Cairo Recs?

Cairo Recs?

The kids are in Egypt for the next few days. They've asked for food recs, and I haven't the slightest. Anyone been there recently and have suggestions for street/sit-down chow?

two good places

Farahat in nasr city- this is agreat, family resteraunt, very old, with an excellent reputation. not that far from the airport or the government buildings. the thing to have here is pidgion. the kababs are also good, but the pidgion is the specialty. btw - there are 3 or 4 other branches of the same place around the city, if they are downtown or in giza, they can ask a taxi driver to get them there.

and abo SHAKARA in heliopolis - also not in downtown, its right across from the presidents palace. fantastic kabab, sort of like "loose meat" a sort of sloppy joe with a mustard sauce. this is a very old place and very well known, almost unheard of for a tourist to find it. really good food for penies.

Felfela is a classic; it's been around since forever and is certainly on the tourist circuit (or was once and I can't imagine it not being now). That said, the room was quite atmospheric, the food is Egyptian and it's good. Is it the best I had in Cairo? No; but I still remember it fondly and would return without hesitation. Reasonably priced and reasonably central (though I no longer recall precisely the route we took from our hotel, it wasn't far and walking anywhere in Cairo is almost guaranteed to be an adventure! Hope they're having fun; the city is truly unique and well worth the visit.

Felfela
15 Hoda Sharawi
Phone 02/23922751

They'd need to find out from the hotel or a taxi where these places are, as I don't remember there being any street signs, and on occasion, there were no streets, just alleys through the market.

Andrea Restaurant -- fabulous open air restaurant -- as you enter, you see racks of roasting chickens and women making fresh bread in clay ovens. The chicken was exceptional, though we also enjoyed the water buffalo meatballs, white beans with garlic and parsley, and baba ganouj.

Khan El Khalih Restaurant -- named for an Egyptian Nobel laureate -- Wonderful place in the middle of Cairo's main marketplace -- As with most places, hot, fresh bread, baba ganouj, and tahini -- kofta lamb and "BBQ" beal were excellent.

If it's a street place, our guide recommended going vegetarian, as meat might be questionable.

Ignore Felfela (no offense) and head over to Na'ama on Naguib Mahfouz street in Agouza (in Giza, across the river, just north of the 6th October Bridge. Simply say "mata'am Na'ama Agouza" and you will be taken there by all but the most incompetent of cab drivers. Best fast food in Cairo that doesn't require getting real street level (risking stomach problems). Get a french fry sandwich, some pickled eggplant, some ta'amiya (falafel) and baba ganoug. You will not be disappointed.

For the best shawerma in homemade shrak bread go to Abu Amar el Souri. Located on Syria street ("shara'at Souria") in Mohandiseen (again in Giza). Make sure to get the garlic sauce ("thowmiya").

For fuul (Egyptian beans - make you strong) go nowhere but Al-Mahrous in Garden City (it's called "Garden City" in Arabic) near the Canadian Embassy. Simply ask the cab driver to take you to the Canadian embassy ("saffarat Canada") and ask for Al-Mahrous Fuul. It's just down the block on a small, tree-lined street. Get the fuul with everything, and the boiled egg salad. Ignore the slightly downscale surroundings (you will be eating at plastic tables on the street).

For Koshary, go to Abu Tarek on Champillion Street. Every cab driver knows Abu Tarek on Champillion street.

Afraid of street food? Confused by odd neighborhoods and strange directions? Go to Abu El Seid in Zamalek. It's in lonely planet. It's good, they have liquor, nice decor. Felfela is fine.

If the kids want a beer they should go to two places and two places only - the rooftop bar at Odeon Hotel (on Abdel Hamid Said street, next to Cinema Odeon off Tala'at Harb street) or Hurriya in Midan Falaky off Tahrir street. No holds barred, complete with Egyptian pickled beans and sawdust on the floor, ice cold Middle Eastern beer experience. Full stop.

I can go on. For days. Cairo is my favorite city. Hell it is the best city. Let me know if you want more recs!

Safe travels,

M

globetrotter wrote:two good places

Farahat in nasr city- this is agreat, family resteraunt, very old, with an excellent reputation. not that far from the airport or the government buildings. the thing to have here is pidgion. the kababs are also good, but the pidgion is the specialty. btw - there are 3 or 4 other branches of the same place around the city, if they are downtown or in giza, they can ask a taxi driver to get them there.

and abo SHAKARA in heliopolis - also not in downtown, its right across from the presidents palace. fantastic kabab, sort of like "loose meat" a sort of sloppy joe with a mustard sauce. this is a very old place and very well known, almost unheard of for a tourist to find it. really good food for penies.

According to my daughters' friends in Cairo, Farahat is closed.

Abigail and Lydia sincerely appreciate this and all other recs. Having this kind of authoritative intelligence is fantastic (though Abby was thrown by the last word in this post -- she misread it and prayed it was a typo for "pennies" and not something else).

David, tell the kids to soak it all up. They are living my dream vacation destination!

razbry wrote:David, tell the kids to soak it all up. They are living my dream vacation destination!

Oh yeah, mine too. I used to teach Egyptian mythology, and was way into Book of the Dead, E.A. Wallis Budge, and, of course, "The Mummy," so I've been dreaming about going to the site of those great kingdoms since I was old enough to walk. I'd like to think I will, someday.

I was a little concerned about my daughters visiting a place where tourists sometimes get treated poorly (or killed), but that kind of thing happens everywhere, and they are in the company of four male friends from school who speak the language: plan is two boys walking in front, two following up behind, for double bilingual boy barriers as they walk the streets of Cairo.

Teacher friend of mine who lived in Cairo said that, in her opinion, it was a very "female friendly" city. Hope so.

Abigail has sent back a number of pix and I'll post more later, but here's a shot of one of the first meals they had in Cairo. It's a soup that she liked (though she was a little vague on ingredients).



What made this meal memorable was that it was delivery, and the delivery man was late because they ran out of bowls and had to throw a few more in the kiln. With this home delivery, you keep the bowl your dinner was delivered in, which my daughter thought awesome.

Oh man...David, keep posting photos. Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to visit Egypt. It is on my list of things to do before I die. That, and to ride a camel.

Abigail has posted food photos of some of her eating adventures in Cairo on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album ... 1144099394

She's included descriptions for many of the food items.

Hammond, very cool, thanks for sharing the pics. Especially liked the title of Abigail's album - "Food in Egypt for Dad" - last year my folks went to Egypt and when they came back they were excited to share their photos of 'food in Egypt for Nab'. My Mom was especially fond of the cheese spread with a variety of different breads, all of which she said were always excellent and freshly baked no matter what time of day. They also mentioned mulukhiyya, something I was particularly fascinated by, the mucilagenous leaf related to marshmallow (embarassingly, I was not even aware that marshmallow was a naturally-occurring plant! ). I still have not had the chance to try mulukhiyya.

tatterdemalion wrote:Hammond, very cool, thanks for sharing the pics. Especially liked the title of Abigail's album - "Food in Egypt for Dad" - last year my folks went to Egypt and when they came back they were excited to share their photos of 'food in Egypt for Nab'. My Mom was especially fond of the cheese spread with a variety of different breads, all of which she said were always excellent and freshly baked no matter what time of day. They also mentioned mulukhiyya, something I was particularly fascinated by, the mucilagenous leaf related to marshmallow (embarassingly, I was not even aware that marshmallow was a naturally-occurring plant! ). I still have not had the chance to try mulukhiyya.

My daughter has been particularly knocked out by the bread.

I found the tabouli salad unexpectedly non-grainy -- there are no doubt many variations on a theme that are all referred to as tabouli, but in the States, this name usually denotes a bowl of grain with some green and red vegetables maybe making up a little less than half the total volume. This Cairo version looks mostly veg.

David Hammond wrote:Abigail has sent back a number of pix and I'll post more later, but here's a shot of one of the first meals they had in Cairo. It's a soup that she liked (though she was a little vague on ingredients).



What made this meal memorable was that it was delivery, and the delivery man was late because they ran out of bowls and had to throw a few more in the kiln. With this home delivery, you keep the bowl your dinner was delivered in, which my daughter thought awesome.

I am pretty sure this is egyptian lentil soup, the spice mixture is very nice and different.

DANG!

Based on reading just the title of this thread before, I'd been wasting my time trying to remember some good places to eat in Cairo, Illinois.

This - in reverse - is how I found out -- too late -- that I could have gone to Marseilles in May without a passport. I'm SUCH an idiot.

:: banging head on desk over that one :: again ::

Thanks David for allowing us to see the photos your daughter sent you. It took me a while to get to facebook as our IT adminstrator blocked all computers from facebook! Can you believe it?

razbry wrote:Oh man...David, keep posting photos. Ever since I can remember, I've wanted to visit Egypt. It is on my list of things to do before I die. That, and to ride a camel.

If you really want to go, I can recommend a particularly good tour (the one I took last year) -- complete with riding the camel, plus cooking lessons, visiting markets, and all the antiquities you can handle, plus it's a small group, and it includes a cruise up the Nile. Of course, you can go to Cairo without a tour, but if you go into the far more conservative south, even the Rough Guides say a tour is the way to go.

David Hammond wrote:Abigail has posted food photos of some of her eating adventures in Cairo on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/album ... 1144099394

She's included descriptions for many of the food items.

Great photos. I loved dining in Egypt, and the photos took me back. Fuul medames, really thick tahini, and falafel (except in Egypt they're called tameya), fresh figs, and fresh dates for breakfast every day, great salads, beans, breads, grains, baba ganouj at every meal, lamb at almost every meal. Great eating.

Did Abigail get a chance to try pigeon stuffed with green wheat? (An Egyptian classic.)

I think I'll go get a spoonful of tahini and start looking at the cookbook I bought in Luxor. Those photos made me nostalgic -- and hungry.

Cynthia wrote:Did Abigail get a chance to try pigeon stuffed with green wheat? (An Egyptian classic.)

Not to my knowledge, but I'm trying to get her to post a more complete account of her adventures on LTH.

David Hammond wrote:

Cynthia wrote:Did Abigail get a chance to try pigeon stuffed with green wheat? (An Egyptian classic.)

Not to my knowledge, but I'm trying to get her to post a more complete account of her adventures on LTH.

My turn coming up. So, I'm going to look for this dish, assuming it's in season.

Dave,

You definitely need to get an ice cold Stella at Hurreya ("freedom") cafe, only blocks away from Tahrir Square (now known as Midan Shuhada, or martyr's square, I believe).

Fried brain and liver sandwiches available next door, toward the square.

Have a great trip.

Not really a recommendation, just a comment -- for me, one of the best things about eating in Egypt is that you can have falafel and hummus for breakfast! Also, fuul medames (classic bean dish), fresh dates, and labna. I've never been one for a bowl of cereal, so I was giddy with delight to see what was offered for the first meal of the day.

Have an amazing time.

Cynthia wrote:Not really a recommendation, just a comment -- for me, one of the best things about eating in Egypt is that you can have falafel and hummus for breakfast!

Not exactly accurate . A true Egyptian breakfast is ta'miya and ful - fava bean falafel, and stewed fava beans.

I've only seen hummus in upscale restaurants and hotels in Egypt. Its a bit more common as everyday food in Alexandria, a city that feels much more levantine for some reason. Perhaps its the proximity to the Mediteranean ocean.

Also. Be sure to get some seafood - fried, baked, grilled. All good.

Habibi wrote:
Also. Be sure to get some seafood - fried, baked, grilled. All good.

I'll second that recommendation. For me, the biggest surprise about my visit to Egypt (a nation more known for its desert location than its poximity to the sea) was the great quality of the fish and seafood.

Habibi wrote:

Cynthia wrote:Not really a recommendation, just a comment -- for me, one of the best things about eating in Egypt is that you can have falafel and hummus for breakfast!

Not exactly accurate . A true Egyptian breakfast is ta'miya and ful - fava bean falafel, and stewed fava beans.

I've only seen hummus in upscale restaurants and hotels in Egypt. Its a bit more common as everyday food in Alexandria, a city that feels much more levantine for some reason. Perhaps its the proximity to the Mediteranean ocean.

Also. Be sure to get some seafood - fried, baked, grilled. All good.

I didn't say it was typical, just that you could have it. But you're right, fuul medames is more common, and I often had it for breakfast, and I had ta'miya almost every morning (though it was almost always offered to me as falafel, since I'm an American traveler). As for hummus (and tahini and labna), they were almost always available for breakfast -- but I was staying in hotels, so that's probably why I was seeing it. I also loved fresh dates with breakfast.

What I was really trying to communicate with my original comment, however, is that the thing I really loved, here and almost everywhere else besides the U.S., is you can eat real food for breakfast, not just "breakfast food." I am not a big fan of the traditional American bowl of cold cereal.