Alexandria Food and Seafood Experience

The tour begins on the waterfront at Anfoushi, the old quarter at the western end of the Eastern Harbor, in the shadow of Qaitbay Citadel. This is where much of Alexandria's small-boat fishing fleet ties up, a crowd of wooden boats painted in blues, reds, and yellows.

Your guide introduces the city's relationship with the sea: the fishermen who go out at night and return in the early morning, the types of fish they catch in the Mediterranean, and the boatyards on the shore, where wooden boats are still built and repaired by hand. If work is underway, you may see a hull taking shape on the slipway.

It is a lively, working place, so watch your step around ropes and nets, and ask before photographing people.

A short walk or drive away is the fish market, where the catch is sold to restaurants, traders, and households. Under the high ceilings, sellers lay out sea bream, sea bass, mullet, sole, squid, shrimp, and crabs on ice, calling out to customers and haggling over prices.

Your guide explains how to tell fresh fish, why prices change with the season and the weather, and which fish Alexandrians prize most. This is a good place to understand the meal you are about to eat, and the market is a feast for photographers.

Floors are often wet, so wear shoes with a good grip. The market is busiest earlier in the day, and its atmosphere changes with the size of the catch.

Next comes the heart of the tour: a seafood meal in Bahari, the old district around the harbor that is famous for its fish restaurants. In many of them, you choose your fish from a display at the counter, it is weighed, and you decide how you want it cooked: grilled over charcoal, fried, or baked with spices.

Your guide helps you order the classics. Look for sayadeya, fish cooked with rice browned with caramelized onions, a dish closely tied to Alexandria; fried calamari and shrimp; crab; and fish soup. The meal arrives with a spread of salads, tahini, pickles, and warm bread.

This is a long, relaxed meal, so take your time. Food and drinks are paid at the restaurant unless your quote includes them, and fish is usually priced by weight.

After the meal, you head into the downtown streets for a taste of what Alexandrians eat on the go. The most famous is kebda eskandarani, Alexandria-style liver, fried quickly with garlic, cumin, and hot green peppers and stuffed into bread. Your guide can ask for it mild if you prefer.

You can also try ful, slow-cooked fava beans that are the breakfast of millions of Egyptians, and taameya, the Egyptian falafel made with fava beans rather than chickpeas, often eaten in a sandwich with salad and tahini.

Portions are small here, as tastings. Your guide chooses busy stalls and shops with a fast turnover, and you can skip any stop if you are full or prefer not to eat street food.

The tour ends on Saad Zaghloul Square, near Raml Station, among the historic cafés and patisseries that recall Alexandria's cosmopolitan past. In the first half of the 20th century, Greek and other European families ran many of the city's pastry shops and tea rooms, and a few of them are still open.

Your guide takes you to one of these, such as Délices, a patisserie dating from the 1920s, for coffee or tea and something sweet: cream cakes, European pastries, or Egyptian favorites such as basbousa and rice pudding.

It is a fitting end, looking out toward the Corniche and the sea. Afterward your driver takes you back to your hotel or the cruise port, or you can stay to walk along the seafront.