Nile Group Opening Gala June 2011

oh what a night.................!

fabulous.

Last night i went along to the opening show at the Pyramisa with the girls who are currently staying with me in 'Hotel bellylorna'. If you are attending the workshops in the festival- and pay for at least 7 of them... then you get opening and closing night shows included in your registration fee. Otherwise you pay $50 for a ticket. When i heard who was in the line up for the opening i decided it was well worth the money and a night not to be missed!

Saying that- The night must have started pretty much on time, since when we arrived, only a little late (Cairo style) Nour had already performed her 1st number of the night. She was elegant, and fun and beautiful and gentle... a show that was worth the entrance fee on its own! We all especially liked her khaleegy which was again, soft and passionate... when she whipped her hair round, you really felt is was the enjoyment of the move which instigated the action... rather than because that is 'what you do' in khaleegy. It was a bit like watching a cat stretch in fact. Mesmorising.

After the buffet (an experience a lot less traumatic than usual due to the destressingly low numbers in attendance of the fesitval this year since the revolution) we watched a dancer i hadn't seen before, Margurite (forgive me any spelling mistakes here please!) She is russian.. but has been taking lots of lessons with Lubna Eman ( a lovely lady and obviously from these results, a very good teacher!) The style was 100% Egyptian... which as all foreign dancers knows is our holy grail... to be mistaken for Egyptian while on stage! The only thing i think that would have improved her show was maybe less choreography. Although everything she did was moves perfect... I felt she kept herself safe away from us the audience. Mind you, nerves alone could do that to a girl i guess!

Tito was next on stage... with backing dancers who were all dressed differently but all dressed in past Tito costumes- it was bizarre- like a lookalike competition. Novel idea though. In the group that went with me... 2 of the girls hadn't ever seen him perform live before, so they were, of course, enraptured. He does dance in the most manly way out of all the male oriental dancers i have seen, although the headscarf he was wearing didn't get lifted up like hair and flicked an inordinate number of times.... A fun show with him standing dancing on top of a tabla too.

Camelia was beautiful.

 Her dance was the most contained i have ever seen her dance... and i think that added to it. Her main piece in her show was a reproduction on a moulid (holy festival) and there were stilt walkers, 'punch and judy' puppets, tannnoura, fanoon, a fortune teller, jugglers, even a wee old man 'selling' erk soos (a licorice drink). She came and went during this carnival in about 5 differnt costumes... and it was a entertainment on a massive scale. unfortunalty though... becuase her dancing to me was so lovely in her 1st set, i was frustrated because i wanted to watch her dance again... rather than the circus show (as lively and entertaining as it was!)

Last but not least, Asmahan. Her entire band were wearing shirts made from the egyptian flag, she was carried onto stage in a box made from egyptian flag and her 1st costume was a 'brides' dress with a full net black skirt, white and gold eagle on her stomach and a red shawl.


.......these she stripped away to finallly be wearing a very tight very revelling costume of red whie and black. My 'flag' costume looks like a galabeya in comparison!



Her dance was lovely, and very soft.. which is always what i though i would like to see more in Asmahans dancing... but it felt more like the passion or power had disolved a bit, which was sad. It's not a surprise though... She is not based in Cairo anymore, so no longer getting her daily high energy exercise fix in her show each night. and she is not the only one to have less daily practise! All of us dancers in Cairo are performing much less since the revolution since the numbers of tourists in town will take time to increase and people are employing dancers less and less at weddings....



What i will say about Asmahan however is that she has always been one of the most welcoming and interested and caring of all the dancers here in Cairo. When i first arrived here to work she gave me a lot of very good advice about work here. A very generous lady- and this comes accross in her dance too. A nice shot of Asmahan and Khaled Mahmoud-

I have to give credit to the Nile Group organisers who cannot possibly be making any kind of profit with such low attendance levels... but who, despite the cost to themselves,  put on an amazing show for us all the same. This surely is a fantastic festival to attend.. since there won't be any issues of having difficulties seeing the teachers at the front of the classes! I recommend you support it and Egypt and come to the next festival if you can!

I also have to give photo credit for al these shots to the lovely Delia Lewis who is currently staying in Hotel Bellylorna with me. Thanks for letting me use them here D !!!

The entire night ended after dawn.

 Hehe- thats stating the obvious isn't it... I mean.. the entire show finished at dawn when we jumped a taxi back to Hotel Bellylorna to dream of shimmys and hair flicks!

a week at home...

This past week has been very strange for me. I am used to my Cairo life being packed with too many things to do... and this week has been the opposite.

We have too many dancers working at the pharoah boats just now... so with 5 dancers ( Me, Outi, Maya, Mona and Magda) that means we each only get 12-13 nights work a MONTH. Which is NOT enough to live on. hmmm. not great. Thankfully usually when this happens i can suppliment things by teaching (which I have done a little of this week) and renting out my spare rooms ( although this week was an empty house week too). Why do we have so many dancers?... business. If the boat emplys numerous dancers... if one of us were to be sick, travel or throw a diva tantrum, then they still have enough dancers to work. It makes business sense, I know. It's just hard when there isn't much work outside of the boat. Although its tough I shouldn't complain. i have also had times over the last 4 years when there were only 2 dancers working on the pharoahs which meant work EVERY night... and that is even tougher, especially if you get injured!

so i have had 5 days without 'work'...(with some assumptions!)

Day 1 without work was great...i caught up with 3 close girlfriends and had lovely quality time. Including an interesting and informative stretching session with a girl trained in ballet. She got me almost into the splits!!! was so impressed with myself! (this assumes that for a dancer stetching isn't 'work'?)

Day 2 was THE productive day. i had over 200 outstanding emails, some from as far back as early 2009!!!! I managed to get that list in one day down to less than 10. Also did a costume shop visit (always good, although often expensive!). The evening was spent as the day started... emails... (this assumes emails, mainly about dance from dancers, isn't work?)

Day 3 and spending the majority of the time at home alone is beginning to get to me. I get depressed if left to my own devices for too long, I think its about having too much time to think! Anyway... I was moping about then said to myself- STOP, snap out of it... how can i make myself happy again....? so i went to my studio and put my 'happy mood' playlist on the ipod up to full volume and washed dishes, scrubbed kitchen cupboards, emptied the through everything into it cupboards in the living room and sorted things out for throwing out etc etc  i even made a to do list and ticked some things off! It is amazing the power of happy music (mine includes Mr Boombastic!). I decided that i should keep up this energy level and went into the studio with a view to doing some stretches and thought- why not do an arabic lesson at the same time... THAT was my big mistake. I was lying on my mat, doing a glut stretch, listening to the michael thomas arabic course... and my knee hit the floor! I had fallen asleep mid stretch!!!!!! oops my energy had stopped. I planned to go out salsa dancing... but then i ordered Pizza... and that put an end to any form of movement as the evenings activety, so i slumped in front of the TV, which people who know me know is NOT a good sign! (this assumes stretching, arabic study and sorting bellydance photo cd's from music cd's isn't work?)



Day 4 i had a reason to get up... a class to teach. Yippee! I enjoyed it so much i continued for about an hour in the studio choreographing a dance for her next class! Then I tried to debug my plants on the balcony. They have mealyworm. Or at least thats the closest thing i could find online that looks like them. Internet said to dab them with rubbing alcohol and they would fall off. So i put some whiskey in a spray bottle and blasted them. ( it didn't in the end work, but it was a very bizarre experience, some from my country would say sacreligious!). Oh and I got a long outstanding job done. I have bought many lamps in my time here. i love them! But the wiring is not exactly what you would call safe, or often effective! So I gave 2 lamps to the bowab so he could take them somewhere to fix.. and within a couple of hours they were back with me- working. hurrah- success- tick off that list! Go out dancing... i could have... i had invites... but no- i sat in front of the TV, again. (this assumes teaching and making my spare rooms presentable to dancers who want to rent them isnt work?)

Day 5 my prayers were answered in the form of work. I was called into the Nile Maxim to cover a lunchtime sail. It was fun, despite having a new tabal and singer... i just loved being back doing what i am here to do!Plus , on the Maxim the program is different so i got to do almost a full hours show, rather than just 2x 15min sets as is usual on the pharoah. That was great. I felt awful though when i got an old man up to dance, cos he was dancing about by his table anyway.. he took the stick off me, and proceeded to try and dance... except he was really old and not steady on his feet and in trying to impress/imitate me he landed on the floor. It must have really hurt becuase the stage there is marble, not wood and it is hard enough on the soles of my feet, so i can only imagine what landing full onto it must have felt like. Anyway, there were no broken bones and he was still smiling at the show by the end of the sail. Thank god! (this assumes work that isn't my contracted work , isn;t work?)

Then- wow- paragraph 2- this was a busy day! I asked the bowab about a small glass top table, because i needed new glass for it. Within an hour a boy had come to measure it, phoned in to his boss with sizes and got price quote, gone, collected 'made to measure' glass, with bevelled edges, and returned it to me. all within an hour. In a country where it can take days to do easy things, somethings that you would think should take longer just happen. i can't believe i had been putting it off for years- literally! The glass broke in an interesting manner. The coffee table was beside a window. usually the shutter is left closed. The cleaner left it open. The sun shone through the window, magnifying as it did so, the beam of light hit the glass topped table and the until then perfect glass, cracked. One long wavy line of a crack that made a heck of a noise as it grew! So now, that shutter stays shut! That was nearly 4 years ago!

para 3- life is beginning to look up! - friends came over. A girl from Ireland and her Egyptian 'husband'. They are travelling  to hers for christmas and we spent a while going over the extensive list of everything you need to supply the British embassy with in order to get a visa. What a nightmare! With a UK passport i have to admit I have always taken it completely for granted that you want to travel, you buy your ticket, and you go. Often just buying a visa on arrival, if you need one at all! For egyptians to travel, especially to UK or USA, the requirements are massive, even with a letter of invitation! Oh and then we went out to eat mandy. No- not a person !!! Mandy is a yemen dish with basmati rice and sultanas toped with the meat of your choice, we had very fatty lamb- I will try chicken next time. Very tasty too- and the shop is walking distance from my place. Although the poor man in the shop got into an awful tiz when i wanted to take the number for deliveries finally admitting that no one in the shop could speak english so he was worried how could they take my order? when i told him not to worry it would be ok, in arabic, his relief and surprised smile were evident!

a good day.

Day 6 is today and I have all sorts of exciting things lined up for tonight and plans made with people i can't let down, so finally i will be 'doing something' with my time 'off work! The day started earlier than I would have liked since my cleaner insists on starting her day at 8am. Usually this involves me opening the door with my eyes still closed, then going straight back to bed and waking only to pay her before she leaves. Bliss. Today i had to play the ogre and go round the house with her pointing out all the things she hadn't been doing right, or at all, and that took 20 mins. It's a job i knew I had to doo for weeks, lets be accurate, months, but i could never bring myself to tell a grown woman how to clean a glass, or a window. so I had been ignoring the probelm and hoping she would improve on her own. In fact, she got worse, sloppier and sloppier. It seems that unless you are tough, and that means delivering a warning with not hit of smile or even what a brit would consider manners, is the only thing that works. I hate it.

So now i am wide awake, have done my emials, and this blog and its not even 10am. Hmm- how to fill my day.....?

tonight;
- i will go and see a circus performance (by someone who contacted me through my blog- ie work)
- then interview and my life here as a foreign dancer (ie work)
- then watch a film a friend bellydancing (ie work)
- then go out to some cabaret bars to watch lots of dancers (ie work)

amazing how little of my life isn't 'work'.... but also how much 'work' i love!!!!!!!!  I'd just like to make the point. Most 'normal' jobs you leave behind you when you leave your office, shop whatever. Your work seldom consumes EVERYTHING in your life.

When you are an artist, and in particular when you are self employed and have to promote yourself, then 'work' never stops. You don't want it to stop. It becomes you. Without bellydance my whole world would be completely different. I hope I never have to know just how different.

My 'boring' , 'work-free' week... hope it's been interesting for you!

food and drink in Cairo

Sayeda Studio: Glimpses of Egypt II. - Food and drinks: "You cannot miss the amazing juices, the most delicious fruits and vegetables once in Egypt, and of course the spices and meals egyptians mak..."


If you are hungry and not near food you should not look at the photos in this blog entry by Zsofia, a dear friend of mine, who used to live here in cairo..... if you like to tease yourself- go on- look!

Eastern treasure in the heart of Hussain

A new Indian restaurant has opened up in the most unusual of locations. Just as you emerge from the underpass from al azhar to Hussain, facing you is a huge beautiful brass door. Upstairs there is a sumptiously decorated cafe and indian restaurant with me and my friend Emily checked out last night.

The restaurant is called Taj al Sultan and its address is 1 al azhar square! they have valet parking should you require it, and the food was incrediably tasty. We had 2 starters, 2 vegetarian main courses, fabulous garlic naan bread and a coffee and water and the bill was 185le. I'd definatly like to return to try out more from their menu.

Service was elegant.

If you don't like Indian food- no problem- they also have a moroccan menu.... and indeed a lot of the decor reminded me of Morocco Walima (a restaurant I used to dance in in Edinburgh!) Not to mention the uniforms with the fez hats!

They were throwing a childrens birthday party upstairs... and I laughed til i cried when a pantomine horse came around all the tables in the restaurant, nuzzeling up to various higabbed women before heading up to entertain the kids!

Their website is http://www.tajalsultan.com/ and although it is fairly slow to upload, i do like the steaming cups of tea on the home page! There are also photos of the interior in the gallery page if you have the patience to wait for them.

A lovely bit of culinary calm in the chaos which is Khan al Khalili.

Cairo Circus

Today was another busy day filled with lots of wonderful Cairo moments...

Square burgers at Route 66 in Maadi for breakfast ( i know- burger for breakfast????) anyway.. then after a drive round the pottery area in fustat then I went to Manial, to the Nilometer. not much in there...

but its really old, with a very beautiful ceiling....

and Egyptians get charged a LOT less than tourists! The best thing there though was the peace and quiet. My friend and I sat by the Nile for about 2 hours- just soaking in the silent ( well- lack of 'dousha' anyway!!!) and watching the rubbish float by on the Nile... we saw some odd things. a perfect round of bread, an aubergine, a shoe... you can imagine I'm sure. The sun was shining and it felt nice to be chilling, but not chilly.

Next we went to the Cairo tower. I have NEVER been up this thing before... and always meant to... but its 65le for tourists and only 20le for Egyptians ( managed to get in as Egyptian so pretty chuffed!!!!). The view from up there was stunning... really. I wish we had got there maybe 10 min earlier so we could have fully seen the sunset... but it was still amazing....... highly recommend it.

Orangette in Zamalek is a cafe on Sharia Gabalaya and they do the BEST Oreo Madness dessert ever- its huge.... ice cream fans MUST try this one!!!

Then the big event for the day- the National Circus!



The circus is in a big tent ( no surprises there) on Sharia Nile, in Agouza (just beside the Balloon theatre). We had been told on the phone that the show was 8.30-10.30pm but that wasn't true- it started at 8pm.... and finished 10pm. Tickets ranged from 50le front seats to i think 20le for back. Front seats were worth it!!!

The whole tent smells unfortunatly of urine... assuming its the animals but.... well I wont dwell on that thought. However, the colours of the tent are fabulous- beautiful decor. Live band too througout entire show.

Dont know what we missed out on in 1st 20mins, but we saw clowns, jugglers, acrobats, rope gymnasts, cute dogs jumping hoops and skipping rope , knife thrower, trapise, everything really.... fantastic showmanship... I have seen a few dancers on stage both here in Cairo and abroad who could learn from these circus performers a few things about audience interaction and stagemanship. I think also that being on stage myself means I find it hard now to watch ANY type of show and not try to imagine what life must be like for the people on stage. Imagine being that girl in her hijabb standing in front of the board to have knives thrown around her - and seeing her eyes blink at every throw, and watching the silent prayer uttered through tight lips..... a huge new dimension to the show!



thre were even phtographers going round the crowd (mainly the arabs in the crowd...) with a VERY cute baby lion and a huge snake to wow the crowd and get some more money out of us!

and then there were the lions..........

wow.

beautiful animals. 6 lions and 3 tigers. in one huge cage with one man.... he handled them really well and they all looked well fed and fairly content.... not that I know a lot about these things ( but I had been very worried about that side of things after my trip to the zoo last year!!!). The speical moment in the entire show was one tiger- older and HUGE- did one jump from one podium to another... and I swear time stood still. It was like watching something out a kung fu movie where everything had been slowed down. This massive beast looked weightless in air... possibly the most beauitful thing I have ever seen... I could have watched just that over and over all night. I think that not only did my breathing stop during the second of the jump - but that my heart did too.... truely awesome- in the non american meaning of the word!

People who know me well, know that although I have nothing against animals, and quite like them really- I do not gush over them or even oh and ah much.... However, these huge cats were something else... and to watch this man risk his life in that cage with them and handle himself with such power and control was an experience in itself.

I loved the circus and will go again- inshallah!!!!

An Indian meal to round of a fabulous and interesting day.............

oh Cairo. Never, Ever, Ever boring!

Club-hopping in Cairo!

Tonight was mad. I had planned a night in... working on all my many outstanding emails...
then i decided... no- I need to go out.

So I met a friend and we went to La Bodega in Zamalek ( a nice place for a drink and chat in a mixed expat and Egyptian crowd), then to Pub 28 ( which had an older more seditary crowd in it)

Then I called another friend to see if they were free and we went to Mojitos at the Nile Hilton.... That was pretty empty (and they have done a horrible thing- a temporary ceiling with ruffled satin lining- you feel like you are in a coffin!)... then we really began our tour of Cairo's nightspots.

Latex ( Nile Hilton) had a very empty R&B night (seemingly tuesday night is the best night for that!). Sat night ladies get in free- I could see why.

Ritmo in semi Ramis intercontinential looks posh and was also quiet ( granted it was 2am!)

The Buddah Bar at the Sofitel el Gezirah has to be seen.... they have a HUGE statue of a Buddah- right in front of a massive window onto the Nile- it is cultural clash but amazing well done. The restrooms in the hotel foyer are rather lovely too- with terracotta tile with matching colour of grouting (believe me- its worth noting!!!!). That hotel has a lovely terrace area just on the Nile side to sit and smoke sheesha and drink tea - although we were rather late to do either. A very romantic spot though.

Grand Hyatt hotel was next on our 'pub crawl' of Cairo. The Hard Rock Cafe was buzzing... but unfortunatly full of sleezy arabs - by the time we had taken 20 steps inside the place I felt like I had been mentally undressed by the same number of men. NOT nice. It was strange to see a place I consider to be a restaurant done up like a nightclub though... dance floor and DJ. We left sharpish though and went for a play in the lifts!

40th floor at the Hyatt makes your ears pop- really - its like take off in a plane. The revolving restaurant there shuts at 11pm... so we also missed the lounge area there with the water feacture walls.....next time.

Four seasons Hotel (garden city) was just accross the road... so we wandered over to see what they had on offer. They have one bar.. called Zaytouni (olive) , which looked like a hotel waiting lounge- actually all their restaurants do. ( spice, steak esp)- all fairly non excting. There was one restaurnat called Aquas which had beautfiul fish tanks with HUGE fish in them ( animal lovers dont go- i am sure those tanks are not large enough for the fish!!!)

So... we did then conside checking out the other four seaons ( in Giza) but decided it was a little late ( at 3.30m) to see if anyone was in club 35 or in Indigo bar..... so instead.... we went to a new a rather fabulous takeaway food shop in sharia mohiden abdul aziz, mohandiseen, called Abu Kofta. They had a shop in Port Said which proved so good and so popular that they are trying their hand at Cairo now- I believe they even have a website!
Then we sat in the car eating Hawoushi (meat inside bread that is then deep fried-as amazingly tasty as it is bad for you!)

so- all the 5 stars and then end up choosing to eat street food in the car!!!

It was a fabulous night. so much so, that I am just in at 4.20 am and felt I had to write all this down NOW before i forgot all the places we went!

Oh- and did I mention I had a house party on thursday which was so much fun that people would arrive, I'd greet them at the door, then i might see them again 3 hours later- and they had been in my living room the whole time!!! It was great- lots of Salsa, and at least 14 professional bellydancers- well- you can imagine can't you!!!!!

Life is very good just now. el Hamdullah !!!

Inside and out

I am trying to be good.

One of the hardest things about the dance scene in Cairo is how perfect you are supposed to be. I guess thats why so many dancers get surgery of one sort or another. Botox is everywhere (and seemingly much cheaper than in the UK) not to mention boob jobs, tummy tucks etc etc........Cairo is the only place in the world where I have had straight men comment on a nice manicure!!!!!!!!!

so last night I decided that I should maybe be making a little more effort. I put hot oil in my hair overnight, lathered pints of moisturising cream all over my body- foot cream, hand cream, you name it, and about 4 coats of moisturiser on my face.....(so sexy- glad I was sleeping alone!!!!), then a dark green face pack when i woke up....(thank god the water wasn't cut today!!!) Now, all of this so far is a big deal to me, I am generally so lazy about such things, although I know maybe to some of you reading this that it is your normal nightly regime!

Then I went to get my nails done (manicure and pedicure) and of course to get the hairs ripped out my eyebrows with bits of thread- its amazing the way they do it- all they need is a long piece of thread, their teeth and nimble fingers...... oh and a bit of sadism thrown in. (Fingers, Toes and Face defuzz all cost 60le- ie less than £6!)

I wont even talk here about the practise of Helowa (pronounced like 'Hell ow a' quite appropriatly!) which involves having a lump of sticky suger substance , a bit like toffee, pressed firmly into your skin then ripped off, with a fraction of the hairs in it that you want removed from said area- so the process has to be repeated over and over again on the same place. ouch. Mind you- unlike wax at least its a cold something place on sore skin rather than hot stuff.... and also- when it gets on yours clothes or nails etc etc it just washes away with water- very easy. Oops- I said I wasn't going to talk about that and I just did. Anyway- a full body 'sweet' (haha nothing sweet about it I tell you) will cost about 90le- a heck of a lot cheaper than a leg wax at home!

All thats left is to get my roots done (dying dark blond to dark brown- the opposite of what I have tried to achieve most of my life until i came to Cairo!!!)But that will have to wait a couple of days!



Then for the inside- I bought tonight (went shopping at 11pm because I realised I had run out of oinions!!!) for 50le (ie for under £5 ) the following;

1kg onions
1kg bananas
1kg apples
1kg oranges
1kg brown rice
1kg couscous
yoghurt

I thought that was a pretty good price considering what you might pay for the same in UK....and all the fruit and veg are local, and in season.......... yummy.

and cooked up lots of good, healthy, veggie food. moroccan aubergine. curried peppers. broccoli and sweetcorn and the rice. Ate a good portion of it too. The rest is in the fridge for tomorrow. I Have still got another big bottle of water to drink before bed too.

So hopefully- assuming I washed all the veg well enough (gave myself horrible food poisening once before from not washing aubergine properly!) then I will feel, and look, the picture of health and vitality by morning............


so the question is this- does all this good behaviour make me any better looking as a bellydancer or indeed make up for the 2 bars of chocolate, the macdonalds and the bacardi that I have also consumed today? ( not to mention the fact that ALL I ate yesterday was cheese and tomato sandwiches and banana sandwiches, oh and chocolate...) ?!!!!!

Cooking curry in Cairo...

One of the wonderful things about food shopping for me in UK, was going to the reduced aisle and choosing my meal for the night from there- that way I would have the decision made for me what i was going to have and so add an element of surprise to my day! It also meant i bought expensive things which otherwise i wouldn't have allowed myself and tried new things!

Here in Cairo I do the same. Except that here it is- what do they have?, and is it in season? Not something we have to worry about in tesco's where everything is there almost all year round. I cannot here in Cairo decide 'i want '_____', today'- because often they wait and restock the shelves only once something has sold out completely!

Oh- and the other thing is that the veggies (and fruit) they sell by the kilo.....Also- no little vaccumed pack chopped and diced veggies in cling film........

I discovered today that a kilo of broccoli is a LOT of broccoli!!!!!

so what to do with it all ???? here is where I have to thank my good friend Surgah- she taught me how to cook curry.... ok, well not exactly, but she should me a simple one and lectured me on not being afraid to try. As my mum will vouch, and it hasn't improved much since then,- I normally lived on take aways and pasta, so for me- cooking a curry is a big deal! anyway- it was fabulous!!! (if I say so myself!!! I even check a receipe online AFTER i had eaten it to see what I 'should' have done and I had guessed it right!!!! ah the little life victories!!!) Anyway- its a wonderful change from egyptian food, pizza and pasta!

Now........ what to do with all that aubergine..............................?!

The view...

ok- so the view here will never be able to compete with my views from Zamalek... but at least I still can see some green...

and the sunset....

It's garlic season- here everyone buys heaps of the stuff and hang it up outside on their balconies to dry it and store it throughout the year.... I had never seen garlic with the stalks on before!!!

Silly food

Had to take these pics (obviously don't have enough in my life at the moment to do) but they made me laugh- so I thought I would share it...


'French or fresh?' Fries............











and whats so 'fancy' about this ketchup sachet?????











Oh- and no need to worry about my diet- it was a healthy beef panini I had with a massive caesar salad- the fries were free!!! I do love ordering food online and it turning up at your door in 20 mins- wonderful!



oh - and in the links now if you want to view only the photos i have put into the Blog since it started last summer, without going through all the writing- then you can click on the link 'all blog photos'.

Egyptian Food part 2!

I am so lazy about cooking... I put it off until i am starving and then I can't be bothered making anything that takes more than ten mins... so , to try and encourage me to eat more healthily, I asked my cleaner Romaya (who I know is a good cook!) to make me some food when she was here. On Thursday she made me a huge pot of lentil soup- which I lived off right up to sunday night... lovely. Todays food dish was to be a surprise though... not through intention but becuase my arabic couldn't keep up! I knew it was chicken........ I didn't expect Melokhya! (also spelt Molokhia)

For those of you not in the know- Melokhya is meat (usually rabbit- this time chicken) cooked in a slimy green soup (made from the melokhya - green leafy summer vegetable- a bit like spinach!) seasoned with lots of garlic and coriander, which you serve with rice.

When I went online to check my spelling of this dish I found it is also common in Sudan too, and seemingly the make a health drink out of the stuff in Japan!

So what do I think? well- I have had this dish in restaurants before and I prefer Romaya's receipe- but I am a bit nervous about having to eat the whole pot of it!!! A small plate is nice, unusual........ but the slimy element of it kinda gets to me.....although I know it is seemingly very high in iron therefore very good for you....... I do know people who swear by it.... maybe I can invite them round for tea over next day or 2!!!!

So what started as laziness- ie not cooking myself... is developing into a culinary cultural experience! wonder what she is planning to do with the lamb she is cooking for me on Thursday- watch this blog to find out!!!

Foul Fool (Egyptian food part1)

no- I am not talking about feeling stupid again......... I am talking about what is probably Egypt's national dish- Foul (pronounced Fool!)

This is what many egyptians breakfast on in the morning (and snack on thoughout the day) and indeed after fasting in Ramadan. They are famous for it- to the point that arabs from other countries will tease them about it. It is a bean paste made from broad beans (flava beans). Often it is mixed with hummous (chickpeas) too. cooked with garlic, spices, lemon juice ....... there are numerous 'recipies' for making foul and often will differ depending on which area you are in in Egypt. Its cheap- a foul sandwich with cost anything from 25p to 1le ( ie 2p to 10p approx!!!) depending where you buy it (and if you are a tourist or not!) I have tried foul many times in my various visits and stays in Egypt, indeed I dont allow my groups who come here to leave without trying it. Some love it- some not.

I have 'bean' (excuse the pun!) putting off trying the tinned foul you buy in the supermarket- figuring that it would be a bit like expecting macaroni cheese from a can to taste like'the real thing'... but today I tried my first home cooked from a can 'Foul Medammes'. I had the 'shamiya receipe' with hummos and olive oil........ and what surprised and pleased me was that all you have to do is heat it and add whatever oil and spices you want. quick, easy, tasty, cheap, healthy. My new stable diet I think! (does this mean I am 'going local' ???!!!)

food photos.............

Butternut Squash on a cart on the side of the road............................

The boy guarding the bread baskets while the older boy wanders round khan el khalili with the bread balanced on his head...

Bananas still on the tree. (Egyptian bananas are really tiny but very tasty!!!)

Fruit + Veg

you know it really doesn't taste as good anywhere else........... the food usually is only available in season- so sometimes you are limited (although the supermarkets import as they do everywhere) but the local produce is the best- esp. the organic fruit and veg which is more expensive of course than non organic but still pennies compared to what you would pay in uk for it! Down side is that things in supermarket come prepacked in kilo's- so if you just want salad one day , but not the next 3 then you are kind of stuck. I tend to try and cook enough for a couple of days and reheat. The aubergine esp. is so tasty and cheap here (my favourite way of cooking that at the moment is frying it with lots of moroccan spices and stuffing slices of it with feta cheese- Yummm!)
Then of course there are the fruit sellers on the streets- where the fruit is usually very fresh and much cheaper......... but then you have to do the whole haggle thing which can sometimes take away from the sweet taste of the fruit! you tend to see a whole cart with only one fruit- at the moment its fresh figs (amazing blended with milk- thanks for that blender Elspeth!!!!) and prickly pear- which they skin for you then and there- very refreshing. Oh and I bought my first watermelon last week- it was huge and although I had some each day it lasted nearly the week! fantastic to buy unseeded ones- so sweet and easy to eat- not good for diabetics!!!
The easiest way to get your fruit intake here is the juice bars. you see wee shops everywhere with mesh bags hanging outside with whatever fruit is currently in season- its mango just now and you buy a glass of it- freshly squeezed there and then and return the glass! there are a couple of juice bars near ish me where you go in your car- toot your horn ( one is actually called 'toot express'!) and the waiters come to your car window take your order for juice (thats all they have- but every flavour you can think of- all fresh) and you sit in your car drinking it. A nice way of catching up with friends on warm summer nights!
I would love to add some photos of the carts here but not got any good ones yet, amazing what you see on a daily basis and take for granted- doing this blog has really made me realise what I need to photograph!!!- will update as soon as I can!!

oh- and feel free to add your comments to any of the entries I've made so far- always great to get feedback- or suggestions on what you'd like to hear more about! (I'll add more about dance as soon as possible!!)