How could I have overlooked this one? According to Italian ex-patriates writing on TripAdvisor, "La Vela [Road 262, Maadi] è la classica trattoria italiana . . . serve probabilmente la miglior cucina italiana del Cairo" (La Vela is a classic Italian (...)
Walking out onto the terrace at Casper & Gambini's City Stars on Saturday afternoon was like entering a live television broadcast in full swing. Cameras, microphones, music, a stage; hosts, guests and excited contestants buzzing about; (...)
There are some basic rules to restaurant reviewing. Do not use words like “yummy" or “delicious." Avoid related clichés such as “food for thought" or “good to the last bite." Go incognito (i.e. don't let the owners or managers know that you work for (...)
As the first year anniversary of my Bite Me Cairo column draws near, I have been reflecting on the fate of the people, places and dining trends that I have been writing about over the past year. Some things I got dead wrong. There are, to date, no (...)
When it comes to restaurants, the one thing Cairenes consistently complain about is consistency. You go to a new place, enjoy an outstanding meal, talk about it for weeks, return with friends, and are embarrassed because this time it was nothing (...)
Not long ago I wrote about the renewal of Left Bank and wondered about the absence of a fine-dining culture in Egypt. I asked why people are afraid to try new things, why every café sells the same, bland pastas and sandwiches, why every restaurant (...)
125 years ago, if you were sitting on the veranda of Ismail Pasha's palace (now the Marriott Hotel), on El-Gezira, (now Zamalek), you would have been able to see at the western edge of the grounds the Grotto Garden (now the Fish Garden).
Replete (...)
At the beginning of the revolution, although I lived but a five-minute walk from the Fairmont Heliopolis, I rarely went there. In fact I do not think I ever went there, preferring the clubs and restaurants of Zamalek to those nearby. Then came 28 (...)
At dinner yesterday, my friend Adam asked me: “Are there any really good restaurants in Egypt?" I had to think about that. Of course there are. There are places that do grilled meats, fish, chicken and various traditional Egyptian dishes really (...)
I have waited a year to write a story about Left Bank in Zamalek. Like everyone else, I loved the space immediately. Light, airy, lined with bookshelves, a beautiful tile floor designed by Eklego to invoke Tahrir Square, glass walls that open onto (...)
Expatriates often ask where to go for good Egyptian food. I usually direct them to Abou El Sid, but I always caution them that you cannot find authentic Egyptian food in a restaurant. You have to wait for an invitation to experience the real deal, (...)
At the end of Act 1, Scene 5 of Antony and Cleopatra, Cleopatra sits in her palace in Alexandria thinking about Antony and worrying about Caesar. Sadly, she bemoans her loss of innocence, and remembers the days of her youthful inexperience:
“My (...)
Every once in a while a friend will declare, quite doggedly, that he knows what he likes. He will then proceed to wonder, out loud, (usually at a dinner party within earshot of others), how it is that some people give themselves the right to judge (...)
The in-laws are in town and her royal self and I wanted to take them somewhere new, somewhere spectacularly new, a place they had never heard of before. But because they grew up in Cairo and visit fairly frequently, this was not an easy assignment; (...)
Foodist at work by Nada Badawi
The food and beverage industry in Egypt has gone through an incredible transformation in the past twenty years. In the mid-‘90s there were no cafes, almost no fast food, almost no delivery, little fine dining, no real (...)
Foodist at work
Photo by Nada Badawi
Most people have fixed ideas about world cuisines. When we think of Indian food, we think spicy curries; when we think Italian, it's pizza and pasta. Chinese food is lots of vegetables and bits of meat and fish (...)
Foodist at work
By Nada Badawi
It was time to take a break from Egypt, so her royal self and I decided a week in El Gouna was in order. This orange and white holiday village on the Red Sea, just north of Hurghada is, geographically, part of this (...)
Foodist at work – Photo by Nada Badawi
The humble hamburger, God's gift to American cuisine, and now, the world. Invented at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition, named after the Baltic seaport town of Hamburg, Germany, and made famous by the fast (...)
Foodist at work
Nada Badawi
There are conflicts inherent in any relationship, more when you are a foodie and your partner is not. She's the love of your life; you talk about her incessantly; she's the first thing you think about in the morning and (...)
Foodist at work
Nada Badawi
“When two Englishmen meet, they talk about the weather," said PJ as we sampled his spinach soup, “but when two Bengalis meet, they talk about food." The soup, like many of PJ's dishes, was smooth and creamy, but without (...)
Foodist at work
Nada Badawi
It has been a rough week. No two ways about it. After my recent musings about what it is that I am supposed to be doing as a food critic, I was all set to put that into play and was looking forward to venturing out, (...)
Foodist at work
Nada Badawi
Last Friday Pete Wells, restaurant critic for the New York Times, published a review of Guy Fieri's American Kitchen and Bar in Times Square. To call it “scathing" does not do it justice. Wells asks a series of questions (...)
Foodist at work
Nada Badawi
King Farouk's eating habits are legendary. I have encountered at least three different stories about his breakfasts. According to Jimmy Wilds, a British signalman attached to naval headquarters in Alexandria, Farouk used (...)
Foodist at work. (Photo by Nada Badawi)
On our first visit to The Snug we had such a pleasantly chilled evening that I decided not to write about it. It was a quiet October evening, the weather had begun to cool, and the smoke from the large outdoor (...)
Foodist at work, photo by Nada Badawi
So her royal self and a friend went for sushi the other night. Among other things they ordered salmon sashimi, one of her friend's favourites. The waiter, being new and eager to please but not used to sushi (...)