Restaurant review: Living it up Gamal Nkrumah samples the culinary delights of a bygone era Le Caire 1940 is all about nostalgia for the good old days. The great dishes of the 1940s were construed from the spoils and inspiration of the Ottoman Empire, the meting pot kitchens absorbing all the best dishes from around the Mediterranean Sea, the Levant, Anatolia, the Balkans, and even as far afield as Persia and the Caucasus and beyond. These were rich, albeit homely, dishes. And, they were served freshly made. Old-fashioned Egyptian culinary delights have been written off as passé more times than belly-dancing, but just like the traditional shimmies these fine arts reinvent themselves and keep bouncing back. The dignitaries of the day ate well. Lashings of the rich stuff. Perhaps our forefathers were made of sterner stuff? I am not sure. This smart, historic restaurant of faded beauty in the heart of the upmarket island-suburb of Zamalek, attempts to recreate the ambiance of that particular historical period. And, with some success. Emad, the musician, succeeded in embellishing the familiar repertoire of golden oldies -- Umm Kulthoum, Mohamed Abdel-Wahab and Farid El-Atrash. His voice added immeasurably to the pleasure of the occasion. Those connoisseurs of Le Caire 1940 who fancied their own vocal prowess joined in. It added to the homely ambiance. In fact, Le Caire 1940 is vaguely reminiscent of Abul-Sid -- another typically traditional Egyptian eatery -- across the island. Except that it is less expensive and less crowded than its smoke-filled rival Abul-Sid. And, which restaurant makes the best moloukhiya ? Well, visit both and judge for yourself. At Le Caire 1940, the moloukhiya was sublime. The roots of this traditional Egyptian dish can be traced to the days of the Pharaohs. Garlic is an intrinsic ingredient in moloukhiya. I am a child of the 1970s and moloukhiya will always be associated with long family lunches in that decade. A simple enough dish on the face of it, but one that needs painstaking care if it is to be enjoyed and not become neither a watery nor a gooey mess. Moloukhiya is a roll-up-the-shirt-sleeves dish. The mucilaginous texture and the vibrancy of its distinctive flavour is unmistakable. Preparation of the ingredients of the soup is complex and can be time consuming, especially if one is to use the by far tastier fresh moloukhiya as opposed to the dried or the frozen varieties. There are countless ways to cook moloukhiya -- chicken is, or rather was, the most common until the onset of the dreaded avian flu. Duck was considered one of the richest, and reserved for special day. Rabbit on the other hand was for the lean days -- the virtually fat-free lean rabbit meat was always considered the healthiest of the moloukhiya varieties. The unmistakable aroma of moloukhiya is achieved by long, slow simmering in the broth of your favourite flesh. But, among the country's Coptic Christian community there is even vegetarian moloukhiya for fast days -- no meat or flesh-based broth is used in the soup, vegetable stock is used instead or the broth of boiled fava beans. The ritual of preparing moloukhiya is unwavering. One must have a number of essential kitchen utensils handy. Chief among these is the makhrata, a two- handled crescent-shaped mincing knife, similar in shape and function to the Italian mezzaluna. The makhrata, however, is a distinctive Egyptian kitchen utensil specifically designed for chopping up the moloukhiya leaves. The aim, of course, is to finely chop the fresh dark green leafy vegetable. Indeed, the moloukhiya leaves are shaved into impossibly thin shreds -- the finer the better and more mucilaginous. For the final touches, coarsely chopped garlic and ground coriander are tossed in ghee, traditional Egyptian clarified butter, and cooked until golden brown and thrown into the green soup. At Le Caire 1940, I opted for rabbit. The moloukhiya was cooked to perfection. It was served in an earthenware bowl and accompanied by a bit of rabbit and some rice. It reminded me of my grandmother's moloukhiya. Another nostalgia-laden dish is rozz muammar -- rice cooked in milk and cream and baked in the oven. Then there is fatta, a garlic-laden dish of rice and bread baked in a meat broth with a dash of vinegar thrown in. There was hardly any room for the moussakaa -- a dish consisting of layers of ground minced meat, sliced aubergine and tomato. Then there was the Le Caire hot mix -- which included sambousak (tiny crescent- shaped pastry stuffed with goat cheese), spicy Alexandrian thinly-sliced liver and mumbar (Egyptian stuffed rice sausages). Collectively they make a pleasant appetiser, but they can also serve as a main course. We washed it all down with shai 'al-fahm, or "Tea on Coal" with its distinctive country flavour. Le Caire 1940 17 Hassan Sabry Street, Zamalek Tel: 7355 226 - 012 199 3351
