lperry

That would be the smell. I can't possibly be the only person traumatized for life... Thank you! The brand I got in Egypt is Yemeni - I have no idea how it compares to anything else. The store will be a bit of a drive for me, but it is by the Super H, so it gives me an excuse to go there as well! -Linda

I have never been a serious coffee drinker. I even made it through grad school without picking up the habit (although I have been known to down a rather large quantity of dark chocolate covered espresso beans...) I have unappetizing coffee memories and experiences, like the teacher's lounge in grade school (the acrid scent of burnt coffee and cigarettes), and long lines with cranky baristas at coffee shops full of stressed students. Realizing that I am in the minority, and with apologies to the 99 percent of the population that loves American coffee culture and thrives on it, for me, coffee equals the rushing and stress that I try semi-successfully to avoid. Enter Turkish coffee. Tiny brass ewers set over low flames and heated gently, always watched, until they bubble up. The foam delicately spooned into a tiny cup, the ewer heated again, and a slow, careful pour. The aroma of warm, rich, dark roast and cardamom, relaxed sipping, and then a moment spent reading the grounds and contemplating the future. This is the coffee for me. A relaxing ritual that requires at least fifteen minutes of slowing down, *and* a new set of pretty little gadgets. What's not to love? So the issue now is that I bought a small package of boon (the cardamom scented coffee) overseas, and I don't know where to get more. At some point I will buy one of those pretty brass grinders - a big, electric burr grinder isn't what I'm after with this experience. But for now I need to supply myself for a couple of months to make sure I'm going to become a true addict. I am hoping to find a local source for some ready-to-go Turkish grind from a shop that has decent turnover. Or maybe even a shop that will grind to order. Has anyone seen it around? Maybe the Mediterranean Bakery on Pickett Street?

At a pizza place in Brazil, peas and corn were both offered as toppings, and mayo was on the table. Fishy pizza happens in New Orleans. When I was at Tulane, all the pizza delivery places had crawfish and shrimp pizzas available throughout Lent. I don't know if they still do or not.

There was way too much. I even asked for "light hollandaise" and there must have been a half cup on the plate. I can't really recall how it tasted, which means it was unremarkable.

I ate there with some friends during restaurant week when they were running the lunch special. It was OK. I had the Caesar salad (pretty good) and eggs benedict (had to scrape off much of the hollandaise). One friend had the soup - if I remember correctly it was spiced carrot - and liked it a lot, and the other entree was linguine with shrimp which also got decent reviews. The general consensus at the table was that if it had not been restaurant week, we would have gone elsewhere. The food is pretty good, but not worth their regular prices. We went mainly for the atmosphere and history of the building.

I’m back in Virginia now, but I have a few more recommendations for the Cairo area. Recommendation #1 is buy the pistachios. If you can, get the ones from Iran – they are incredible. It can sometimes be difficult finding out sources because a lot of vendors will just tell you what you want to hear, so be sure to ask where they are from, not if they are from Iran. The California ones are good, but they are lacking in flavor in comparison to the ones in the Middle East. If you like Turkish coffee, you can get the little tin-lined brass pots with the wooden handles in Egypt fairly easily from brass and copper vendors. There are many of these shops – they are surprisingly easy to find - and you are better off going in a shop on the street somewhere instead of in the Han el Halili market. Don’t pay more than 15 or 20 pounds for the one-cup size (that’s about 3 to 4 dollars), and if they want more, tell them you’ll give them 15, then just walk away. The price will drop in direct correlation with your distance from the vendor. Coptic Cairo is at the Mar Girgis stop on the Metro – the museum is directly across from the exit, and the building is perhaps the most beautiful I have ever seen. The food, however… So skip the coffee shop at the Coptic museum and go to the little outdoor one down the stairs from the Mar Girgis (St. George) church – that’s the big, round church just to the south of the Coptic Museum. They have nice fruit drinks, tea and coffee, decent snacks and sandwiches, and, perhaps more importantly, they have restrooms. You can sit in palm chairs, relax with a beverage, and watch the world go by. Finally, I found out how to make the really intense limon drink that I liked so well. Buy key limes and let them get really ripe. Ripe ones are yellow skinned and pretty soft. It helps if organic are available, because you use the whole thing – skin and all. Cut the lime in half, take out the seeds, and throw it in the blender with some water and a bit of sugar. This is all to taste, and you can adjust it later, so don’t worry too much about the amounts. Blend until frothy. Pour this through a strainer and into a glass. This step takes out most of the bitterness, but leaves lots of mouth-puckering sourness. Taste it, and add more water and sugar if you need it. Add ice, and you are good to go. Happy traveling! -Linda

If you are in Egypt on business, it is likely that you will spend some time drinking tea and/or coffee with your clients. The beverage ritual is so important here that in the department where I worked, there were three people employed solely for the function of making tea and coffee for the guests of the administrators. My first day at work, I was literally shaking from the sugar and caffeine because I met everyone and had tea and sweets with them. It is one of those things that you don’t refuse. Also, if you are asked to stop by for tea in the future, it is not an insincere invitation. Both social and business pleasantries are completed over hot beverages. Today I had tea with several people to say goodbye, and in one place I was offered Turkish coffee instead of the usual Nescafe instant. I admitted that I had never tried it, and it was brought to me with a glass of water just in case I didn’t care for it. Turkish coffee (for the three people other than me who have never tried it…) is dark roast, rich, thick, very sweet, and highly spiced with cardamom. It is made in a little single-serving handled pot called a kanehka (please excuse my phonetic spelling) and poured into a demitasse cup. The general consensus in the room was that it stems from the Ottoman occupation of the region. I usually choose tea over coffee, but I liked this quite a lot. It reminded me of Brazilian cafezinho with spices. Dinner was at Max’s in Maadi. This is a pasta and steak restaurant with meat imported from Australia. I was with an Australian who explained that the meat in Egypt is not very good because of how it is fed/treated, and people who want a really nice steak like Max’s because everything is imported from an excellent producer. According to everyone who has been there, the food is always good and the wait staff is very helpful. Everyone speaks English here also. We had the Caprese salad that was made with real buffalo mozzarella (unusual – most times you see this on the menu, order, and are served something else) and nice, ripe tomatoes, the buffalo mozzarella seared in lemon sauce (just excellent), the steak in ginger sauce (pronounced delicious and perfectly cooked by my two dining companions who both ordered this entree), and the penne with mushroom, garlic, and tomato sauce (also quite good). The wine was the usual South African Cape Bay red. I am told that it arrives here in large vats and is bottled in Egypt. It’s drinkable, and since I’ve been here four weeks now, it tasted really good last night. If you are a serious wine drinker, you may wish to throw a couple of bottles in your suitcase when you come. All in all our bill came to about $60. If I haven’t mentioned it before, the food is really inexpensive here if you avoid the usual tourist traps and US chain hotels. I can’t imagine a meal this nice at home with appetizers and wine for three for this low a price. -Linda

Snacking in Egypt seems to be a national pastime. When I'm working in the lab, every morning and afternoon I ride the Metro to and from the University, and there are cars reserved just for women, so I ride on those. (As an aside, this is a fantastic idea that I think the DC Metro authority should consider). The interesting thing about the women's metro car is that there are two major things happening during the ride. The first is chatting, and the second is eating. And everyone is eating some sort of snack from a shiny bag. So far I've tried the pretzels with nigella seeds that are sold in grocery stores and from street vendors (really good), and lots of different potato chips. The Chipsy brand rippled kind are good and the tomato flavor is my favorite. They run about 25 cents for a pretty big bag, so they are also dangerously accessible. After a few days out in the desert, they are a welcome source of salt as well. I went south last week, and got to eat locally prepared food because the project had a cook who made us lunch every day. Dishes were typically fried potatoes, some sort of vegetable and/or meat stew served over rice and vermicelli, and oven-roasted vegetables. Everything was spiced with a blend containing cumin and black pepper, and oil is added liberally to everything. We had fresh fruit and dates also that are always excellent here. In my few hours in Luxor during a train stop, I met up with a friend who showed me the Oasis cafe - a very nice little restaurant run by European ex pats. They have excellent salads, and if you are craving it, the hamburgers and fries are supposed to be good as well. There is a boat docked on the river that has a huge, neon cocktail glass on it. I can't remember the name, but it's difficult to miss the sign for cocktails and ice cream. This place has pretty good wine, although admittedly, the quality of the wine is somewhat dependent upon how long you have been here. It's a nice place to relax, have a drink, and watch the sun set. Downtown in Cairo you can get nice food at the food court in the Nile Hilton shopping mall. Yes, I know, it's a food court, but the food really is decent and it's a good place to sit down and relax inside after you've been walking around for a while. Instead of having lots of little vendors, they have one kitchen that makes everything and they serve you like in a sit down restaurant. There is a bar there, but we didn't have anything so I can't vouch for the drinks. We had Thai curry chicken which was pronounced very good and a lentil burger which was also pretty good. The lemonade was great. There is a small cafe in the Egyptian Museum that has OK food but is a great stop for cold drinks and water. This is my last week . Hopefully I can get in some more restaurants. -Linda

Hi Anna- It is wonderful, and I hope that this information will be useful to someone else. I've been very lucky on this trip to be in with people who either live here or spend three months of the year here, so I have insider information that I did not expect to have. If I didn't, it would be much more hit or miss on the food. The tea. This area is famous for mint tea, and the mint is peppermint. A good brand to look for in the grocery is Isis, but if you start quoting the cheesy 1970s Saturday morning show, nobody will get it. This brand of teas is organically grown and must have good turnover in the market because the wrapped box perfumed my entire bag during a five minute walk back to the hotel. They also make different herbal teas - cinnamon, anise, linden flower, chamomile etc. The other common herbal tea here is hibiscus, which is called kardakay. It is served very strongly brewed, sweetened, hot in the winter and cold in the summer. I like it, but I drink a lot of Celestial Seasonings tea, and this plant is the base of most of their blends. You can buy this in grocery stores in tea bags or from the spice vendors in the Khan al Khalili market from huge bulk baskets. Black tea at restaurants tends to be Lipton Yellow Label, but if you can find it, there is tea from Kenya that is very good. It has a red number "1" on the label and is dark, strong, and rich, much like the good tea I had in England. One minute in the cup and you can't see through the liquid any more. Coffee is riskier than tea and ranges from abysmal to wonderful. Costas bakery is a safe bet - better than Beano coffee houses, and Costas has really good cheesecake if you are craving a fix. The toppings are made with fresh fruit. If you are downtown in the evening, the Nile Hilton (located next to the Egyptian Museum) has a rooftop bar. It is a little strange and out of context - they have a Latin American mojito theme right now - but you can sit out on the roof and have a nice view of the city and the river. Drinks are OK and fairly pricey, but you are paying for the view, which is worth it, especially at night when all the lights are lit. We had a few appetizers which were decent. Calamari, baba ghanoug, hummous and a few other things made it across the table. If you want something less expensive, the students here swear by the koshary stand outside the Egyptian museum. Prices will vary (there is a fluctuating, fairly large, you-look-like-a-foreigner tax here), but have been ranging between 12 and 17 LE which is between about 2 and 3 dollars. Eat here and you can have more money to spend in the Khan! I've been eating lots of oranges. The nice ones are large, about ten cm across, and flattish like a tangerine. There is a small navel on the base of them, and the skins are shiny with intense color. They are mostly seedless and much more sour than the oranges back home. I really like them, and if you eat one in your room, you also get the benefit of an aromatherapy treatment that will last several hours. Most of my time has been spent in the lab at the university, but today begins the weekend here, so I have two days to wander around and eat. I know that most people spend their time downtown when they visit Egypt, and I plan to be there tomorrow, so I will do some scouting. This is an excellent place to take one for the team. If anyone is thinking about a trip and has questions that are non-food related, (safety, how women should dress, culture shock etc), feel free to send me a note. -Linda

Notes and thoughts on koshary. Koshary is typical street food made from lentils, rice, pasta, tomato sauce, fried onions, and various spices. I had it homemade, and having it made at home is typical of middle and upper classes in Egypt, I'm told. I'm also told they don't trust food outside the home. Before I get accused of profiling.... My Egyptian friend cooked the koshary for me, and his Australian wife told me about the "food outside the home" issue, and instead of arguing, he looked at us like, yes, well, doesn't everyone know that? At any rate, we had a discussion about getting sick in foreign countries and street food. I travel a lot and have only gotten the evil beasties one time (knocking on wood) in Mexico about fifteen years ago. I typically don't drink the water, but I do brush my teeth with it to try to incorporate some of the local flora in small amounts, and I eat yogurt when I get a chance. I also do not shy away from street food if it looks like the vendor is doing good business (and if it smells really good...). And in our discussion last night, this seemed to be the take-home message from a table full of people who work long field seasons in developing countries. It's all about trying to slowly incorporate the local foods, and for prepared food, it's all about the turnover. You are more likely to get sick from your hotel that doesn't serve a lot of people (so food sits a while) than you are from the guy who serves three hundred portions of koshary a day. I realize that this may be an atypical point of view coming from a person who grew up in a country with anti-bacterial everything. But there you have my two cents (even if you didn't really want it...) So far, so good, and I'm enjoying the food very much which is the entire point of the exercise. So back to the koshary, I rather liked it. A nice spiced stew that covers the big three (fat/carb/protein), and tastes pretty good too. The fruit here looks incredible. Last night I went to the vendor and bought about a kilo of strawberries (very sweet and decently flavorful) and some small fruits called harankash. They look like tiny orange tomatillos (cape gooseberries maybe?) and are tart and wonderful. I probably won't go for the berries again - they seem to be growing the typical "this ships well" variety, which is a real shame, but those little lanterns will definitely find their way into the bag next trip. I also may try some of the little melons. I saw what look like tiny cantaloupes, baseball size, and some others that were yellow. -Linda

Since I'm here and have occasional access to the internet, I thought I'd write about a few places in case someone else is contemplating a trip. I've been here just a week now and have been eating in more than out. There are several grocery stores, Massoud Market and Metro Market are good. I recommend the Istanbulli cheese - very salty and strong fresh, white cheese that is feta-like but somehow different. I also got a hard, yellow Egyptian cheese whose name I don't recall. The cookies are great - Napoleon's influence I think. I got butter cookies with date filling. Very good. Most pastry is a safe bet because of the French influence - it is all made with real butter if you go to a bakery and not the grocery store. Everything is listed in English and Arabic, and the shopkeepers are very helpful. I'm staying in Maadi, a small garden district just south of Cairo proper, and the big "strip" of shops and restaurants is on Road 9. (They are numbered from the Nile). The Chinese restaurant just over the bridge that spans the Metro tracks is very good. I had the Moo Shoo vegetables. There is also a small restaurant just near the Metro stop that is a counter with a room next door that has two or three tables set up. They serve very good felafel (it is encrusted with crushed coriander seeds that get toasted in the frying), tahina, baba ghanoug (made with large amounts of tahina here), ful (think hummous made with spicy fava beans), and this incredible silky roasted eggplant stuffed with garlic and spices. I think it is marinated as well. The eggplants are about two to three inches long and so sweet. (obviously, this was my favorite). All the bread is made the day you eat it. At Giza, Fel Felaf is a very nice place to eat just off the main square. The name is semi-reversed because it can be written in Arabic script to make the shape of a ship - this is the symbol of the restaurant. Again, typical Egyptian fare and all very good. Here I had a beet root salad and bessara, a spicy bean dish with crispy fried onions on it. The bread at this one is incredible - soft and filled with tiny pockets of air, still warm from the oven. The "lemonade" is made with freshly pressed key limes and is nice and sour. They have three or four restaurants throughout Cairo - it's a very safe bet. In the Khan el Khalili market, the huge one downtown, everyone should visit the oldest operating cafe, El Fishawy. It is very easy to get lost in the market, but for a pound, you can get someone to show you. El Fishawy has been in constant operation for 250 years and claims to be the oldest cafe anywhere (I have no idea if this is true or not). A friend had the Turkish coffee and indicated that he makes it much better, and I had the pomegranate drink called ruman (or something like that in lovely Arabic script that I am not able to write). The fruit drinks come sweetened and with the glass filled with the fruit itself. We also saw strawberry. Just lovely. As everyone mentioned, the tap water is off limits, but 1 1/2 liter bottles of water cost about 50 cents and are everywhere, so there isn't really a problem. I'm not a meat eater, so I can't comment on it, although I have heard from colleagues here that it tends to be pretty expensive due to the absence of any range land in the country. The produce is just exquisite. I had some wonderful Mandarins that had an incredible fragrance. My parents have a Satsuma tree in their yard in Florida, so I consider myself a fairly good judge of citrus, and there is excellent citrus here. I also saw some artichokes still on the stem and wished that I had a kitchen in my hotel. The people are friendly, helpful, and kind, the scenery is incredible, and the food is excellent. Tonight I have the fortune of heading to a friend's house where I am going to learn how to cook some of the main staple dishes of Egypt. If I can replicate these eggplants at home, the trip will have been well worth it! -Linda

Sunflower at Seven Corners last night. Steamed dumplings to start - they were very good with a soft, home-made wrapper and gently spiced filling. I had the kale and burdock which came with tofu, seitan, and chick peas in a nice sauce (I have no idea what was in the sauce - it was slightly sweet). BF had the golden nuggets. I can't say "nugget" without giggling, so I couldn't order them, but he shared and they were very nice. I've only had abur age in the traditional form with vinegary sushi rice and the sweet sauce, so this was an interesting change. Everything was very good, the kale dish reheated beautifully for my lunch today, and the service and atmosphere were both great. It was our first time and we will definitely be back.

Whitlow's in Clarendon. I know, it's not that great a place anyway, but we had to go to the Apple store and we were both famished, so we went to Whitlow's. This was Tuesday night around 8:30 PM, and there were hardly any other customers in the place. The hostess tried to seat us at a table in the middle of the empty room, and my BF asked for a booth (since they didn't look too busy). She was pleasant enough and seated us. In a few minutes our waitress came by, took our drink order, then stepped to the next table and began chatting with the customers. One minutes passes. Two minutes pass. Five minutes pass. We wait and wait and she is standing no more than seven feet from our table and can see us very clearly. Did I mention we were both really hungry? We put the menus to the side, stared at her pointedly, and nothing. Nada. Zilch. She's just chatting away. BF gets up, goes to the hostess and asks if she could please seat us where someone will take our order. She says, "well, I can tap her on the shoulder..." So the waitress is now pissed at us and she was short and copping attitude through the whole meal. It made mediocre food terrible, we wondered how much spit we might be ingesting, and we won't go back. Not even for music and drinks.

We used to stay in Belize City, and the best food by far was the coconut and key lime pie that two little boys hawked for their mother. They came to the hotels with boxes and great big smiles. Mmmmmmm. Coconut pie still warm from the oven. My parents went one time and a friend sent them to the airport with a loaf of creole bread. It's probably been twenty years and Mom still talks about that bread. I think it is made with coconut milk. I should try to find out more about it.

I just read through the thread, and it is truly inspirational. You have lost the equivalent of an entire person! That's amazing! Keep up the good work!

We went to the DC Jaleo last night with some out of town guests who are staying at L'Enfant. The patatas bravas were spot on, hot, delicious, and crispy, and my favorite of the evening was the roasted golden beet salad with walnuts and blue cheese that is on the specials menu right now. Also ordered and complimented: chorizo with mashed potatoes (although the sausage eaters liked the one with beans better), the fried shark, skirt steak with piquillo confit, garlic mushrooms, cod fritters, spinach with pine nuts, scallops, calamari, garlic shrimp, and apples with manchego. A couple of tortillas made the rounds, but I didn't have any and I don't remember any comments. The chickpea-spinach stew and asparagus with romesco were OK. The bread was, well, bread. A couple of people had wine and we ordered two pitchers of sangria that were pretty good - not as sweet as they have been in the past. I like Jaleo for groups like this (four locals, two out-of-towners, two are vegetarians, one is a fish-a-tarian, one is lactose-intolerant - you get the picture) because if you don't like a dish, it's not a big issue, just pass it on and grab the next one or order something else. They were fairly busy for a Monday, and our service was very good. We've never been to a branch other than downtown, and, as usual, we were happy and will be back.

Hmmm. Sounds and looks about like what I find in places in South America. I am told that Maadi is better than Cairo proper in terms of food, and I actually like those bean/rice type dishes, so I may be OK. The water situation is worrisome, however, and I'll take my usual packet of Cipro just in case. I haven't had to use it yet (knocking on wood), and I hope I never do. Since I get to shop for myself a bit, I'll be able to wash things in the hotel, and a bit of dish soap and bleach (or ethanol in a pinch) tends to do the trick. During the days I'll be at Helwan University, and I need to check to see where that actually is located. Colleagues there should be able to point me to good lunch places, I think. I've been advised by others to offer 1/4 of what the street vendors ask . It should be fun!

I'll be in Egypt for the month of February. I have three weeks in Cairo during that time, and I am going to be staying in the Maadi district. My Egyptian colleague tells me my hotel is within walking distance of all sorts of interesting restaurants and grocery stores, although I don't think I will have a kitchen or even a hot plate. I am told this is the diplomat/ex-pat section of town, so I am hoping for good food from many different cuisines. Has anyone been to Cairo lately? Suggestions? Thoughts? Recommendations?

The monkey ball? My BF travels to Haiti at least three times a year, and I've never heard this mentioned... I'll ask him about it. I dive but BF does not, so we were going to try the reef that is shallow enough to view while snorkeling. And we are looking for exactly what you described - not overrun, still somewhat unspoiled, and fresh food. Thanks!

You know, it's an odd predisposition of mine, but I don't like to buy tea by mail - I want to see it. I'm the same with spices, which used to put a big crimp on my cooking when I lived in places with poor shopping opportunities. Maybe I don't trust the vendors to choose the "right" package.

Unfortunately not!

I'm just west of 395 on King street (the last tiny piece of Alexandria City). Downtown is closer to me than a lot of suburbs - I may try Teaism. Thanks!

We are headed to the Turks and Caicos next week and will be staying on Provo. We are not expecting haute cuisine, but simple and good is always nice. Has anyone been? Does anyone have recommendations?

A few years ago I embarked upon a quest to wean myself from sodas, and in the process, simply created another addiction to tea. I make and consume large quantities of an iced green/herbal tea blend that I keep in the fridge. The green tea that I use has evolved over this time, and I now like Temple of Heaven gunpowder or pearl green tea. It is strong enough that I get a green tea flavor that can still be tasted even when mixed with the herbal teas, and I'm not wasting really good quality green tea with delicate flavors that would get lost in the mix. Plus, I love how the little leaves unfurl in the pot. My source for tins of this tea has been Grand Mart or Super H when I make it all the way over to Fairfax (which isn't very often). But Grand Mart can be really annoying, because for the umpteenth time, and for no apparent reason, they have stopped carrying a product that I really like. Does anyone know of another source in NoVa that carries large-ish tins of green tea? I'd like to buy it in town rather than by mail. Thanks, Linda

What a great resource! Thanks!