My Top Ten Places to Eat and Drink in Alex

I feel very lucky that I have friends who took me around the city and showed me the different nice places to hang out and to eat in the city. Tomorrow I am expecting a special guest from Germany : my wonderful friend Judith, and I was making a list about the places I could take her so I thought it would be nice to share it as well on this new blog I am writing on my life in Alex.

1.Dahab:  it’s an amazing restaurant infront of sporting club which makes Egyptian Fetir. My friend Bahz took me there the second day I came to Alex and he recommended having a Fetir with extra mushrooms and extra cheese. I really cannot describe the how delicious it was, or I may borrow the expression Bahz used to describe it: simply orgasmic! He also told me about his idea to open a Fetir fast-food all around the world and to franchise it. I totally agree!

2.Arouss El Bahr: it’s the Arabic word for mermaid. Alexandria is most of all famous for its fish and the best place to eat fresh fish especially calamari and shrimps is Arouss El Bahr. You have to take a small alley from the big mausoleum of El Abass and you will find all kinds of fish restaurants in this unexpected corner. The quality is great and the prices really affordable! If you want a fancy place try Fish Market.

3.Mohamed Ahmed: it’s the best place for Foul and Falafel in Alexandria. The Falafel are very crispy and the Foul very strong. If you eat it I guarantee that you’ll stay full the whole day, unless you are Alexandrian! For Foul and Falafel try Abou Awad as well.

4.Clay:  A very cozy and nice café in the Christian neighborhood that is famous for its cultural activities and the quality of people who sit in it. Another particularity of Clay, is that it’s a Pottery café as you can paint a piece and bay it if you wish from the nice lady that owns the place.

5.Atoujariya: It’s the headquarter for Alexandrian intellectuals and pseudo-intellectuals. The leaders of the Alexandrian civil society all meet there to complain about the field, brainstorm for new projects, or gossip about other activists in the middle of the smells of Chicha, tea and coffee. Of course Atoujariya is not the perfect place to have an ice-mocha or a malteazers cappuccino, but it’s the best place to meet friends and feel relax in front of the Cornich. (by the way haythem kamel is living there)!

6.Swissra: Of course it’s not the real Switzerland, it’s a small shop with two tables and 8 chairs where my friends go after a big night in Atoujariya. You can have cheddar and eggs and sausages in white bread. Just amazing!

7.Jaad: The place when I’ve had the best Shawarma in town. It’s an Egyptian chain of fast-foods, but the best one is the one next to the bank where my friend Ahmed Esmat took me for a quick gossip-meal. We also order food during lunch time from there it’s efficient. I recommend the Kebda Eskandarani there as well.

8.Sheik Ali: it’s a very problematic name for a Bar. Sheik in Arabic is the name we call spiritual Muslim leaders and religious men but the place is a nice small marine Greek style bar downtown where you can have cool Stella beer and nice food. One of my friends told me that the British owner had to leave after the revolution and left the place to a young employee who was closing the bar on Fridays and going to pray, so people started making fun of him calling him Sheikh Ali. Of course it’s difficult to find a lot of drinking places in Alex except from some small pubs and the Greek bar in Ibrahimiya whish looks like a place to get drunk, the fancy Portuguese club for which you need a membership card (if you have a membership card please invite me to go), and the gay bar Elite! For the rest better order from Dinkies’ they will deliver all you may need home!

9.Mana: My favorite place for patisserie! I feel lucky to have one close to my house because they make amazing oriental biscuits and tasty chocolate! Many people prefer Halawiyat Masr or Trianon but for me nothing can match Mana!

10.Ezaabalaoui: I never tried it or let’s say I didn’t try it yet, but after reading Bahz’s article on the famous Makarouna and Kouchari place in Alexandria I will for sure convince one of my friends to take me even if they think that it’s a very popular and dirty place for a girl!

Mmmm I feel hungry after this!

More than a Supermarket

Yesterday I went with my friend Corinne to the Supermarket to shop glossary and other stuff. It was a very rich intercultural learning activity for me. It’s amazing how much you can learn about a culture from its culinary habits! The Egyptians have a proverb which says “the road to a man’s heart is his stomach”. I would say in this case “the way to a culture’s understanding is its food!”

Alexandria has a huge Carrefour Supermarket on the entrance of the city, but in fact once I went there I noticed that it’s much more than a simple Supermarket! It’s in fact the new downtown of the city. Usually downtown used to be Safia Zaghloul street and Mahatat Erraml area, well, not anymore since the Carrefour opened as if you take any taxi now and tell him take me downtown he will take you to the supermarket! Once you enter Carrefour you will understand why this appellation; in fact on week-ends you will have the feeling that all Alexandria is there. People don’t need to bay anything to go there, they would just meet there for a coffee, a meal or walking with their kids.

I would like to share with you my impressions about the division of space inside the supermarket and how it reveals the Egyptian Culinary habits and the Egyptian culture. First, there is no bread section apart from the baskets of Egyptian bread on the entrance, maybe this can be explained by the fact that Egyptians prefer to bay hot bread every day from Tabour El Eich or the corner glossary shop, or maybe it’s due to the fact that they consume more rice than bread like all Asian countries. The last explanation maybe more plausible as I also noticed how the rice rows are huge to the point we got lost between the different brands of rice that were there. In Morocco and in Europe it’s very different, you will have a lot of bread types and less space for the rice. Second, the rows for milk yogurt and cheese were way smaller than ours and it was impossible to find a good Brie, Camembert or Rockford even if Carrefour is a French brand of supermarkets! This remind me of my friend Marwa when we were last time together in Paris, and how she hates the tasty nice cheese. Yet, the canned Foul, the Homouss, the Halawa, and the Tahina were everywhere you may look, that’s because it’s the main components of a good Egyptian breakfast I guess! Another very important thing is that alcohol is not sold on Supermarkets is Egypt even if it has a big Christian population, which is very strange somehow! Without speaking about the Condoms situation! In fact until recently the only way to have a condom was to go to the pharmacy, and now that is being sold in the supermarket it’s very embarrassing for people to go bay it, according to my friends, one must invent a whole strategy to go bay a condom in the supermarket without being noticed by anyone or feeling ashamed!

I also want to tell you about the ongoing Egyptian Valentine day! Corinne and I noticed that all the house furniture, cups, plates and everything has hearts or was decorated with hearts. First Corinne said it’s maybe celebrating Valentine’s Day before Valentine, but my friend Ahmed Esmat told us that Egyptians are eternal romantics and they love to express it in everything

Furthermore, in the Supermarket I discovered that amazing organic nature friendly brand called ISIS and I automatically felt in love with it! The quality and the packaging is great and the price is very good, so I thought here is a good move for living healthy and protecting the nature (they are not paying me to say this by the way)!

After 3 full hours in the Supermarket and deep thoughts about the Egyptian shopping habits and culinary preferences it was big time to focus on my own shopping before my friend Ahmed gets really mad at Corinne and I for being very slow and complains about being nicer with us that he is usually with his Mum while shopping!