Restaurant review: A taste of yesteryear The essential quality of Egyptian cuisine could never be compromised, discovers Gamal Nkrumah Nostalgics are an iconoclastic bunch and Yehya Zakariya, the proprietor of Balady, is one of them. He loves the past, his people's way. He is convinced that success can only be earned by the paying of certain traditional dues. And, his hideaway in Maadi, Balady (Country) looks authentic enough. Born in Saudi Arabia, Zakariya lived and worked in Al-Khobar, in the heart of the oil-rich eastern region of the kingdom. He returned to Egypt with the intention of putting what he learnt from his grandmother in action. His grandmother is his true vinculum to Egypt, his cultural identity and his country cooking. He is a man who loves to loiter about in his kitchen. It is an old habit that harks back to the days he was a boy pursuing his beloved grandmother, watching and listening to her every motion and word. "My grandmother was a consummate homemaker," he muses. Zakariya was raised with the whiff of garlic and onions and other pungent odours that filled his grandmother's kitchen. The most important lesson he learnt from his grandmother was to cook with the freshest ingredients. He abhors preservatives, additives and he cooks with only the most natural organic meats and vegetables. And, I for one, can vouch for the freshness and tastiness of his traditional Egyptian dishes. I look around, and see that Balady has lots of characters. The setting is Wagnerian, the interior Strauss. My two sons on the slouch on the comfortable wickerwork chairs. It is evening, and it has been a long day. They are starving and what better to end an eventful day than to slake their hunger by gulping down rich, green and oozy garlicky molokhiya. Molokhiya is a roll-up-the-shirt-sleeves dish, always a treat for the boys. The mucilaginous texture and the vibrancy of its distinctive flavour is unmistakable, and one of the finest molokhiya treats I have ever tasted was at Zakariya's Balady. I had to know the secret of his excellence. The molokhiya was prepared with a contemporary twist, albeit homely and mouthwateringly delectable. My boys ate well. Lashings of the rich stuff. I had mine with rabbit, my elders son, Karim, had his with plump prawns. He is obviously made of sterner stuff. My younger son Youssef opted for fish and French fries. The fish was quite simply divine. Au gratin, daubed with green garnishing, the fish was deliciously fresh. Its delicate flavour, delectable. This cozy restaurant of faded beauty in the upmarket southern Cairene suburb of Maadi, just behind the backdoor of the five-star Sofitel, attempts to recreate the ambiance of an Egypt that once was. The connoisseurs of this eatery are an odd bunch, mostly men. Some drop in for brunch, others for a traditional Turkish coffee or an even stronger drink. They are invariably greeted by an authentic Egyptian beauty Heidi. She is dark and delightful, with a ready smile. She handed me the menu which was promptly snatched by Karim; she smiled and handed me another one. When I ordered rabbit she apologised that it might take a little longer than usual because they were catering for a wedding party upstairs -- Balady is made up of two floors. On the flight upstairs, I was shocked to bump into two huge framed posters of Marilyn Monroe and Michael Jackson -- the couple of them are impossibly un-Egyptian, I thought to myself. Still, Zakariya takes authenticity very seriously. All his ingredients are organic, he assures me. "There is this lady who has an organic farm in Dahshour," he explains. "I buy produce in bulk from her. But, I never buy huge quantities. If I run out of meat, a rabbit or a duck, I know a trusted butcher or two in Maadi and I phone them to slaughter the animal: I send for it and they always deliver in no time." Zakariya excused himself to inspect the progress of the preparation of our molokhiya. 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. He spoke of the critical importance of the makhrata, a two-handled crescent-shaped mincing knife, similar in shape and function to the Italian mezzaluna. The molokhiya leaves are shaved into impossibly thin shreds -- the finer the better and more mucilaginous. The star attraction, however, was an oil painting of a voluptuous Egyptian beauty smiling lewdly and dressed in the milaya laff, a see-through black outer garment that the women of Egypt used to wrap themselves in -- the garment is now lost in the lines of history -- she personifies the balady in Balady. Balady 4 Ali Al-Kordi Street Behind Sofitel, Maadi Tel: 010 142 3180 Dinner for two: LE145
