L'Aubergine Restaurant and Bar in Cairo's pseudo Soho
My number one worry when I travel isn't canceled flights, shoddy hotels, or getting lost in a strange city. Those I can easily recover from. No, my number one worry is not finding proper vegetarian food.
Proper, in my case, means made without dairy or egg, (or, if nothing else is available, minimal amounts) and cooked—no salads for a main dish.
So I was a little leery traveling to Egypt, especially since the Happy Cow entry only listed one vegetarian restaurant—and even it served meat. (I'm not really a fan of rabbit food, which is why I laugh when I'm accuse, as a vegetarian, of eating rabbit food.)
Vegetarians aren't very common among Egypt's native population. However, ex-pat Brits and American tourists do create some demand for vegetarian food in Cairo. Most servers I came across at least understood the word when I asked, though I wasn't willing to bet on soup and risotto being made without meat-based stock.
When I learned that L'Aubergine restaurant was very near out hotel, I checked it out online. The reviews were positive—earlier reviews, from its veg-only beginnings, were especially favorable. With a bar on the first floor (second floor, to Americans) the restaurant was billed as an ultra-hip place in Cairo's Soho, which occupies one end of Zemalek in the downtown area.
I can't testify to its hipness, being something of a dowd myself. The food gets a mixed review, sort of like its menu. The handwritten menu features vegetarian dishes on the left side; meat dishes on the right. There were 16 of each, but only a few were vegan.
For a starter, I had soup, figuring it would be safe there. It was vegetable-stock based semolina dumpling soup, with a few carrots and zucchini floating in a very salty stock—almost too salty for my tastes, a judgment my husband found surprising, since I add salt to everything. Lots of salt. But this was heavily salted.
That might just be an Egyptian thing—another night we ate in Alexandria, at a lovely restaurant overlooking the Mediterranean, and the baba ghanouj was overly salty as well. Delicious, but as salty as the nearby sea.
Quartet of Mushrooms, which sounds like an earthy musical program.
For a main, I ordered the most vegan looking dish: Quartet of Mushroom. Four types of mushrooms, with what I was told would be rice.
But the rice looked more like mashed potatoes. And since the texture was also so similar to mashed potatoes, my taste buds told me I was eating mashed potatoes. A weird sensation, but not unpleasant, since I really like mashed potatoes. In fact, my only problem with the dish was the paucity of mashed pota—err, rice.
I didn't even realize Cream of Rice was available in Egypt, but I like the idea of serving it as part of a main dish. It sort of reminded me of a soft polenta, surrounded by four corners of mushrooms.
The dish was satisfying, though once I ran out of rice I lost the desire to finish the mushrooms.
My husband ate a salad, which we deemed okay to eat—normally, you want to avoid uncooked food in Egypt's less pristine restaurants, as it may not have been washed sufficiently. He also got spring rolls, which were disappointingly greasy, having been fried to within an inch of their life. I gobbled up the remainder, since I like fried food almost as much as I like salty food. And it's not like I was eating a lot of junk food in Egypt—mostly I survived on packets of nuts and bars I brought from home.
Typical vegetarian meal—beware the raw veg, though.
One of the best meals we had was at a large open-air restaurant right outside the entrance to Saqqara. It was a fixed price meal, and I asked for vegetarian-only, which must have delighted the owner. We were first served a variety of plates of hors d'oeurves; hummus, cabbage rolls, and falafel (which for some reason is green in Egypt). They were all delicious, especially the falafel. We were also brought a bowl of beans, similar to Boston baked beans, and lots of rice.
But I refused to eat the raw food on my plate—this place just didn't inspire confidence in their cleanliness standards, especially with the cats that gathered around our table, looking on hungrily. (I'd been warned not to touch them, as they can cause rashes and other diseases.) That night, I got a taste of Pharoah's Revenge. Fortunately, a packet of Antinal* took care of that in short order, and my vacation wasn't ruined.
One other note: restaurant food in Egypt is very cheap by Western standards, unless you're eating at a large hotel that caters to Westerners. Most meals cost a few dollars apiece (around E£20). Egyptian wine and beer are usually available; however, the quality is not what you're used to, unless you're a Boone's Farm aficionado. Top hotels offer wine and alcohol from other countries, but expect to pay a lot. Bring what you can in your bags, and hit the duty free store within 48 hours of arriving if you want non-Egyptian wine.
Bottom line: L'Aubergine, while not worth a visit in a European city well-stocked with vegetarian restaurants, is well worth a visit while you're staying in Cairo, especially if you're at the nearby Marriott (from which there's no need for a cab ride, a rarity in busy Cairo with its death trap streets). Walk toward the May 15 bridge, go under and onto a small street. Then turn left as soon as you can and walk about 5 blocks until you see the restaurant on your right.
While reservations aren't usually necessary, you may want to make one here. Shortly after leaving, I ran into two friends, one of whom was a vegetarian. I recommended the restaurant, but later heard that they were turned away. I was surprised, since only one other table was occupied when we left. Perhaps my friends just weren't hip enough.
The address: 5 El Sayed al-Bakry, Zamalek Phone: +20 2 340 6550
*My best advice is to buy Antinal as soon as you arrive in Egypt. It's available for E£5 (about $1) from any pharmacy and is well worth it. And when your tummy's roiling, you'll get over your qualms over taking strange meds very quickly, I assure you, but if you want to research it first on the internet, like I did, go ahead. You'll find it's safe and effective. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to avoid germs, which you may pick up simply by brushing your teeth or touching an animal, which is where I may have gone wrong. But then who can resist petting a donkey?
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