Restaurant review:
Batteries not included
Injy El-Kashef chooses matter over mind
I try to avoid Diwan like the plague. Imagine a compulsive buyer and a compulsive reader combined in one not-so- wealthy person near a quiet, neat and comfortable bookshop stacked with all kinds of CDS, tapes, films, DVDs, books and magazines at relatively elevated prices. A disaster, by all means. When it is a dear friend's birthday, however, and when this friend happens to belong to the male species (which means finding the right birthday present will be hell) and when you know for a fact that he always welcomes books with open arms, you really have no choice: you have to get yourself to Diwan.
One of the most delightful details about Diwan is the little space provided for customers to snack on a bite or sip on some coffee while reading any book off the shelf -- whether or not one will end up buying it. Reading a compilation of Egyptian proverbs by the fascinated pen of a foreigner published by AUC press took me back to New York where I spent an afternoon at Barnes and Noble drinking American Starbucks coffee and going through a pile of books and magazines I had no intention of purchasing.
I must proudly state, however, that as huge as Barnes and Noble may be, the little coffee space at Diwan seemed much more real than its American counterpart. Reading is an intimate process, a bookshop is an intimate place, a meeting venue between words and minds, and a buyer with a book on a coffee table sipping espresso experiences a much stronger bond with the surroundings when they are limited, cozy and allow for intimacy between the eyes and the book in question.
My eyes kept drifting towards the carrot cake every time I passed the little café by. I know I shouldn't be saying this... it sounds like I am a glutton with more interest in sweets than in the books on display. But that's not at all true because once I had my slice of cake I could browse the shelves uninterruptedly and that's not gluttony by any means.
I began with a slice of spinach quiche. Topped with cheese, filled with sweet spinach and onions, held together by a crumbly crust, I think it is by far the best quiche I have had in years. I hovered that quiche so fast that the little boy sitting at the next table could not take his eyes off me, probably thinking I was a battery- operated real-size toy. You ain't seen nothin' yet, was my thought. Look: here it goes -- the carrot cake went down just as fast. No richer, no moister, no frostier, no better carrot cake in the universe. As for my espresso, made of Illy coffee, it helped me somewhat regain my stature as a knowledge-thirsty adult, sipping elegantly while book leafing gracefully, eventually paying my LE21 bill and heading out to the real world.
Diwan, 159, 26th July St, Zamalek
Tel 736 2578/98
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 19 - 25 June 2003 (Issue No. 643)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/643/li4.htm