Al Fresco in Kuwait
I have had several requests to know what we were eating when we eat in the open courtyard at the Mubarakiya. You Kuwaitis can skip this entry; to you this is not exciting or exotic. To my stateside, European and African readers, this is how it goes:
As soon as you are seated, the waiter brings a little charcoal stove to the table with a steaming hot pot of tea. There is a row of restaurants behind you, one of which has huge gold colored pots of tea brewing at all times. Our Kuwaiti friends tell us that the reason the tea is so strong is that they never wash the pots, just keep brewing tea in them. The tea is STRONG, served in tiny glasses on saucers, and is usually drunk with a good amount of sugar.
Then a plate of greens and onions arrive. The greens taste a lot like basil, very licorice-y, but they don’t look like basil.
You order. We don’t always have the same thing, but what you are seeing here is an order of shish ta-ook (chicken chunks, marinated and grilled, served on a skewer), fresh bread (comes with every order) tabouli ( a salad made mostly of chopped parsley and lemon), muttabel (a salad/dip made of roasted eggplant, tahina and olive oil), roasted lamb with rice, and a sauce made of okra, with a great big ball in it that is some kind of spice we don’t usually use, but enjoy in this sauce.
There are people at all the surrounding tables; usually one adult comes first, or maybe two, and tables get moved together or apart, depending on the size of the family coming. Then more women come drifting in, laden with shopping bags. They all greet one another and sit, and finally when the food comes, the children show up, eat a few bites, and then are up playing while the adults finish and drink their tea.
Adventure Man has a little black cat friend who likes the fatty pieces of the lamb he doesn’t eat. When he is finished with one offering, he will pat AM’s leg with his little paw, and AM will give him another piece. This is not a skinny, scrawney little cat, but a plump little cat with shiny fur. Guess he gets enough to eat!
At some point during your meal, you will hear the call to prayer, which we like even better now that we know that the muezzins (the ones who do the call to prayer) are all live, not recorded.
A lavish meal for four – more food than you can eat – with tea, and with excellent service, comes to around 8KD – around $30. How is that for a night on the town?
13 Comments »
Leave a comment
Recent Comments
Catherine on Donna Leon Crossing Cultu… intlxpatr on Ignoring the Law thani on Ignoring the Law Anon. on British Soldier Kidnapped, Esc… Reeva Mills on Cahors to Bordeaux, Preparing… Wikipedia Donate Button
Amazina
Early Voting in Florida
Here There and Everywhere 
*DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOLS* Woman! am hungry
I love Mubarakeya food!
Yah those places are the best places to eat in Kuwait.
Lol come onn! i ate there several times
It was highly recommended by chika!
The food isnβt that bad but the atmosphere
Sometimes is annoying; p
I am SO happy the weather is good again! Can’t wait to start going back there again!
“a great big ball in it that is some kind of spice” we call it loomy (lemon) its a black dried lemon π
it can be used when you’re doing some slow-cooking food. its an excellent way to take some of the unwanted taste/smell in meats and fish. it adds a nice lemony flavor. I love it in okra stews! π
Hun don’t assume your Kuwaiti friends know what it’s like there. A lot of us, A LOT OF US, never go. In my whole life I think I’ve been to Imbarikiya no more than 15 times and most of the times I went I didn’t eat. I was sort of introduced to the food scene there recently and I also LOVED the food but the cat situation horrified me.
BTW you should try the liver – ‘hameesat chabda’. It was amazing π
I love that place π
That one and there’s a yummie one inside the souq.
I was talking to hubby yesterday about the muessins and being recorded or not.
I told him that they are different every time. How can they be recorded?
π
Chikapappi – I was looking for you but I didn’t see you!
Purg – I think I saw you there!
Blue Dress – What do you find annoying?
Chirp – It’s the perfect weather right now – warm enough, cool enough, perfect.
Yousef – Ahhhh! Loumy! And yes, that was okra stew Adventure Man ordered; it is his absolute favorite.
1001 – Yes, you are SO right. We took our Kuwaiti friends there the first time, and they were astounded. And now, they are always ready to go – we have such a good time there. BTW, on the way there, Adventure Man told me he had read your latest entry, the one on the Eid visits and the girls who shake hands, and he said “you learn so much when you read these blogs! I would never have thought of that!” He loved that story.
He won’t touch liver! How do they fix it?
Rainmountain – In some countries, they play recordings. You can tell, because they are exactly the same every time, with exactly the same pauses, etc. Here, they are required to be live.
The “thuban” ;p
Oh AM read my blog! Awesome! Yes this really is an issue here in Kuwait because a lot of people would rather greet members of the other gender without any sort of physical contact. But then you have others that are perfectly comfortable with a handshake so it can create uncomfortable situations when people with different views greet each other. π
Now about the liver…Why Intlxpatr? Why? Why? Why must you ask me how something is cooked and shame me into admitting my utter ineptitude in the kitchen? *bows head down, sulks, walks away slowly and silently*
Did I write muessins?
LOL, I must have been half asleep π
I have been there today, but no time for Lunch, bought some soup bones, had to get home.
But it was fun. People always pose for me there (wonder why π )
First time that I have been on the meatmarket though….sheepheads….shudder π
Oh Blue, sweetie, I am so sorry, I don’t know what “thuban” is? It might be the plural of thobes? Men in thobes?
1001 *dying laughing* AM won’t touch liver, except when we order it by mistake in France. When we married, one of the few things he asked of me was that I never cook liver in our house, unless he was out of town, and never if he was coming back the next day.
Rainmountain – I’m looking for your photos, and I don’t see them! Yet!
Nope, had to make Dinner & now hubby’s home, which gives me about another half hour here and then he’ll eat and we go to bed.
I’ll post some tomorrow.
I’m so behind in posting pictures π¦