Save me from Fudruckers!

Just a mention about the food here because I’ve finally got a decent net connection and have realized I can spend a bit of time writing without phaffing around worrying about our dialup disconnecting.

First things first…I’m going to go homicidal if I have to eat another meal at an American fast food store. You name it: Fudruckers (I’m trying to not be dyslexic here…I’ve gotten in trouble enough over that), Chilies and every other crap American fast food restaurant is here. A lot of the expat women who take the shopper bus won’t try any of the local food, opting for these places instead. And because it’s not necessary completely safe to be wandering around downtown by yourself as a woman I’m usually stuck with going where all the others are going for lunch. The serves are huge, overpriced and at times completely inedible. (Literally…one of the ladies here ordered a steak she literally couldn’t bite through and it cost her about 70 riyalls…that’s about 50 riyalls more than it would have in an Arabic restaurant) So…needless to say I’m over fast food. Thankfully a lot of the newer people are wanting to try some local stuff so that’s fantastic. One of the things that really freaks me out still in the fast food restaurants…particularly Chilies is that they hire a lady specifically to sit in the toilet, waiting for you to go so she can clean it after you. For all the ladies out there, you’ve never been so paranoid about making noise in the loo until you’ve been in a situation like this.

Now for the good stuff. The local food here is great. Well when I say local I mean non-American fast food. You name it Lebanese, Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani, Filipino, Italian, Chinese, Thai and last but not least Arabic restaurants are everywhere and are good. Like really good. Oh and don’t start me on the Baklava and Date shops…they are everywhere…and I’m getting to be known well enough that the Baklava guy at Rashid mall makes me up a selection when he sees me coming. I’m wondering if that’s not a scary thing☺ The Lebanese food is particularly good. It’s cheap and absolutely beautiful…you’ve not had Taboulleh or Fattoush until you’ve tried it here. A lot of places here specialize in fruit juices too. The juice here is unbelievable. You can get any type, freshly squeezed. My favourite at the moment is pomegranate. I’ll do the tacky thing and take a camera with me to the shops one day and photograph a typical table full of food because the amount of absolutely fantastic eating for next to nothing is worth capturing for posterity☺ There’s a sneaky waiter in one of my favourite restaurants who asks people for a note from their home country for his note collection instead of a tip and as most people have only the larger notes from their countries in their wallets he’s making a fortune.

There’s also a brilliant little dingy corner restaurant if you’ll call it that in Rahima (the town next door) that sells the most unbelievable dhal. There’s no family area though so its guys only. (This is something I’m getting used to.)

Somewhat unrelated to food but related to eating. There are some really big Saudi guys floating around, especially in Khobar. You know when someone’s a big guy when he’s standing on the road verge and you still have to swerve the car a good few feet because his stomach is sticking that far out into the road. We were going downtown with friends last night and this one guy almost caused a bloody crash. He looked like an impressive white clad whale! I think to a degree the idea that the bigger you are the richer you are exists here.

Cooking here for the first bit was a bit depressing. I’ve got a high tech space age oven which is big enough to fit a sheep into but its digital and getting the thing to work has led to a serious amount of swearing. And then I found out it was broken….. AHHHH…its fixed now and we’re getting to be on speaking terms….just…