The Pleasure of an All-American Hamburger—In Egypt

Travel Blog  •  Julia Ross  •  07.09.07 | 8:55 AM ET

imageI just spent my first Fourth of July outside the U.S., and I found myself craving something hot off the backyard grill, slathered with all the fixins. Oh, to have access to a place like Lucille’s, which, according to Time’s Cairo Bureau Chief, serves the best all-American burger this side of, well, anywhere. In a Postcard from Cairo, Scott MacLeod pays homage to his favorite greasy spoon, located in the city’s Maadi district and run by an up-by-her-bootstraps American woman—Lucille—who he likens to Erin Brockovich. Lucille’s draws its share of U.S. expats hungry for a taste of home (she even serves a little Tex-Mex), but its no-alcohol and halal meat-only policies have been a big hit with locals; 70 percent of the diner’s customers are Egyptian.

Of his bold claim that Lucille’s grill can’t be beat, MacLeod writes:

Don’t let me distract you from your Fourth of July barbecue; but yes, a family restaurant in Egypt dishes up the best burger I’ve ever eaten, and I’m not the only one who thinks that way. One of owner Lucille Crook’s thrills came the day she witnessed a young American backpacker talking and smiling to his burger as he alternately beheld it and munched on it. “That tickled me, he was enjoying it so much,” Lucille recalls. “He wasn’t expecting to find a real hamburger in Egypt, and not one that good.”

As for me, I couldn’t face McDonald’s so I settled for a Pizza Hut here in Taipei. That will have to tie me over until the Labor Day barbecue friends have promised back in Washington D.C.; I can’t think of a better homecoming.

Related on World Hum:
* Eating Fajitas in France
* The Pasta Nazi
* How to Dig Dim Sum in Hong Kong

Photo by Stuart Yeates via Flickr, (Creative Commons).

Tags: Food, Africa, Egypt, North America, United States, News and Briefs

Julia Ross is a Washington, DC-based writer and frequent contributor to World Hum. She has lived in China and Taiwan, where she was a Fulbright scholar and Mandarin student. Her writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Time, Christian Science Monitor, Plenty and other publications. Her essay, Six Degrees of Vietnam, was shortlisted for "The Best American Travel Writing 2009."


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