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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 25 - 31 March 1999 Issue No. 422
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Focus Profile Features Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters The world of Spam
By Andrew SteeleThere is much cawing about the newly refurbished Roy's Country Kitchen in the Marriott. Signboards litter the hotel's elegant halls and walkways to lure you Roy's-ward. And lure they evidently do, for when we inspected its portals one sunny Friday lunchtime, we were greeted by a veritable throng. Ushered to the only free table in the house by a be-dungareed and desert-booted cowhand, one was filled with expectation at the thought that several score Cairenes can't be wrong.
The menus arrived attached to wooden chopping boards, each with a decorative corn on the cob wittily used to turn them into "fun" clipboards. We laughed like drains.
The venue may have a new faux Americana look, but the menu (despite the corn) has been souped up, rather than made over. Sandwiches and burgers still vie for spaces with large meaty platters with the odd rather cursory nod to regional American cuisine. There is still a salad bar and buffet set up, the latter being disguised as a kitchen (complete with bedpans) and offering such homely delights as mashed potatoes, sausages and baked beans. Ride 'em cowboy indeed.
Much deliberation and a strawberry juice later, Maggie and I decided to try the Navy Bean Chowder, followed by a salad and a New York Deli sandwich respectively. Mohamed reneged on a starter in anticipation of his Feast Platter, which promised nearly a whole farmyard's worth of fleshy pleasures.
The Chowders were hardly what one had expected, but then again, what does one expect from a Navy Bean Chowder? I had rather fancied that it might be dark blue, divining hue rather than jolly jack tar in its nomenclature. It was, however, white and floury and not a little glutinous, with morsels of beef ham lurking at the bottom. Not altogether unpleasant, but not beany enough by far.
The salad bar was perfectly good, and Maggie managed to pile a truly gargantuan mound onto her plate, which is rather what I wished that I had done after my queasy encounter with the New York Deli sandwich.
It promised turkey breast pastrami, pepper mortadella and charbroiled peppers, all dressed to perfection on rye. The truth of the matter, however, was that I had been given a Spam sandwich. Three half-inch-thick pink, wobbly slices of it, folded atop a burger bun with said pepper and turkey breast pastrami. Readers will have to excuse my prejudice, but I've never been a Spam man. I was rather piqued that Roy's had not been brave enough to declare the Spam content on the menu, as I would certainly not have touched it with the proverbial barge pole. I discreetly covered it with my napkin and said nothing. The accompanying "grilled red onions" were ordinary Egyptian onions fried in ghee. I said not a word.
Mohamed's large plate of meat was proclaimed perfectly good, if a large plate of meat was what one wanted. Mashed potatoes and beans accompanied two pieces of fried chicken, a healthy portion of filet steak and two large sausages. Real camp fire stuff.
All in all, little at Roy's has changed. It's all a bit newer, a bit glossier, a bit more efficient. Guests are even advised by a large sign behind the counter that "If it's no good -- send it back!" My Spam, I'm sure, was perfectly good, so I felt unable to take up the offer, even in the knowledge that Spam is the food of the devil.
Lunch for three came to a five-star-hotel sort of LE95.
Roy's Country Kitchen, The Marriott Hotel, Saray Al-Gezira, Zamalek
Tel 3408888
