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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 July 2000 Issue No. 491
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Ramez the first
By Peter Snowdon
There is something theatrical about all good food. Nowhere is that more true than at Lakhbatita. Though you may know where you are going, as you approach along the sands that stretch south from Al-Mazbat at Dahab, the moment of arrival is always a surprise. Set slightly forward from the main line of the path, the building stands proud before the sea, as if indifferent to those who seek it out -- as though its true audience were the waves and the stars. Half-hidden behind its deep blue curtain, furled back each night as if to reveal a stage, it is part Bedouin tent, part commedia dell'arte theatre, part alchemist's emporium.
There is nowhere else like this -- not in Dahab, for sure; not in Egypt either; most likely, not anywhere in the world. The owner, Ramez, is not just a fine cook: he is a great architect, and a master of interior design to boot. For over a decade, aided and abetted by his wife Paola and his partner Thomas, he has been fumbling, groping, searching for the ideal, the Platonic Lakhbatita. In his new restaurant, which opened a few months ago, he has found it. Never was the joy of creative success so completely, and so simply, manifest.
His search took Ramez half-way across Egypt. The fruits of his travels are not deployed as ornament; they are the building itself. The ceiling is crafted out of old doors from a palace near Tanta, artfully splayed and set one against the other like mashrabiya work. On one wall hangs the outer door of a fortress from Bilbeis. The inner door, for its part, is now a table, while the floor beneath it mixes bricks from some nameless archaeological site with the crenellations of a deconsecrated Ottoman mosque.
There is also theatre of a more natural, and more sensual, kind. The trunk of a palm tree rears abruptly in one corner; in another, a ladder of shelves is crammed high with luminous jars of spice. Great hennaed heads of garlic and chili pepper swing from the eaves; behind them, a broad hatch opens onto the kitchen, where sudden pillars of flame erupt at intervals throughout the night.
One of a kind: Lakhbatita stands out on the beach (left); the brainchild of eclectic chef-cum-architect Ramez (right)
photo: Fatemah Farag
The result is rich and magical. While others were busy selling off Egypt's past for scrap, Ramez was lovingly buying up all these unwanted remnants, and melding them into something new and strange. This is not conservation; nor is it parody, or kitsch. Rather, Lakhbatita has taken the best of everything this country's middle-men have tried to throw away, and turned them into something unique and irreplaceable. To do this, in the midst of the socio-cultural bomb-site that is Dahab, is little short of a miracle.
That's why people don't go there just to eat; they go to spend an hour or three, loosely enfolded in the generosity of this imagination. Not that the food isn't very good, too (though when the restaurant is busy -- which is much of the time -- the service can be slow). Yet what does that matter? After all, it is hard to imagine a more beautiful and more relaxed environment in which to loiter for a while, enjoying a fresh fruit juice, washed down with a plate of olives and tsatziki from the salad bar, and listening to the sound of the waves, or the gentle murmur of your companion's voice.
And when your main course does arrive, you will not be disappointed. The night we ate there, the chicken roasted with orange and cardamom was finished before our time. So instead, we dined on Portuguese chicken, perfectly tender in a rich honey-and-chili-pepper sauce; on Mediterranean calamari, specked with black pepper and basil, then seared in olive oil; and on the most exquisite fatta I have ever tasted.
This last is a perfect example of Ramez's free-wheeling imagination as it is applied to the art of cooking: light on vinegar, the bread was just as crisp as it should be, but never is; while the meat itself was marinaded in some secret mayonnaise. That may sound odd: but trust me, it's not odd -- it's absolutely delicious.
Lakhbatita was a labour of love in the building. It's the same love which fills the kitchen every night, and pours out all those beautiful sensations and flavours. The result is simply wonderful. As Michelin has it: Vaut le voyage.
Dinner for three, with appetisers, main course and fruit, and non-alcoholic drinks, cost 125 LE including tips. Lakhbatita, between the Penguin Hotel and the Inmo Divecentre, Dahab. E-mail: lakhbatita@hotmail.com
