Zeinobia [1], Tarek Shalaby [2] and Hossam El Hamalawy [3] wrote in their blogs about the launch of Egypt's “most reliable news service” – “El Koshary Today [4].” This is how the El Koshary team likes to describe their new website. It is an English news website that uses sarcasm and imagination to raise awareness of some of the serious (and not so serious) issues plaguing Egyptians. A team of young Egyptians is working behind El Koshary and each person putting in a lot of effort, and bringing a different perspective to the table. They also prefer to remain anonymous for now.
The site also warns readers:
Unfortunately, we predict that some of our readers will take offensive to some of our material. To them, we apologize, but we would politely ask them lighten up. For in the words of one great philosopher, “If we can’t laugh at ourselves, then we are lost.” (Actually, we just made that quote up, but it’s true!)
Also, if you happen to be a celebrity or a figure of authority that has come under the (at times) biting El Koshary sarcasm, we would kindly ask you to keep lawsuits and death threats to a minimum. For one thing, our mothers would not be happy at all with that.
El Koshary logo.
Koshary [5] is a popular traditional Egyptian national dish, which consists of a base of rice, brown lentils, chickpeas, macaroni, and a topping of garlic and vinegar, and spicy tomato sauce. To top this combination of staple foods off, caramelised onions are added as a garnish.
Shalaby explains [2]:
Inspired by Koshary, the main traditional dish that gains its popularity from it’s economical value, yet strong and engaging taste, the writers aim at springing off what is typically Egyptian and reaching out to the world. It is an approach to analyze and constructively criticize the difference aspects of the culture that gave birth to the revolutionary Koshary.