World Cup Fever...last Cairo blog of the academic year?

Good evening people.

Having found my pillow soaked in sweat tonight (despite the air con in the bedroom running at full tilt) I just had to get up to try to cool down.  It's over 32 degrees inside at the moment and I'm frankly quite happy to call it a day here for the summer and head home!

Tonight was the last of England's group stage matches in the World Cup.  We've been watching the matches at the BCA club 10 mintues' walk away, and have enjoyed the cheap beer and pleasant atmosphere.  Tonight, though, things weren't quite as rosy - the club was experiencing power problems that resulted in the entire crowd being crammed into one room while the employees battled to get power to the televisions in the main 'sports bar' area.

Eventually a solution was found with a very long extension cable being run from one of the few working sockets all the way to the offending television and then being plugged in with one of the least reliable-looking multiway sockets in existance:

It seemed to work for a while but then, with 10 minutes left on the clock...

End of the (academic) year

Laura and Aaron's visit

We've just had a lovely few days with Laura and Aaron visiting on their way from Sacramento to South Africa.

On their first night here we went for a felucca and whilst Aaron took the best picture of the sunset, I thought this was a nice photo of us on the boat.
On their second day they went for a pyramids day, but totally impressed us by coming home (after 7.30am pick up and 4pm drop-off) and wanting to head out to the Khan! We love taking people around Islamic Cairo and on our wander between Muhamed Ali Street and Bab Zuweyla we found a little herbs and spice shop. Aaron managed to buy a 100g bag of mixed spices for 5LE and I was pleased to spy this bookshelf - the owner was a herbal medicine specialist and these books were wonderful.
We made our way through Hussein Square and avoided the main rat run to head over to Gala which is a lovely street at night because it has been renovated to be cleaned up and had lights installed on the mosques. We find that it's really chilled there and so beautiful at night, just with the nice addition of lights. We wandered around for a while and noticed that some new mosques had opened to the public so we went over to see if we could look inside. It was a real "I saw you coming" moment, as the guy at the entrance quickly latched onto us and said he would show us the mosque, mausoleum and tower for 50LE each. We laughed and he immediately dropped this to 30LE and Aaron finally bargained him to 25LE each.
So off we went with the self-named "key holder" (I was just hoping he'd call himself the key master, but he never did). he took us just inside the mosque and then we came to a small locked door. His mate i.e. the other bloke on the door started having a go at him as he took us inside and all I could make out of the Key Man's reply was the arabic word for "fifty". So we get the impression this guy was not happy with us being let up the tower, and so our bloke brushed him off saying we were paying fifty....when in fact we were paying 100 for all four of us!
So a little bit of baksheesh never hurt anyone and we were allowed up the tower. The view over Cairo wasn't too impressive, but what was nice was to be able to see around Islamic Cairo and these well lit and beautifully lit streets and mosques. When we climbed the tower itself - the first good view being from the roof of the mosque - we were told not to step outside the tower...and we could see why as they platform was not safe at all!
On our way back down the Key Man kept telling us to be quiet, so no one would hear us and told us that we shouldn't tell anyone! He poked his head out of the door and once we had the all clear we scampered into the hall. The mosque was lovely and peaceful and the mausoleum was really stunningly decorated. A worthwhile bit of baksheesh and new experience.

After touring around the Khan we were well in the mood for food and went to our staple choice of the Khan El Khalili restaurant - a touristy, but good and reliable restaurant in the middle of the Khan. We've been here a good few times and know that the waiters are very polite for example handing the menu's to the ladies first. So this is what they did and Laura and I received our menu's opened to the main courses page. Aaron received his too. But when Scott received his - it was opened to the main courses page....in arabic! Scott was dead chuffed that they waiter had done this on purpose and so we took a photo to commemorate - Mr Ayman would be so proud!!

mumkin delivery?

I'd been in the market for this purchase for a while now and had always been going back to the same shop in Islamic Cairo (near Khan El Khalili) and asking about prices and trying to bargain. But finally on our recent visit on Monday night I saw exactly what I wanted!
When I saw it I had my heart set on it and started negotiating - although I knew that I'd pay pretty much what they asked as this was just what I wanted.
My negotiating in arabic was limited unfortunately because I didn't know the arabic for a thousand.
After negotiating I had to work out how I was going to get it home. And this was where my arabic classes really came into their own. Thank you Mr Aymen for teaching my how to say my address! So I wrote my address in arabic to start and then confirmed it verbally, saying the street, building number, floor and apartment number. They seemed to understand and I reinforced it with "oroiyeb min Grande Mall" = "near to the Grand Mall".
Then for arranging when they would deliver. I knew the word for "tomorrow" but the next day I wasn't free for a delivery, so I had to try and remember the arabic name for the days of the week. These aren't too bad as they are similar to numbers, but then the guy said "bad bukra?" which I knew meant "after tomorrow". That was good for me, so we shook on it.
So today was bad bukra and I got a few phonecalls from the guy checking I was in and then checking the address - giving me another opportunity to spout off the address. I went downstairs to meet him and our new bowab was around, so he gave me a hand carrying it upstairs and all was good.
So here it is.....
...to be fully revealed in due course!

Re-Use Book Fair at Makan

Got an email from dad yesterday morning that he forwarded me from a mailing list he'd signed up to. The www.egyptmusic.org mailing list in February seemed to have some interesting events running, but now they have branched out. Typical Egyptian organising though for an email to be sent less than 24 hours before something happens! I wanted to try to go, as dad has been helping us a lot by posting things to America. Alas I wasn't able to find anything decent to buy for dad, but here is my tale of my short (about an hour door-to-door) adventure.The place was surprisingly easy to find. I'd looked on their website at their location before, when we were thinking of going to listen to some music there in February, and it looked like it was in the middle of nowhere, baladi central and miles from anything. In reality though it was a block away from a Metro station! The Metro station is on our line too, so it took less than 30 mins to get there from ours. There was also a weird monument/museum as a landmark that helped.
Going inside there was a small reception area with various posters for events around Cairo and music events at the centre. They also had a good display of photographs and musical instruments as their main trade is music events and recordings. Then there's just one room which again is not very big - maybe the size of our living room and half again. There was a balcony over a third of the room which I guess they use for the musical performances, but it looked to be filled with stuff! The balcony made the area under it very dark, but some people were sat there with their purchases.
In terms of the clientele I would describe it as "AUC students"! i.e. young, American and wanting to do good in the world. A bit “artsy” and hopeful. There was one girl who seemed to be organizing it and she was being interviewed by another – for some article I guess…not sure where?!
There were tables around the room each with rows of books on them. Each table was a different price from 5LE up to 60LE per book and you had to pay at the table for what you had picked up. In terms of the books there it was more diverse than I though, but not as diverse as I’d hoped. Some Arabic books, but 85% were in English. I’d feared that it would be a bunch of “chic lit” and “self help” mumbo jumbo that I can’t stand – as this was the main offering when I went to the CSA table-top sale – but alongside this there were new, more challenging reads, some hardbacks and some travel books. There was also a section of sci-fi on the 20LE table, but nothing stood out as worth parting cash for. Among the random finds was an ABBA album from the 70’s, a Wonder Woman book and a book about Gadaffi (latter was on the 60LE table, but otherwise might have been tempted).
The only thing I found that was interesting enough and a good buy was a translated Arabic novel published by AUC – of which I’m building up quite a collection….I started to browse it on the Metro on the way home though and it seems a little more high concept than most; in Maryam’s Maze the central character wakes up to find her world has changed with a new apartment and no trace of her previous life. It is likened to Poe and Palahniuk on the inside cover, so we’ll just have to see what I make of it.
Going back a step, before I left the apartment to search out Makan Scotty reminded me that it was a re-use bring-and-buy affair and so I headed quickly into the back room where we have been accumulating a pile of books that we no longer want. A modest pile compared to the number we do want to keep, but it felt good to go with something to exchange. When I got there though it turned out that you are meant to give them your books beforehand so they can value them. This was too difficult a task for them to do on the hoof it seemed, so I took them home with me.Apparently Eco Options Egypt, who ran the event, will run it every two months, so I’ll just have to keep my eyes peeled for the next chance to get rid of the old and buy some new ;)

Bottle Tags

As you'll be aware, we bottle our homebrew in plain glass bottles.  The vast majority are 'one-way' (i.e. non-returnable) Egyptian Stella bottles.  Some are Luxor bottles, and the others are mixture of small brown session ale bottles donated by friends along with the odd glass pop bottle or random other-beer.

The point is they're a big mix of bottles and so it's unclear what is inside them.  We box up each brew separately, and cap each brew with a different coloured crown cap (gold for Pharoah's Revenge, red for Cleopatra's Asp, and blue for Sauce of the Nile) but the main thing we've done is designed bottle tags to go round the neck.  Rather than labels - which would need to be stuck on and then scrubbed off when we're finished - these just sit on the neck and can be passed from bottle to bottle as we drink one and put another in the fridge.

The point of my blabbering on?  We've just taken the new design for Sauce of the Nile to the print shop to get a few copies run up...

Fine Dining

In the last week we've found ourselves at two of Cairo's fanciest restaurants; the Birdcage at the Semiramis Continental and the Revolving Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt, and so I felt a blog post was in order to record our fine dining experiences.

Our gourmet week started on Thursday with a meal organised by school to thank the team who had put on the gala stage show - you can see Scott's post about this below. To reflect the size of the show, and hence size of the task (!) facing us all, the meal, including drinks, was "their treat". In the past we have gone to La Bodega to celebrate, which is a chic restaurant on Zamalek / 26th July Street, but this time we were treated to what is widely considered the best Thai food in Cairo and apparently the school's owners favourite restaurant. And it did not disappoint!

The hotel itself was naturally very grand and the speed alternating escalators to get us to the first floor were fun. The restaurant itself only had maybe a dozen tables and was very serene and private. When we were presented with the menu I wasn't alone in being totally lost about what to order. I'm sorry to say that the only Thai food I'm familiar with is green curry and being somewhere so nice I didn't want to be predictable. A friend noticed at the back of the menu though that there was a Digestive Menu on offer which included two types of starter, a salad, two types of main course along with noodles and then a desert. Most of the group elected for this as it seemed to give a good spread of the food on offer. Then decisions had to be made about drinks. A wine menu was presented and people agreed a white would go down well. A few bottles of the regular Egyptian wine Omar Kyamm was about to be ordered when the friend with the credit card noticed a New Zealand wine on the list. Being a Kiwi she decided we would order a few bottles of this to start, and then go onto the more reasonably priced Egyptian option.

The wine was divine. I know that rhymes and looks tacky, but it really was delicious. I'm sure my delight was partially a reflection of the lack of good wine that we drink in our time in Cairo, but even so this was so light and tasty that I loved every little sip.

Before the starters, prawn crackers were brought to the table. We ate this taster with dipping sauce. When the starters arrived we realised what we had let ourselves in for. Each plate of starters was for two people, and with two starters per pair suddenly the table was crammed with wonderful looking, smelling and tasting food. We had spring rolls and fish cakes. The spring rolls were lovely - not too heavy at all. The fish cakes had a spidery noodle batter and came with a wonderful dipping sauce that I cannot place or describe apart from it being a perfect accompaniment. I managed to sneak an extra one of these, which made me very happy as they were delicious. No sooner had we made headway into these starters than the salads arrived. The near raw beef salads weren't the selling point of the taster menu for me, but I tried some nevertheless. The sauce was a bit too spicey for my current taste buds, but everyone else enjoyed this dish.

We were still enjoying the wine, and I don't think the Kiwi credit card holder had the heart to change back to an Egyptian bottle with all the appreciative noises we were making. So we stuck to this during the main meal.

After these courses we really weren't sure how we would tackle the mains. Although you could smoke in the restaurant, friends took this opportunity to go onto the first floor balcony over the reception. The mains arrived and once again the table was crammed with food; a green curry and a prawn dish were accompanied by a huge mound of fried noodles with vegetables. The prawns were huge and served on their own without a sauce, but the little seasoning they had a little too spicey with chilli's for my newly sensitive taste buds. This didn't stop me going back for more - I'm not going to let king prawns go to waste! The chicken in green curry was really lovely too, again nice and spicey. The noodles were fine noodles and small vegetables. I could have almost eaten these on their own - and in fact did my best to polish off the plate I was sharing!

Desert in the set menu was fresh fruit with ice cream, but we ordered some additional deep fried bananas and deep friend ice cream. This was the only down point in the evening when they forgot one of the additional orders, and had to be reminded. This order was then brought out after the rest of the deserts had been finished. The fresh fruit and deep friend banana were good. Some people weren't convinced by the ice cream which seemed to be mango/ginger flavour maybe with jelly-type bits in, but I liked it. When the deep fried ice cream eventually came Scott did like it, but everyone was baffled as to why it was served with kidney beans in the dish.....can anyone enlighten us?

So a lovely meal on Thursday night and I would definitely return there. The menu we had was 195LE per person (minimum of two persons ordering) plus 25% in service and tax, so this made it the second most expensive meal we'd had to date in Cairo (after the Four Season's Buffet, but ahead of La Bodega), but as I said I would not hesitate to go back there with guests, family or friends for a treat of a meal out.

Our current visitors, Laura and Effie arrived with many many plans about what they wanted to fit into their time in Cairo. One thing on their list was dining at the Revolving Restaurant at the Grand Hyatt Hotel. This place is renowned for being expensive, but the fact that the restaurant is in the centre of Cairo and revolves through the 360 degrees over 72 minutes lends to an understanding of their pricing.

We were eating our meal late, as Laura and Effie were arriving back that evening from Alexandria and had train, traffic and taxi troubles (not a huge surprise in Cairo, but a shame that all three combined this one evening). To get to the restaurant we took lift up to the 40th floor where we were met and offered a seat to have pre-dinner drinks. The 40th floor is dedicated to this bar with seating running around most of the view. It felt very calm here as you look down onto the mayhem that is Cairo. When we were ready, just after 9pm, we were escorted in the private lift up to the 41st floor and the lift exited into the centre of the restaurant.

You exit into the centre of the restaurant and then we were shown to our seats - which happened to be half way around the restaurant. I think they set it up like this so that they can show off not only the view as you walk round, but also that they have an open kitchen in the centre. The restaurant only had a a handful of diners in it seemed, yet they did the classic of seating us near another group. This was a little frustrating, but we chatted and giggled louder than they did to make up for it.

When we first sat down, both Effie and I put our bags on the ledge beside us. It took us a few minutes to notice that they were slowly moving away from us as we turned and the window, with its ledge, stayed in the same place! The view was good being in central Cairo and right on the Nile. I was surprised actually at how few lights were on in buildings - in London there would have been a lot more I suspect. We could easily see downtown and even the satellite cities around Cairo to the West. When we had first arrived at the bar around 8pm we had been able to see the tops of the Pyramids which was really really cool. After about 15 minutes though, as dusk settled in, we lost them to the darkness and pollution cloud combined.

The 360 degree view is only thwarted for about 10 degrees to the East where the mechanism is housed. To disguise this a Pharonic display of statues and relief has been created which caused us some hilarity. It was really quite naff! We felt that it would have been better if they'd made a feature of this and we'd been able to actually see the mechanism - would have been fascinating. I'm still not sure if the galaxy scene on the ceiling, with shooting stars and moons in LEDs was an attempt to create atmosphere or amuse small children (although no one under 12 is allowed in the restaurant).

Looking at the menu, starters were around 120LE with soups 60LE, mains varied from 150LE to 250LE for most, but 450LE for an ultimate looking steak. Deserts were 60LE and wine was a typical 180LE for Egyptian and 35LE for Stella beer.

We decided not to get a starter, as they were pricey and to be honest there wasn't anything that jumped out at me. Also we were hungry and wanted to get onto the main course with space for desert (I had spied the word "chocolate"). After we had ordered we were brought two small baguettes that had been sliced. These were lovely with butter and seemed to be bottomless, as the moment we had two crusts left on the ends we were brought a new plate!

Our mains came; I had ordered lamb which came with spinach and a lovey nutty and apricot compote. Effie had veal and Laura had chicken. Scott had a steak which disappointingly was overdone and didn't come medium-rare as requested. He's kicking himself for not sending it back. We ordered a few sides to go with our mains; Scotty and I shared chips which were nice and chunky, mash which was nice and creamy, and mushrooms which were in butter and plentiful. The mains were good and with nice sauces. Although they may have looked a little small to start with, with the sides they were filling.

Onto our deserts and I had the dilemma I often get when ordering food; Scotty would say I'm notorious for not wanting to order the same as anyone else. In the back of my mind I think that if we order two different things then we'll get to try more different foods, yet in reality I know I want all my desert and Scott wants all of his. Scott went for the chocolate and I went for the creme brulee. I was expecting the small ramekin that is typical of restaurant creme brulee but was very pleasantly surprised with a whole desert dish turned up having been torched on top! It was huge! It had lovely caramelised peaches on top and I'm pleased to say it took a little forcing to finish the whole thing. Scott's chocolate fondant looked rich with passion fruit sorbet the side.

When we finished the meal it was gone 11pm and we'd made it through 360 degrees and two good courses of filling food. We decided not to stay for another drink as it was a school night (!) and so we would get a taxi home together. We weren't too surprised at the overall bill, as we knew it was 25% taxes and charges on top of the menu price. It was however our most expensive meal in Cairo (having topped the Birdcage and Four Seasons by far).

Overall we'd say it was a pretty good food and a pretty good view, but these don't add up to the total price we paid. I might go again as a real treat, but would be weary that other places serve equivalent food at a better price and that you can go to the 40th floor bar for just a drink without having to go to the Restaurant.