GEMINI

GEMINI

Last Monday (April 27th) was a holiday to celebrate the arrival of the Moslem New Year. However, Robert had to go to work because a meeting to be held with one of the most important industrialists in Syria had had to be postponed from the previous day and there no other time to have it except Monday. Then, when he came home at midday, he brought an invitation to have lunch at the Grill Restaurant which Shaam’s younger brother was going to open on April 30th.  The whole family would be there, and the reason for the gathering was so that the cooks and waiters could have a trial run serving dishes, and those present were to criticize any defects they found either in the food, presentation or service.  The young owner of the new enterprise was at pains to point out that this was a new concept in restaurants for Damascus, because he wanted it to be a place where service would be good but where the waiters would be friendly and not frosty or distant as they are trained to be at the big hotels.  

The location is certainly ideal because the restaurant is in the heart of Abou Roummanah where all the best shops are.  The installations are first class and all the kitchen equipment was imported from Europe through the Lebanon.  The dishes are German and modern in design. He had also taken great care with the decoration because the colour scheme is quite unusual with a huge mural depicting the signs of the zodiac in metal and various other materials.  There is a salad bar against one wall and quite near there there is a piano.  He has hired a pianist and saxophonist to play jazz and blues every evening.  This type of music will also be a novelty here.

All the family were there, including father who is a minister in the government, so I had the chance to thank him for smoothing my way the night I arrived.  There are five brothers and three sisters in the family. The eldest brother is married and that day had two children but the next day, his wife, had another little boy. Having children for the middle and upper classes in this part of the world only involves having them because, once the children are born, a nanny is hired for each child. The eldest daughter is also married and the next brother was married but is now divorced. The youngest boy is fifteen and attends the Pakistani school where education is given in English.  The second daughter has taken over the functions of the mother who died three years ago.  This means that she must stay at home and act as the overseer, running the servants and keeping the house ticking over.  However, she is also the cook.  Apart from that, her only occupation is spending two or three hours a day at the gym exercising.  

The food was good and it was particularly nice to have the opportunity to eat a variety of salads which are not found so often.  Then we had salmon, which is the only non- meat dish served, and then dessert, or I should say desserts, because we had to try them all and then express an opinion.  Robert pronounced the apple tart good and the chocolate cake was excellent.  In general chocolate here is very good indeed.  Then the coffee.  This is the most difficult thing to find.  Turkish and Arabic coffee are served almost everywhere, but European style coffee is very rare.  People usually produce a jar of Nescafé instant coffee.  However, Shaam’s brother has bought an Italian coffee machine and he is going to serve cappuccino and other varieties of coffee.  The difficulty is that, apart from people who travel to Europe, nobody has ever heard of making coffee with milk so Robert has offered to show them how to make coffee with milk on the machine.  

The trial run over, everyone heaved a sigh of relief and started to prepare for the inauguration, although, of course, no meals would be served that night as the guest list was very long.  The inauguration caused great expectation in the street with loads of people standing around waiting to see who would be arriving.  The street and the whole vicinity was covered with flower arrangements because the custom is that, when a new business opens, the friends of the owner send flowers which come arranged on tall plinths about 5-6 feet in height.  

Whereas in Spain savoury hors d’oeuvres would have been served on such an occasion, here it was all sweet cakes made in small bite-size morsels.  The sweets here are truly delicious and vast quantities were consumed.  No alcohol was served, only soft drinks, although the grill does have a permit to serve beer (Holstein) with meals.  It was also interesting to observe that most of the girls invited to this event did not cover their heads.  Maybe only five or six wore head veils.  

April 30th 1998