Black pips, white pips, salted peanuts, and peanuts from Aswan are placed in mounds on a cart, with a little oven beneath to keep the pips and peanuts warm and crisp. They are sold in slim paper bags. Pips are cracked as people watch television in the evenings – in the past it was as they listened to the radio. They also used to be sold at the entrance of cinemas, and the sound of pips being cracked accompanied the voice of the actors even in the posh cinemas. They are now replaced by popcorn.

The carts are still popular along the Corniche and tram, in addition to the roasteries that sell the pips and peanuts (often to be found near a coffee beans roastery). It is now common to buy them vacuum packed, or manually packed in small nylon packets stapled at the top with the name of the roastery stamped on it.

Pips are to be found all around the Mediterranean, in different forms. They are, as in Alexandria, used to pass the time and are called “passa tempo” in Rhodes, which literally means “pass the time”, and is the equivalent of the Egyptian word for pips and peanuts: “tassaly”.