maadi eats

 

A few days ago, I was on the phone with mom (hi mom!) and we were talking about Egyptian food and restaurants and stuff.  I was whining about how difficult it was going to be to find a steak dinner for around 8.00CDN when I get home.  Then she asked how often I eat out with Luther….

MAADI FOOD:

When you come home at 5-6:00pm after being at school all day since 6:30am, and being on a bus for 2 hours; you are in NO mood to cook. (Well, sometimes. But not often!)  Also, the veg here does not keep well (even in supermarkets), and normally you will spend a good amount of time just looking for something not-so-wilted/mushy/spoiled

It is MUCH easier to eat out, or ‘otlob’ (order online, www.otlob.com- its like a huge search engine of Egyptian food where you order and they deliver it)

Naturally, Luther and I have our ‘haunts’.  Here are some:

Egyptian McDonalds:  The taste is familiar and although there is no pork/sausage anything, there are tons of weird chicken/falafel stuff.  We eat here when our stomachs are sick from too much foreign foods. It is a ‘thing’ for expats that when we are ill from food here we know our tummys will enjoy the chemicals it was so used to in Winnipeg.  It works! No more pain! (This also goes for egypto-KFC and Egypto-pizza hut)

Starbucks on the corniche – have a latte and sit in the starbucks/Japanese embassy on the Nile corniche and watch the traffic go by with the Nile in the background. (p.s. no tea-infusions here. Weird…)

Gaya – Small locally-owned Korean restaurant 5 minutes from our house.  AWESOME food and the owners know and love us.  Luther also loves that they serve pork here. 



 

 

 

Luthers order: Miso soup, rice, spicy pork…but not too spicy

Me: Miso soup, beef kimbab (thank you folklorama for introducing me to this amazing dish)

 

Crave- one of my favorite restaurants.  It was introduced to us by some teachers and we went there like, 10 times in a row after we discovered it.  The food is cooked really well and just freaking delicious.

 

Dishes – Luther came here when he noticed that the screens outside showed UEFA football.  It was a ‘thing’ to come here and watch games.  I ALWAYS get the ‘shish tawook’ sandwich…ie: grilled chicken shish kabab on Kaiser buns with tomeya. One of the most amazing things I have discovered in Egypt is that I am able to eat outside without so much as a scarf.  No bugs, no wind, no cold breeze, A lot of fruity smelling shisha. :)

55 – Go-to place for shisha and music and a good atmosphere. A bit more expensive but it’s one of the best places to go for a younger, more local ‘hipper’ atmosphere.

 

Lucilles -  It was actually in TIME magazine as ‘best hamburger in the world’.  It’s a local place that capitalizes on expats and Egyptian-americans yearning for chunk of American cuisine.  They also serve chicken burgers J (yay for me)  Luther actually despises this place for its 'American-ness' but me- when i'm craving a good 'ol American chicken burger.... :D

Cairo Kitchen- This gem recently opened up in maadi on the corner near the supermarket.  It makes grocery shopping very difficult because for 10 bux you can get a whole chicken, soup, bread and 3 salads.  Luther gets chicken ‘mologheya’ (??) (mohl-oh-hey-yah) which is this green slimey soupy stuff that you eat with bread and chicken.  I get the random egyptian salads (eggplant, couscous, honeyed carrots, baba ganoush etc..)

So besides some random sushi dates, subway and Luthers favorite/maadis only mexican ‘gringos grill’- this is the extent of our ‘eating habits’.