Life in Cairo: Food and Nightlife!

Overlooking Cairo at night

One of the best nights I had in Cairo was hanging out with my girlfriends in Zamalek. In addition to checking out the antique shop, and various other items in the area, I realized simultaneously that cupcakes are in fashion in Cairo, and I really missed fancy-pants cupcakes while in Iraq. Lo and behold there was Nola! Soft cake, creamy sweet frosting, and overall, delicious!  

So one of my roommates went on and on and on about Naguib Mahfouz's Cairo Trilogy (Palace Walk, Palace of Desire, and Sugar Street), so we just had  to try the Naguib Mahfouz restaurant, Kasr Elshouk.

Having never read this trilogy on life in Cairo during the British Colonial occupation, but one mention of the word food, and I was game! I'm still not sure what the restaurant had to do with the books, but I'm guessing that some of these recipes featured prominently in the story.

In addition to the traditional Egyptian Molokhyia and Khoshary dishes, there was stuffed pigeon (why did I order this?!), as well as a kind of scalloped potato recipe loaded with cheese and fried onions. With the addition of the spicy red sauce, it was fantastic.

One thing I definitely liked was the decor of the place. I love the North African style of low couches and tables, the stone walls, and brass items all over the place.

After dinner, we went for a cruise on the Nile. It was incredibly beautiful and much more peaceful on the water than you'd think Cairo would be.

This was the same day that a series of protests rocked Cairo (and a large part of the Muslim world) because of that awful movie portraying a fictional account of the Prophet Muhammad.  As we approached the harbor that night, I caught a horrible whiff of teargas which was lingering in the air around the US Embassy. For some reason, it hit me particularly hard in our group (hello, asthma!), and though diluted, I couldn't stop coughing, crying, and wheezing. It was fantastic. I resorted to covering my face with my silk scarf just to keep the new pockets of gas in the air from getting to me. My flatmates thought it was hilarious. I would hate to be caught in a real cloud of teargas...

It was a lovely trip on the river though, in spite of the tear gas. There were many boats lit up traversing the water alongside us, many of them moving and grooving to loud Egyptian pop music. This one had loads of dazzling lights, and was whirling about in the water in every direction. We were on a sailboat, but for a moment, I kind of wanted to be on that boat, because it looked like they were having a blast!

Another night, we set out to have sushi. I heard about a great new place in Zamalek that serves authentic Japanese food, called Makino. Unfortunately, they were closed for no reason we could figure out. Luckily, my friend has tried every other sushi place in town, and took us to another good one, just within walking distance nearby.

The service was pretty good, but I will always, always pick Egyptian fresh lemonade to drink. It's seriously the best!

After a one-week tour of Upper Egypt (read: Southern), I met two of my longtime friends in Heliopolis where I was staying near the airport. I discovered that there was an authentic Mexican restaurant in the area that I definitely wanted to try. I explored the menu, and I have to agree, Maria's Mexican located in the Fairmont Hotel, is fantastic.

We opted to share an appetizer and some mains between the four of us, so that we could all have a bit of everything. The tableside guacamole was an excellent choice, and paired perfectly with the fresh, homemade tortilla chips. One of our favorites was the Pollo Estilo Maya, with rice, peppers and grilled pineapple. The service was fantastic, the food excellent, and I highly recommend the fresh juices.

Quesadilla Madness

Thanks to my recent trip to Mexico I've become mildly obsessed with making quesadillas. I love quesadillas and so I'm not sure why I've never bothered to make them at home. They're super simple and you can put pretty much anything you want in them so why wouldn't I be making these all the time?

I started simple with whatever was in the refrigerator...which for me was left over romano and extra sharp white cheddar cheeses, red onions, and chicken.

First start with a lot of butter. With all the cheese there's no way this is going to be healthy anyway so why bother to cut back on the butter?

Once the butter is all melty add the onions and keep the heat medium to low. I always start my onions first to give them plenty of time to slowly cook down and caramelize a little.

Next...spices for the chicken!! I went simple and pulled out the kosher salt, black pepper, garlic, cayanne, crushed red pepper, and thyme. Not sure why the thyme really but it was there on my spice shelf looking all neglected.

I seasoned both sides of the chicken and put the fillets under the broiler for about five minutes per side.

While they were broiling I got to work slicing the cheddar and grating the romano. Lots and lots of romano.

Then I got hungry and impatient and this is about as brown as I let the onions gets.

Little more butter in the pan and tortilla number one went down. Then I laid on the cheddar, the romano , the onions, and the chicken I'd sliced. On top of that went a little more romano and the second tortilla.

I covered the pan to help the cheese melt and waited 5-7 minutes before flipping it over. The flipping was kind of a mess and I lost some of the goodness in the flip so I did some emergency reconstruction. It turned out ok though. After letting it cook another 5-ish minutes I slipped it out of the pan, cut in quarters, and finished it off with some chipotle mayo.

And this is pretty much what I've been eating for the last two weeks :)

Culinary Happiness - Chicken Tortilla Torta

A few days ago, I spotted a quick recipe on YumSugar, a favorite website that I follow. I posted the link on Facebook, and it got a great response from my friends who were interested in trying it. It looks a lot like a kind of Mexican-style lasagna. I had more corn tortillas than I knew what to do with, so I thought I'd give it a try, and I was NOT disappointed!

The recipe begins with coarsely chopped up roasted chicken. I used a shortcut because I bought a pre-cooked chicken from Safeway. The meat practically fell off the bone and I easily chopped it up with my handy chef's knife.

Next, you mix plain yogurt with heavy cream. The recipe doesn't call for it, but since this is the "binding" for the entire thing, I seasoned it up with generous amounts of chili powder, cumin, cayenne, garlic, and black pepper. This basically sealed the deal.

Next, begin the layers as follows: tortillas, salsa verde, chicken, cream, green chilis and cheese. Rinse and repeat and top with tortillas and cheese. I used my cast iron skillet to give it a more home-cooked feel. This gets kinda heavy, so make sure you're strong enough to handle all of the weight with a full, hot cast iron pan.

Put everything in the oven covered with foil at 375 for about 20 minutes. Then bake uncovered for another 20 minutes until it starts to boil and the cheese browns. Once out of the oven, let it rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Honestly, this recipe was so fast and simple. Since I didn't actually cook any of the individual parts, I felt like a culinary FAIL copying that awful woman Sandra Lee and her "semi-homemade" food with fake everything and ghastly "tablescapes." The Tortilla Torta was very easy, and a kind of "set it and forget it" dinner. It would serve between 10 and 12 people by my count, but beware the extra fat! This tastes rich and hearty, and would be a great meal for a big family on a cold night.

Restaurant Review: La Sandia

A few weeks ago, I took my lunch break at a recently opened restaurant in the Tysons Corner mall. The place is La Sandia, which means 'the watermelon' in Spanish, and the chef is Richard Sandoval who also runs several other restaurants including Zengo in Chinatown (DC), Isla in Vegas, Papano in NYC, and Tamayo in Denver. I've never been to Zengo in Chinatown, but the idea of latin-japanese fusion has never tempted me, even though I like both styles of food.

The first thing I noted about La Sandia was the decor. It was a little dark in there, but the mexican-style mosaic tile work along with various shades of glass and cut tin was very nice. I just wish that my first impression would have stuck around long enough for me to get through the chips and salsa. Now a thing about me: if I am going to eat by myself, I actually prefer to sit at the bar. I've always enjoyed feeling like you're a part of the pulse of a restaurant, therefore, I usually sit at the bar. the drinks are usually better that way, and I find that I have much more attentive service. Not this time.

The first food that I tasted here was pretty bad. I'm not sure how, but chef Sandoval has managed to totally screw up chips and salsa, the most basic of Mexican restaurant staples. Instead of being some kind of fried corn tortillas, the chips were unsalted and made from flour tortillas. Gross. Had the chips been made from corn, they would have been the perfect accompaniment with the smoky, spicy, chipotle salsa. In short, while the chips were lackluster, the salsa was a knockout!

As for my main dish, I ordered my old standby: Cheese enchiladas. The bartender recommended these as one of his favorites, so I was happy to go with his suggestion. When my order arrived, I noticed the 'salad' that came with it. It was nothing more than a pinch of dressed lettuce with a slice of radish on top-- hardly what I'd call a salad. The order also came with a good sized helping of refried black beans, a favorite of mine. As I tasted them, however, they had a strange flavor. Perhaps they'd been sitting for too long, or maybe they'd added some kind of pork fat to them because they had a strangely 'non-vegetarian' flavor that was not in the least appealing. There was also Mexican rice, which was not unlike most Spanish rices that I've had. However, this too, was a waste of time as it was WAY too tomato-ey, and largely flavorless and bland. Now, for the enchiladas themselves. They were covered in a tangy, green tomatillo sauce and were probably the best thing on the plate. Instead of what you find in most places, the cheese wasn't a greasy cheddar or other yellow cheese. This was a nice, soft blend of white farmer's cheeses, and was a great combination with the tomatillo sauce that topped the enchiladas.

Considering my lunch was for the most part unimpressive, I decided that I would make my final decision about the restaurant over dessert. I opted with the Mexican take on my favorite restaurant dessert: Brownie, Ice Cream, and hot fudge.

This dessert is my favorite, and as far as I'm concerned, if a restaurant doesn't have a variation of this on their sweets menu, then I probably won't be interested in anything. Go ahead: call me an overgrown kid if you want. I know what I like! :)
At La Sandia, their version of this dessert is called the Morenita (Little Brown Girl) Sundae. This was a warm (YES!) brownie resting on dulce de leche topped with Cinnamon ice cream and topped with lots of hot fudge and praline walnut brittle. Talk about a fantastic dessert! And wouldn't you know it, it was so rich I couldn't finish it all! The DdL was a little too sweet and sour milk tasting for my tastes that day, but I think it is a great carmelly addition to the brownie-ice cream-fudge combo. The cinnamon ice cream was a great touch, and the crunchy sweet walnuts were good, but a little too sweet. Tasting it, the collision of flavors described on the menu were no disappointment, and the rich, powerful flavors were a stark contrast to the over all bland, flavorless food.

Every time I go to the mall I take a peek into La Sandia. It's almost always empty. I wonder if the word has already gotten out that the food at this place is uninspired and flat. I don't recommend that anyone patronize this place unless you're going for dessert. Otherwise, your taste buds will be left highly disappointed.