Goodbye, Egypt!

We are leaving Egypt!  Unfortunately, our flight out of Cairo leaves at 3:15am, making our "day" (from when we got up this morning) about 46 hours long, if you consider that we arrive in Chicago at noon and won't be able to sleep until at least 9pm.  I'm excited about leaving, and while I'll miss certain parts of it (the antiquities, hanging out with the Edfu team, the cupcakes) there is one thing I won't miss.

The traffic and the driving.

This is a typical street in Zamalek, not even during rush hour:

Can you tell which cars are parked and which are trying to drive down the street?  Neither can I.  That is because double, even triple parking in the middle of a street is alarmingly common.  With no parking tickets, people tend to park wherever the want, including in the middle of the street.  Combine that with the fact that most streets in Zamalek (and much of Cairo for that matter) are one-way, and things get hairy.  Especially when people disregard the one-way street and then you have cars stuck in the middle of street without anywhere to go.  And there are also no stoplights.  Or stop signs.

My one regret, if you can call it that, is not being able to take a ride in this:

That is one of Seti First Travel's armored excursion vehicles.  For a price (I haven't a clue how much), you can go on a couple of days long trip into the desert or the Sinai.  They have armed guards because the desert isn't always safe, and they are a major luxury travel company, so you are sure to be well taken care of (and of course, safe).  Janelle and I would have loved to have done one of their treks, but with the hotel already booked for the week and us being unsure of how much it would even cost, we just fantasized about it.  I'm thinking though I want to save money and do something next year with them, maybe a trek out in the desert. 

Anyways, that's it from Egypt.  I can't wait to be home! 

Coptic Cairo

In front of one of the towers of the fort.

On Sunday, we opted to go visit Coptic Cairo.  Neither Janelle and I knew all that much about the area, except that it is adjacent (and within) the remains of Babylon, the Roman fortress.  It’s a very small, enclosed space, but we were a bit lost about where to go once we got there.  We decided to play follow the tour groups until we figured out how to get into walled area- it felt like we were going down an alley to be murdered, it was so empty (and you had to go underground to get there).  The winding “streets” reminded me a lot of an Indiana Jones flick. 

We visited two lovely churches, one of which had a wonderful woman who explained to us (for free!) the history of the church.  It was very interesting to hear what they knew about the church- it was very old so some of its history was lost.  It was dedicated to two saints, though there were portraits of many other saints.  The Coptic church is probably closest to Greek Orthodox in terms of dogma- both have lots of saints.  We weren’t able to go into the largest church- which was dedicated to St. George (the saint who killed a dragon).  It came complete with a giant light-up St. George killing a dragon.

We also wandered into the Coptic cemetery.  It was very old, and had many tombs which were very old, many over 100 years.  All were the built tomb type, like what you see in New Orleans.  Many were very beautiful, and very large.  

We also visited the Coptic Museum, which was a beautiful museum, very well done.  It was huge, and had very ornate wooden decorations in the Coptic style throughout the building.  I definitely recommend visiting it if you are in Cairo.  All in all, it was a very interesting visit, though I wish we had had a guide book!  It's the first time we had been somewhere that we didn't know much about, since neither of us specializes in the Coptic period.

Right now we are watching Armageddon on the Action Channel, while we pack.  Tonight, we leave!  We are so excited!

Zamalek Cupcake Showdown (aka I Give Myself a Stomach Ache)

As we have 4 days left in Cairo and are running out of things to do each day, today’s big plan was to taste test all three major cupcake shops in Zamalek.   That was our lunch (along with a really good mango).   Janelle and I each picked a cupcake from each place to try, and we were sure to pick something which we had not gotten there before (we’ve been to Nola’s twice, and La Poire and Crumbs once before).  We decided to judge each cupcake store based on selection as well as taste, and took into account the cupcakes we had bought there previously.

Crumbs

The Shop: Crumbs was the first stop of the day.  It’s a lovely little all white shop not far from the river, and is very clean and fairly no frills.

Selection: They have a decent selection, with interesting combinations like Raspberry White Chocolate, Strawberry Shortcake, and Date & Caramel.  Between the two of us we’ve had Raspberry White Chocolate, Date & Caramel, Red Velvet, and Chocolate Mint.

Price: All their cupcakes cost 10 pounds each (roughly $1.67).    

Presentation:  Their cupcakes are not particularly well decorated, and lack the professional polish of the other cupcake shops.  They also have minimal icing, about one centimeter thick.  Their packaging is really cute though, and very secure as it kept my cupcake perfectly upright despite being in my purse for about 20 minutes.

Taste: I had the Red Velvet today, and it was possibly the worst red velvet cupcake I have ever had.  The cake was not moist like a good red velvet, and had a grainy texture.  The only redeeming quality was the icing, which was decent.  The other day I had the Raspberry White Chocolate, which was nothing to write home about- I’m not even sure there was chocolate in it.  It tasted like a raspberry muffin with vanilla cream frosting.  Janelle thought the Date & Caramel was really good, but she said the Chocolate Mint frosting tasted like toothpaste (I had some, and I agree).  

The Verdict: The best thing about Crumbs I could say is that they have really good packaging for their cupcakes.

La Poire

The Shop:  La Poire is located on 26 July St, one of the main roads through Zamalek.  They specialize in deserts of all kinds, and their shop projects a polished, high-class image.  They have a variety of tarts, cakes, and chocolates, as well as cupcakes.  Their cupcake selection is fairly minimal (about 6 different kinds at the two shops we visited, in Maadi and Zamalek).  They keep all their deserts in refrigerators, which if you know baking, you should know that a fridge is not the best place to store a cupcake (it dries them out).

Price: Like Crumbs, all cupcakes were 10 pounds each.

Selection:  Having been to two shops with different offerings, I would say they have about 10 different types of cupcake on rotation.  We’ve tried Cookies & Cream, Fudge Sundae, Chocolate Caramel, and Chocolate.

Presentation: All of La Poire’s deserts are perfectly finished and nicely decorated, with lots of frosting.  In fact, I ended up with chocolate frosting on my nose this afternoon, as the height of the frosting was actually higher than the height of the cupcake!  My only problem with presentation is that the boxes they give you don’t hold your cupcake upright, so by the time we got ours back to the hotel, both cupcakes were upside down in their containers.

Taste: Today’s Chocolate cupcake was good, with lots of frosting, but not as moist as I would like.  However, the Cookies and Cream cupcake I had the other day was fantastic- they put pieces of Oreo cookie in the batter, and the cake of the cookie was a good chocolate, and perfectly moist.  That may be the difference between the baker in Maadi and the baker in Zamalek, or perhaps the cupcake was a bit fresher in Maadi. 

The Verdict: Definitely a very good place for cupcakes (and Janelle’s favorite), but they need to work on keeping their cupcakes moist. 

Nola’s

The Shop:  Nola’s is an adorable little shop, located just off 26 July, near La Poire.  The guys at the counter were really friendly, and explained (without asking) all the flavors of cupcakes they had available.  It also tends to be pretty busy- they seem to be doing good business.

Price: Cupcakes at Nola’s are more expensive- 11 to 14 pounds (around $1.80).

Selection:  Nola’s has the best selection- there around about 10 to 15 different kinds available each day.  Nola doesn't offer anything but cupcakes.  We’ve tried Banana Caramel, Oreo Cookies and Cream, Blueberry, Raspberry, and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.

Presentation:  Hands down, Nola’s has the best presentation.  Each one is perfectly finished and decorated.  When I went in today they even had absolutely adorable Christmas cupcakes, including one with a snowman, one with a Christmas tree, and one with a Santa Claus face.  Other than the Santa Claus, these were actually 3-D and built up on the cupcake out of fondant. 

Taste:  Today’s Cookies and Cream was very, very good, though I would say that La Poire might have edged out Nola’s on that one type of cupcake.  Like La Poire, they bake Oreos into the batter, but they used a plain yellow cake while La Poire had a chocolate, which gave them an edge.  However, the blueberry cupcake I had the other day as fantastic, as was the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough (I’m still trying to figure out how they got the cookie dough in the cake batter not to be cooked when the baked the cupcake).  Every cupcake I had from Nola’s was perfectly moist, and their frosting had the perfect amount of sweetness for me.  Janelle liked her cupcakes from there as well, and said they tasted very good, though she preferred La Poire.

The Verdict: While more expensive, Nola’s has better selection and I think overall better cupcakes.  I feel like Nola’s is the type of place where I can walk in and pick any cupcake, knowing that whatever I’ve picked will be good. 

Now, I feel like a kid who ate their entire bag of halloween candy in one sitting.   Nap time!