Fresca comes from the Italian, meaning “fresh”. Fresca vendors carry little glass boxes and sell caramelized sesame, peanuts or pistachios (and almonds in the past) wedged between two small “wafers”, or larger wafers smeared with honey. The box frames used to be wooden, but now with modernization, the wooden frames have been replaced with aluminum ones. Though Alexandrians have a nostalgia for the old wooden variety, the vendors themselves prefer the aluminum frames, since the humidity would not rot them, for fresca is sold only on the beach. As you walk on any beach on the Egyptian north coast, from Abu Kir in the east to Mersa Matrouh in the west, you can find sun-kissed boys or men carrying the glass boxes on their shoulders, calling “fresca, fresca” in a typically nasal tone.