Ramadan provides an annual opportunity for restaurants to show off their best meals for the hungry fasting crowd. The food business thrives as customers line up to find a seat in dinner halls, fast food outlets and ‘shaaby chic’ kitchens.

But there are other establishments to choose from once you’re done with lengthy family dinners at home, local places only known by name and neglected by reviewers. We, a meat-loving Egyptian and a flexible vegetarian foreigner with a shared love of food, go on a culinary quest through the streets of Cairo to experience Ramadan beneath the surface.