Dear readers,
I loved food before this trip -- as all my friends know, since I am more easily enthused by food than almost anyone -- but traveling has made me love food even more. Many of my favorite memories, both from London and from Egypt, have been of restaurants and food. So of all the subjects I've talked about so far on this blog, the one that deserves a second, very long post is definitely food.
Last time, I talked about school day food. I showed you photos of hotel breakfast, and I took photos of the usual places we go for lunch (or at least, the places we went for lunch before everything closed for Ramadan during the daylight hours). Now, I'm going to talk to you about our usual dinner haunts. This post will be split up into two parts: non-Egyptian food, and Egyptian food.
Non-Egyptian Food:
1. Cafe Santos
A diner two blocks inland from our hotel, with terrible music, but a pretty cool pseudo-rock-and-roll design aesthetic:
They serve Western-style food -- and by Western-style, I mean anything Western that they can
think of: Pizza, burgers, salads, crepes, coffee drinks, milkshakes,
etc. Pretty expensive for Egyptian standards, but I can still get a
latte for half the price it would be in America, with even prettier presentation.
Look how pretty it is, all layered in its hot toddy glass! <3 And it tasted wonderful, too; better espresso than at Starbucks, in my opinion.
2. China House
Chinese, Thai, and Japanese food, on the roof of a really fancy historic hotel (Hotel Sofitel Cecil), with a gorgeous view of the Mediterranean:
I've had Chinese food and Thai food from there and I
really liked it -- though I didn't like it enough to pay seventy
Egyptian pounds for it (which is even on the spendy side by American
standards!).
Funny story: The menus brag that China House (and its sister restaurants throughout Egypt) having "only Chinese, Japanese, and Indian chefs" -- which I find bizarre for several reasons, including but not limited to the fact that they don't serve Indian food there.
3. Bamboo
My absolute favorite! <3 It is my comfort food spot and I go there at least twice a week. You have to order over the phone way in advance, because there's only one chef: an Indonesian woman named Susie, who came to Egypt and settled here after marrying an Egyptian man. And now she makes delicious pan-Asian food here :D
We very often eat outside -- because nights in Alexandria are always gorgeous and relatively bug-free -- and I always order the "Combo #1": chicken satay, steamed vegetables with salt and pepper, and tom yum soup. Mmm!
Egyptian Food
1. Gad
Simply put: Egyptian McDonald's. It's cheap, it's quick, and it clogs your arteries. Very similar to the lunch food we get, only worse, and cheaper. (Some of us eat here almost every night -- and Amy eats suhoor here regularly because it's open at all hours of the night/morning.)
(photo stolen from virtualtourist.com)
2. Muhammed Ahmed
Also cheap and easy, but a sit-down restaurant, and absolutely fantastically delicious. Best falafel in town! Here is a photo of what the group always gets, and shares:
From left to right: Hummus, falafel, "ful Iskandaraani" (Alexandrian beans -- with veggies and tahini), fried cheese (my favorite <3), and more falafel. Off camera: pita bread.
3. Ibn al-Balad
The most expensive Egyptian place we've been so far, but we really like it. It's a nice sit-down restaurant with significantly more variety than any other one we've been to -- and really good starters (i.e. dips and bread).
It is also the place where I ate pigeon for the first time! In lieu of a picture of me eating it -- because there is no such photo -- here are two photos of my classmates eating pigeon there:
That second picture is of the same pigeon dish that I had -- meaning, the head was still on it. (I didn't eat the head, because as bold an eater as I am, I can't quite work up the courage to eat brains.) But it had rosemary and it was delicious!
One more place, that I can't find a picture of, is Helwiyat Misr (Egypt Sweets), where you can sit down with a coffee and enjoy half a kilo of kunafa with your friends :D
And that's about it for now! It describes my food adventures pretty well -- and it implies why it created within me a hunger (ha ha) for travel food adventure. Last post, I lied that this one would be about trips. But the next one will be!
Thanks for reading anyway,
- Beth C-C
No comments:
Post a Comment