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Hill Country BBQ

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410 7th Street NW
202.556.2050
Metro: Gallery Place/Chinatown, Archives/Navy Memorial

Hours:
Sunday – Tuesday: 11:30 a.m.-1 a.m.
Wednesday – Saturday: 11:30 a.m. – 2 a.m.

It takes a lot for me to be blown away by a restaurant, but I think for the first time in D.C. this new establishment has done just that.  Hill Country BBQ just opened up last Saturday, and I took to opportunity to check it out tonight along with a buddy of mine.  I had heard earlier in the day from a couple of co-workers that the original location (which is located in New York City) was pretty damn good, so my expectations going in were high.  Not only were my expectations met, but Hill Country was everything I imagined and much, much more.

Having had BBQ down in Austin, TX, I can say that I can make this comparison with a certain degree of reliability.  Hill Country is the closest thing to a BBQ joint in Austin that’s not in Texas that I’ve seen so far.  The setup and feel reminded me a lot of Rudy’s BBQ.  When we first walked in, you could already tell the the place was going to be lively.  Looking like a typical country bar/restaurant, the venue was mainly wood with black and white photos of blue collar workers on the walls, Texas flags hanging from the ceiling, and chalkboard menus all around.  We waited at the bar (45 minute wait – but perfectly reasonable since it’s a new place in the heart of Penn Quarter) and had a beer.  The beers I’d like to quickly point out are served in honey jars, which warmed us up to the atmosphere right away.

Once our name was called, we were escorted to our table (by one of several gorgeous hostesses – that tidbit is for the guys) and were instructed on how to proceed.  Much like Vapiano’s, you’re given a “passport” and get whatever items in the cafeteria style line you’d like and then pay as you leave the restaurant after you’re done eating.  The first stop in the line is for the meat.   The brisket, chicken, pork ribs (and shoulder) are all priced by weight, and you pay for individual sausages.  Trying to figure out what to get was a daunting task, but there is an employee in line ready to answer questions and give advice on what to mix and match.  Once you get up to order (there were 6 stations to order meat), they measure out your requested order and then wrap it up in brown paper with a generous helping of white bread.  I ordered 1/4 lbs. of moist brisket (you can get lean as well which isn’t as fatty, but has less flavor in my opinion), 1/4 lbs. pork ribs (which ends up being one giant effing rib, Flintstones style) and one Kreuz sausage (I got the plain, but my friend ordered the Jalepeno style).

Moving on after that, you get to the Sides Station where you can order any number of sides from collared greens, to beans, to Mac and Cheese.   I went for the 8 oz. Mac and Cheese, and an order of cornbread (comes in 2 large pieces and Ancho Honey Butter).

We brought our food back to our table and our server, who looked like Ludacris (seriously, I’m not being racist – the guy looked like Luda), was super on top of getting us our drinks and checking in often to make sure everything was okay.  As for the food, I don’t even know where to begin.  IT. WAS. AMAZING.   The brisket was moist, flavorful, melted in your mouth, and was that perfect amount of juicy meat with bits of fat.  The rib didn’t fall off the bone, but the tenderness of the meat was there and was perfectly seasoned.  The sausage had a nice little spice, and when you bit into it it had a little crunch as you broke through the outer skin, and a deliciously soft and juicy interior.  There was a tasty Hill Country BBQ sauce on the table as well.

The Mac and Cheese; oh man, the Mac and Cheese could have been a meal itself.   The pasta was a penne style, and the cheese practically oozed everywhere (in a good way).   I think I tasted a bit of Worcestershire sauce and pepper in the cheese mix as well – it was heavenly.  The cornbread and honey butter were good, and probably better than normal because it was literally fresh out of the oven when I got my pieces.  Although the cornbread and honey butter were just okay on their own (it’s kinda hard to make cornbread really good or really bad), they complimented the meats and Mac and Cheese quite well.

The food already made the place worth going to, but then a woman came up to us and told us about the karaoke.  So I went downstairs to scout it out.  Downstairs is a whole other hall, with tables, a bar, and a stage.  I’m assuming that they normally have live music on some nights, but on karaoke night the patrons can go up and do their best Dolly Parton, Britney Spears, or Bruce Springsteen impression.  One great little thing is that the restaurant will give the singer a complimentary whiskey shot before or after they go up on stage.  And the karaoke isn’t just some video machine with the words and bouncing little ball on it; there’s a live band playing along with you (far cooler).  Now I’m not sure how many songs the musicians know, but when I went down there the woman was singing a song from “Mamma Mia” so I imagine they probably know quite a bit.

Bottom line: This is hands down the most fun place you could go to eat in D.C. right now.  It’s laid-back, the workers are super-friendly, the food is phenomenal (since it’s by weight, you don’t have to pay for any more than you have to) and the price is actually pretty good.  I got a total of probably around 3/4 lbs. of meat (w/ white bread), 2 pieces of corn bread, a cup of Mac and Cheese and a Miller Lite for a grand total of $19 (and I took most of the sausage home with me because I was so full after the brisket and the rest).  Bring a group of friends and you’ll have a great time.  Grade: A-

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Kafe Leopold’s

3318 M Street Northwest
Washington D.C., DC 20007
(202) 965-6005

Open Mon-Wed,Sun 8am-10:30pm; Thu-Sat 8am-12am

Now that the spring weather is starting to slowly come upon us, I like to try and take advantage of any restaurants with outdoor seating.  So on the first comfortable Sunday of March, my buddies and I tried to find a place to have brunch in Washington, D.C. and decided on Kafe Leopold‘s.

Located off the main drag of M Street in Georgetown, Kafe Leopold’s is a yuppi-ish, European joint with clientele that falls under the category of either having western European decent and/or upper middle class Georgetowner.  Needless to say my friends and I don’t really fit into either one of those categories, so we were sort of out of place (but not uncomfortably so).

With the goal of trying to get one of the tables outside, we came upon Kafe Leopold’s and the couple dozen other people trying to do the same thing.  There are about twelve tables on their patio, however only about five of them can accommodate more than two people.   And by the way, the outdoor section is dog friendly if you decide you want to bring your pooch along.

My party was hungry enough that we decided to pass on waiting for outdoor seating and signed up for first available.  The wait was long; we were told 30 minutes and it ended up being more like an hour.  The host was apologetic and checked in on us several times, which softened the irritation a little, but still an hour wait was a pretty long time.  We couldn’t really blame anyone however.  Sunday brunch is a time to lounge around and enjoy the company of the table you’re at, so we couldn’t really fault the current patrons who were enjoying their meals slowly.  Like I said, the clientele was very European.

When we did get seated, we were taken indoors.  The interior will remind you of a IKEA dining room, with a lot of white space all around and the solid, modern looking furniture.  The only hint of color was a curious orange couch in the middle of the room which reminded us of Gaudi’s bench in Park Guell in Barcelona.  There was also a fairly large display case of mouth watering pastries and cakes sitting there and teasing our rumbling stomachs.

Once seated, we ordered a few appetizers and bunch items.  I had a Mrs. Palmer cocktail (Sweet Tea Vodka, Lemonade, and Ginger Beer I think) which was the best part of the meal (sadly).  The croissant I ordered (I succumbed to the temptation of the pastry display) was buttery, flakey, and quite good, but nothing special.  We ordered a prosciutto platter as an appetizer as well, which was alright as well, except for the fact that it annoyingly showed up with our main dishes.

My $15 chive and cheese omlette however was pretty boring and I probably could have made a much better one myself at home.  The omlette came with a small green salad and three small pieces of toast (which added up to maybe one piece of white bread), and those didn’t really pair that well with the eggs.  One of my friends ordered the same thing and had the same reaction.  Our third friend had the Belgian waffle with chocolate and he too was underwhelmed by his meal because the waffle itself was no larger than a frozen Eggo waffle (probably better to get your brunch waffles at Belga Cafe in Eastern Market).

Bottom line: All in all, the experience wasn’t horrible, but it’s not worth it unless you get the outdoor seating on a nice day.  But I’m always willing to give a restaurant a second chance and I might go back to try their regular lunch/dinner because those menu items did look much better on other customers’ tables.  C+

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The Pyramids/The Egyptian Museum

You know what they are, you know what to expect.  But believe me – you cannot prepare yourself for seeing the Pyramids for the first time.  As we drove through the hectic streets of Cairo, over the river into Giza, the Pyramids almost sneak up on you because you don’t think that they’ll be THAT close to the city.   And then, “Whoa!”, there they are in all their glory.  As much as I hate to make this reference, and I’m laughing at myself right now for doing so, the experience is a little similar (just a teeny bit) to seeing the Luxor hotel in Las Vegas as you’re driving through the desert, but on a much smaller scale.  The Luxor would have to be like eight times the size of the U.S. Capitol building to meet the magnitude.

I already described the hysteria with the camel rides in the previous post, so I won’t get into that again.  After the camel rides, we had the choice of going into the Great Pyramid or the smaller Menekaure’s Pyramid.  We opted for the smaller pyramid due to the fact it was 30 Egyptian pounds per person and that the entrance fee for the Great Pyramid was much more expensive (I failed to record the price, my bad).  But nonetheless, the Great Pyramid on the outside was spectacular enough that we didn’t feel like we had less of an experience by not going into it.

Going inside the pyramid was extraordinarily claustrophobic, even more so than going into the tombs at the Valley of the Kings.   I would not recommend the experience to anyone who is the least bit uncomfortable in tight spaces, and/or has back problems because you literally have to crouch down an incline for about 50 meters. Once inside, the interior was pretty anti-climactic and we came out of it with only the feeling of accomplishment that we A) made it in and out without completely freaking out and B) that we were inside a pyramid.

Once we got out, the fresh, cool air never felt so good.  As we strolled around a little more, another thing I’d like to point out is that the second largest pyramid, Khafre, still actually had some of the original smooth casting stones on its apex allowing you to see/imagine how amazing the pyramids all originally must have looked thousands of years ago.  I’ll also say that at nighttime, the pyramids on the horizon are actually pretty ominous looking.  The silhouette of the pyramids was actually relatively frightening and it’s not hard to see how the villagers of the time viewed the pharaohs as nothing short of godlike.

From there we took a short walk down the hill and a got a look at the Great Sphinx (which was one of the few things I expected to be a little larger, but was still cool nonetheless).  I had no idea the “What has four legs at sunrise, two legs at noon, and three legs at sunset?” riddle that I’d heard before was the question the Sphinx asked.  I’m glad I would have known the answer (it’s “Man” btw if you didn’t know) because the Sphinx ate those who got it wrong. The one annoying part of that area was the millions of girls trying to take pictures of themselves giving the Sphinx a kiss (a little to the left, a little to the right, lift your chin up a little more, go on your tip toes a bit, crouch down a little, turn you head…)

We moved onto the Egyptian Museum in the center of Cairo next.  As much as I would have loved to take pictures of the amazing displays – once again, no photography was allowed inside the museum.  We were able to take some snapshots from the outside though.  The building itself is actually a historical landmark and it has the same 1930s Indiana Jones feel to the architecture.  However, any blogging I do about the artifacts inside wouldn’t nearly do the museum justice.  So here are just two tips.  1) Dedicate a full day to the museum, that’s how big it is and you’ll regret it if you don’t give yourself the necessary time to wander around and discover everything.  2) Pay the extra money to see the mummy room.  It’s worth every penny (though admittedly little morbid) to see the actual mummies of many of the famous pharaohs of Egypt.

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Luxor and Karnak Temples

When we were back at Luxor for the second time, we were able to see some of the sights that we didn’t get around to seeing on the day we arrived.  Two of the main highlights were the Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple.  The Luxor Temple was much like the Edfu Temple in size and look, and was conveniently located a few hundred meters from our boat.  The few highlights of the Luxor temple include the remains of some Christian murals that were painted over the original hieroglyphics and one of the first Islamic mosques that was over the temple.

The Karnak Temple was about a mile down the road from Luxor and it wins the prize (hands down) for the most impressive temple due to its sheer scale.  The Karnak Temple was not even close to being finished, but what had been built over the course of 2,000 years was amazing.  Of all the temples, it’s probably the most recognizable one from film (I personally remember seeing it in The Spy Who Loved Me during the scene when 007 is evading the henchman Jaws).  I’m just glad we didn’t visit Eygpt when they were filming the new Transformers movie there.  Imagine traveling all that way just to show up and the temple is closed because they’re making a third installation to what is a pretty horrible movie.  But alas.

It’s funny how incomplete the place is due to the fact that with each new pharaoh, started new building projects in or along the temple without finishing the previous king’s projects.  So it’s sort of like a potluck where each dish that everyone brings is only half cooked or prepared.   I’m not going to lie – thoughts of how amazing it would be to play hide and seek in this complex crossed my mind.   I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves, but here are a few other things first:

-When you first walk into the Karnak Temple – look to your right.  You’ll see behind the left pylon the reminiscence of what used to be the dirt mound the Egyptians used as scaffolding.  That’s how the discoverers new that the temple wasn’t just a ruin that had fallen apart over time – it was actually incomplete.

– See the nighttime light show; it’s about 60 Egyptian pounds per person.  It’s a great experience, one that’ll give you that feeling you had the first time you saw an IMAX movie.  You walk through the temple and the lights project images on the sides of the temple walls and columns as a booming voice narrates a story.

-Try to find the graffiti left by Champollion, the man who deciphered the Rosetta Stone.  If you do find where he scratched his name, you’ll see how high up on the column it is.  It illustrates where the sand/ground level used to be and how massive of a excavation the Karnak Temple is.

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Camel Riding

What do you think of when you think of Egypt?  You think of the Pyramids.  And you think of camels.  Now before our trip I made it a goal to make sure that I got a chance to ride one of these bad boys.  My enthusiasm however was stunted a little bit before we even went to Egypt because I had heard all these horror stories about peoples’ not so joyful camel riding experiences.  Specifically, that the camel drivers were going to rip you off, make you pay extra to take a picture, make you pay extra to get off the camel, things of that nature.  But nevertheless my intent was still there and I had the opportunity to ride on the camels twice – both being two very opposite experiences.

My first camel riding experience was in Aswan.  When we mentioned to our guide at the time that we wanted to take a camel ride at some point he told us, “The camel drivers in Cairo are thieves.  They’ll charge you a ridiculous amount.  Pure thieves.” This statement pretty much supported what I had heard at home before we went on the trip.  But he told us that he could take us to a place in Aswan that would give us an opportunity to ride the camels at a more legitimate rate.  Now our guide was doing this out of the kindness of his heart, since this wasn’t on the normal tour itinerary, so he asked us not to mention to anyone on the boat that he was doing this favor for us.

We took a quick boat ride across the Nile from Aswan to the base of the Tomb of the Nobles (you can see it easily from Aswan).  The motorboat ride cost us $60 round trip (however, our guide was with us so you’ll probably have to pay more unless you’re really good at bargaining/speak Arabic).  Once we arrived on the opposite bank we took a quick 3 minute walk up to the base of the tombs and, low and behold, sitting there was a group of camels.   Our guide was able to get us 30 minutes on these camels for only 30 Egyptian pounds a person (which is about $6).   In Cairo, our guide told us he’d heard of some camel drivers charging 500-600 pounds to some poor unsuspecting tourists.

My excitement was at its peak as I hopped onto the back of a feisty, male camel.  As he stood up, I almost lost my balance as I wobbled upward.  The camel driver I had was an elderly man who didn’t speak very good English.  Now I’ve never ridden a horse or anything like that, so when part way through the ride my camel driver gave me the reigns, I thought he wanted me to hold them momentarily while he tied his shoes or something.  No, he was giving me control of the camel, which at first almost ended in disaster.  My driver started saying things in Arabic and I really couldn’t tell if he was giving orders to me or the animal I was riding on.  Definitely at one point, my camel got seriously pissed at something and started sprinting (yes, it started fucking sprinting) away from the group.  I had NO idea what I was doing and it took me a little too long to realize what the camel rider was yelling in Arabic was essentially to pull back on the reigns to get the camel to stop.  I pulled back so hard, that the camel stopped so suddenly, I almost flew head over heels off the damn thing (my crotch actually slid forward into the horn of the saddle which was extremely painful, but the only thing that stopped me from flying off).  Once the camel calmed down, and I figured out how to get the reigns to make the camel go where I wanted to go (he was a feisty one throughout, but I did like his spirit) it became a much more pleasant ride.  My mother and sister both had teenage boys leading their camels and these boys were more than happy to take several photographs of us (they seemed to really be enjoying playing with the digital cameras).  At the end of the ride, we were on cloud nine.  The ride was so much fun, and the camel drivers were absolutely great.  We paid them the agreed 30 pounds a person, and we gave them each a hefty tip (which they accepted with great appreciation.  This is something I’d like to point out now and go back to).

Our second experience was not so enjoyable.  When we arrived in Cairo (I’ll explain more about Cairo in the next post), we were all running on about 3 hours of sleep since it was New Years Eve the night before.  Being in Cairo we were going to have a new guide, and on the very first day we were supposed to see the Pyramids of Giza.  We arrived at the Pyramids, and our guide essentially told us we really should ride the camels.  All of us weren’t totally in the mood since we were so tired, and we had done it already in Aswan so we didn’t feel the need to go a second round.   But this guide of ours just kept pushing it, and pushing it.  We finally figured out that this guide was pretty much getting paid off by one of the camel drivers.  The guide was quoting $40 American for each of us for 30 minutes (versus the $6 in Aswan).  Then he dropped it down to $30.  At this point, we decided, if we could get it down to $20, we’d do it (I mean it was a camel ride next to the Pyramids, so we guessed we’d probably regret passing up the chance).   He gave us $25 and were like “Fine, whatever, we’ll do it” as much out of wanting him to stop pestering as actual enthusiasm.

So we board our camels, but of course this time around I know what to expect/know what I’m doing.  My camel driver was a chatty fellow who didn’t have the same kind demeanor as the fella in Aswan.  My sister had a kid no older than 5 pulling her camel along, which was actually quite disconcerting.  We get to a point where the Pyramids are behind us and the camel driver offers to take a picture.  So I give him my camera and he takes some shots of us with the Pyramids.  When he comes back, he doesn’t give me my camera back – he holds out his hand.  I literally am like “Are you serious?” He says “C’mon give me a tip”.  I’m not going to win this one, so I start pulling out money (the guy even says to me “Give me American dollars).  I give him 10 Egyptian pounds (which is like $2) and I tell him “Give me my camera back, now“.  He gives me my camera back, and I look over to my mom and sister and motion to them to put their cameras away or we’ll be quickly losing more money.

We ride along a little bit further and the older man and the young boy leave (inexplicably) and we’re left with a teenage boy who ties all our camels together and has the camels start running back.  In the midst of all of this running, the bouncing causes my mother’s camera to pop out of her pocket.  We scream at the kid in front (who doesn’t really speak English either) to stop the camels.  We check the saddles of the camel (quite thoroughly, keep this in mind), but don’t see any camera.  We spend the next half an hour scouring the desert for the camera on the ground.  It was bizarre because we could see the tracks where we had come from and the camera shouldn’t have been buried by any sand in the 30 seconds the camels were running.  We’d almost given up on the camera and were getting ready to head back with out it when I have the head camel driver (who had come back to help find the camera) check the camel’s saddles a second time.  This time the camel driver “finds” the camera relatively easily.  Now, I’m not accusing anyone of anything, but we find it rather suspicious that the camera was discovered so easily in the saddle after my mother, sister and I all looked through it pretty thoroughly.   Once again, he holds onto the camera, even though I motion to him to give it back, and smiles “We’re all happy now, yes!”  We get back to our Cairo guide, who has a big smile on his face hoping that it’ll charm us to go easy on him, and I try to get the camera back again.  The camel driver says “Are you happy?”  I reply, “I guess”.  He puts out his hand and says “Show me”.  So I give him 50 Egyptian pounds and he shakes his head.  Once again, with no one to back us up (the police standing there couldn’t care less to help), and our Cairo guide just standing there, there no way to win this one.  So I give the guy a second 50 and he gives me the camera back.  I look at my family and they gave me the same look that said it all.  We wish that our memory of camel riding was isolated to the experience in Aswan.  The drivers there were humble, kind, and a pleasure to be around – the total opposite of the drivers in Cairo.

After that, it was only the fact that the Pyramids were so amazing to see in person that saved the day for us.  So if you’re ever in Egypt, heed this warning:  BEWARE THE CAMEL DRIVERS AT THE PYRAMIDS.  One way to get around getting screwed is to have one of your party walk along with the camels and take pictures (but you’ll really owe the one person who doesn’t take the ride).  Or do like we did the first time and find a place to take the camel rides in the non-touristy areas.   But in the end, you can’t get around it.  We got some pictures of us in front of the Pyramids, riding on camels, so we’ll choose to forget the ordeal we went through and just appreciate that we have them.

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Abu Simbel

I’d like to make one quick statement.  I’m so glad we got in and out of Egypt when we did.   I can understand the hostility towards the government however.  We noticed that there was some unhappiness amongst the Egyptian people, and saw first hand a group of store owners getting thrown out of their stores by the police and forced to shut down their business because the government wanted the land.  But did I think this revolution would occur a mere couple weeks after leaving?  No way.

Moving along now, one of the most popular excursions from Aswan is a trip to Abu Simbel to see the two temples.  In order to get to Abu Simbel, it takes a 6 hour bus ride or a quick 45 minute flight from Aswan.  We took the 5 A.M. flight to get there because the views of the two temples is ten times more spectacular if you can catch it with rising sun shining on them.  I’d like to also take a moment to recognize the travelers who were killed in the bus crash on their way to Abu Simbel.  The accident occurred the day before we went and needless to say it shocked all of us on the boat.

Like I said, our flight was ungodly early, but from everything we heard, this was a place we HAD to see.  Most of the people at the Aswan airport that morning looked like they just rolled out of bed and were heading to Abu Simbel as well.  Once we landed, after a little bit of confusion trying to figure out which bus to get on (TIP: If you visit Abu Simbel via EgyptAir – EgyptAir has a free shuttle that goes back and forth from the airport to the temples) we arrived at our destination.

The gate to the temples was about 400 meters away from the sight so we weren’t able to see anything from the start.  We followed the crowed down a path which led around a large cliff along the beach.  Still not able to see anything, we walked down the path towards the beach on the right edge of the cliff.  It wasn’t until we looped around and looked over our left shoulders that we saw:

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So needless to say, it’s quite a shock to see that all of a sudden.  I was awe-struck at how well preserved the carvings were, and how massive the figures were that were embedded in the cliff.   Once again, we weren’t allowed to take photos inside the temples (although once inside I did see a few folks taking a few quick snapshots.  I wish I had done the same, but I decided not to risk getting arrested).  However, I will say about the interior that the paintings inside were the most interesting and exciting of all that we’d seen in Egypt.  Most of the illustrations depicted the King Ramesses II conquering his enemies in battle to in order to intimidate the Nubian neighbors.  I could certainly see how anyone walking into the temples and seeing this would be immediately humbled.

Here’s another tip if you’ve taken the flight to Abu Simbel.  Take your time.  Seriously.  You’ve probably booked a flight that only gives you about an hour to see the temples (you’ll want two hours).  You’ll feel like you need to race back to the shuttle.  You’ll get anxious as you see the time ticking past the usual 30 minutes before the flight leaves boarding time.  You’ll get on the plane.  And then you’ll realize, the plane won’t leave until everyone gets on board.  So you’ll sit for another hour on the plane while the rest of the passengers slowly stroll on after taking in the Abu Simbel temples at a leisurely pace.  So do yourself a favor and enjoy the temples, the plane won’t leave without you.  And you never know when you’ll be back.

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Aswan

Easily the most serene and beautiful part of the journey was our couple days in the city of Aswan, which was the furthest south we went on the Nile cruise.  People, many of whom were Nubian, in this city were much calmer, and had a much more peaceful temperament.  When walking around, they were far less in your face when trying to negotiate for goods.  There wasn’t as much hustle and bustle as Luxor, and far less chaotic that what Cairo is like.

A few of the highlights of Aswan include the site of an unfinished obelisk.  This site is a granite quarry where they attempted to carve a obelisk out of the bedrock.  But once they saw that the obelisk that they were carving out was beginning to crack, they left it as it is.  While the sight may not be mind blowing, the thought itself of how they carved and moved these giant obelisks back before they had cranes, drills, and scaffolding is.

A second highlight of the city is a trip out to the Aswan High Dam.  This dam helps maintain the water level of the Nile River.  If it were not for the High and Low dams in Aswan, much more of the areas along the Nile would be submerged.  Think of it as the Hoover Dam of Egypt.

The third sight we saw was the Philae Temple.  In order to get to the temple, we had to take a water taxi out to the island on which it stood.  The water taxi ride itself was an experience.  About twenty water taxis carrying various different tourists essentially played bumper cars on the docks while the taxis came in and out.  There was no order in the process, but somehow we all got on board, and went on our way.  Once we reached the island, the temple itself was very similar to the Edfu Temple.  I won’t go much into the descriptions due its similarities, but I would like to mention one cool fact.  The island where the temple stands today is NOT the original place where it was built.  Amazingly, the temple was moved piece by piece to the island where it is today because the original location was flooding due to the construction of the Aswan Dam.

We were also able to have some of the best local fare we had on the entire trip.  If you want to find a place that’ll serve authentic, local food, go to Makka Restaurant in Central Aswan.  We had some lamb kofta, ground lamb patties, as well as stuffed pigeon.  The stuffed pigeon is stuffed with a spicy rice and is eaten entirely with your hands.  It was messy, but delicious.  The mezze was also quite good, with the highlight being the Molakheya.  Molakheya is like a spinachy, kaley, oil dish that you can either eat with flat bread, or just like a soup with a spoon.  It’s a phenomenal vegetarian dish that any meat-eater, such as myself, would love.

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Up next, the adventure to Abu Simbal

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Egypt – Bloopers edition

So over the course of the trip several odd things occurred.  Like any trip to another country, there are going to be experiences that you wouldn’t think would be normal at home, but are probably perfectly routine where you’re traveling.

For example, the airports in some of the small cities don’t have the strictest guidelines regarding where they park their planes.  If they did, our airport bus wouldn’t have taken us to the WRONG plane and let us almost get on board.  Yes, our bus drove about 50 people up to what we thought was our plane.  We got off, walked up the stairs to the door where passengers on the plane were trying to get off.   Needless to say, complete confusion on the part of the passengers, bus drivers, and flight attendants insued.

Or at home, it’s not uncommon to have a fender bender with another car every once in a while.  But in Egypt, apparently cruise ships have fender benders.  No joke, our boat at one point was backing up out of the dock and backed right into another ship with a huge crash.  And I’m pretty sure we committed a hit and run, because we straight up cruised away after the impact.

You’d also think the weather would be hot and sunny the entire time in the desert.  No, in fact our cruise was a little delayed going back up to Luxor because there were reports of rain and even snow at the Kom Ombo temple region where we had just been a couple days earlier.  Because the entire cruise was thrown off its timetable, the poor folks on our boat who were seeing the Kom Ombo temple on the way back up the river, had to go see the temple at night.  This wouldn’t have been a problem except that the storm knocked out the electricity.  So they had to walk through the dark and used the light from a few peoples’ iphones to look at the place.  I’m just glad we were able to see it in the daylight on the way down.

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Kom Ombo

Back to Egypt.  This is gonna be a short entry because quite honestly I’ve gotten caught up in NBC’s gazillion hours of comedy shows tonight.

After we left the Edfu Temple in Esna, we went a couple more hours down the river to Kom Ombo.  The Kom Ombo Temple was much closer to the river than Edfu and could be seen from the water as we approached the shore.  This temple looked more like a typical ruin than Edfu.  There was almost nothing left of the roof and the walls were falling apart.  But not all was in ruins and there were several interesting parts of the temple that remained intact.

The first was the fact that the temple was in fact two identical temples adjacent to one another.  Each temple mirrored the other precisely.  The reason for this was because the original temple was for the crocodile god Sobek (Ironically through this trip, we visited a temple dedicated to a crocodile god and was on a ship called the crocodile, yet we didn’t see one crocodile the entire time), but the Egyptians didn’t want one temple dedicated to this evil deity.  So they created the other side for the god of fertility, Hathor in order to essentially feel better about themselves.

Here are a few more interesting points of the temple:

-The temple was also another example of a Greek temple, which was evident in the amount of nudity in the carvings of the people on the walls.

-There is an ancient Egyptian calendar on one of the ruins.  Archaeologists were able to figure out that on the calendar a single line represented a day.  An upside down “U” represented ten days.   By adding up the segments you could see that the Egyptians had ten day weeks, three weeks a month, for a 360 day year.  And that year was split into three parts for the harvest.  We later found out that the other five days were used for holiday purposes (e.g. a pharaoh wanted to celebrate himself when he felt like it, or a party for a big wedding, etc.).  It was actually pretty amazing how sophisticated their understanding of time was even thousands of years ago.

-There was a grand segment of the temple with a row of faceless men with cartouches (essentially a persons name written in hieroglyphic in the form of a dog-tag) underneath them.  These men were the thieves of the area who the king decided didn’t deserve to have faces.  Only their names would be known to the people in shame.  The wall also depicted a rather gruesome illustration of how thieves in ancient Egypt would have one hand tied behind their backs while a lion came up and ate it.

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A couple of places to eat in San Diego

So, taking a little break from the Egypt talk, I was recently in San Diego a few days after my Arabian adventure.  Although it was a work trip, my colleagues and I were able to see some of the sights of the town.  I won’t talk about seeing the things that most people visiting San Diego would see (San Diego Zoo, U.S.S. Midway, which is AWESOME by the way, etc)  even though all those sights are very well worth checking out.  I’d just like to quickly mention a couple places to eat if you’re out and about downtown.

The first place is Currant American Brasserie.   This restaurant is just south of the Gaslamp District (a fantastic bar and restaurant scene in San Diego), near Petco Park.  The menu is simple; it has your typical sandwiches, salads, and deserts.  There is also a pretty good brunch deal with $8 all you can drink mimosas.  We ate on the outdoor patio, so I didn’t get a real good look on the inside, but when I went in to use the restroom, the interior had a sort of New Orleans architectural style.

Despite the vanilla choices on the menu, the food was extremely good.  We started off with an appetizer of taters tots with a spicy habanero ketchup.  The tater tots were nice and crispy on the outside, but the inside was more buttery mashed potatoes than the shredded potato Napoleon Dynamite/Ore Ida style tater tots.   Three of the four of our group all ordered the Chicken Club sandwich.  I’d have to think really hard to come up with a place that made a better chicken sandwich.  The chicken was juicy and grilled to perfection and was smothered with a chipotle aioli that gave it a nice chili-garlic taste.  The key though was the avocado.   Southern California is known for the fruit and the sandwich had a generous heaping of it.  And finally the french fries were the perfect compliment to the sandwich.  They were pretty close to the McDonald’s style fries, but with a nice thyme seasoning.  Currant is a great place to eat if you want to get a bite to eat without having to have to deal with the hustle and bustle of Gaslamp, but still want to be close enough to head to that area for a drink afterward.

140 West Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101
(619) 702-6309

Open Weekdays 11:30am-12am; Weekends 9am-12am

The second place I’d recommend checking out is Fillipi’s Pizza Grotto.  From what I understand, this restaurant now has several branches, but the original is in the Little Italy district of San Diego.  The Little Italy district’s main road is India Street (not sure how that happened) which is where Fillipi’s is located.  From the outside, the restaurant doesn’t look like much, especially being next to the shi-shier venues on the main drag.  In fact, we walked right by the main entrance at first because there were some local, old Italian guys sitting outside the market which makes up the front of the restaurant; its very a nonchalant looking entry way.  Once we went it, and walked through the small little market, we were seated in the back.

The restaurant is very much an Italian mom and pop restaurant.  Nothing fancy, nothing flashy.  The menu was really, really simple – pizzas, pastas, soups, and salads and that was it.  The lamanted white menu didn’t even have any descriptions or many varieties of pizza and pasta.  The menu simplicity actually admittedly made me not expect much from our meal for some reason.  But once we took a bite into our food, there was nothing cheap about it.  The pizza I ordered was excellent.  The crust had a little more thickness than what you’d expect from a New York style slice, but was nice and crispy unlike a Naples style pizza (where the sauce and cheese sometimes makes the crust soggier).  The pizza was delicious; and that was the least impressive dish on the table.  The pastas were by far the favorite of the group.  The homemade pasta on all the pasta dishes tasted really fresh (if you haven’t had fresh/homemade pasta, go to a local Italian store or even Whole Foods and get the pasta from the refrigerated aisle.  You’ll be able to tell the difference immediately from the raw, uncooked box pasta you get normally).  The linguine with clams had a nice creamy taste, and the bits of clam weren’t too overbearing on the dish.  The bolognese sauce on the ricotta lasagna actually melted in your mouth with savoriness was easily my favorite of the entire meal.  And you get a good amount of food.  Admittedly the portions aren’t as big as a Maggiano’s or Buca di Pepo chain size, but be prepared to share.

Now I’ll get back to Egypt in the next post.