Fesikh

Fesikh (Egyptian Arabic: فسيخ fesīḵ  pronounced [feˈsiːx, fɪˈsiːx]) is a traditional Egyptian fish dish consisting of fermented salted and dried gray mullet, of the mugil family, a saltwater fish that lives in both the Mediterranean and the Red Seas. ^[1] Fesikh is eaten during the Sham el-Nessim festival, which is a spring celebration from ancient times in Egypt.

The traditional process of preparing Fesikh is to dry the fish in the sun before preserving it in salt. The process of is quite elaborate, passing from father to son in certain families. The occupation has a special name in Egypt, fasakhani. Egyptians in the West have used whitefish as an alternative. Each year food poisoning tales involving incorrectly prepared fesikh appear in Egyptian periodicals.

In April 2012, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issued recalls for whole fesikh mullet, cut up fesikh mullet in oil, and whole fesikh shad that were sold from a store in Toronto. There were 3 reported illnesses associated with the consumption of the products, which may have been contaminated with Clostridium botulinum bacteria. ^[2]

See also

• Surströmming
• List of African dishes
• List of dried foods
• Hákarl (an Icelandic shark dish fermented in salt)

References

v t e African cuisine List of African dishes National cuisines Algeria Angola Benin Botswana Burkina Faso Burundi Cameroon Central African Republic Chad Democratic Republic of the Congo Djibouti Egypt Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gabon Gambia Guinea Guinea-Bissau Ghana Côte d'Ivoire Kenya Lesotho Liberia Libya Madagascar Malawi Mali Mauritania Mauritius Morocco Namibia Niger Nigeria Rwanda São Tomé and Príncipe Senegal Seychelles Sierra Leone Somalia South Africa Sudan Swaziland Tanzania Togo Tunisia Uganda Zambia Zimbabwe Ethnic and regional cuisines Arab cuisine Jewish cuisine Mediterranean cuisine North African cuisine West African cuisine Category    Commons   WikiProject Food and drink   WikiProject Africa