Easter Fesikh and Renga Food Tasting Challenge

A long time ago, the idea of eating fish that may be rotten disturbed me. But every year on Sham al-Nessim, like many Egyptian families, that’s what we did at family gatherings, and then throughout the years, as my age grew, so did my appetite, overpowering my fear of stinky fish.

Renga is basically a salty smoked fish, so there’s no issue there. Fesikh, on the other hand, is a fish that is left to dry in the sun, then buried in lots and lots of salt underground. If air reaches it in any way during this burial process, it becomes toxic.

Every year there are stories of people getting sick or even fatalities after eating rotten fesikh over Sham al-Nessim. So I had to be careful choice of where to taste from — there's no such thing as a “food tasting martyr,” you know.

I'm not an easy person to impress: never had a favorite anything, whether food, color, or place. I enjoy traditions, but routines kill me slowly. And I deeply love food but don’t deal well with having too many things to choose from. Plus, everyone always has their opinion about where to get the best anything, and I felt I wanted to have my own opinion but based on something more solid than habit or my preference for a certain place. Hence, the Fesikh and Renga Food Tasting Challenge.

And so I went on a stinky mission to find the best fesikh and renga in Cairo. My criteria was that the fish should be ready to eat with no bones. I asked friends for recommendations and then bought a small amount from each place and tasted them all.

What I needed: Dettol hand wash, toothpaste and brush, Listerine mouthwash, Dettol sanitizer, water, chewing gum and lots of prayers! The only thing that gets rid of the smell, whether it is on your hands or plates, is Dettol: lots of it.

My findings

Renga:

1. Gourmet: with a simple mix, has a unique, great smoky flavor, which is very different from the usual renga taste.
2. Petro: delicious and just the right level of salty, plain with no oil or veggies.
3. Seoudi: the oil and lemon were nice, but overall it was too salty. The tahini was good but undercuts the sharp renga taste.
4. Kadoura: the salad was good with fish eggs and tiny edible bones, but, due to the tahini, there is that strong fish tahini taste, while the taste of the renga is almost non-existent.
5. Al-Zahraa Women Association: very nice, the only one that tasted like fish, the renga fish had a fresh and natural texture, but it’s missing something.

The renga winner: a tie between Petro and Gourmet — Petro for a classic understated renga, and Gourmet for something a bit different with a unique smoky flavor.

Fesikh:

1. Kadoura: great taste, it is cut into small pieces, and I didn't need to add anything, not even a drop of oil.
2. Petro: nice, but saltier than Kadoura's.
3. Seoudi: a bit of a weird taste due to the oil and too many additional spices, as the original fesikh taste is not there.

The fesikh winner: Kadoura

The bottom line is that they were all good, and I recommend the ones I mentioned above, apart from Kadoura's tahini renga or Seoudi's fesikh salad, for the simple reason that they don’t have the renga or fesikh taste at all. Come to think of it, this would probably be a plus for those not so into the taste of renga and fesikh, but, to these people, I say they’re better off just going for a Greek salad.

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