Despite the many hypermarkets spread throughout Cairo, it can still be difficult to find one store that has a wide range of quality meats, baked goods and fresh produce. Oscar Market is a hidden Heliopolis gem with a long-standing reputation and a huge following. A quick browse around the supermarket, and one will find freshly baked baguettes, exotic fruits in the produce section and salami at the pork butcher. This is definitely not a run-of-the-mill Cairo supermarket.
The bakery inside Oscar Market offers inexpensive baked goods that arrive in fresh instalments throughout the day. If you’re lucky, they might even be warm when you buy them. Baguettes, croissants and pains saucisses are among their bread choices, which range from 2.5LE to 5LE. Delicious butter cookies with chocolate chips, cinnamon cookies and seasonal baked goods like kahk are also available. Cookies cost about 25LE per kilo and are well worth the money. The men that work at the bakery will happily allow you to sample anything that looks good, so don’t be too shy to ask.
The produce section is filled with glorious cherry tomatoes, Brussels sprouts, purple cabbage and radishes, among other vegetables. The fruit section offers the most delicious red pears, peaches, apricots, kiwis, red and white grapes, fresh ginger and three different kinds of apples. Freshly squeezed orange is prepared before your eyes for12LE per litre.
Oscar Market is one of the few places in Cairo where people can sample pork products while the butcher prepares their cuts of salami, bacon and sausages. Bacon is a whopping 74LE per kilo, while sliced ham sells for 47LE per kilo and domestically made sausages are 41LE per kilo.
A wide array of beer and wine are also available at Oscar’s. For beer, expect to find decently stocked shelves of Saqqara, Meister, Heineken and Stella. Stella beers are the least expensive, going for around 6.5LE, whereas Heineken sells for just under 10LE. Most domestic wines hover around the 40LE range, including Omar Khayyam and Obelisk. Chateau de Rêves is almost double the price, while the jewel of the wine selection is a Cape Bay South African wine.
Oscar is also a great place to pick up little fix-ins that can add a whole lot to a meal like capers, quesadillas, a variety of pesto sauces, stir-fry sauces, curries, fresh ginger and salad greens. The cheese section has a wide selection of international cheeses such as Frico, Old Amsterdam and President.
Oscar isn’t the least expensive grocery store in town; it would be better to head to a smaller, local market for basics that you can buy anywhere. However, if you’re prepared to shell out money for items that you’d have a hard time finding anywhere else, head on over to Oscar Market. You won’t be disappointed.
Cairo 360 Rating
User Rating
105 Omar Ibn El Khattab St., Almaza
Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt.
Heliopolis, Cairo, Egypt.
Address
Supermarkets
Type
0222907022
Telephone
Oscar Market: Freshly Squeezed Orange Juice, A Butcher and Brussels Sprouts-Oh My!
Published On:
10/04/2010
Comments
Near By
The importance of properly lighting a room can never
be overestimated. Whether setting a room up for a fun, romantic or quirky mood,
visit Aura, where there are more ways to light a room than you can probably
imagine. One step inside the Heliopolis lighting and home accessories showroom; and
you’ll feel like you’ve fallen through the rabbit hole into a neon-coloured disco
wonderland. Oh, and the techno music helps. From giant floor lamps in hot pink, glaring green and
electric white, to huge balls of fiery red that rest on the floor, Aura creates
a feeling of childlike wonder through their products. Classical gothic chandeliers
in metallic black provide a slightly more mature, but equally dramatic alternative. There are also some standard lamps with
shades, but don’t expect anything ordinary: they only come in hot red. Many items at Aura play with proportion, so don’t be
surprised to see giant three-tier chandeliers made of fabric, different
coloured crystals and other ornamental decorations. Some lighting units are so
avant-garde they’re difficult to describe. One such unit can be likened only to
an octopus. The centre of the unit, from which the light hangs, branches off
into dozens of arms that all have tiny lights on their ends. Since bendable
wire is at the centre of each arm, one could make several different shapes with
this fixture. Aside from the lighting units, the store also sells large
canvas prints, most of which are traditional baladi scenes in Technicolor. A
similar theme continues on pillows with reproduced pictures of Bedouin
women in brilliant hues. Personally, it seems a bit odd to have a woman in
traditional Bedouin dress coloured neon blue on a tiny pillow; but if that
tickles your fancy, you know where to go. In the centre of the showroom, there are several
colours of fuzzy shag carpets available. Embroidered floor pillows and seat
cushions are available in little bundles of colour in lava orange and sky blue.
Other home accessories available include plenty of colourful candles of varying
sizes and scents. There’s even a vase shaped like a giant champagne glass! It seems that creativity comes with a price, however. Smaller
chandeliers and lighting units cost between 2000LE to 5000LE, while large-scale
lighting fixtures can range near 10,000LE. Embroidered floor pillows are on the
cheaper end of the scale at 350LE. The store specialises in fanciful lighting; so
if you’re in the market for a lighting fixture and your style is modern,
playful and neon, get thee to Aura.
Related Review
Over the past few years, nature-based lifestyle has flourished in Cairo’s shopping scene with health food shops, organic threads, a wider variety of locally produced materials and more. Zamalek is home to many of these shops and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
Located on Ahmed Sabry Street is small grocery shop, Organic & More Supermarket. The supermarket is situated in a narrow outlet with only a small green sign outside, so it’s quite easy to pass by without blinking an eye. Keep a look out for Mobacco Cotton – it’s just next door.
Once inside, you’ll notice what we mean by narrow – there’s not a lot of room for browsing around. At the front of the shop, you’ll find a selection of locally produced essential oils including rare jasmine. On the same shelf are soaps and facemasks by Zoganon. One facemask that caught our eye was, according to the label, primarily composed of basil and mud; neatly wrapped in a glass jar for 35LE, it would bode well for a last minute gift or pick-me-up. Brown rice and pastas can be found in the same area, where two kilos of brown rice cost 10LE and after cooking it back at home we can say that it’s deliciously wholesome.
The stairway leading to the back area of the shop is lined with hand-woven rugs, baskets and clay pots. Once upstairs, you’ll find an array of refrigerated items including organic milks and soy kofta, which was a surprise to us. It didn’t take long for us to be drawn to their assortment of spices, spice mixtures and premade dipping sauces – a decently sized jar of garam masala cost 30LE. The always-tasty sun-dried tomatoes can also be found on the shelf.
Needless to say, their tea selection wasn’t small but contained nothing different than what you’d find at other local supermarket chains. Also available, and up the second flight of stairs, is a variety of children’s clothing made from organic materials.
The two shop attendants on site at the time of our visit were cordial enough, though not overly friendly or helpful.
Overall, Organic & More Supermarket is definitely providing yet another option for healthy eating and body care and for that, we can’t complain.
Vote
Loading...
Win! Free One-Month Membership at Oxygen Gym!
