The Best Burger in Cairo 2008 - The Results are In!

This took a lot of thought, and even then, my perfectionist nature prevents me from unequivocally declaring an outright winner. So many factors taken into account, and so many voices were heard, each nominating their own favorite restaurants for the bragging rights.

After taking everything into consideration, I stripped each burger down to its bare essentials. I judged only the Burger and not the sides offered, nor did I examine the quality of the service; it came down to the Bun, The Patty and The Toppings.

Without further ado, I give you, my non-existent reader, the Best Burger in Cairo.

The TBK Original - The Burger Kitchen

Granted, it is a bit odd to have the best burger in Cairo come from an operation that has no Dine-In option, but bear with me: We get to eat the burger in the comfort of our homes. That is special. It brings that "comfort food" element back to the hamburger, because let's face it, that's what a Hamburger is for a lot of people. It's a safe choice. A mainstay of our increasingly fast-paced eating habits.

So what makes this burger so good? The soft bun. How it holds the entire ensemble of vegetable, assorted sauces and beef together without getting in the way. The Burger patty, seasoned only minimally with salt and pepper, cooked to perfection (at medium well) and clearly made from good quality meat. The vegetable toppings - crisp fresh lettuce and onions, hearty thick tomato slices, all playing Oscar-worthy supporting roles to that Great Burger Patty. My only caveat is the conspicuous absence of sliced pickles, which would add a nice sharp vinegary note to the burger to cut the richness of the beef.

With the TBK Original, we really can have it our way. This unprecedented even for Burger King, since the toppings come in a separate plastic vessel for hygiene and to allow us to choose what goes where. This appeals to my perfectionist nature, and gives me control over each and every bite.

In second place - a very close second place - is the Gambini Burger from Casper and Gambini's. It is no secret I am a fan of their food, and this burger is no exception. the toppings are just right, a mixture of shredded lettuce, pickles, onion and tomato. The ground beef patty is thick, often cooked medium and is firmly ensconced inside a whole wheat bun.

In third place, Crocodile Grill also makes a wonderfully suprising Appearance. While this restaurant fails on so many levels, it beats all expectations and delivers quite handily. I highly recommend trying their 3 cheeses burger, oozing with cheesy goodness, excellent toppings and an almost perfect beef patty; it suffers from the classic Egyptian misconception that all meat should be served Well Done, and as a result, the burger relies heavily on the toppings and accompanying sauces to provide the required moisture.

Every other burger I've tried fades into the background. Ruby Tuesday's has a decent burger, as does Chili's. Burger Joint earns some kudos for their burgers, although the quality of the meat has dropped off significantly since the main owner left to establish Burger Kitchen.

Dubious honors go to Johnny Rocket's, which lost much of its initial steam because my 3rd trip there yielded a burger nowhere near as good as the first two. Contrary to what I had experienced before, the burger was dry, and the bun was stale. I am putting this down to lack of consistency and officially give them their first Yellow Card for crimes against the Burger.

I await your comments, lads and lasses. Sound off!!

Making Pastrami

Around New Year's a friend and I were discussing the finer points of sandwich meats, and we found ourselves extolling the virtues of a well made Pastrami sandwich - which neither of us have had for many years. With nostalgia in our hearts and adventure in our spirits, we set out to recreate those oh-so-wonderful pastrami rueben sandwiches now sitting tantalisingly in our minds.

A quick websearch revealed a series of immensely informative articles on About.com on exactly how to make your own corned beef and pastrami. So now I was armed with the process of Brine, Dry Rub and Smoke, I needed to prepare the meat itself.

My Excellent Butcher, Samara on Hassanein Heikel Street in Nasr City, is a highly educated man. I love going there, because all I need to do is tell him the English name of the cut I want, and he fills me in on the cut's name in Arabic, and adds a little culinary history as well. The cut I was looking for was Brisket, which in Arabic is called "Dosh". The same cut has a different name in Arabic, depending on the animal; the more familiar name of "Neefa" is the brisket from a sheep or goat.

Neefa is typiacally braised slowly, after spending a dy or two marinading in grated tomatoes, onions, green peppers and seasoning. This tenderizes the meat for the slow braising. I've had barbecued "Neefa" before, and I did not enjoy it - it was too touch. The Butcher confirmed my judgement by telling me that any self respecting Kebabgy would never offer broiled/barbecued neefa, since it is a very tough cut of meat.

The reason for its toughness comes from the fact that the Brisket corresponds to the Pectoralis muscles of the animal, near the forelegs. Those muscles may be big, but they're also notoriously fatty and tough, since they do so much work. That's where the brining comes in; it loosens it up and in our case, can be used to impart some extra flavor as well.

The butcher prepared a nice 2Kg slab of brisket for me, with the flat and the point still attached per my request. If anything is worth doing, it's worth doing right, and I wanted the satisfaction of preparing the Pastrami from start to finish. I took the meat home and began work trimming and preparing the flat for pastrami. Another websearch yielded this very informative page on how to trim brisket.

Once the flat was prepared, I got my brine on. Cloves, Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Beef Stock cubes, Cardamom, Salt, Pepper, Garlic Powder, Onion Powder and Red Hot Chilli Powder went into about 4 liters of hot water.

It smelled of ambrosia.

I set the flat into the brine, covered it and let it sit in a dark corner of my fridge for 4 days. Thankfully, a trip to warmer climes eased the anticipation anxiety.
Taking the flat out, patting it dry and preparing a dry rub was pure joy, since I could already taste the goodness. The rub was the same as the brine mixture, sans cardamom and water. the final step was then to wrap it in mutiple layers of foil and placing it in a 350 degree oven for an hour and a half.

The result?

Not exactly what I expected, but not a total disaster. In hindsight, I skipped a crucial step - soaking the beef in fresh water overnight to draw out the excess salt and rehydrate the beef a bit. Also, I skipped smoking the meat since #1 I do not have a smoker at home and #2 I could not find wood chips to smoke the meat with.

All in all, it was a proof of concept, and as a good friend of mine said - the 2nd time is always better than the first. I wonder now if she was talking about food...

Cooking Time 1 Week. Ouch.

Not Hungry Cuz I Ate. Yesterday!

I rolled out of bed this morning and landed with a thud. Rolled is an apt word, because after the copious amounts of beef, veg and chocolate I consumed last night, my trunkal area has morphed into a $200 barrel of oil. As I opened my eyes the scent of the fantastic marinade my comrade made lingered still in these hairy nostrils of mine.

I'd eaten my fill, and I knew it. Total Serum Triglycerides - 250 and rising.

You see, its Eid. The Big One. The Greater Feast. And a few of my friends and I decided to make our celebration meal a Great Feast. I came a bit late to the shindig, and brought my own beef purchased from my excellent Butcher "Samara" on Hassanein Haikel Road in Nasr City. Seriously, as an aside, having a good relationship (or any at all) with your butcher is key.

I got a rib eye steak and a Sirloin Steak; each weighing about 350 grams. I marinated the sirloin for 40 minutes; the Rib Eye was heavily seasoned with salt and pepper and painted with olive oil and rosemary. A good barbecue does not rest on the seared flesh alone - we had sides galore: caramelized onions, beef and onion gravy, nutmeg and cheese pureed potatoes, and rosemary roasted potatoes.

There was a lot to go around, and we finished it all.

The thought to take pictures occurred after the fact, so I can only show you shaky cell phone pictures of the empty plates and pans. We did, however, have the presence of mind to photograph the dessert - a great construct of Brownie, Vanilla and Caramel ice cream, topped with fresh spearmint, grated mint chocolate and a chocolate fudge sauce. We also added a Roasted Marshmallow Kebab to round out the decadence.

Props to the hosts for the good music, good cheer and good spirits! It was Good. We ate much food. Happy Eid, Lads.

Cooking Time: 17 minutes.

Cairo’s Best Burger: The Method behind the Madness.

I’ve turned into a culinary Kane. I walk the earth alone and sample the fare on offer by the countless vendors in our fair city. This self imposed quest was to find a hamburger worthy of being called Cairo’s Best.

But first, a little background on why.

About a year ago, an unfortunate journalist walked into Lucille’s one afternoon for the first time. Nostalgic and homesick, he was enthralled by the thinly veiled greasy spoon diner that is Lucille’s. He ordered a Hamburger, and it may have been good. However, a hungry and homesick judge is a judge easily bribed and swayed; and this man was no different. Desperate for some work, he mined his mind for a sensational claim that would turn a run-of-the-mill afternoon lunch into a Time-worthy article – The World’s Best Hamburger is in Cairo.

His plan worked, and unfortunately gave credibility to the argument that some poor misguided souls have been making that Lucille’s burgers are actually good. I refer you back to my original rant for some more vitriol.

Then, a jumpy young man over at Daily News Egypt started looking for the best burger in Cairo, and although he painted his search as "comprehesive" I have my doubts.Judging only by the location of restaurants that made it into his article, he seems to have put himself on a taxi budget of no more than 10 pounds; limiting his search to the expat-rich neighborhoods of Zamalek and Maadi. So although it was a nice try - it feels undercooked.

Now onto the task at hand:

When trying to determine the best of anything, a strict set of criteria needs to be followed. I decided that only plain hamburgers/cheeseburgers will be considered – no mushroom burgers, no bacon barbecue burgers need apply. I am not going to speak to the quality of the restaurant itself: I am focusing solely on the Hamburger, and its quality.

I also limited the candidates based on their popularity among Cairenes as a whole. This means that one-off restaurants like Crave or Spectra are not considered for this list, although they may be considered later on in a follow up article. The exceptions to this rule are Hotel restaurants. Special emphasis is placed on establishments that claim to have “the world’s best burger” or other iteration claiming their global uniqueness.

If you, my phantom reader, have a recommendation drop me a line. Give me a good reason why it should be added to my list, and why I should even be listening to you.

Otherwise, go boil an egg.

Preparation Time: 25 minutes

So...

Yeah.

It's been way too long. I've left you cold and without mental sustenence for a few months now. Not that I haven;t been sampling the fare cairo has to offer - I just haven't written it up yet.

Look forward to reviews/rants on:

Romano's Macaroni Grill
Justine's
Ruby Tuesday
Johnny Rocket
Crocodile Grill
The Best Hamburger in Cairo
The Best Koshary in Cairo

All this and more - if you're lucky before the end of this year!

Till then, stay sweet, stay safe and keep on dancing!

Cooking Time.....2 Minutes

Eatalian, Phase 2 City Stars.

Let me get this out of the way first: Eatalian is not cheap. According to my math you’ll end up spending an extra 10% premium for an experience which, at first glance, is comparable to eating cold hors d'eurves at a freezing and ghastly green storage facility.

That having been said, once you actually get past the unsightly green décor, uncomfortable tables and chairs and unfortunate location in the middle of City Stars’ “family food court” in phase 2, you come to the realization that Eatalian, in fact, is good.

Quite Good. Memorable, even…

I’ve had their wild mushroom risotto, which is a classic recipe. Comparing this risotto to the only other wild mushroom risotto I’ve ate in Cairo – that of Le Gourmandise at the First Mall – I can proclaim Eatalian as the winner by knockout in the first round. This Risotto is creamy, al dente and literally explodes with flavor, especially if you’re fortunate enough to get a piece of fresh mushroom cap on your spoonful. I say fortunate, because I was in the company of two skeptics; and we all decided to share off the menu in the communal spirit of the Italians. The mushroom caps were so good that my good friends turned into growling rottweilers, baring their pearly whites, whenever I pointed my spoon in the general direction of those wonderful caps.

We moved on to the Bresaola antipasti, Milanese Caprese Salad and a Grilled Tenderloin Crostini. I will not wax on poetic about how good they were, but apparently my moans of ecstasy bothered the veiled and bearded couple sitting to my rear, and they promptly got up and left before waiting for their menus. Perhaps it was for the best; one bite of the Bresaola would have turned the Mr. Beard into a wild love-making machine, while the Mrs. Veil would have kicked up her burkha and performed a striptease on the wooden tables.

Served on wooden chopping boards, I felt that this was real Man’s Food; consumed to provide fuel for the torrid love that Italians are purported to make. There was nothing complicated about the presentation – it was simple, beautiful and made me want to lick it all over.

Eatalian and its far-eastern cousin Wagamama are both owned and managed by the same company that operates Casper and Gambini. The good news is that this means the tradition of fresh ingredients and perfect cooking techniques are handed down to the younger franchises. The bad news is that Eatalian’s weakness seems to have also been inherited from its bigger brothers – the Desserts.

Italian Soda, Ricotta Cheesecake – two opportunities for greatness, two immense failures. The manager of Eatalian, a tall, svelte Lebanese gentleman named Paul (whose named when Egyptified sounds woefully like the Arabic word for urine) endeavored to explain to me that the cheesecake was not bad – my sense of taste was wrong. Intrigued by this technique, I indulged him as he proclaimed to have been trained in Michelin starred restaurants in Paris, and holds a degree in food history (or at least took a course in it). Now if he were, in fact, trained at Michelin starred restaurants, he should know that the customer’s comfort is of the utmost importance. When faced with the irrefutable fact that a raspberry coulis should be sans seeds, he declared that Italians are rustic, and as a rustic Italian restaurant, Eatalian does not strain the seeds out of its raspberry sauce. The sauce tasted fantastic, but the seeds really got in the way.

I think I may have missed something: Since when did Feng Shue-ing a pizza become “rustic”? There is nothing rustic about Eatalian, and the sooner the management realizes this, the better. They will lose the incongruous décor; which looks like it was stolen from a color blind carpenter’s loft in Manhattan. Green makes me want to grab a shovel and start planting shit – not grab a fork and begin eating.

It is worthy to note that this is the world’s first branch of Eatalian; with more coming in Dubai, Beirut and Saudi Arabia. It occupies the same niche as Casper and Gambini, Waterlemon (not yet in Egypt, thank god) and now, Ruby Tuesday’s – all vying for the Yappie crowd (Young Arab Professionals).

Does it stand a chance? Perhaps.

Does it stand apart? Not for long.



Cooking time: 25 Minutes

The Koshary Quandary, Revisited

I mentioned very early on that finding the greatest plate of koshary out there was one of my purposes in writing this blog. To chronicle the Hunt. To search High and Low for that perfect plate of pure Egyptian goodness. And after I’ve found it, devise a way to bring it into the 21st century.

To understand Koshary is to understand the Egyptian psyche. We need a feast for the eyes, and also a feast for the stomach. This is evident when we sit down at a family dinner: the table is covered end to end in different varieties of food - mountains of rice, Penne and béchamel casserole, Molokheyya soup, plates of chicken and beef and okra stew in a bright red tomato sauce - all vying for valuable real estate in our stomachs, hearts and memories.

Koshary is like a huge dinner table, except its all in one plate. We’ve got the pasta. We’ve got the Rice. We’ve got the bright red tomato sauce. Koshary is a poor man’s dish, so there is no meat or vegetables, but to make things interesting, we’ve added lentils and chickpeas, and topped it with inexpensive fried onions, and drizzled a garlic vinaigrette on top for that extra “kick”

Meanwhile, the French are using soy sauce (!), Italians are making bolognaise ragù with Kobe beef and the Americans sit somewhere between continental and oriental cuisine; the culinary equivalent of an identity crises. One thing all American food has in common, however is that it’s all invariable fatty. Kind of like the American people. You are what you eat after all.

But I digress.

I decided to begin the hunt at Abu El Seed, ostensibly a monument to Egyptian cuisine. Since I had never been there, I spent these past few months asking around, and the feedback I received was generally positive, notable for the fact that while everyone recommended the Sherkasseyya (Chicken with walnut sauce) no one had actually ordered the Koshary. “Why not?” I asked. Responses ranged from “I don’t like koshary” to “why would I pay so much for such a cheap dish?”

I thought to myself: if Abu El Seed was making koshary using the exact same ingredients as Sheikh El Balad or Koshary el Tahrir, then we’ve got problems.

At long last, after enjoying sushi, raving about C+G’s and a thinly veiled rant about the sexuality of beef, I have finally gotten around to telling you, my nonexistent reader, what the Koshary in Abu El Seed is all about.

In a word? Disappointment. Much like Lucille’s “world’s greatest hamburger” moniker, I was promised so much by the hype surrounding the restaurant itself and let down.

It didn’t taste nearly half as good as the cheaper alternatives at KT’s or Abu Tarek. The plate had very little rice, very little lentils and was little more than a bowl of slimy spaghetti strands swimming in a sea of garlicky water. There were so many transgressions committed against this venerable dish:
- The use of spaghetti pasta – cooked al dente, no less! (Koshary is the exception to the Al Dente rule).
- Incorrect proportions of fried onions, lentils, chickpeas, rice and pasta.
- drowning the plate in Garlic water: I’m sure we all agree that the application of the hot red pepper sauce, garlic vinaigrette, and tomato sauce should *always* be left upto the consumer.

In the end, I realized I need to be more selective of whom I ask for restaurant recommendations. Unfailingly, the first thing mentioned is the dessert they “loved”, the fact they were starving when they got there and that the decor is “really cool”. Well, it turns out the dessert they loved was a 2 day old apple tart bought in from the Marriot Bakery and the decor is a cross between a suburban coffee outlet and a sheesha joint, complete with Bamboo chairs.

For Koshary, Abu Seed fails miserablty. And the search continues..

Cooking Time: 45 Minutes.