Rainforest Cafe

Today we took Maya to the newly opened Rainforest Cafe at CityStars mall in Cairo. Wow!!! It was incredible and Maya loved it. I can't believe this kind of stuff is available in Cairo! They have life sized animals that move their arms and growl and grumble, a life-sized alligator that hisses and snaps its jaws open and closed. A huge fish tank with lots of little nemos. They even have a mama and baby elephant pair. Maya was in 2-year-old heaven. And the fact that she was still a little bit unsure whether the animals were real meant that we could enjoy our dinner without having to run after a stir-crazy toddler. And the food was pretty good too.

Maya was a bit freaked by the "leopard", actually a jaguar, which I think decided to wake from sleep and roar at her just as she was passing by.

We learned from our waiter that the Cairo Rainforest Cafe was the first branch to open in the Middle East, and even beat out Dubai -- though our waiter says one will be opening there too.

One really interesting cultural tidbit about restaurants here is that somehow culturally restaurants feel they have to bring the children their food first, then wait until the kids are pretty much finished eating to serve the parents. It's pretty much a standard practice in a lot of places. I personally think it is because lots of Egyptians (the ones who can afford to eat at nice restaurants) will bring their kids with a nanny. The kids eat first and then the nanny takes them outside so the parents can enjoy a nice quiet meal. But if you are not with a nanny, it is super annoying when your 2-year-old's pizza arrives a full half an hour before your meal. It means that once the parents' food comes, you have about1.5 seconds to scarf down your meal because otherwise your child is going to decide dinner's over and time to go.

Now most restaurants here we know enough to ask in advance that all the food be brought to the table at the same time -- a technique that works only about half the time. But somehow we neglected to ask today at Rainforest. I think I had the idea that a Western chain would have Western food-serving customs. Woops! My mistake. Next time we'll remember to ask for all the food together!

P.S. - Did I mention they sell American-style lunch boxes?? And Maya is starting school soon! How could I resist?