Alexandria still enjoys a particularly Greek flavor
Image by Jeff_Werner via Flickr
Many Greeks and other foreigners left Egypt en masse in the post-nationalization years that were initiated in the late 1950s and early 1960s. As they departed, the once- Alexandrian Greeks sold properties that included tearooms such as the Grand Trianon in Ramleh Square.
The Grand Trianon is one place where the Egyptian owners have retained its name and business, and it remains a tearoom/restaurant with carefully preserved interiors, although with a significantly changed menu. The owners say they try their best to keep its air and glamour, but at the end of the day it is impossible to keep a Greek menu of desserts when the Greek chefs are no longer there. And by all accounts, the Grand Trianon is faring much better than other restaurants, bars and tearooms that were simply shut down when their owners departed from the south to the north side of the Mediterranean.
It was during the Mohamed Ali years that Greeks and other foreigners, especially Italians and French, came to Egypt. And in the early years of World War I they came again, especially to Alexandria, escaping Ottoman domination. In the second half of the 1800s, Greeks built their school, hospital and other community facilities.
As recently as the 1950s some 100,000 — some suggest even 150,000 — Greeks called Alexandria home. During the first half of the century, Greeks were estimated to have constituted more than 25 per cent of the ever-so-diversified foreign community of the city that harboured more than half of all the foreign community in Egypt — which totaled 200,000. During these decades, they dominated the grocery trade, patisseries, food processing and manufacturing of soft drinks and spirits.
Today there are a few hundred Greeks who still inhabit the Quartier Grec at the heart of Alexandria, attend the Greek school, socialize at the Greek Club and Greek tearooms and dine at Greek restaurants.
At White and Blue in Ras Al-Tin, or at Zephyrion at the other end of Alexandria Corniche in Abu Qir, Alico and Nicolas Tsapzis Pericilis are still serving the tarama — fish roe whisked with olive oil, tzatziki — a yoghurt and garlic paste, kolokythokeftedes — fried courgette and cheese balls, and mousaka — the famous aubergine and minced meat dish. Along with these very Greek specialties come the tasty grilled fish, shrimps and calamari that taste so different when served at Zephyrion than at any other typical fish restaurant in Alexandria, like the ever-so- famous Abu Ashraf.
Images of the bygone days of Alexandria are portrayed at length in the literature of novelists such as Edward Khayyat, Gamil Ibrahim Attiyah and Ibrahim Abdel-Meguid. The Greek characters and places are not missing there. But Alexandria of the past is to be no more, as the late film director Youssef Chahine — born in Alexandria in 1926 — once said of the city that he celebrated in his films. For Chahine it is the Alexandria of the present and future that should be celebrated and beautified. The Alexandria of the present, however, will always carry a strong flavor of the city of the past. And Greek cafés, restaurants and indeed the few left of the Greek community will always stand testament to that.
Excerpted from an article by Dina Ezzat for Al-Ahram Weekly
