Abou Tarek, Cairo 06-2021

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.

Pane Vino, Cairo 06-2021

Indecision, limited local options and not wanting to take an Uber (which are really really cheap) meant we ended up with finer dining Italian at the InterContinental hotel overlooking the Nile. There had been many recommendations to stay in a tourist 5 star hotel in Cairo but instead I decided to go with the cheaper (more local) option in what I thought was a nice area called Garden City, but really wasn't that nice after all (made more local though than Zamalek which was clearly better otherwise). In any case I suppose people might call it nice simply because they did stay in the 5 star resort part of Garden City rather than the block between these, the Nile, and the many embassies and their armed security outside.

Pane Vino meant walking through the lovely hotel and thinking although there are many restaurants, the ones that don't have the Nile must really suffer comparably.

- bread basket with olive dip (complimentary)
- Insalata mista (lettuce, arugula, mushrooms, bell peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, and carrots in a vinaigrette sauce) EGP135 - after feteer for lunch, the salad was needed to balance out that heaviness and the pasta/carbohydrates to follow;
- Linguine al frutti di mare (pasta with calamari, shrimp, salmon, sea bass, garlic & tomato sauce) EGP245 - thick pasta, cooked thoroughly rather than al dente with a nice sauce and pieces of seafood;
- Misto di mare alla griglia (garlic flavoured sea bass, shrimps, salmon and calamari grilled, served with white rice and vegetables) EGP350 - reasonable dish with ok elements although I don't recall any particularly standing out for good or bad (forgot to take notes at the time).

Overall adequate with a nice view of the sunsetting Nile. Wouldn't particularly go back there or want to have Italian food in Egypt again though.

Quella Gelato Cafe, Cairo 06-2021

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.

Tayer Ya Fatayer, Cairo 06-2021

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.