Hood Gondol

So, in an attempt to keep my promise of exploring Alexandria's excellent seafood options, I took one of my friends from the program on a little bit of an adventure to find the restaurant described by the Lonely Planet as the following:

"When Alexandrians need a quick fix of delicious, fresh and ridiculously cheap seafood, they make a beeline for this local favorite near the Bibliotheca Alexandria. A massive plate of mixed seafood, including prawns, calamari, spicy clams and fried fish. There's no menu and little English is spoken here, just turn up, point to the trays of fresh fish lining the downstairs display and find yourself a seat. It's located down an unmarked alley; ask for directions as everyone knows it by name."

An extremely accurate description I think (except for the ridiculously cheap part). The first proof we had that the guidebook knew what it was talking about was our inability to find the street the restaurant was located on. Despite my careful examinations of a detailed map and the explicitly written out directions that I gleaned from said map, we were wondering in circles down sketchy side streets filled with innumerbale coffee and shisha cafes. Plenty of bottom feeders, just not the kind we were looking for. Eventually I took the guidebook's advice and asked a kindly looking old woman sitting in front of her kiosk. Sure enough, at the first mention of the word Gondol she proceeded to point straight in front of her, down an unmarked alley that at first glance looked merely like another home for the thousands of stray cats that wonder the streets of Egyptian cities. We had passed it at least twice already. Commenting on the fact that neither of us would have ever found it without her help, my friend and I proceeded down the most unpromising of the paths we had yet taken to discover this scene:

Huge platters of clams and grilled prawns and the hot peppers they use as garnish

Fried fish, friend calamari, and shrimp kofta

It was a seafood lovers paradise. We were greeted almost immediately by a worker who spoke good English and was clearly excited by the new, foreign faces at this obviously local dive. He hurriedly gave us samples of the calamari and shrimp kofta, assuring us we would love everything. We did. After trying to communicate what we wanted, we finally understood what that oddly incomplete sentence in the middle of the Lonely Planet description was saying. A massive plate of mixed seafood, including prawns, calamari, spicy clams and fried fish. This is what you are served here. A gigantic combo platter.

Grilled and fried fish, prawns, shrimp kofta, fried calamari and grilled potatoes

Up close and personal

Oh yeah, did I mention the HUGE bowl of spicy clams that accompanied those gigantic plates?

At this point I shouldn't need to mention it, but in case anyone is just joining us, we were also served aish and tahina. And a massive plate of rice each.

As our server had informed me when I tried to order just grilled fish and calamari: The Egyptians eat a lot!

Everything was delicious, but there was so much of it! Served steaming hot and fresh off the grill or fryer, it was everything Lonely Planet had promised and more. Although not "ridiculously" cheap by Egyptian standards, it was about $6 each, so no one was breaking the bank.

I think our expressions say it all!

Last night we went shopping with one of the girls in the dorm who is from Palestine. Her name is Danya and she is the sweetest. After a disappointing trip to the mall, she offered to take us to "the best" fish restaurant in Alex, a place called Qadoura (or 'adora, since the Egyptians don't say the kaff sound in Arabic), which is also mentioned in the Lonely Planet. Up until now, mostly for the sake of my mother's health, I have told you little of the traffic and taxi experience you hear so much about from all the guide books and every tourist who has ever been to this country. But last night's taxi ride to the restaurant was just too epic and hilariously frightening to leave out. 

Mom, you can skip to the next paragraph if you want. We were a group of six girls, so we took two taxis to the restaurant. We had our Arabic speaking friend instruct both drivers as to where we were going and how to get there and she got in the second one to be sure that the driver would follow the first. The first thing I noticed as I climbed into the first cab was that the driver was holding a very full, very hot cup of tea in his left hand. Given the sudden stopping and starting of Egyptian traffic I felt this was an unwise idea, but it didn't concern me much because he still had his right hand free to operate the steering wheel. About two minutes into the ride however, I noticed that he was slowing down and trying to pull up beside the cab that our other friends were in. Again, this did not concern me very much as the taxi drivers here are known to have entire conversations with other taxi drivers as they drive side by side down treacherously congested roads. It is just how things are done here. I did however, begin to feel some alarm as he moved closer and closer to the other taxi which was now directly alongside us in the left lane. Yelling in slang arabic that I had no hope of understanding he proceeded to reach out his window towards the other taxi, at which point the other taxi driver leaned over and handed off a cigarette through the window to our driver. Mind you this is all while going about 50 miles an hour. Down an extremely crowded street in which no one was driving in the lanes or following any logical traffic rules. Needless to say, it was harrowing. And the rest of the ride was not much better as our driver now had a scalding cup of tea in his left hand and a lit cigarette in his right. I have never been so anxious to get out of a car in my life. The site of the restaurant pulling into view was possibly one of the most beautiful things I have seen here yet. Including the pyramids and the Mediterranean sea. It was just that bad.

The restaurant was a similar style to the one we went to in Cairo, you first chose the fish you want from a huge display and then it is served to you, head still attached, freshly grilled with an assortment of delicious appetizers. This restaurant had a greater variety than the one in Cairo and we followed the advice of the waiter as to which fish was best grilled (as opposed to fried or baked), so I don't even know the name of the fish I ate. What I do know was that it was completely delicious and I ate every bite of it, including the meat from the cheeks (as I was instructed to do by one of the girls from the program). It was a sweet, mellow fish with relatively easy to remove bones and a good amount of meat on them. Cooked to perfection and served with a classic brown rice dish, it was another meal fit for the gods. Thus far, Alexandria has delivered on its promise of excellent fresh seafood. 

The Lonely Planet link at the beginning of the post should take you to the page of Alexandria restaurants and while I am of course going to try to visit as many as possible, I will take reader suggestions very seriously. If you want to see a post about a specific place, let me know and I will do my best to make it happen!