Food hopping again. Reviewing two more: Umame and Faaso's

So, yesterday night, we ordered food using the Faaso's App. This app allows you very easy ordering of food from one of the fastest growing chains in Mumbai, the Faaso's chain. The best thing about the food is that it is hygienically wrapped and boxed and sent to you hot and attractively displayed. The next best thing is that the food is really affordable. 

I can't say that they delivered the food from which outlet, or whether they have a central kitchen or/and a food parcel depot, as I ordered their food using their app. Seriously, friends, they are super good when it comes to hygienic packing and small addons. For example, every covered plate has a neat label stating which dish is inside. They delivered in an hour and 15 minutes from wherever they packed it and sent it to us in south central Mumbai. We had ordered a mutton biryani, a chinese noodle dish with what looked like Manchurian chicken, and a chicken kolhapuri+dal+rice+ ... etc, full meal.

The entire thing cost us only INR 650 ... that IS cool.

At the other end of the cost spectrum is a fine-dining restaurant that we discovered because we could not get bookings at some OTHER restaurant. So, we decided to go to UMAME restaurant, located inside the Eros Theatre building (Khambatta Chambers). This restaurant is owned by the famous Farookh Khambatta of the Joss restaurant  at Kala Ghoda (now that one closed about 3 years ago, and Umame lived up to its reputation very much! We ordered three items, one for each one of us (my daughters and I), and then followed it up with an awesome dessert.

We've eaten at Joss before, but this time, to be frank, the food blew us away. We were first-timers, and the steward there, one Mr. Russell, who has been with Mr. Khambatta for the past ten years (earlier at Joss at Kala Ghoda) became our guide. He suggested the perfect dishes according to our requirements. We wanted to try everything, but opted for one starter, two main dishes, a rice item and a dessert. Everything was perfect, and we came back pleased as punch. Well, we did not take any drinks, so maybe the word "punch" is inappropriate here, ha ha.

The starter was a Prickly ash-peppered snapper cut into pieces. It was really good. For the main course, we had sea-bass cooked in banana leaves and beef in the form of Prime tenderloin steak. To complement these two, Mr. Russell insisted on ordering Vietnamese fried rice, and to tell you the truth, that was just perfect.

For dessert we had something astonishingly beautiful ... and it was NOT the Big Bang stuff, but a more humble but exotic filo mille feuille with assorted berries!

Dinner at Trattoria, Vivanta by Taj President, 28/09/2015

My family and I went to Taj President hotel for dinner a few days ago. This is a review of the Trattoria restaurant that we visited. We were celebrating in a way, since it looks as if my future path is becoming a little clearer compared to where I was a month ago when I returned from Saudi Arabia, having finished my fourth year contract there.

In the lobby

My lovelies

Me with my new Chinese collar shirt

Love, actually

The food was delicious, and even better was the eminently helpful service. We had insider help, so we got some specially crafted dishes with extra portions, and a discount to boot! All in all, a wonderful evening was had by us.

Review: Village, The Soul of India, Cuffe Parade

As I cool my feet here in Mumbai, waiting for the next phase in my life to reveal itself, I decided to diversify my blog writing into reviewing stuff. This can be reviews of books, movies, electronic products, services, etc. etc. The idea is to share my thoughts with readers who visit my blog regularly.

Today, I am going to talk about a restaurant that my family and I visited last week. This restaurant at the World Trade Center, Cuffe Parade is known simply as The Village, and subtitled "The Soul of India".  It is one of a chain of 7 outlets in Mumbai. 

A screenshot from www.zomato.com

The way to the main door is lit up nicely, and your path is flanked by counters on the wall where they've created a village ambience. The day we went was a Sunday evening, and we expected some rush. Fortunately, there wasn't a rush. We went past the walls decorated with glass bangles, faux cow dung hanging from threads, tyres from cars and Bollywood photos and through the multi-coloured gate into the restaurant reception. A manager approached us to know how many we were, and directed us to the payment counter, where we paid the cover charges of Rs. 600 per person for an unlimited buffet-style meal.

The interior was cooled by large air-conditioners placed discreetly behind tables. There were three real trees that lofted up above us, and through a net placed between three surrounding buildings. We were actually in a modified outdoors location! Rows of serving areas lay all around us on the sides of the central, open area. We went around, examining the various items on the menu as well as the interesting decor. There are areas made to look like village locations. Thus, we have a "Billoo barber shop", a "leddies tailler" shop, and several other similar areas. We also had a "pathshala", a "baraf-gola and drinks" station, a "sweets and dosa station", a "barbeque and rotis" station, plus the usual veg and non-veg table each. Of course, there was a chaat and pani-puri stall as well. 

There was a mini "bioscope" showing various village and national mnuments on turning a lever at the top, a "mini-puppet" theatre, and, as we continued through the evening, a live dance by some of the artists, in which the audience was also invited to join, a dandiya raas with audience participation, and, finally, a mini-dahi-handi (we had gone there on the eve of Gokulashthmi) where some kids were lofted on to the shoulders of the staff members, and they were asked to break a handi filled with milk.

Food wasn't exceptional, but there was plenty of variety, with veg and non-veg options. We had fish and chicken as well as paneer and veg starters, chaat, pani-puris, dosas, jalebi, main course of chicken, mutton and vegetarian dishes, with assorted rotis, biryani and pulao. One could go and have baraf golas and flavoured drinks as often as desired. A paan store was lacking, though, and I drew the manager's attention to this, and he agreed to look into it.

The food was above average, but not exceptional, as I already pointed out earlier. However, at Rs. 600 for an unlimited meal, this is probably the best location in south Mumbai for an evening of fun.

My ratings:

Ambiance: 4/5
Food 3/5
Price 4.5/5
Service 3.5/5

Overall 4/5

Village: The Soul of India
World Trade Center, The Arcade, Courtyard 2, Cuffe Parade, Mumbai
Tel.: +912222163355/+919987131339
www.villagethesoulofinidia.com

Ups and Downs continue in this rollercoaster of rural existence

First of all, let me thank each and every one of you, dear readers, who keep visiting my blog and follow my rather dreary existence on the sands of Arabia. Even so, I keep getting positive feedback from many of you: some find my blog entertaining; some inspiring; and some, well, simply good on literary merits. Thanks again for reading my blog for whichever reason applies to you. A few Indian doctors have found the contents interesting enough when they have themselves taken baby steps to migrate to Saudi Arabia in their own lives. They have then contacted me on other media such as FB, Whatsapp, etc. to speak or chat with me and get some idea of what living in KSA is like. I certainly don't envy them! 

On the other hand, I was contacted by a gentleman who sells car from a showroom in Australia. He was being offered a job in Riyadh where he would be the manager of a car sales showroom for some of the most expensive cars in the world. When he told me his contract details, I was stunned to realise that he would earn twice as much as I am earning now as a senior doctor. So, the lesson I learned was that car salesmen were more valuable to the system here than doctors are, although they need doctors much more than car salesmen from the Australian soil here.

After some hinting/coaxing/cajoling/nudging, all direct and indirect, some of the Zalm staff have sent me food cooked by their own hand. These items have included a spicy chicken from a Hyderabadi technician, an Adobo Chicken from a Filipina nursing group and authentic Mallu Avial from - who else - a Kerala-origin nurse. She even recounted the recipe of the item upon my asking her. I feel that I will try it. The surprise in the method of making it was not really a surprise, but even so, I must share it with you. When the item is nearly done, you simply pour fresh, unheated coconut oil atop the vegetables and cook for a further 5-10 minutes before your avial is done. Isn't it interesting?

I am currently taking a MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) on Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration in Health Care from my favourite online learning site (THIS ONE). This is the last week and I have enjoyed the experience thoroughly. In a half hour from now, I would be joining some other amazing Courserians (yea, that is what we call ourselves) on a Google Hangout ... 

I watch one or two movies every day. Today, I watched the average entertainer "Dil Dhadakne Do" on my laptop. It proved to be quite commonplace except that it did send a self-improvement message to all those arrogant CEO's of rich companies. 

I have the feeling that I have less than a week remaining here in Zalm and I will be asked to return to my home village (Al Muwayh) before the end of the next week. By the time I return to Al Muwayh, my partner and co-Pediatrician Afzal Khan will have already left for his vacation to India. I will be managing the Pediatric work all by myself for the next over two months, as I see this happening from where I am just now. 

Do leave your comments below and let me know how you found today's entry.

Trying new things

I am now at Zalm for over 2 weeks. It has been a very quiet phase in my professional life, there is no doubt about that. The lack of any professional challenge is actually quite irritating, but I find that if I do other things that are creative or productive, the irritation goes away. So, yesterday was Friday. I had debated about whether I should return to Al Muwayh for the weekend, as I am off-call this week. Then, I realised that even if I went home to Al Muwayh, I would be the one to suffer, as I would have to cook food, search for other stuff and so on. So, I decided to stay put in the room in Zalm and make myself busy online. 

I am now in the process of polishing a novel that I wrote earlier ... more than a decade ago on THIS site. Having learned where to sell my e-books, I think it is a good idea to prepare yet another e-book and try and sell it on POTHI.COM, where I have also put up my Child Care book for sale.

This is an adventure story set in India and features a group of college students fighting for survival in a forest in Madhya Pradesh. I will send the link to it once it is approved and put up on the site. I plan to price it low so that more and more people are able to access it. 

The next thing I am doing is continuing my online studies. On THIS site, one can take free courses whenever they want on a wide range of topics pertaining to all disciplines. A free course is good enough for learning, but if you wish to add the study to your CV, you need to pay a small amount of between USD 39 to USD 59 to get a verified certificate for the given course. The one I am doing currently is from the University of California, San Francisco, and is on Communication between Healthcare Professionals and what impact it can have on the hospital's Healthcare statistics and performance. 

Next on the list is watching movies that I have for long downloaded on my laptop or in my external hard disc, but haven't had the chance to watch until now. In the last two days, I watched two classics from Hindi cinema - Sadak, starring Sanjay Dutt, Pooja Bhatt and Sadashiv Amrapurkar (the last one in the role of "Maharani" - a transgender owner of a prostitute den - a role which brought him the National Award that year); and Taal, starring Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Akshay Khanna and Amrish Puri ... a musical that took the people of India by storm when it was first released. Next on my short list are other movies that are equally famous, including Aah, starring Raj Kapoor and Nargis, and a few others.

Last, but not the least, is to walk. I have begun walking about 3 days ago, and am trying to walk at least a few kilometers each evening to return myself to some semblance of fitness. Let me see how long I can sustain this activity. 

Yesterday, I received a lovely gift from one of the radiology technicians Mrs. Khairunnissa - she cooked spicy chicken and chappatis for me on my specific request which I had made the day before. I really dislike the food provided by the hospital's kitchen and I have been going around requesting Indian/Pakistani/Filipina staff to share their food preparations with me. Hope they all bring me food ... 

And on that note, I end this entry. I hope you liked it and will take some inspiration from it. Thank you.

Day 3, Ahmedabad - I: A lazy morning on Uttarayan day

Today is Makar Sankranti or Uttarayan. The sun's north-bound journey (just an optical illusion as one looks at the sun's apparent movement in the space above us from Earth) has begun. Days will continue to be longer, as winter retreats, spring will be upon us, and summer is not too far away. I woke up a bit late, then went to the Bohra roza of the various past religious heads of our community whose graves are located about a kilometer away from Lalji hotel where I am staying. The most famous of those leaders is Syedna Qutbuddin, but there are over half a dozen older heads of our community whose graves are also located in Ahmedabad within the same grounds. 

The long walk to the burial grounds gave me an opportunity to stretch myself after a long gap of over 12 days. In fact, I had stopped walking since a week before I left Saudi Arabia to travel to India, so make that over 2 weeks! Just opposite the graveyard are located many small restaurants, and I had my first non-vegetarian meal after 4 days at one of these. It was a heavy breakfast of minced lamb meat (kheema) with 2 half-fried eggs thrown over it and very well-made thin chapatis, followed by tea. Thereafter, it was the same long walk back to my hotel, where, as I write now, I am gearing to a day filled with studies. In the evening, I may go to the Sabarmati river front to watch the locals fly kites and then watch the public display of fireworks, something that I have heard the locals talk about with a lot of happy anticipation.

Will write more about the evening festivities in my next entry.

Accepted for the January exam and received final letter (MRCPCH)

Ten days have passed since I last posted something useful. Now, I must share the captioned news with you all. Yesterday, I received my final notice that I have to sit in the final installment of the MRCPCH exams on the 18th of January 2015. This means that I have just over a month to go. I feel totally lost. True, I have been studying these past several months, but the thing hit me with full force only yesterday evening when I realised that it was finally on! I mean - really on. No more just thinking that one day I will sit for the exam. I AM REALLY GOING TO SIT IN THAT EXAM.

My tickets to Ahmedabad are already booked. I will proceed to India on the evening of the 31st of December, and will be in a taxi in Mumbai when the year changes from 2014 to 2015. Most likely, I will reach home after midnight - more likely, after one a.m. Twelve days later, I will fly to Ahmedabad, and stay in a hotel for nearly a week before the exam date. On the 18th evening, once the exam is over, I will be a social butterfly for the next few weeks, before taking my family on a holiday within India. Those who are reading this and are from Mumbai, please do get in touch with me after the 19th of January and we can then meet for a social "intercourse".

Let me quickly update you on things that are happening with me here in the Kingdom. Last week, as I was returning to Al Muwayh from Taif (I had gone there for 2 days to attend a mini-conference related to the theme of Patient Safety), my front right wheel of the Hyundai Accent probably hit some stone or something and the tyre burst. I had to change the tyre with the stepney (this was my first attempt to do so, and it took me well over 45 minutes to do so); even then, the wheel did not sit properly, and I realised that my shock-absorber had broken on that side. I had to call for a winch operator, who charged me a whopping SR 225 to haul my car over his vehicle all the way to a mechanic's garage in Al Muwayh. The next day, I ordered a new shock absorber from Taif through my colleague Dr. Moataz Talat, who had gone to Taif for his own work; he brought it from there, and by the later part of the evening, the mechanic (a very nice Syrian) returned the car to me. 

In other news, I have been studying at least 2-3 hours every day, mostly with my friends on Skype. I now feel that my knowledge base is really expanding and I am looking forward to doing well in the January exams. I am now in the refrigerator cleaning mode. I have stopped cooking. I fish out the stuff that occupies all the space inside and am heating it and eating it! I guess the stored food in the lower and the freezer compartments may easily last me for over a week more. 

That's it for now. Do use the comments area to leave behind some words of encouragement! Thank you.

Back to an old topic: Food

If you, my dear reader, would go back to the home page of my blog, you would see a list of labels right at the top. The labels are sized according to the number of times that label appears in my blog. As you can see, Cooking features among the top three most used labels! The reason is not too far to seek. Firstly, I have always been interested in cooking. Secondly, cooking for just myself has needed a lot of ingenuity, presence of mind, inventiveness, perseverance, patience and ... on some occasions, frustration. I have had countless occasions when I forgot about the food that was cooking on the stove in the kitchen, and it got burnt as I stayed inside my living area, surfing the net, or watching TV. 

Then, there have been instances when the food turned out to be finger-licking good, and I have gone out and shared it with some of my friends, either doctors, or nurses, or both. Between these two extremes, there have been the hundreds of times I have churned out average to good food, and consumed it with relish and an immense sense of satiation and satisfaction. 

The few problems I have encountered here are as follows:

a) Ingredients - While most of the Indian ingredients are available in the Kingdom, some, clearly, are not. Or, at least, not available in Al Muwayh or Taif. This includes khus-khus powder, badi ilaichi, badiyan, star anise, some other exotic spices, cereals like beaten wheat (daliya), dals like the south-Asian masoor dal and the rounded tuvar dal, kheer ingredients, etc.

b) Utensils - The Indian style pressure cooker which gives off steam with a whistling sound is a blessing for a person like me who is not a chef but a student of cooking and needs to monitor the cooking time and process through visual and auditory cues. I had to bring this from India, though I later discovered that it WAS available in Riyadh in Lulu Hypermarket. Other typical Indian kitchen tools include Kulfi moulds, Idli moulds, chakli and gathiya moulds, etc. These are not routinely found in the Kingdom. 

c) Variety - or the lack thereof: So many of the vegetables and fruit that we routinely buy, use, cook and consume are not readily available in Al Muwayh, though I can procure 95% of these from Taif/ For example, one cannot find guvar-ki-sing or drumsticks in Al Muwayh. Nor can one find the wide variety of fruit here. We do get fruit from Yemen and Egypt, but, to be frank, I always miss the Alphonso mangoes of India, and some of the other fruits that we buy in Mumbai. In the non-vegetarian section, I have to get stuff like trotters (paya), bheja, etc. from Taif or Jeddah. Here, however, you do get quails, duck and so on, in addition to chicken. You cannot find Indian fish in Al Muwayh. I usually get bangda or surmai from Taif. 

What you do get here is FROZEN FOOD. You can get guava juice, totapuri mango juice, frozen bhindi (okra), frozen  mixed vegetables, frozen green peas, frozen strawberries, frozen ... you get it, right? You can also find a lot of frozen ready to cook or ready to fry food here ... e.g. mutton samosas, chicken burger patty, chicken nuggets, breaded fish fillets, seekh kabab, shish tawook, etc. You just need to fry these and eat them. 

You can, for the most part, get Indian spices and goods in Taif at specialised Indian grocery stores, run by Malayalis who have been here down the generations. There are restaurants in Taif, but especially in larger cities like Riyadh and Jeddah, where you can have a hearty south-Indian meal and top it off with a Calcutta pan!

d) Quantities - or the excess thereof: Most Saudi families are large, and they need large quantities of food, so the problem is of finding smaller quantities of packaged and fresh food. The average cauliflower here is over a kg in size! The grocer will not cut it into the size you want. Either you take the 1 kg, or forget about the cauliflower! In a similar vein, the sizes of biscuit packs is large; dry fruits are only sold in 1/2 kg packs or larger. Most food grains are sold with a minimum weight of 1 kg, though some grocers do keep open buckets of grains and allow you to buy smaller quantities. 

Utensil sizes are as large as the food sizes! I find it difficult to buy vessels to cook small meals that I, as a single person, need to make. 

As of now, I cannot think of more problems. The interesting thing is that I look at each problem as an opportunity to find a workable solution. The challenge keeps me motivated to find a way out of the unending difficulties. But, as a result, my larder is full of provisions, and my large refrigerator (400 liters +) is always full.

Do let me know your view-points on this write-up. I welcome your keen eye, sharp mind and valuable comments. Thank you.  

Completing 4 months in Saudi Arabia

I am pleasantly shocked to note this as I write this nearly at midnight after the completion of Wednesday, 14th March 2012: I have crossed 4 months of stay in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia! Whoopee, did I say? Well, no, and yes. No, because it certainly hasn't been a cakewalk; yes, because the money is flowing in regularly ... I am only 4 days away from the receipt of the salary for the month Rabi-ul-Awwal. Here, one gets salary according to the Hijri (Muslim) calendar - which, as most of you are aware - is based on the Lunar count; so that we get paid for 12 months in 354 days, and 11 days extra salary is paid by the Saudi Government in each Gregorian year.


My daughter Inas is officially 21 years old as I write this; she celebrates her birthday on the 15th March every year. I called her up at midnight India time and congratulated her. My family plans to cut a cake early in the morning, and I plan to join them by video chat and sing the song for my beloved daughter, Inshallah.


The other big news is that soon after the cake-cutting, I am going with a certain person on a Nature trip to a regional Wildlife Reserve. More about this later. 


The past two days, viz. Tuesday and Wednesday, have been uneventful. I did not cook anything, though, as I had balance food in the refrigerator; also, I ate outside for both the evenings - Tuesday, at the Kerala restaurant, and today, at the local Pakistani restaurant. The food I ate at the latter place won hands down. It consisted of a dry channa dal masala and a very delicious mixed vegetable, eaten with the local roti - the tameez. Moayyed, my friend from Pakistan sponsored the dinner, and Dr. Niyaz was also with us. Moayyed works for the National Wildlife Research Center of the Government of Saudi Arabia and is, in fact, the person who will take me to the trip within the next eight hours or so. He is also pursuing the M. Sc. degree in Environmental Science from a University in South Africa.

Day 103, Sunday 26th February 2012

Seven days have gone by without my adding anything to this blog. The fault is not entirely mine; the problem that gripped my laptop 2 weeks ago came to haunt me once again at the beginning of the last week. My laptop was back with the engineer for 2 days, and required some careful handling for the next 1-2 days; as a result, I lost interest in returning to the blog, and remained "incommunicado" for the remaining three days. It is not that there was nothing to write about. Last Monday, a team of administrators came from Ta'if to supervise the work in the hospital, and we were told to stay in our positions till they departed. We had a drill of Code Blue on the same day: the code refers to the announcement of a disaster and the possible arrival of many injured or sick patients. A team from Ta'if had come down with a "fire in the ICU" scenario, which they played out in the emergency department with cooperation from some of the subordinate staff who posed as patients. Several criticisms of the drill were related to the hospital staff, and I don't think we should say that we passed the enactment of the drill with flying colours. 


The emergency days for me were modest, but there were quite a few admissions from the OPD, thanks to the ever-vigilant Dr. Yasser who singled out at least three or four patients for me to admit into the wards. On Wednesday, I had eight indoor patients, 3 with diarrhoea, 4 with bronchial infections and one with pneumonia. Over the remaining three or four days, they all went home, and as I write this today, there are no patients under my care in the ward.


On Thursday and Friday, I was on call, and had very few calls to go to the hospital to see patients, but I did go for the routine ward rounds on each of the days. I faced some inertia while going for the evening walks, but I did walk here and there to complete at least 45 minutes of walking everyday. I cooked dal-gosht on Thursday and potato bhaji on Friday. I also made a nice boiled egg burger on Friday, one each for myself and my room-mate Dr. Shahid, the surgeon.


Due to fears that my internet connection was about to expire, I did not use the prepaid Mobily modem connector much on those two weekend days, as a result of which, I turned to using Actionvoip (an internet based Voice Over Internet Protocol network) with my Samsung Mobile when it got connected to Wireless internet located within the premised of the computer repair shop just outside the lane where Dr. Shahid and I stay. 


The weather fluctuated from extreme cold to mild cold by Thursday, and went to warm and somewhat hot by Friday. When the cool turned to warm, doctors shed their sweaters and pullovers, and most of us went to the hospital in casual but formal attire. However, it was on Saturday that the weather God pulled a fast one on us. A sandstorm came in by half past ten in the morning and kept building up in ferocity till we could see nothing but swirling dust clouds all over the town. There were no incoming patients, no outgoing people, and a sort of torpor set in among those present inside the hospital, since we were all helpless before the fury of Mother Nature. While returning from the hospital home, I was travelling in Dr. Shahid's car and managed to take some quick photos of the desolation around us and the swirling clouds of dust. Here they are:

It was not until 7:00 p.m. that the wind and the sand subsided, but by then, we were already within our homes.

Day 75, Sunday, 29th January, 2012

Today began like any other weekday, and the work too was quite light. I saw just about 4-5 OPD patients. In the evening, though, something exciting was in store, and it was the send-off party for the out-going Hospital Director Abu Bandar, or Mr. Raad Saad Haarty. The party was arranged by the hospital's staff and the doctors were to gift Mr. Haarty with a Swiss wrist watch bought for SR 1500/= (the total collected by the doctors). We reached the hospital premises after Ishaa, and waited at the gate for the arrival of the esteemed guest. He came, impeccably dressed, with an entourage of over 15-20 men, and we all went up to the first floor where the party function had been kept. This was in the central hall, which had been bedecked with colourful floor carpets, giant fruit bowls and rows and rows of chairs to accommodate not only the entire hospital staff but also the invited dignitaries. A speaker's lectern was also available and once the chief guest was seated, the others, too, settled down, and the speeches began in earnest. From the doctors' side, a brief address was delivered by Dr. Essam, one of the two General Physicians at the hospital.


The meeting then dissolved for dinner. The dinner was in the form of large trays on which rice and a large chunk of a sacrificed animal was kept - the central one had a camel, with hump and all. I have captured some photos of the event and am posting them here. 


What I liked about the party was the immense respect they gave to the chief guest and his royal entourage; the scale of the gifts that some of them gave to the out-going Mudeer; and the large fruit bowls. The gifts included a real pistol with a shoulder belt containing bullets, at least 2-3 ceremonial swords or khanjars, decorative plaques and large perfume racks with drawers and the like. 


Here, then, are the pictures:


The out-going Mudeer, Mr. Raad Saad Al Haarty (a.k.a. Abu Bandar), who is being gifted a gun with a shoulder belt loaded with bullets.

The successive photos show the wrist-watch presented to the outgoing director by the doctors, the presentation of the watch, the gun given to the Mudeer (a pistol),  the various decorative plaques given to him, the doctors who attended the function and a ceremonial sword given by one of the Saudi invitees.  Last, but not the least, is the photo of the tray with rice and a roasted camel piece being enjoyed by the guests: 

Enjoy!

Day 47, Sunday 1st January, 2012

As I write this entry, I think back to the year that just went by, and note the following high points:

1. Peoples' movements for change of government in many places all over the Middle East, some successful, and some not so. Similar movements for "change" also occurred in developed countries, esp. in Russia.
2. Killing of important dreaded terrorists, causing some moments of pause in the terror attacks, though this may prove to be the proverbial lull before the storm.
3. The hidden economic crisis sweeping Europe and the US of A, threatening and causing stock markets to nose-dive all through the second half of 2011.
4. The passing away of many Bollywood icons including musicians, actors and playwrights.
5. The huge tumult caused by evident corruption in high places, the rise and instant fall of Baba Ramdev, and the rise, rise and fall of India Against Corruption and its inspiration Shri Anna Hazare.
6. The complete decline of UPA II as a coherent coalition in Indian politics and the embarrassment caused by the fall from grace of MMS.
7. My going away from India to Saudi Arabia. (Well, this is not in the same league as the previous six points for the rest of the world or India, but it is the most important for me and my family!)
8. The imminent collapse of Indian Cricket. (As I write this, India has just begun its attempt to avoid complete humiliation at the hands of Australia in the second test match).
9.  ...

Couldn't think of more things, so am ending the list prematurely. However, let me say that I have made significant changes in my own mental state these past few months: apart from being about 50% compliant in Namaaz, I have also renewed many past contacts through Facebook, joined, interacted and contributed to some groups there and elsewhere, and, to some extent, mended my ways while dealing with family ... albeit in a positive way.

Sunday, the second working day of the week ... what an obvious contradiction if viewed through Western eyeglasses ... and likewise, the most logical thing to happen in an Islamic country. I was in the hospital through the morning and afternoon, and stayed mostly indoors in the evening, barring a short 30-minute brisk walk to the hospital and back. I made a brief outing to buy a few necessary provisions, but that is all. 

I have hoarded stuff in the refrigerator (and outside it as well) from all the cooking (which I did last Thursday/Friday), and buying on my visit to Ta'if. Thus, I have several chapatis, chicken curry, mixed vegetables, laban (curd), a pack of 10 Fried Fish fillets with potato chips from Al Baik, two chicken hamburgers from MacDonald's, a few bottles of soft drinks/juices, many sachets of sauces and ketchup,  some jams and preserves sachets, a strawberry croissant, half a loaf of whole wheat bread, cooked rice, some leftover dal, a small pack of curd, butter, cheese spread, etc. Outside the refrigerator, I have a large bar of Cadbury's Hazelnut chocolate, a small pack of biscuits, a half pack of butter popcorn, a small pack of 50 gm of Almonds, small pouches of candy, mixed dry fruit and mixed chick-pea and peanuts, at least a dozen sachets of Mamoul, and some other stuff.

Just wanted to list all these things on a whim :-)

Saudi Food

I write this on the morning of the first day of the weekend here in Saudi Arabia. Actually, the "weekend" begins on Wednesday afternoon itself. The trickle of patients into the OPD dries up after the Dhuhr prayer, and Saudi staff has already disappeared from their posts by 2:00 p.m. The various departments run only due to the presence of Filipino, Egyptian, Indian or Syrian staff. 


In this edition of my blog, I wish to write a little about what passes for food in this country. Do not get the impression that the food is horrible or inedible; it is not. However, it is so different from the food I was used to in India that it is, at times, difficult to be able to enjoy it, regardless of whether it is tasty or otherwise.


Most Arabs (and that includes the other nations around Saudi) enjoy eating flesh. Beef is the lamb (lahaam) here, and chicken (dajjaj) is eaten with the skin on it when it is "broasted". My computer dictionary just made a red squiggle under that funny word, for it is not officially recognised as a portion of chicken that has been cleaned, marinaded with salt, lemon rinds and juice and a little "masala" powder for 4-6 hours, and then, placed in the oven and roasted at 200-250 degrees for about 1/2 an hour. Once done, it is totally dry. They will love to have chunks of it with each morsel of rice. Compared to our chicken preparations, this is so dry that one has to keep gulping water (moya, or ma-a) or juice with each morsel.


The bread here is known as khubs or khubbus or khubz. While one of these round, thick chapati-like breads may cost as much as a riyal in a mall, one can get up to 5 in a single purchase from one of the road-side bakeries in Al Moweh. There is a white version with a large proportion of refined flour, and a brown version, perhaps with whole wheat.


I have seen, in the hospital cafeteria, many Arabs, including doctors working here,eating khubz with apricot jam and/or white cheese ... for breakfast. Others have it with vegetables, main curries or whatever else.


Many road-side eateries serve food at astonishingly low rates (they are high if you see them in rupee terms, but okay if you compare them to the rates in restaurants owned by Saudis); thus, for example, I had a paratha, a 1 1/2 eggs omlette, a bottle of mineral water (600 ml) and a glass of milk tea for just 4 riyals. These dhaba-like places are usually run by Asians, who not only are the joints' cooks, but also waiters, managers, cashiers and so on.


I ate something unique on my flight to Saudi Arabia as part of the airline's in-flight meal: it was a plastic wrapped biscuit that had something brown inside it; it tasted sweet, but not overly so. It was crunchy, tasty and  unlike anything I had eaten before in all my nearly 52 years. Later, I learnt that the inside stuff was mashed dates, and this unique biscuit is known as "Mamoul". While it is available loose as packs of one mamoul each for SR 1, it is more economical  to buy a box of 16 mamouls for SR 10. One can have them on a SOS basis if one is not within reach of a complete meal or if one needs to have just a small "snack".


With limited options, these are the kinds of things I have been consuming since I came to Al Moweh. However, things are likely to change for the better, as I am beginning to cook from today.