by John Fung (65)

at Ephesus

In the two weeks during the cruise to Egypt and Aegean Sea, I traversed over 6000 years of history and witnessed the grandeur of four magnificent civilizations: Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Byzantine. These ancient societies clearly showed their culmination of wisdom, intelligence, knowledge and technology through experimentation and learning. Equally, they demonstrated human foibles and our arrogance in believing might is right, and that might transcends us to a god-like level.

In the spirit of experimentation, I travelled with my group on Metropolitana in Rome for 1 euro a ticket, on the Athens Subway in Piraeus for 3 euro a day pass, and the modern trams in Istanbul for 1.5 Turkish Lira (about US$1 at time of writing) a token. All it took was a bit of adventurous courage to learn how to buy the fare and to navigate the network of stops. Of course, having the right change helps.

at Giza

Indisputably, rich dishes prepared by masters for the Chef’s Table and for the dinner at Sabatini were sophisticated as well as luxurious. Yet simple, local food made by natives was similarly enjoyable and tasty. I recall with fond memories the rigatoni and roast pork from the tavern next to Trevi Fountain in Rome, the kofta and firaakh mashwi from the garden eatery in Cairo, the various types of fish from the waterfront café in Kusadasi, the fried kibbeh filled with minced beef and şeftali kebabı from the restaurant in Istanbul, and the grilled mackerel from the family-run Old Baker’s in Piraeus. Continue reading →