Many of our staple Egyptian dishes have a colorful history: Molokhiya, for example, may be widely eaten today but it hasn’t always been seen as a source of good nutrition. The ancient Egyptians feared it was poisonous, so wouldn’t eat it, and later on a 9th century Egyptian ruler forbade people from eating it. Though you might expect Sawabea Zainab to have a gruesome origin story involving fingers, you can rest easy, but Umm Ali has an origin story worthy of a Shakespearean play. Umm Ali herself was the first wife of the first Mamluk Sultan of Egypt, and she killed the Sultan’s murderous second wife (after the second wife had killed the Sultan). Umm Ali then baked her eponymous dessert in celebration and added a gold coin to every dish, distributing dishes throughout the country. Or at least so the legend goes.

Pyramid-building foodies: Going back even further in time, you might be surprised at just how much of our diet today is influenced by our ancient Egyptian ancestors. Thanks to the Nile and the fertile lands surrounding it, the people of ancient Egypt ate very well, growing a variety of fruit and vegetables including onions, garlic, leeks, lentils, lettuce, radishes, and turnips. They also had ample sources of protein, such as wild poultry, and fish, which they often dried. Cooking methods were varied and sophisticated, and they enhanced the flavor of their food with spices such as cumin, coriander, and cinnamon.

Baladi bread: The food of our ancestors. Bread was an absolute staple even in ancient Egypt, eaten by both the rich and the poor and made on a daily basis. And in an instance of different branches of science mirroring one another, there is evidence that 3,000-year-old ancient Egyptian emmer wheat may have been the genetic antecedent to many different species of wheat found in the world today.