What started out as a short walk to a travel agency place turned into a major trek across Cairo.  After not finding what we wanted at the travel place, we set off for Garden City, a more urban but beautiful region of Cairo with stunning architecture and lots of shops and vendors.  All that walking and weaving in between cars, mini buses, motorcycles, scooters, and the odd pedestrians emerging from vehicles in the middle of traffic can sure work up an appetite, so we stopped into one of the many koshari restaurants we came across.

For those of you haven’t heard of koshari (and that’s probably everyone, unless, like me, you heard about it from good old Anthony Bourdain), it is probably as close to “real” Egyptian food as you’re going to find.  Let me first say that it is DELICIOUS, even though it looks like a bunch of leftovers all piled in together.  It is made up of rice, lentils, chickpeas, crispy carmelized fried onions, and… macaroni.  Yeah, I know, MACARONI.  With rice.  And lentils and chickpeas.  It sounds strange, but believe me, it is delicious.  The whole heap is topped with a some warm tomato sauce and garlic and chili oil.  What’s not to love!?

After stuffing ourselves, we continued our trek onward toward Zamalek – a region of Cairo that is on an island in the middle of the Nile, or Neel, as we like to call it here 😉  Walking along the Nile, ehem the Neeeeel, there were lots of great things to see: vendors roasting corn and fanning the embers with big bird-feather fans (unfortunately a deal-breaker for me, haha), the sweet potato cart that was calling my name with the delicious aroma of carmelized yumminess, people heckling us for felucca rides, guys walking around with glasses of tea on trays, and lots of couples everywhere.  Unsurprisingly, the corridor along the Nile is a favorite spot for local couples and is pretty much the only place I have seen men and women holding hands or even sitting closely side by side… a little like a G-rated lover’s lane.

Over the bridge was Zamalek.  It was similar to Maadi, but I think I breathed in a year’s worth of car exhaust in just a few hours.  Oh well, right?  I would like to go back in the daylight sometime, so perhaps there will be more on Zamalek later.

Once it got dark, we headed back to home sweet home in Maadi.   Brandon is currently in the kitchen starting on dinner, so I better go join in on the fun.  We have these strange little miniature avocados that we picked up at a fruit stand, so I’m interested in seeing what chef Brandon is coming up with.

Stay tuned for pyramid pictures one of these days…

P.S.  Looks like we are going to an Egyptian Premier League football match (aka soccer game) next Sunday with Brandon’s friend Mustaffa and his wife.  Apparently we aren’t rooting for Zamalek, so goooooooo other team!