Crayfish is messy but tasty.

MGM Mirage going Egyptian

First they built a hotel that looks like an Egyptian pyramid in Las Vegas; now MGM Mirage is planning to build a hotel next to the real thing.

The over-the-top developer and casino operator, which also owns MGM Grand at Foxwoods, says it is teaming with an Egyptian developer to build a resort in Giza, outside Cairo, almost within the shadow of the Great Pyramids.

The MGM Grand New Giza will house 550 rooms. An electric train will provide access to the Egyptian antiquities museum, which is under construction.

The resort will be part of a development that will include homes, three hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, a golf course and sporting facilities. It’s targeted to open in 2013.

Artists’ renderings of the plan should relieve the minds of Egyptian antiquarians to some extent: Despite what must have been a strong urge to bring things full circle, the new resort apparently will not resemble the Las Vegas strip.

Wash up after you Finnish

Summer is when Americans fire up the grill and pop open some brews, Aussies put another prawn on the barbie, and Finns — we are indebted to TravMedia.com for this — slurp crayfish.

They hold annual crayfish parties, at which “strict table manners are set aside. Only a small portion of the body of a crayfish is edible, so sucking and slurping is encouraged to fully enjoy the tasty meat and juices found inside. . . . Eating is done with one’s bare hands,” according to the travel site.

“The relaxed and cheerful atmosphere at the dinners is enhanced by drinking songs and schnapps. Schnapps songs often have humorous contemporary lyrics that appear to be about anything and everything — from appreciation of the magnificent crayfish to the beauty of Finnish women.”

Sounds rather like a backyard lobster bake in Cranston. Come to think of it, lobsters look exactly like giant crayfish.

Bad trip of the week

“One of the stock Sydney jokes is of the census-taker who enquires: ‘How many children have you, ma’am?’ ‘Two living and three in Melbourne.’ ”

— Elspeth Huxley

driggs@projo.com