egyptian / kushari restaurants?

[ronsilverado]

just finished watching bourdain in egypt. was intrigued by some of the cuisine there, particularly the kushari. has anyone ever seen this dish served anywhere? how does egyptian compare to other north african/ middle eastern cuisines?

[browndoggie]

I believe Cafe Dahab on Sawtelle is Egyptian. To me, the food has gone down hill a bit in the last few years. Not sure if they have new owners.

[noahbites]

Yeah, I was just there last week. It's definitely dropped a notch, even within the last nine months. Even the plates are different and I don't like them.

But then again, if I'm on the west side and I want to split a kabob plate with somebody at 1 AM, drink a bottle of wine and smoke hookah, it still does the job. Just not nearly well as it used to.

[igj]

Even though I live within a 10 minute walk of this place, I rarely ever go...and never for the food. It has gone downhill.

That said, their kushari (sometimes transliterated as koshary) was never that great to begin with. Maybe I am being unfair trying to compare it to koshary I loved in Cairo - but there it is. Dahab's koshary doesn't have that strong tomato-ey/chili kick that I liked so much in Egypt.

[noahbites]

I tried their bamya(okra) served with a crispy skinned chicken a while back and it was a master class on uninspiring blandness. Totally disappointing.

[J.L.]

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/444535

No luck in finding good fuul in L.A. so far. Maybe I'll ask Jonathan Gold.

When Mrs. J.L. & I visited Egypt last October, we had some really KICKBUTT fare in a little Nubian Village near Aswan. Man, that stuff was good. Again, I haven't been successful in finding good Nubian cuisine in L.A. either..... sigh.

[exilekiss]

Hi J.L.

Thanks for the info. Did you end up trying either of those 2 restaurants? I've been looking for good Egyptian as well.

[creamfinger]

What are the odds? I was about to ask the same question (for the same reason).