Cairo eats - taking our life in our hands

When we first arrived in Cairo, I was paranoid about gastro.  I monitored everything Finn ate, cooked all our meals myself, freaked out if I accidentally swallowed any water in the shower, and brushed my teeth with bottled water.  Come to think of it, I'm still doing most of those things.  But the food situation isn't as bad as I thought.  We have been eating out a lot, but I usually order safe foods.  For instance, I declined the smoked salmon, potato and mayonnaise salad that EgyptAir served up on our flight to Berlin, but I'm happy to eat in busy restaurants where the turnover of food is high.

Last night, John and I were feeling daring.  We had heard good things about a restaurant called Lettuceat.  So, we broke all the rules on eating only cooked and peeled food, and we ordered a salad.  A really, really big salad.  I was nervous, but I'm pleased to report that we survived.  It was worth it, that mango salad was good.

That experience has given us confidence (or cockiness?), so we turned our attention to Mince, a burger place around the corner from us.  I was sold when I saw that caramelised onions and gruyere cheese appeared on their burger menu - that must mean it's a hygienic establishment, right?  It's too early to tell yet, but I'm confident that we got away with it.

And lastly, we stopped at Rigoletto for some ice cream.  Ice cream in Cairo? In a city that has daily power cuts? Where it's 38 degrees?  I was nervous, so I ordered the lemon sorbet. Winner.  Rigoletto is a great place.  They have colouring pencils for the kids, magazines for the adults, and it's reportedly the maker of Cairo's best carrot cake.

Trying out all this food was clearly tiring for Finn and Wilf.  They both fell asleep while being carried home by John.  Finn was snoring away, yet managed to stay on John's shoulders.  He was under strict instructions not to kick Wilf in the face.  Finn kept flopping forward and then jerking back awake, until he gave up and just slumped and went limp.

And, Wilf can sit all by himself!  He can only sit for a few seconds before he topples, but yesterday he couldn't sit at all.  The kid's a genius.