Luxor4u

I just Googled "Gibna Beida" because I wanted to see if I could find a particular use of it. What I was surprised to find was tons of Web sites saying it is "similar to feta." It is nothing like feta cheese (which is available in Egypt) either in taste or texture and it is clear one idiot who didn't know any better posted that somewhere on the Web and everyone else simply copied (and more often plagiarized) him or her without ever having eaten gibna beida!

[face=Comic Sans MS]So if it isn't like Feta, what is it like? What is it's texture, flavour and other qualities? What is it best used for/in?[/face]

The texture is a smooth soft cheese and it has a mild taste. It actually has quite a bit of liquid in it as if you leave it sitting for a while it starts to leak water. The light salt kind I use as a substitute for cream cheese in cheesecake and the like, although cream cheese is available. It doesn't have the same texture as cream cheese to begin with (it is softer) but the resulting texture in the finished cake is indistinguishable. The taste is slightly different but as you can imagine, no one could ever make a cheesecake with feta so the feta comparison is really inappropriate!

There are soft, creamy feta cheeses, eg. Danish and some made here, especially in Tasmania, so maybe they are refering to them and not the harder, crumbly Greek style, do you think? They also "leak" after standing. I personally prefer them, finding Greek feta too dry. I have had this soft type in Luxor (assume it was from the family water buffalo snoozing outside) and really enjoyed it.

The soft feta is sold in Egypt. It is the only kind of feta available and neither in texture nor taste is it like gibna beida. It is not made at home but rather is sold in a carton. If the cheese you had was made at home it is likely to be gibna arish.

Interesting. Euuuwwww....feta in cheesecake! So what is the difference in meaning of beida and arish, please? The arish was just served alone on a plate.

I was searching for mish today and came across this-all you ever wanted to know and didn't want to know about arish:

http://books.google.com.eg/books?id=dU6 ... #PPA181,M1

Thanks, GD.