Issue No. 611
Living
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7 - 13 November 2002 Issue No. 611 Living |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
Adding insult to injury
Injy El-Kashef pleads guilty
A friend in need is a restaurant reviewer who most desperately needs to eat somewhere new within the next three hours; a friend indeed is a starving woman who gives up visions of delicious food served by impeccable waiters in familiar surroundings for the sake of her restaurant reviewer friend. I really had no intention of doing this to her; I had even given her another option that she declined: the Italian at the Semiramis Intercontinental. She haughtily replied that she was in no mood for Italian, or the Semiramis for that matter, and so we resolved to try a new pasta parlour in Mohandessin.
As we drove around in the specified location, however, we found no trace of pasta anywhere, and were getting hungrier by the minute. It is for this reason, and this reason alone, that we deigned park opposite a suspicious-looking restaurant by the name of Rosty. The closer we approached, the more reluctant our steps became -- we even turned around ourselves and each other a few times with the apprehension of little girls about to face the unknown in a dark room.
My friend and I had to endure long and traumatic moments, staring at the video clips blasting from the huge TV screen, before anyone even bothered to walk our way on the second floor. A man with a self-satisfied sneer felt magnanimous enough to take our order, informing us right away that the menu was in the process of Ramadan transformation and we therefore only had the following five options: Shish Tawouk; Chicken Panné; Hot Dog...by then I had stopped listening and was instead thinking of ways to bribe my friend into loving me again after this.
By the time a diet soft drink for her and a delicious (though I really really hate to admit that) lemonade for me arrived, we had played hangman a few times, been downstairs to raise some hell about the delay twice, turned the TV volume up and down at least a dozen times depending on the clip, updated each other on personal events of the last couple of days, gazed about in silent disbelief, exchanged significant looks (she despising me, me begging for clemency) and reached for our purses looking for nothing in particular but merely listing their content.
Although she had ordered a Shish Tawouk platter, she got a sandwich, but never mind about such trivia. She ate it courageously, only nodding in silent surrender every time I inquired about the food or even called her name. I decided it was better not to twist the knife, and let her be. The spaghetti I had requested on the side came in the form of a tangled pyramid filling a separate plate, accompanied by the most pathetic excuse for sauce Bolognese. I tried to eat some of that; I failed. Nothing wrong in admitting one's shortcomings. The three pieces of Chicken Panné were edible and so I ate them, perhaps in an act of gastronomic flogging to purge the sin of pushing my luck with a dear friend.
As we paid our LE50 bill, she merely mumbled a few words: "yomhel wala yohmel" (payback comes, sooner or later).
Rosty, 18 Demeshq St, Mohandessin
Tel 748 3594
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