9.12.09

So it's been 100 degrees here the past two days, it's horrible, it's just simply too hot to do anything.

I've come to learn two Egyptian phrases that seem to pretty common, "ok, no problem" which seems to always be the answer when there is a problem. And the other is "as you like," but nothing here is as you like. There's always a catch.

Wednesday night our broker brought into a section of Islamic Cairo where only locals live and venture. This was in a quest for an alternative Iftar dish. Well we get there, it's a hole in the wall place - usually delicious back home, but here it is quite frightful to eat at. He insisted it was delicious and his mom used to bring him there to eat the dish. They served one dish, it's a fruit dish called baumb. Not quite a dinner dish, but it would have served as a great dessert. In a bowl, there's a layer of sweet rice, covered in fruit and nectar. Sounds delicious right? Here's the catch, there's a nice clump of solid "milk" in the middle of everything. The solid chunk was kind of a soft cheese, but not quite a cheese. Either way, eating around the "milk" the dish was pretty good.

Thursday night was a fun night. We met up at the Odeon Palace, which is a hotel that has a rooftop bar. During Ramadan it has been fantastically quiet and a great place to relax and take in the atmosphere of Cairo, apparently once Ramadan is over the scene changes because many Egyptians go there. After enjoying our Egyptian beer and wine we went to the British Club. The British Club is essentially a British Community Center that is turned into a bar. It was a very western style bar, real alcohol (imported), dancing and karaoke. It's completely run by Brits and you can purchase a membership or attend as someone's guest. It reminds me of the AOH in Binghamton.

Last night we went to Hard Rock Cafe to try and eat some non-Egyptian food. During Ramadan every dinner is usually the same - grilled chicken, kofta, bread, rice and cucumber and tomato salad. Although it was a Hard Rock, it had a completely Egyptian atmosphere. Little kids were running around the place with no supervision by parents. This seems to be a trend here, kids can just run and do as they please this includes running through the restaurant and running into the buffet tables, getting in servers ways, etc.

I decided to be healthy and order a salad, I need some greens and veggies that weren't just cucumber and tomato. I ordered the haystack salad, essentially a Mexican salad. Well my salad came out and it was not "as I like." It was a Caesar salad. So I called the waitress over and shared her mistake with her, her response was oh you wanted "the highstack salad?" Well sure, even though it says HAYSTACK on the menu, but yeah that one. So she took back the Caesar salad (apparently Caesar sounds like Hay/Highstack). 15 minutes later I get my haystack salad, but once again it's now "as I like." It was my Caesar salad! They chopped the chicken a little different, added the corn, tortilla strips, cheese, etc., but managed to leave the Caesar dressing soaked lettuce as the base, removed the Parmesan cheese flakes, but left the croutons. So apparently Hard Rock Cafe Cairo is now serving a Mexican Italian fusion salad.

Even when I go somewhere to escape the headache that is accomplishing mundane tasks in Cairo, I learn that there is no escape. Apparently Cairo has mastered the act of inefficiency.