Eat Like Ushi

After lunch at Al Saraya, we had the rest of the day free. I asked our guide (who was from Luxor) where to go for kunefe. He said there was a tea house somewhere that needed a drive to and they made it fresh, but unfortunately nowhere really in town. He then took us to this bakery just down the road as a close option.

It was full of sweet pastries that seem typical for the Middle East and Mediterranean including something that looked like kunefe, but wasn't really. Nonetheless with prices silly low (like 50-100EGP/kg or something), I walked out with so much and so many varieties that we had to give most of it to our hostel staff as we'd never finish it.

Worth a visit for sweets for the road.

After arriving from Aswan, we were staying on the quieter west side of Luxor. We parked on an open street next to a wire fence then descended some stairs to what looked like an abandoned place and a bit dilapidated. I probably had a little bit of tunnel vision and didn't notice the outdoor tables and open park-like space next to you. It was honestly too hot at 48C to enjoy the area anyway.

After the extraordinarily early start to go from Aswan to Abu Simbel, the long hot journey back was exhausting despite the car's relatively weak air conditioning. Finally exiting the car in a random place (not realising we were actually quite close to Aswan) for lunch was a hit of relief, before the hit of 48C heat and humidity brought reality back.

This seafood restaurant had one air conditioned room with a large table, assumably for tourists. The remainder of the seating was outdoor (at least shaded) and the locals didn't seem bothered. The manager took me on a little tour of the kitchen area where lots of men sat around constantly cleaning and cooking fish. The grill chef didn't like me taking photos of that area so I just snuck one in at the end.

The menus is essentially grilled or fried fish. The meals came with soft pita, chunky tahini and some very mild chilli sauce. Finally after a 1h wait from ordering, the fish arrived gloriously with some seasoned rice and salad.

- Fried samos EGP45 - whole deep fried fish, crunchy on the outside but with a perfectly cooked flesh tenderness inside;
- Puri singari EGP70 - a local Egyptian dish of butterflied fish cooked with cumin and other spices with some vegetables. Cooked nicely too although a little bit chewier than the samos.

An excellent meal, although make sure you aren't too hungry or in a rush. Egyptian time.

With a friend's cousin (who didn't speak English) driving us around Cairo and a local guide our driver had sourced from somewhere else, at least it meant we had control of what to have for lunch. We were quite keen for a local meal and asked them what they would have for lunch on a normal day. We ended up at this place Abou Tarek, and seemingly so did a load of people in Cairo.

I can honestly say that there were no other tourists inside than us 2, and maybe when it wasn't Covid times in a sweltering 47C Cairo day it may have been different, but the only question you get asked inside is small or large. The production line of koshari at the front entrance serves them up. I ordered a large, not realising that my two Egyptian colleagues who were both males larger than me ordered small. Oh well.

It was a lovely hearty dish of lentils, rice, pasta, chickpeas, fried onions and topped with a tomato puree, chilli and ginger liquid. EGP126 for 4 serves including drinks was a bargain price for the local delight.

Wondering around Zamalek in 47C meant we needed a little respite from the heat. Gelato happened to be conveniently passed in this cute little modern cafe that also meant a more pleasant air conditioned seat too. Although the pure heat did mean that it still felt warm inside there, the gelato made up for it.

Other than my usual pistachio (nutty, good colour, very good), we tried mastic which is apparently resin from a tree and has a bubble gummy type perfume essence to it - as you can see it's difficult to describe. Worth a try for a local flavour.

The waffle cones are made fresh and moulded into a wavy pattern for a little art.

I noticed there's a higher rated Stavolta nearby but this one was perfectly acceptable.

I had feteer in Cairo all the way back in 2009 when our guide took us somewhere local, rather than where the tour company had made him. I don't remember it all that well other than that it was described as the Egyptian version of pizza.

Zamalek is supposedly the nicer and more affluent tourist area of Cairo and it certainly did have some more modern Western-style places like Social coffee roaster and several gelato options. Surprisingly there weren't that many food options that interested me - pasta was reasonably rated but I didn't really want that for my first meal (not including the American burgers the late night before) in Egypt.

This corner shop specialises in feteer, which was served as a layered butter pastry filled with melted roumi (Egyptian hard) cheese, jalapenos and peppers. It was thick, heavy, fried and nice in a dirty pizza way but with a slightly crisp top. In 47C heat it was a struggle to try and finish this between 2, but we did our best and got through most of it.

I'm also interested in the food stall next door to this in the alleyway which looked like nothing much but had constant amounts of young men buying and sitting opposite on the street to eat.

With very little time to spare between returning the rental car and taking the train back to London, the fastest/delicious recommended nearby food was ramen. Luckily it was a delicious one with nice thick pork broth that translated well into a takeaway train meal. Hell ramen (chilli broth, cha siu, soft boiled egg, greens) £12.5 and Tonkotsu (pork bone broth, cha siu, soft boiled egg, greens) £11.9 hit the spot nicely. It's also good to see a place in the UK that includes (half an) egg rather than always having to pay an extra £1-2 for it.

With last orders at 19.30, it was fortunate that we were staying here, managed to score an outdoor table (since they didn't allow any indoor dining) and order directly from a waitress as their website didn't list the menu items we wanted. Despite it being a cold and intermittently heavily raining evening, the thrill of dining again and the outdoor heaters made it more pleasant.

- Cullen skink (traditional Scottish soup, creamed smoked haddock, potatoes, onions) £8.95
- Parmesan crusted chicken schnitzel (breaded parmesan crusted chicken breast served with side salad, herb butter, fries) £15.95 - it looked incredible and seeing other tables receive theirs is what made us order it. Just look at that crust, melted glistening butter and oil. It tasted good too which was naturally essential;
- Sunday roast beef with trimmings - given it was a Sunday I was torn between the schnitzel (managed to try someone else) and the Sunday roast. It was cooked through but still pretty tender with some lovely potatoes too.

The morning had a breakfast included, and their full breakfast( an egg, sausage, bacon, black pudding, haggis, smoked salmon, potato scone, tomato, mushroom, beans) certainly had everything you could possibly want (maybe other than tatties).

I can't imagine that I'd be in the area again as even if I returned to the Cairngoorms I'd probably try elsewhere. But if fate should deem it so, I'm coming back for the schnitzel.