough the Italians living there introduced pasta (elbow pasta) and tomato sauce to it. Very soon the Egyptians added the fried onions and their special sauce “ daqqa” with vinegar garlic and the secret spice mix. The “Classic Kushari” was born and became Egypt’s national food and its most favorite street food.

Kusharista takes this heritage of multiculturism and diversity , and infuses flavours from Europe, Asia and Latin America creating culinary experiences that can only take roots in the multicultural Great City of New York.

Kusharista with its diverse flavours was born in 2016 NYC…