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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 27 July - 2 August 2000 Issue No. 492
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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 Fleece in sheep's clothing
By Injy El-KashefJudging a book by its cover is wrong. Everyone was taught that at one point or another (although there is an Egyptian proverb -- al-gawab yiban min 'inwanuh, a letter is identified by its address -- advocating just such a practice). And although we tend to be in the habit of doing the opposite of everything we were taught in the majority of cases, sometimes, in a moment of self-righteousness, we may follow those don'ts and wait for a saintly halo to illuminate our heads for the rest of the hour.
And so, with palms joined across our chests, languid half-shut eyes with lashes aflutter and delicate feet barely touching the ground, we skimmed the surface of the Earth in the direction of Buona Sera -- one of those covers we would, in a wiser state of mind, simply judge as a bad idea and forever dismiss. We landed on the open-air seats since shisha was being served both inside and out, and at least some fresh air would be welcome amid those tear-gas devices.
Not too many people crowded the place. In fact, since the interior is much larger than the hole-in-the-wall appearance would indicate, Buona Sera is pretty empty. Solitary men, staring at the floor as they smoke their hagar, couples gazing into the void, in utter silence: rather depressing, we thought. We positioned ourselves opposite the hanging screen set on MTV (who are all these people? Is our music really so outdated?) and watched with the same look my parents had on their faces when I played my tapes on the car journey from San Salvador to Acapulco back in the 1980s.
The waiter finally made his grand appearance, dangerously swinging red-hot charcoal in the air. Placing the order took some time -- his eyes did not exactly sparkle with intelligence -- and getting it took even longer. My dining companion's lemon juice, in his own words, had "a bit of real lemon in it," while my cantaloupe juice did not force any impression on my face, heart or memory.
Finally, the sandwiches (main courses, or even pasta, would have been a serious miscalculation) arrived. Huge soft baguette bread and not so huge fillings. Personally, I split each sandwich in half, transferring the contents of one half into the other and discarding the empty shell. My fried shrimps themselves were fresh but terribly tasteless; not even a hint of anything apart some strange concoction posing in the bread as Thousand Island dressing. My smoked turkey suffered the same syndrome.
No butter, no pickles, no mayonnaise helped the poor bread out. My friend's Chicken à la grecque (spelt Alageic) was chewy, bland -- apart from too much black pepper -- and had no excuse for the Hellenistic connection proclaimed. In fact, his Shish Tawouk, which took even longer to arrive as it was supposed to be charcoal-grilled (mon oeil), was in no way, shape or form (let alone taste) different. The bread had simply been smeared with a thin orange sauce but the chicken was of the same alageic sort.
A mahallabiya with nuts found its wobbly way to our table. They probably forgot to add the starch -- it was nothing but a thick liquid with no more than one crushed hazelnut in the centre to justify the appellation.
If we arrived feeling saintly, we left feeling martyred, especially after the LE54 bill.
Buona Sera, 48 Ahmed Orabi St, Mohandessin. Tel 344 9155
