Cooks in Alexandria often opt to use shrimp in the soup, while Port Said is famous for using fish. was consumed in ancient Egyptian cuisine, where the name "" is thought to have originated. Many Egyptians consider to be the national dish of Egypt, along with ful medames and kushari. The Egyptian style of preparing molokhiya is distinctive, and is particularly different from the Levantine variant. The molokhiya leaves are picked off the stem, with tall stemmed branches. They are then placed on a large sheet (cloth material) to be left to completely dry for later use. After drying, the leaves are chopped fine, often with a mezzaluna. The leaves are then boiled in broth; if meat or seafood is being used, it is added at this point, and may be bone-in or boneless. Coriander and garlic are fried separately in ghee or oil to make the "ta'leyya" (, literally "a frying" or "fried thing"), and then added to the soup at the end while the ta'leyya is still sizzling. The soup is served on white rice or with a side of Egyptian flatbread (ʿeish baladi). The dish is often accompanied with an assortment of pickled vegetables, known as mekhallel or torshi in Egypt. Tomato sauce, vinegar, and other condiments may also be present. Levantine cuisine The standard molokhia dish in the Levant is prepared by cooking a meat of some sort in a separate pot by boiling. Later garlic is cooked to a simmer, then water and chicken stock cubes are added to form a broth. After boiling, the cooked chicken or meat with the broth coriander and molokhia leaves are added and further cooked another 15 minutes. It is served with white rice and fresh lemon. Also, in northern Lebanon, a dish called mloukhiye b zeit is made using fresh leaves and shoots of the Nalta jute plant, cooked in olive oil, onions, garlic, tomatoes and chilli peppers; it is a popular summer side dish, especially in Miniyeh-Danniyeh and Akkar districts. Bedouins have an old tradition of cooking a different version of the dish. A whole chicken is cut open, the intestines removed, and the innards stuffed with herbs, spices and raw rice then sewn shut with thick thread. The chicken is then boiled to create the broth for the molokhia soup which, after preparation, is served as five separate components: The molokhia soup, Arabic flat bread, the