I love food. It might be my favorite part of being alive. And in my opinion, the best way to explore a new place is through the local food scene. Open air markets, street food, fancy-schmancy restaurants, hole-in-the-wall joints, I want to eat it all! And, man, have I lived in some great cities for eating. I had the world's best barbecue in Central Texas, an amazing international farmer's market in Atlanta, my first pho experience in Orange County, and a plethora of Ethopian restaurants in DC. A little exploring off the beaten path tends to pay off in unexpected ways. Case in point: I had the best sushi of my life in a Japanese restaurant in La Paz, Bolivia - a completely landlocked country. To get around the lack of available seafood, they used trucha (trout) caught fresh daily from Lake Titicaca to make the sushi and sashimi.
Exploring food in Cairo has been more challenging because of the language and culture barriers I touched on earlier. I'm don't yet know how to ask "What is this?", and even if I did, I wouldn't understand the answer. In my neighborhood, the grocery stores and restaurants generally have menus and prices posted in English, but anywhere off the island you take your chances and hope for pictures.
This has led to a few surprises. For example - what would you guess this product is?
Unfortunately, it wasn't butter*, which make it hard to cook my eggs the next day at breakfast.
Milk comes in a box. Pro - it lasts forever and you don't need to refrigerate till after you open it. Con - thinking about what they did to it so it wouldn't spoil.
Egyptians eat a lot of yogurt. I went to the equivalent of Walmart (Carrefour) and they had an entire refrigerator aisle with nothing but yogurt - all unflavored. I asked an employee where the fruit flavored stuff was and she looked at me like I was insane. Really? You're the one with 50 varieties of plain yogurt! I found this mango-flavored stuff at a more westernized store.
Among the many terrible side effects of my last relationship (with a European) was that I developed quite a taste for nice (read: expensive) cheese. I am embarrassed to say how much I spent on these and am guarding them with my life. Passport and credit cards get stuffed in the dresser drawer, but my cheese goes in the locked fridge.
Speaking of fat kids, I'm really digging the different flavors of potato chips they have here, maybe a little too much. Lemon and chili - sounds weird, tastes delicious.
Anyone who knows me well knows I love me some spiciness, so I went in search of a local variant of my tried-and-true favorite, Sriracha. I found this stuff at the corner store.
Its essential coarsely chopped chilis with the skins left on, so the end effect is more bitter than spicy. Maybe this is what they were going for, but I wasn't a fan.
I was warned by a co-worker in Austin that the fresh produce in Cairo is limited and disappointing, and I'm glad to say she was wrong (she was wrong about several things but that's another post). There are a plethora of juice bars, fruit stands, and vegetable stalls in Cairo. Yes, they're not as "pretty" as the displays in Whole Foods or Central Market, and they spoil more quickly, but they actually taste like real fruits and vegetables. And I guarantee they haven't been irradiated or injected with food coloring. The tomatoes here are unbelievable.
Always red, juicy, and full of flavor. I'm drooling just looking at this picture. 50 cents a pound, I kidyounot.
The juice bars will squeeze fresh cup of fruit juice for you to enjoy in the shop or take home by the bottle. Their hygienic standards may not be the most stringent, but you can't get fresher or more delicious than squeezed-to-order juice.
Speaking of hygiene, I coughed up the money for a fancy, schmancy space-age (not really) water filter so I can drink out of the tap sans Cipro chaser. In actuality, the water here is overly chlorinated (reminiscent of swimming pool water) so pathogens aren't so much of the issue as contaminants. The piping system is absolutely ancient and as a result, a lot of heavy metals have leached into the water supply. From the reports I've read, I gather that drinking unfiltered Cairo water is akin to eating paint chips.
The three chambers filter out different sizes of these metals and particles, kind of like a Brita on steroids. It still tastes terrible, but at least I'm less worried about permanent brain damage.
As far as eating out goes, let's just say I've gained back any weight I lost during my, ahem, "episode" last month. The typical diet is starch, bread, carbs, sweets, and meat. (Oh and unflavored yogurt) Delicious stuff, but it packs on the pounds quickly. Here is a picture of dinner out with my Egyptian colleagues and their families in Alexandria.
I let one of the little girls order for me, and she ensured I got more grilled meat, bread, and mezze than I could handle - and I pride myself on being able to handle a lot. To supplement the feast, she insisted I try a typical rice dish called biram ruz (I think it means baked rice?). It came in an individual casserole dish baked with cream, butter, seasonings, and - surprise! - more meat. A vegetarian's nightmare, a carnivore's dream!
Also - bizarrely - EVERYWHERE does home delivery. Upscale restaurants, fast food, hole-in-the-wall places, grocery stores, even McDonalds (which is all sorts of wrong in so many ways). You don't even have to speak Arabic, this website makes it easy for lazy expats to avoid inadvertently ordering sheep brains or liver or some such Egyptian delicacy you weren't ready to try that particular night. (For reference, the current rate is about 6LE to $1, so as you can see, prices for delivery are ridiculously cheap).
ALSO - very exciting - I had my first Egyptian beer last night! This was somewhat of a challenge because the majority of bars and restaurants that normally serve alcohol (which are few and far between anyway) stop serving during Ramadan. We stopped at two placesy and were informed they were not serving before we finally found a pub that was open and fully functioning. It felt a little like a drinking in a speakeasy. The door was unmarked and inconspicuous, the inside was dark and smoky, and the whole experience felt deliciously taboo.
Not the tastiest, but after a 2 weeks of teetotaling, it sure hit the spot.
Ramadan Kareem indeed!
*The mystery product was essentially Egyptian-style Velveeta.
Exploring food in Cairo has been more challenging because of the language and culture barriers I touched on earlier. I'm don't yet know how to ask "What is this?", and even if I did, I wouldn't understand the answer. In my neighborhood, the grocery stores and restaurants generally have menus and prices posted in English, but anywhere off the island you take your chances and hope for pictures.
This has led to a few surprises. For example - what would you guess this product is?
Unfortunately, it wasn't butter*, which make it hard to cook my eggs the next day at breakfast.
Milk comes in a box. Pro - it lasts forever and you don't need to refrigerate till after you open it. Con - thinking about what they did to it so it wouldn't spoil.
Egyptians eat a lot of yogurt. I went to the equivalent of Walmart (Carrefour) and they had an entire refrigerator aisle with nothing but yogurt - all unflavored. I asked an employee where the fruit flavored stuff was and she looked at me like I was insane. Really? You're the one with 50 varieties of plain yogurt! I found this mango-flavored stuff at a more westernized store.
Among the many terrible side effects of my last relationship (with a European) was that I developed quite a taste for nice (read: expensive) cheese. I am embarrassed to say how much I spent on these and am guarding them with my life. Passport and credit cards get stuffed in the dresser drawer, but my cheese goes in the locked fridge.
 |
| Note the lock. They knew the fat kid was coming to town. |
Speaking of fat kids, I'm really digging the different flavors of potato chips they have here, maybe a little too much. Lemon and chili - sounds weird, tastes delicious.
Anyone who knows me well knows I love me some spiciness, so I went in search of a local variant of my tried-and-true favorite, Sriracha. I found this stuff at the corner store.
Its essential coarsely chopped chilis with the skins left on, so the end effect is more bitter than spicy. Maybe this is what they were going for, but I wasn't a fan.
I was warned by a co-worker in Austin that the fresh produce in Cairo is limited and disappointing, and I'm glad to say she was wrong (she was wrong about several things but that's another post). There are a plethora of juice bars, fruit stands, and vegetable stalls in Cairo. Yes, they're not as "pretty" as the displays in Whole Foods or Central Market, and they spoil more quickly, but they actually taste like real fruits and vegetables. And I guarantee they haven't been irradiated or injected with food coloring. The tomatoes here are unbelievable.
Always red, juicy, and full of flavor. I'm drooling just looking at this picture. 50 cents a pound, I kidyounot.
The juice bars will squeeze fresh cup of fruit juice for you to enjoy in the shop or take home by the bottle. Their hygienic standards may not be the most stringent, but you can't get fresher or more delicious than squeezed-to-order juice.
 |
| Mango juice squeezed into a used water bottle. Dubious hygiene, unquestionable deliciousness. |
Speaking of hygiene, I coughed up the money for a fancy, schmancy space-age (not really) water filter so I can drink out of the tap sans Cipro chaser. In actuality, the water here is overly chlorinated (reminiscent of swimming pool water) so pathogens aren't so much of the issue as contaminants. The piping system is absolutely ancient and as a result, a lot of heavy metals have leached into the water supply. From the reports I've read, I gather that drinking unfiltered Cairo water is akin to eating paint chips.
The three chambers filter out different sizes of these metals and particles, kind of like a Brita on steroids. It still tastes terrible, but at least I'm less worried about permanent brain damage.
As far as eating out goes, let's just say I've gained back any weight I lost during my, ahem, "episode" last month. The typical diet is starch, bread, carbs, sweets, and meat. (Oh and unflavored yogurt) Delicious stuff, but it packs on the pounds quickly. Here is a picture of dinner out with my Egyptian colleagues and their families in Alexandria.
 |
| They're happier people than they look in this picture! |
Also - bizarrely - EVERYWHERE does home delivery. Upscale restaurants, fast food, hole-in-the-wall places, grocery stores, even McDonalds (which is all sorts of wrong in so many ways). You don't even have to speak Arabic, this website makes it easy for lazy expats to avoid inadvertently ordering sheep brains or liver or some such Egyptian delicacy you weren't ready to try that particular night. (For reference, the current rate is about 6LE to $1, so as you can see, prices for delivery are ridiculously cheap).
ALSO - very exciting - I had my first Egyptian beer last night! This was somewhat of a challenge because the majority of bars and restaurants that normally serve alcohol (which are few and far between anyway) stop serving during Ramadan. We stopped at two placesy and were informed they were not serving before we finally found a pub that was open and fully functioning. It felt a little like a drinking in a speakeasy. The door was unmarked and inconspicuous, the inside was dark and smoky, and the whole experience felt deliciously taboo.
Not the tastiest, but after a 2 weeks of teetotaling, it sure hit the spot.
Ramadan Kareem indeed!
*The mystery product was essentially Egyptian-style Velveeta.
Hi E.E. - so have you tried out the various home delivery services yet?
ReplyDeleteAnd that tomatoes looks DELICIOUS! The markets sounds really fun :-)