Sues Kitchen, Bangalore

Wonderful review by Tanay Behera on desicritics

I don't normally link to others reviews, but I just had to link to this one since I echo most of what he has said.

........... The owner, Susan John called Sue is from the West Indies and her restaurant is a cozy nook that you must experience sometime. .....................

................. Though the buffet lunch was priced at a reasonable rate of Rs. 225 per head, we were treated to a delicious spread of about six to seven salads. To name a few there was egg mayonnaise mixed with capsicum, chicken salad, pan fried broccoli, beans and carrot, picnic potato salad, etc. There was soup, which was mouth watering, but I learned about it when I was halfway through the main course and felt kind of upset.

For the main course by means of curries, there was crab curry, mushroom and corn curry, delicious fish cutlets, roasted chicken, Trinidad chicken curry and a yummy vegetable baked dish, among other stuff.

Read his entire post here : http://desicritics.org/2007/03/19/113324.php

Street Food : Egypt vs India

When I first considered writing about "Street Food in Cairo" the few people I knew in Cairo had a good laugh & cautioned me that having just arrived in the city I was completely setting myself up for the curse of the Pharaohs. Well, being a desi & with an ability to eat the Pav Bhajis & Paani Puris & Vada Pavs on the streets of India, then the streets of Cairo posed no threat at all, so I was all set to explore Cairo by tasting everything it had to offer. (But I did tuck a strip of lomotil into my wallet to be on the safer side)

There’s such a variety of snacks, meals, quick bites & drinks on offer on the streets of Cairo that it would be impossible to try them all in a few days, but I did manage the highlights.

A good day begins with a good breakfast. A fuul or tamiya sandwich is what is considered ideal. I tried these at ............................

Read the whole post on My Egypt Blog

Johnny Carino's, Cairo

Johnny Carino's
Nile City Boat
Next to 6th of October Bridge
Zamalek
johnnycarinos@link.net

In the mood for Italian, we set out to Johnny Carino's which advertised home style Italian Food. The Zamalek branch is set on the Nile City boat so you can imagine the nip in the air on a January Night. The outdoor seating would be wonderful on a balmy Summer evening but we rushed to the comfort of 4 walls & a ceiling.

Nice & cosy with some lovely black & white & sepia toned framed photos on the wall it does start to impart the feel of a family owned restaurant rather than a chain. The service was alarmingly fast for Cairo standards, but it suited us just fine. Portions are huge & as usual 2 starters filled us up completely.

The chicken nachos had real jalapenos in them although the nachos seemed home made & the cheese was just right at 33LE. The hand breaded Fried Calamari was a little bland for our taste, but was perked up by the sauce (30LE). We wanted to try their home made Lasagna but we had reached too late & they only make a fixed amount of Lasagna each day. As the menu says "when its over, its over" so we ordered the chicken parmigiana which came with some complementary spagheti on the side (41LE) We were already stuffed with the starters & the complimentary freshly baked oregano bread with garlic dip (absolutley yummilicious) so we had to get the Parmigiana packed in a take away container. Reminder to self - Do not order 2nd course in Egypt until you have seen the first course.

We just finished up with a Cappucino & Latte for 11 LE each. They do have a wonderful variety of options on the menu. Worth a visit. It may seem on the pricier side, for a chain restaurant, but this is the range for decent Italian food in Cairo.

Peking, Cairo

Peking

All across city
They do Take Away, Free Home Delivery & Catering too
One of the more famous Chinese chains around Cairo & well worth the fame.

You can check out their menu & locations on their site.

Their food is quite yummilicious. They have around 100 items on thier menu & whatever I tried was quite good.

Their packing is very neat & compact & they even serve sauces in little containers. Was too hungry to take pics when the food arrived. (home delivery in Cairo normally takes around 45 minutes) But maybe next time..... because there is definitely gonna be a next time.

Tried the fried rice with egg (5.25)which was simple & tasty. There is an option with basmati rice which costs a little more.

The special spicy fried noodles with chicken (15.5) were yum but I probably should not have ordered the crispy version for home delivery since it does tend to get a little soft by the time it arrived.


I loved the spicy kung pao chicken (23.75) with groundnuts but the Hot chilli chicken wasn't as spicy as I expected.

Ok, I'm indian & love spicy food, so none of the stuff was too spicy, it actually was normal spice for me.

There's a 10% sales tax over the mentioned amounts. Do try them out, they are good.

Pottery Cafe, Cairo

Pottery Cafe
Opp AUC Entrance

Its a cosy little cafe opp the American University of Cairo. Normally filled with students. Its a good place to catch a bite if you aren't interested in the fast food chains like Mcdonalds & Hardees which abound in the area.

Caught breakfast in there the other day. The Roast beef panini was 12.5LE Good roast beef. Not thick slices, but thinner ones & a little cheese.

The crepe salami mozarella 13.5LE was excellent in taste, although a little difficult to maneuvre onto the fork.

I would avoid the milk shakes. The milk here is too thick for my taste.

The American coffee was 9LE & the Honeymoon Latte (latte with honey & cinnamon) at 13.5 was excellent. They have a variety of diet, brown & white sugars which you can add to your drink.

They are a wifi hotspot, so grab a coffee & settle down to surf.

Remember there is a 12.5% service charge.

Fuddruckers, Cairo

Tried out Fuddruckers today. They did serve up pretty good burgers in the States. But they weren't as yummy here.

What was good was the excellent salad bar. Each main order gets a complementary - single trip to the salad bar. There were quite a few varieties & they were all quite yummy.

Ordered a Burger - double classic works (40LE) & some chicken wings(27LE - large). I did prefer the Chillis wings infinitely more. & the burger was low on spice & flavors. But I do like me food with a lot of flavour. Not chilli, but flavour. This was a little bland for my taste. Husband did enjoy the food though. So I guess its a personal preference as usual. Soup was 6LE & a bottomless pepsi was 9LE.

The salads were so filling, that the main course was almost completely left over. We hardly touched the food. Take a look.

Abo Yosef Koshary, Cairo

Only silver lining in my Wasted Day today was, I embarked on another food adventure. Walked up to a place called Abou Yoosef. Their menu was in Arabic. Everyone there only spoke arabic. I pointed to 2 items on the menu & patiently awaited opening my mystery suprise package.

One turned out to be a chicken fillet sandwich roll. The other was some local dish.

Now the problem is I have no clue about the name. I do not remember which item I pointed to, so its going to take some time to figure out what we ate.

But let me try & give u a description. (no picture : we were too ravenous after the house hunt that we did not bother with wasting time on taking pictures) the dish is a mix of 4 types of pasta
1. a very short tubular pasta 2mm length
2. a circular spoke pasta 2mm diameter
3. short spaghetti
4. vermicilli
and some arborio rice.

All boiled seperately with just salt & then mixed in almost equal quantities. The dish is then topped with some boiled whole masoor dhal & deep fried browned onions. & a sprinkling of chickpeas (chole)

A tomato based gravy was served on the side to be mixed into the dish. I was wearing a salwar kameez & bindi, so he realisd i was indian. pointed to my bindi & handed me a second packet which turned out to be a spicy chilli mix which we added to the tomato gravy before pouring it into the carbs.

The dish was really yummy & I doubt my description has done it justice. Also its a wonderful vegetarian option for veggies who come to this country & are forced to live on French fries. Next mission is to somehow describe this to a local who can tell me its name.

Edit : My new blogger friends Cairogal & Maryanne tell me that this dish is called "Koshary" & every place that sells this staple food would have the term koshari or koshary in its name. It costs from 3-5LE & is the basic diet of most Egyptians.

Heres a Recipe for Koshary

& heres a picture