El Andalous - Egyptian Food

View From the Flat Where we Ate

I quite often get asked what the traditional food is in Egypt. My reply is that the national dish is stuffed pigeon, which I’ve never tried (I have had camel, but I get the sense it’s on menus more for the novelty value than as a genuine local dish). I’m off this week to El Dar Darek for a meal, so maybe I’ll try a stuffed pigeon then. I believe they’re quite small, so can probably be taken as a starter. At least, last time I was in Dar Darek, the men behind us had a plateful of about two each served before other platters were brought out with hefty servings of red meat.

Anyway, I went to a cooking class this week and it turned out that we were mostly cooking Egyptian food. When I say cooking class, it’s really a group of us getting together at someone’s house and cooking lunch together. Last time I went to one of these events, I didn’t even help out (too many cooks and all that).

I was put in the mahshi group and we made stuffed cabbage leaves, which is very traditional over here (along with other stuffed vegetables – I’ve read that mahshi means stuffed and can apply to other vegetables, although I believe in Egypt cabbage leaves are the most traditional). They don’t sound very appetising, but they are truly delicious.

Preparing them is a bit of a faff and the organizer brought the rice ready-spiced (but not cooked, which I found quite odd, but that's how it's done) and the cabbage leaves pre-cooked. We just had to roll the rice in the cabbage leaves like little cigars and then put them into the pot with the stock to cook. Like all cooking, I guess it’s all in the spices you use and I guess the broth for the rice. There seemed to be a bit of an art to getting the right amount of rice in the rolled cabbage leaf (too much and they will explode as the rice expands when you cook it; too little and you’ll just have a mouthful of cabbage). 

It really is very time consuming since you have the preparing beforehand and then all the time rolling the leaves. Apparently, Egyptian women will spend the evening in front of the TV doing this.

I can’t take responsibility for the end result, but really it was superb. There were also stuffed aubergines (also very yummy), kofta, and a spicy lentil-type dish.

The dessert was a typical Egyptian item called Gabl Al Hareem (beautiful mountain, apparently, although I thought gameel was beautiful in Arabic, thus illustrating yet again the difficulty of learning Arabic). It was pumpkin, mashed presumably with some sugar, and then béchamel sauce on top. You eat it hot. I’d never heard of it before (I’ve eaten Om Ali, which is a bread pudding with nuts and raisins and is also very tasty and quite filling). However, quite a few were already familiar with Gabl Al Hareem (and the Egyptians knew it, of course) and were very excited to be eating it again. I don't think there were any leftovers.

All in all, a very pleasant day!

El Andalous - More Food

Happy Birthday, Margaret!

Well, I’m quite tempted to skip this week’s blog since I don’t have an awful lot to write about. This is a good thing, since sometimes having something to say just means that something’s gone horribly wrong.

Life continues as usual and luckily for me this means more socializing and more going out for meals. It was Margaret’s birthday so a small group of us went out for some Thai food in Hurghada. We went to the White Elephant and I’d never been there before, but had heard that it had a good reputation. It’s situated on Mamsha. Drivers don’t usually know where restaurants are, so our taxi, true to form went right past it, while pretending that he knew where it was. We  had to stop him and point out that he'd already gone too far. Still, it was a nice enough evening and not so far to walk back.

To my astonishment, Mamsha – a semi-pedestrian street (that doesn’t make sense, but there’s a wide road for cars but an equally wide or maybe even larger area that’s pavement) – has had some very arty sculptures erected along some of it and they are very tasteful. It really makes the area seem a lot more upmarket, although the shops are still full of the same touristy items that are always sold. However, it is a vast improvement over what it used to be.

The food was good – quite spicy – and we had our own champagne with us to toast Margaret (and Yuen, happy birthday Yuen back in Zurich!).

On the way back, on arrival into Sahl Hasheesh, we had a group photo taken by the Christmas decorations at the top of the Entrance Plaza (or is it Piazza, I can never remember), which you can see at the top of this blog; I really like this photo (courtesy of Stephen, but taken by the security guard) because we all look so happy and the decorations themselves are lovely too.

I was also invited round to Jeff and Ness’s for a meal because I’d printed out their boarding passes for them. It wasn’t necessary for them to do this, but it was a good evening; last time they were here, they brought me spaghetti Bolognese (I felt like I was a Meals on Wheels charity case!) and this time they have given me beef stew, tarte tartin, and peach crumble on leaving. They are so kind; everyone here is very generous and I’m lucky to have such good friends.

On another evening, I went out with Stephen, Kathryn, Wendy and Les for a meal in Sahl Hasheesh. I was hungry, so took 3 courses (tomato soup, fish and chips, and banana split). It was all very nice. The fish and chips was actually battered fish (in several bits rather than one large ones) and French fries, so not a million miles off proper fish and chips. Banana splits here are always a bit of a gamble since each restaurant has its own interpretation. This one was a glass of vanilla ice cream with banana all round the edge of the glass (a bit like flower petals) and then M&Ms sprinkled on top with a little bit of chocolate sauce. I really enjoyed the meal but had diarrhea the whole of the night and an unsettled stomach for the next day, so maybe it wasn’t so good. I’m quite surprised as it didn’t seem there was so much that could have gone wrong.

So that’s me, really. I was tempted not to write because every week seems to be variations on the same at the moment (and so a bit too dull for a blog), but I’ve written it now!

El Andalous - A Cold Start and Hot Dinners

New Indian Restaurant at Sunrise Romance, Sahl Hasheesh

Unfortunately, January seems to have brought with it a change in weather and it’s been pretty cold (for Egypt) over the last week or so. Today it was even misty. When I say cold, I mean about 19 degrees during the day. And that means it’s really too cold to swim. Disaster!

Two years ago, we had an exceptionally cold winter, but I'm pretty sure all previous  years were sunny and beautiful. However, I went to the hairdresser and she said she keeps on forgetting that Africa can be cold (relatively) in the winter. I’m back in my jeans and thick cardigan today. So, I’m doubting my memories of the earlier years now. Hopefully this cold spell will pass and then my mind will blot this cold phase out from my mental archives, as it's apparently done for the last five years.

Maybe the weather is cold because it’s retaliating to my desire for hot food. This time that I’ve been across, I’ve been trying out several new Indian restaurants that I heard about. The first one was in the Tropitel across the Bay, which I’ve already written about briefly at the end of last year (set menu, good, but expensive).

However, when Nicole and I wandered over to look at the Thai restaurant at the Sunrise Romance hotel, we noticed that it now (after many, many years of having an empty façade) had an operational Indian restaurant as well.

Nicole, Ann and I tried it out one evening – the nights were still warm at this stage, so we sat outside and there was a live singer as well, so it was all very pleasant. I asked for my dish to be made a bit spicier and actually it was very tasty. They also had a peshwari naan, much to my delight. It wasn’t quite like the Indian restaurants in the UK, but still good. I’m delighted it’s there.

Then I bumped into Jo and Ian who said (without any prompting from me) that there was a really good Indian restaurant in Hurghada, so I went there with Stephen and Kathryn to try that one out. The place has had loads of really good reviews, but my own impression was that the Sunrise Romance Indian restaurant was just as good.

I’d really like to go back to the Indian restaurant at the Baron Palace hotel in Sahl Hasheesh. I have memories of that being one of the best curries I’d ever had (although there wasn’t much choice on the menu). Now I’m not sure if it’s got exaggerated in my head (given that my memory doesn't seem to be up to much) or maybe it’s changed hands since then and it’s no longer so good. But I’d like to know. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it; that’s what this cold weather does for you!

El Andalous - Welcome to 2019

Better Late Than Never - Ho, Ho, Ho!

Happy new year, everyone and thank you for reading my blog. If you’re stuck for a new year’s resolution, try out my 50 New Year’s Resolutions – How to Make Them, How to Keep Them.
It was a busy festive season for me and it goes on for a long time over here, since there are the Europeans, who celebrate either on 24th or 25th December (or in my case, both, well, why not?) and then there are the Christian Egyptians who are mostly Coptic Christians, and they celebrate on 7th January. Merry Christmas to any Coptic Christians who are reading this. Santa Claus (pictured) didn’t appear in El Andalous until 26th December, which was a bit strange for the Europeans! We didn’t have any lights up in the garden this year, maybe due to the ever-increasing electricity costs.

Anyway, I joined the Lotus Ladies for a Christmas meal on 24th December, where we sampled food from many nationalities. One of my favorite dishes was from Syria; it was a creamy aubergine concoction with garlic – very yummy!

For Christmas Day I was invited round to Stephen and Kathryn’s for the full UK works (turkey, stuffing, trifle). We didn’t start until the late afternoon to give us the opportunity to have time on the beach beforehand (hurrah!). More people piled in from 7pm onwards where we continued to nibble, drink, and generally socialize.

The owners at El Andalous had been trying for ages to get our annual meeting with the operating company to discuss our maintenance fees. They finally relented and suggested meeting them at 3pm on Christmas Day (whilst wishing us a Merry Christmas, oh the irony). We refused but we ended up having the meeting on Boxing Day. It didn’t get us very far this year but it was at least a polite meeting. We are nevertheless saddled with increased fees.

A week later, it was time for the New Year celebrations. A group of us hired a minibus to take us into Hurghada and we went to the Caribbean Bar for a buffet and dance. The food was really good (turkey, beef, some cheese dishes, salads, lovely desserts) and I completely stuffed myself. I had very little alcohol since I wanted to be able to enjoy the first day of 2019 and not be hungover. However, as it turned out, we didn’t leave until around 3.30am, so I ended up feeling wrecked anyway. I won’t do that again next year! Nevertheless, it’s nice to feel that I saw in the new year properly.

The new year also began here with our old manager at El Andalous leaving and a new manager being appointed. Our new manager, Ahmed, is someone who has already been working in El Andalous and we all like him, so we have hopes that things may improve. I am however, sad to see Medhat go as he was a very nice guy. He has a new job in Hurghada, so with any luck he has a good future ahead as well.

We're only one week into 2019 and the new year has started by ringing in the changes already. Let’s see what else it has in store!