Egyptian fish names in English

The names people mix up

Bouri and barbouni are not the same fish. Bouri is grey mullet, the one that goes on the charcoal, and barbouni is red mullet, a small red fish that is fried crisp. Qeshr bayad and bayad baladi are different too: the first is Nile perch, thick-fleshed and the one to fillet, and the second is a scaleless Nile catfish.

Wa'ar names a whole family of fish rather than one: the groupers. Hamour, sherifa and nagil belong to the same family, each with its own look and price: hamour is covered in small orange spots, sherifa is red and spotted, and nagil is orange-red with small blue spots. The same goes for the three that look alike: calamari is squid, sobeit is cuttlefish, and okhtabout is octopus.

The words next to the name

Sweisy means from Suez, as in marjan sweisy and the Suez shrimp lines. Baladi means local, as in bayad baladi. Jumbo means a big grade, as in jumbo sardines and jumbo shrimp. Kabir, wasat and soghayar are large, medium and small, dakar means male, as in kaboria dakar, the large male crab, and mostawrad means imported, as in the mackerel and the Norwegian salmon.

The numbers next to shrimp, such as 20/30, are the count of pieces per kilo: the higher the number, the smaller the shrimp, and the shrimp guide explains each size. When you write or search for makarona, shaour or sobeit, add samak, the word for fish: samak makarona, samak shaour, sobeit samak. On their own those words mean something else entirely.

Ordering by name, in English

The whole site works in Arabic, English and French, and most items show their name in your language with the Egyptian name beside it. Choose the item and the weight, then the preparation: whole, gutted and scaled, filleted, steaks or butterflied for grilling, depending on the fish. Fish is weighed whole before cleaning, preparation is a fixed price per kilo shown before you add to the cart, and the order reaches you the next day with cash on delivery.