Date night: La Trattoria

Romance was in the air.  There was a wedding near our apartment and these doves were about to be set free into the night.

For our date night this week we chose La Trattoria, a quiet Italian restaurant nearby.  John had heard good things about their beef carpaccio.  The stand-out for me was the gnocchi.

I've taken to drinking cocktails when we go out to dinner.  It's hard to get good wine, and when it's available, it's expensive.  It's also difficult to buy imported spirits, but many of the restaurants stock them.  Martinis have become my drink of choice - unfortunately La Trattoria was out of gin(!), but they did have Campari and soda.  We are off to Italy for a few weeks in October, so we'll certainly be stocking up while we are there.

On the way to dinner we called into an antique shop (one of many in Zamalek).  Like most of the antique shops here, it's a mix between a treasure trove and a white elephant store.  It looked small from the outside, but when we walked in, it was a cavernous space with several rooms coming off the main hallway, each one crammed with dusty chairs, tables, tarnished silverware, chandeliers and other trinkets.  In one room there was a grandfather clock, an old record player and a real mink stole.  If you had the time and the inclination, you could spend hours in there sifting through the piles of goods and I'm sure you would come out with some gems.

Perhaps I should buy one of these chandeliers for our new apartment?