Restaurant review: Loving the Lebanese Diners rummage the InterContinental Citystars for the contestant chefs who can't stop playing to the crowd. Gamal Nkrumah was there Like the fervid Mediterranean turquoise ( fayruz in Arabic), the Lebanese singer Fayruz, with her velvety voice, resonates in the background of the colonnaded grotto-like restaurant Fayruz. She is the very personification of refined Arab finesse. Hers is an iconic image capturing the finest aspects of the very soul of the Levant. And, the food at her namesake restaurant reflects this legendary diva, the embodiment of the Lebanese Lady -- polished, full of subtle flavours, with an unrestrained verve deep within. Then, as sudden as a bolt from the blue, a live band springs into action, I pricked up his ears. I forget what they call themselves. I try hard to focus on the food. The menu is impressive, with intriguing variations of Lebanese classics. But before I could even order, the voluptuous Soraya explodes into one of her improbable shimmies. She dances the night away. No, this is no Lebanon. Soraya is the epitome of Egyptian jocundity. With total abandon. Passion needed no inducing among her adoring fans, drooling over the swinging hips and shuffling feet. Her hair is standing on edge like the turrets of some gleaming citadel. The gaudy colours in which she is draped mirror the tasteless lunacy of it all. The gourmet Lebanese cuisine on offer is anything but flavourless, though. Every mouthful is tasty, delectably so. Roast veal shank, baked seabass, roast leg of lamb -- classics cooked with homemade authenticity that whetted my appetite. It was impossibly difficult to choose a particular dish and exclude another. Chef Bassem Boulos is typically Lebanese -- and I mean that in the sweetest sense of the word. He knows that not all his diners are Lebanese. However, he instinctively understands that they are enamoured with all things Lebanese. It is a cliché, but true. Egyptians have long had a love affair with Lebanese seductions. Take forkfuls of freshly chopped parsley and tomatoes, and you are magically transported to the panoramic slopes of Mount Lebanon in Springtime. Tabouleh, the name of the dish that evokes the peculiarly Lebanese gleeful appetite for life, comes to mind. And, at Fayruz this piquant Levantine salad lives up to expectations. Soraya is at it again. There are only two movements in her arousing repertoire -- up and down and side to side, and yes, suggestively so. Watching the chefs at the Cairo International Conference Centre competing for gold has been undeniably compelling. The unselfconscious youthful narcissism was all- absorbing and the uncontrollable exultation of winning a joy to watch. I pause over an enormous slab of kibbeh, or is it my imagination -- this, perhaps, is the only Lebanese delicacy that Egyptians find revolting. Egyptians have a natural revulsion to raw flesh of any kind. The very notion of ground, freshly slaughtered beef or lamb is repugnant as far as Egyptians are concerned. Maybe that is why Lebanese kibbeh is rarely ever on the menus of "Oriental" restaurants in the country. Find out for yourself if Fayruz is an exception. I am not putting you on. You may recall that, curiously, most of the winners at the Egyptian Chefs Association contest hailed from the kitchens of the InterContinental Citystars. Whatever the case, the plush hotel boasts an exquisite Japanese restaurant, Shogun, and an Italian gem, Maestro. These two distinguished eateries will be the subject of future reviews, suffice it to say that the very hands that produce the precious repasts at Fayruz are likely to turn out equally delicious dishes at the hotel's other restaurants. Put your trust in the InterContinental's innovational chefs, I say. Fayruz restaurant InterContinental Citystars Nasr City Tel: 02 2480 0100 Dinner for one: LE300
