22 oktober 2009 - George Lewis (27), a Master student of Embedded Systems, has been in the Netherlands for just two months. His room is a living-room, bedroom and kitchen all bundled into one. On an electric burner George cooks a typically Egyptian meal for Cursor.

His mother whispered the recipe into his ear, which is now hanging on the mirror as a crib. Despite her help it is no easy job to put a real Egyptian meal on the table. “It is quite difficult to find the right ingredients. Fortunately Google Translate often helps me on the way quite a bit”, says George, smiling. “Apart from that, however, Dutch vegetables taste quite different from those in Egypt. Take an eggplant, for instance; here it is like a sponge and absorbs all the oil. Egyptian eggplants are not like that. I think that this is due to the difference in climate. Also, it is difficult to get fresh herbs. We mainly use fresh herbs in the kitchen, not the dried variety.”

As George neatly follows the recipe, he tells us about his first impressions in Eindhoven. “I had expected flowers and windmills, but you don’t see those here. Fortunately there are attractive little villages such as Nuenen.” When he started exploring the neighborhood on his bike, he ended up on the motorway: “That was funny. Cars started honking and flashing their lights. Later I found out that nobody cycles on the motorway. In Egypt you can do this everywhere.”

George conjures up a delicious meal veering from one pan to another. Cursor is presented with a delicious creamy white sauce (Kishk) with zucchini stuffed with rice and tomato (Mahshi). And chicken with rosemary. “Rosemary is not Egyptian, but quite delectable”, says our chef. Meanwhile George switches on the computer and his mother appears online. Cursor waves and compliments his mother. According to George his mother would not be content with the Mahshi; she makes it much better. We are impressed. Even nicer? Cursor has had enough. That is not an option, though. George: “It is impossible that you would not like some more. My mother would be insulted.” All right then, we are taking one more bite.

The recipe may be found on the forum of www.tuemeetingplace.nl. Would you like us to savor your skills as a chef? Mail to engcursor@tue.nl.