The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

It’s no secret that Cairenes love a sweet treat or two; perhaps this is why Californian cookie giant, Mrs. Fields, has opened up amongst Club 33’s restaurants and cafés in Zamalek. Since 1977, the Mrs. Fields franchise has worked hard to gain their worldwide, premier reputation. Sharing their glass-fronted shop space with frozen yoghurt experts, TCBY, Mrs. Fields offers customers an alternative to ‘fro-yo’ snacks; quality, home-made cookies.

Although slightly overcast by TCBY’s luminosity, Mrs. Fields holds its own with a large red and white sign. There is also a small number of tables outside the shop, should you not want to take away your goods.

The glass counter shows off a variety of cookies and although the focus is mainly on the usual chocolaty types, they do sell peanut butter cookies and plain, sugar butter ones as well. A small collection of cakes (28LE each) include almond fudge, double fudge, peanut butter and walnut fudge brownies. Muffins are also available (20LE) should cookies not be your thing. However, specialising in the biscuit field, single cookies are 16.75LE each, which customers can buy in packs of three (48LE), six (90LE) or twelve (168LE). Bite sized cookies, or ‘nibblers’, are also available in selections of six (18LE) or twelve (30LE).

A white chocolate and macadamia nut (16.75LE) cookie took our fancy, as did a sticky fudge chocolate cookie (16.75LE). All the cookies are made fresh on site and were still warm when we came to eat them, leaving them all with delicious, soft centres. The sticky fudge cookie was indeed sticky, rich and tasty, just as warm sticky fudge cookies should be. The white chocolate and macadamia cookie was equally as satisfying, although it became slightly sickly with the generous amount of white chocolate.

The six nibblers we chose were also sweet and chewy; milk chocolate chip, milk chocolate chip and walnut, M&M’s sugar butter, peanut butter, white chocolate and macadamia and semi-sweet chocolate. The milk chocolate chip and walnut created a nice blend of savoury and sweet, whilst the M&M with sugar butter was teeth grittingly sweet. The peanut butter cookie was slightly disappointing, with not enough nutty flavour to distinguish it from the rest.        

Mrs. Fields provides its customers with fresh, sweet cookies guaranteed to satisfy customers with a sweet tooth, looking for an alternative to either frozen yoghurt from TCBY or a common-place trip to the nearest cupcake place – even if they are a little pricey.