“Pace yourself,” warns Laila Hassaballa, co-owner of Bellies En-Route, Cairo’s first and currently only food tour company, as I dive into a heaped plate of macarona bechamel (Egyptian lasagne) at Macarona Reda (56 Mansour St), a typical family-run restaurant that isn’t even listed on TripAdvisor, let alone in any guidebook I’ve come across. “You’re going to be eating a lot of food this evening.”

But I can’t help myself. The local variation of the Italian classic – spiced ground meat mixed with macaroni, smothered in bechamel sauce and baked – is delicious, if a little taxing to digest in the afternoon heat. It’s just one of many unexpectedly tasty local dishes I sample in downtown Cairo over the course of several gut-busting hours, most of which I’ve never heard of before.

Influenced just as much by its location as by that of its many rulers – from the Ottomans to the British, the French to the Arabs – Egyptian cuisine, dominated by rich flavours, fava beans and carbs, is unique. Travel to Egypt, however, has traditionally been overshadowed by its ancient relics, with local food relegated to simply something you inhale before falling into bed after a long day at the pyramids. This is something that Laila and her business partner Mia Nezar, Cairo natives and twenty-something foodies, are trying to change.