Egypt's disco and Qur'an evenings

In Egypt, entertainment and nights out vary from area to area, but everyone, no matter their income levels, can always manage a good time for themselves and their loved ones. Locals in the poor areas gather family members for a feast of such traditional dishes as stuffed cabbage and grape leaves and koshari: a mixture of rice, pasta and brown lentils doused with tomato sauce and garlicky vinegar. In the summer, they sit outside their homes, sipping tea and chattering the night away. Come holidays, they take to parks, armed with food: yet more stuffed veggies, chicken, fava bean and falafel sandwiches, all washed down with chilled soda. The kids play football on the grass and run around to their hearts' content before it's time to collect the empty pots and pans and head back home. In trendier quarters, society women and men meet up at Cairo's top social clubs: el-Said, el-Gezira, el-Shams, el-Maadi. The sporty types will run a lap or two, or else join the lazier sort at a table in the open-air, where the great and the good can catch up on each other's news and brag about their latest purchases and travels. Egypt's club set can usually be found at the North Coast in the summer, partying long into the night. Music hit-makers are sometimes invited to spend their day at the beach and their evening at a cool new discotheque. It's usually male stars who are invited: Amr Diab, Tamer Hosni, Ahmed Hamaki, but sometimes Nancy Ajram –'Agram' to Egyptians, or, more commonly, just Nancy—Haifa Wehbe or Carole Samaha. Middle class boys head downtown of an evening, where they gather at coffee shops to smoke hookah and drink teas, coffees and iced juices. Weekends, of course, are for football. Girls, on the other hand, take quiet walks along the Nile banks, snacking on salted lupinus seeds and boiled hummus. Down south, in Upper Egypt, the Koran is the soundtrack of the evenings. They sit around the mandara (a spacious hall where locals gather for weddings and funerals) and listen to enchanting performances by Koran readers, either famous or homegrown. Tea features heavily in all Upper Egyptian occasions