Archive for the ‘food’ Category

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »
h1

Filipino Dining

June 28, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

lumpia rolls and beef caldereta

Having seen a picture of lumpia on a friends Facebook page, I developed a craving. We visited Salu Salo, one of our favorite Fujairah restaurants. We also had beef caldereta and bicol express. So yummy.

bowl of beef and coconut milk stew

And shrimp dumplings

plate of shrimp dumplings

Our other favorite Filipino restaurant recently was closed for remodeling and the sign said it would reopen under new management. We weren’t sure what the new restaurant would offer.

new restaurant sign

Happily, the menu is the same and apparently the chef is too. Very good.

plates of food

Steak, pinakbet, fresh lumpia, and orange chicken.

Posted in food, Fujairah, restaurant | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

h1

Busy Weekend

June 17, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

Friday morning plans included an early (8:30 am) morning breakfast get together with friends at a new restaurant in Dubai. The plans did not include not being able to get out of our parking garage because a trench had been dug across the entrance/exit. Only one way in and out and we were not getting out. This resulted in a switch to taking a taxi.

plate of eggs, sausage patties, potatoes, and a biscuit

The food was good, but the customer service was very bad, so I’ll leave out the name of the restaurant. The company of friends was wonderful as always.

Having traveled by taxi and having doctor appointments at 4 pm, we had a whole day to kill. So we spent most of it at Dubai Mall.

dinosaur exhibit

We checked out the new dinosaur exhibit in the grand atrium. There was a contest to name it and the winner was “Dubai Dino.” Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it required a contest to come up with that. It has a ridiculously small head.

dinosaur exhibit

Then we traveled by the metro to Health Care City.

view out the train window

Dinner (or a really late lunch) at Circle Cafe followed.

plate of chicken, sweet potato fries

Then we had a bit of an adventure getting onto the Dubai-Fujairah bus. We missed one departure, but managed to catch the next one. It was a long day.

Saturday was a bit simpler since we could drive our own car. We met friends for dinner at our favorite restaurant, Aroos Damascus. We stuffed ourselves with marvelous food.

bowl of fresh vegetables

Aside from the fantastic fresh baked bread and delicious meats, my favorite thing is the complimentary bowl of fresh veggies.

The conversation turned to fish – salmon, tuna, etc., – so it didn’t seem out of place when our friend Rami said “What’s the best tuna?” After a brief pause, Daddybird and I simultaneously said “Chicken of the Sea.” This was met with laughter. Apparently, that was the answer Rami was looking for. He has asked it in many situations, but we were the first to answer correctly. He had been watching an “Apprentice” show where the task was to update the Chicken of the Sea ad campaign and he had never heard of it before. He found the idea of chicken of the sea funny. (http://youtu.be/NKnxQC79Cww)

Over the years we have collected (on purpose) ridiculous toys. Now that we have to move and are trying to reduce what we take with us as much as possible, we have solved this by giving the toys away at our farewell parties. It’s been fun, even for the recipients.

two boxed toys, lion and funny cock

Birds of a Feather

Interest Chicken and Lion

Posted in Dubai, food, restaurant, toys, Tweet up | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

h1

Fujairah Food and History Tour

May 31, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

First a word of explanation, at the end of July our residency in the United Arab Emirates will come to an end. We are moving to Shanghai, China. A new job and a new cultural adventure await us. This is why the blog posts have been few and far between lately. First I was spending a lot of time job hunting and now we are spending a lot of time with the paperwork and errands involved in extracting ourselves from one country and moving into another. It is time consuming.

We are also having as many farewell get togethers as we can. Today was  number three, a Fujairah food and history tour.

cone shaped crisp flat bread

We began with breakfast at Saffron, a vegetarian Indian restaurant at the Perfume Roundabout. This is ghee roast dosa. We also had idly, vada, poori baji, and tea. Well, some of us had tea. Those who arrived late were shocked to hear the waiter say that they were out of tea. What Indian restaurant runs out of tea?

a restored 300 year old fort

Next was a quick stop at Fujairah Fort. The high temperature today was 99F/38C, so it was a bit unpleasant to be getting out of the car.

mountains in the distance, flat desert area in the foreground, two people walking

We drove up Wadi Mahdab to see a couple of archeological sites – copper smelting area and old irrigation trough. Again, it was blazing hot, so we didn’t dilly dally.

goats nibbling on a tree

We then drove to Gizemri and Wadi Sahm to take brief looks at various archeological sites and goats.

table filled with dishes of food

Lunch at Oriental Restaurant, in which we stuffed ourselves with wonderful food.

empty plate

Easy come, easy go.

two bulls butting heads

We finished with the bull butting competition.

A lovely day with good food and good friends.

To see all the pictures, click here.

Posted in bull butting, food, Fujairah, historical site | Leave a Comment »

h1

Prague – Music, Books, Food

April 9, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

We headed up to the castle hill for a second day. DaddyBird stopped into a music shop to get a couple of Zelenka albums.

rows of compact discs in a music store

As we came out, we noticed that it had clouded up and was raining. There was much rejoicing.

quaint restaurant

We stopped in for lunch at a quaint restaurant.

cobblestone lane

We wandered on down the hill to the castle. We toured the Story of Prague museum display at the castle, but photography was forbidden.

view of rooftops from castle hill

This is what Prague looks like on a mildly rainy day.

tree lined path in a park

Back down the hill, we found another neighborhood park by wandering through a doorway.

bookstore

We stopped in at Shakespeare and Sons bookshop because Daddybird wanted to pick up a few Czech authors in translation.

graffiti on an archway showing a sheep's head

Graffiti is rampant as you may have noticed in some of my pictures, but it is mostly tagging and not artistic. It seems strange in a city so filled with art that the graffiti wouldn’t be artistic, too.

arched wooden door

I took several door pictures.

stein of extremely dark Budweiser beer

We stopped for dinner at a restaurant that was established in 1466. We had REAL Budweiser beer and a lovely meat filled meal.

To see all the pictures, click here.

Posted in food, Prague, travel adventures | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral

April 8, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.
main entrance to the Prague castle
We took the tram up to the top of the hill and walked down to the castle. (Interesting point of information – the castle is still used as the seat of government and the presidential residence.) Click here to see all the pictures. Click here for a map of the castle grounds.

cathedral spires

Within the castle grounds is St. Vitus Cathedral. To see the interior photos I took, click here. Click here for a map of the cathedral.

stained glass cathedral window

Many beautiful stained glass windows in many different styles.

entrance gate to the Strahov monastery

After touring the castle grounds and walking down the hill to the tram stop, we took the tram back up to the top again so that we could have dinner at the Strahov Monastery.

plate with goose leg, cabbage, dumplings

We ordered goose and duck. The goose entré was the best. The duck was good, but not as tender and lovely as the goose. The chef didn’t seem to know what to do with spinach except cook it to death.

plate with duck, spinach, dumplings

I ordered stuffed gingerbread dumplings with plum sauce. The dumplings were not made of gingerbread, much to my disappointment. I am not impressed with Czech dumplings, whether savory or sweet. They are tough and tasteless. Inside was half a plum and the plum sauce was delicious, so it wasn’t all bad.

dumplings, plum sauce, cream

DaddyBird had the pancakes with beer ice cream. I had a little taste of the ice cream and it was yummy.

crepes, ice cream, whipped cream

The sun was going down and exhaustion was setting in, so we took the tram home and called it a day.

tram rails

Posted in food, historical site, Prague, travel adventures | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment »

h1

Dinner and a Movie – Prague

April 7, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

restaurant menu

Day Five was a laid back day. We headed out for lunch at a little neighborhood restaurant.

sausage and cheese appetizers

Cheese and sausage appetizers.

potato pancakes and goulash stew

DaddyBird had goulash and potato pancakes – very nice.

pork ribs and sour cream

I had the world’s best honey glazed pork ribs. Beyond words.

two glasses of beer

And, of course, there was beer.

We made a quick trip down to Wenceslas Square to buy games at the game shop we found the other day and another quick trip back to the apartment to drop them off.

movie ticket

Then, we were back on the tram to go to a neighborhood, artsy-fartsy movie theatre to watch Only Lovers Left Alive starring Tom Hiddleston and Tilda Swinton. It was so lovely to be in a room where no one was talking or eating. Everyone was quietly watching the film and laughing only when appropriate. No one was sitting next to me asking me to explain the film to them. This is how movies should be experienced.

lobby of the movie theatre

Posted in food, movie, Prague, restaurant, travel adventures | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Another Peaceful Prague Day

April 6, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

view of Prague from a rooftop

We woke up to a cool, cloudy day. It got up to 59F for a high. Perfect day. We love that kind of weather.

Nothing overly exciting on our agenda. We just took the tram down to Wenceslas Square and wandered around the Easter market booths. We had a grilled cheese sandwich.

slice of bread, grilled cheese, fruit jam

We went up to a rooftop restaurant for a very leisurely lunch. It was after 3 pm by the time we decided to move on.

We wondered down to Old Town Square again to browse more Easter market booths. We tasted the trdelnik which is bread wrapped around a spindle and cooked, spinning, over coals. It tastes a lot like my mother’s cinnamon rolls. We had spa wafer cookies. They were heated so that the filling oozed out. Trust me, next time you eat wafer cookies, heat them up.

We bought a few souvenirs. I bought a few linens.

two table cloths embroidered with blue flowers

Then is was back home to the apartment and dinner in the neighborhood restaurant downstairs. A day well spent.

To see all the pictures, click here.

Posted in food, Prague, travel adventures | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

h1

Al Tarboosh

March 14, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

I have fallen way behind on posting. My apologies. I was spending my every waking moment working on a consultancy project, which is done now. Even though I had my nose to the grind stone, there were a few food moments in the last month.

About three years ago when we were preparing to move to Fujairah, we had breakfast at Al Tarboosh restaurant on one of our apartment hunting weekends. It was an interesting experience (click here), so it took us a while to go back for another try.

artificial rock-face waterfall inside the restaurant

It was good to see that they still have their indoor waterfall feature, although they have removed the bridge and added more tables. It is kitschy, but they have kept it in good condition.

bowl of lentil soup

We weren’t sure what the complimentary items might be, so we kept our ordering to the minimum. First complimentary was lentil soup.

basket of fresh pocket bread

The bread was lovely. I resisted because I need to stick the diet better than I have been. DaddyBird indulged and deemed it good, but not amazing.

green salad, hummous, mutabel

Additional complimentaries included green salad, hummus, and moutabel.

plate wrapped in aluminum foil containing mixed grilled meats

Then came the mixed grill – arayes (grilled flat bread with a finely ground meat filling), chicken & lamb tikka, chicken & lamb kabab, and lamb chop. Notice the fancy aluminum foil presentation.

desert bowl with fresh bananas, orange, apple, pomegranate seeds

To top it off, I ordered the fruit cup. Yummy. All freshly cut fruit except for the light drizzle of strawberry sauce.

Posted in food, Fujairah, restaurant | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Biker’s Cafe

January 13, 2014

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

Biker's Cafe restaurant sign

Recently, the Biker’s Cafe opened a branch in the Fujairah International Marine Club compound. They serve breakfast until 3 pm, so we dropped in Saturday “morning.” (It was nearer to 1 pm, but it’s all relative on Saturdays).

In America, the word “biker” has a very definite and complex connotation. Something like this:

Biker

By Visitor7 (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons

So we laugh a little bit when we hear “biker’s cafe,” because none of the patrons look like this, except maybe DaddyBird. The Vespa on display outside the door of the cafe implies that Mods are welcome, too.

black vespa on display

I ordered English breakfast. The eggs were bland, as were the beans. It was nothing to get too excited about.

scrambled eggs, potato patties, link sausage, fried tomato, beans, toast, beef bacon

DaddyBird ordered the “omelette” which turned out to be layers (in a clay pot) of bread, fried eggs, beef pepperoni, tomatoes, bell peppers, and cheese. Nothing like the expectations the word “omelette” inspires. “Style above substance,” he says.

clay pot containing layered bread, fried eggs, tomatoes, bell peppers, pepperoni, cheese

We’ll probably go back and try something else on the menu. Maybe that crab and avocado item I noticed after I had already ordered.

Posted in food, Fujairah, restaurant | Tagged , , | Leave a Comment »

h1

Special Ostadi

December 30, 2013

Posted by Kanga. Please do not reblog.

diners and dinner

The food at the family owned Special Ostadi (Al Mankhool Road, Bur Dubai) is always fantastic, but what makes this restaurant stand out is the personal touch. Before we even reached the restaurant, Majed, one of the three sons/waiters, greeted DaddyBird with open arms and a big hug. He had seen us coming down the sidewalk.

plates of dates, hummous, carrots, cucumbers, onions

We took a table for 8, but by the time all was said and done there were 14 in our party. By 8:30 (local dinner time) every seat in the place was occupied. The three sons serve as waiters and keep very vigilant eyes on the crowded restaurant making sure everyone’s needs are met, while still finding time to tease, crack jokes, and pose for pictures.

grilled chicken and beef with flat bread

Highly recommended, this restaurant is within walking distance of the Dubai Museum and the Al Fahidi Metro station. Don’t miss it.

Posted in Dubai, food, restaurant | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

« Newer Entries
Older Entries »