13 - 19 December 2001
Issue No.564
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 13 - 19 December 2001 Issue No.564 |
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Destiny's child
Injy El-Kashef sees life change in seconds
Although a couple of weeks ago I had the misfortune of finding myself in a "tent" setting despite my best intentions, because the month of Ramadan is drawing to a close I thought I owed Al-Ahram Weekly's readers another "tent" -- a real one, with musicians and all. What firm principles one must jeopardise sometimes to please others... It's incredible.
Anyway, we decided to make it Sohour and that meant going out rather late. We waited and waited until we were hungry and, thinking that the night was young and so were we, we took ourselves to the Ramadana tent on the Opera House grounds. Closed.
We took a taxi and headed to Zamalek, to Le Pasha Boat. Closed.
We started walking along the Corniche, secure in the knowledge that on one of those boats we would find what we were looking for: namely, a decent meal, some shisha and a performance of sorts. We reached Nile City. Closed. We walked further on, to the Blue Nile. Closed.
It was only 3am: why does the city go to sleep so early? My companion had been growing more and more irritated with every second, with good reason. So we grumpily stopped a taxi again, determined to call it a night and give up. Suddenly my friend asked the taxi driver if he knew of a place that would be open at this hour, whereupon the man started heading to Giza. I began to worry. "Tonight will end badly," I thought to myself, assuming that the driver was taking us to some godforsaken rat hole where someone would surely misbehave enough to cause a scene.
Well, we were very pleasantly surprised. He took us to Sunset on the Giza Corniche, a large restaurant filled with happy customers, looking seedy and smoky and full of fun. There were pretty girls everywhere bellydancing between the tables to really shaabi music and then, lo and behold, someone appeared on-stage: Hassan El-Asmar, in flesh and blood. I was amazed at the way of the world. In a matter of seconds, our entire night had been transformed.
A very sweet waiter explained that it would be 100LE a head for the show, dinner from the grill and mezze. Maybe a little exaggerated, we thought; but then again, we would have paid the same elsewhere without the fun. Appetising baba ghannoug, kobeiba, cheese- filled sambousek (the freshest I have tasted in years), labna and something like pico de gallo with pomegranate seeds showed up at once, accompanied with the freshest bread imaginable. Soon enough, my order of kebab and kofta and my friend's veal chops also appeared. They were equally delicious. Perfectly seasoned, grilled just right, embraced by that charcoal taste that makes all the difference in the world of carnivores. Our approval of Sunset was now complete. It was all wonderful, we had no complaints.
Suddenly, Hassan El-Asmar realised that he would also like to have some Sohour. That was it, finito la musica. In a flash, the place was empty and we were out on the street, still wondering at the ways of the world.
Sunset, Nile Corniche, Giza.
Tel: 5725010
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