Qatteri and Kuwaiti Gazingas
We’ve lived in so many different places and dealt with so many currencies, you’d think we’d be used to it by now, but there is always that confusing time at the beginning, when you are mentally trying to multiply and divide and figure out how much things cost. Generally speaking, we call it the gazinga problem, gazinga being our family generic term for whatever currency we are currently using.
I think the cost of food in Qatar is cheaper, but to figure that out, I have to think what it costs here, translate that from Qatteri riyals to dollars, and then to translate that to Kuwaiti dinars. For example, the Vanilla Caramel coffee stuff I like is 2.250 in Kuwaiti dinars (when I can find it) which is about $8.25, and in Qatar, it is QR 15.50, which is $4.25, a significant difference.
Life in Kuwait became much simpler when my Kuwaiti friend told me “Just think about a Kuwaiti dinar being roughly equivalent to the dollar. Otherwise, you will go crazy.” He was right. When I would go grocery shopping and just think of it in dollars, life became much simpler. Every now and then, when I would multiply by 3.65 to figure out the cost in dollars, I would gasp and put the item back on the shelf. Life is simpler if you just go with it. Mostly, I would look for locally produced vegetables, eggs, etc., and that kept grocery costs down. It’s the imported stuff that gets crazy.
So, irrationally, when I have 500 riyals in my pocket, I feel RICH. I feel secure and protected. (500 riyals {$138} is approximately equivalent to 35KD {$128}). I can’t tell you the number of people who come into town in Qatar and offer to take us to dinner (we’ve learned – we always carry extra cash!) – and then when the bill comes, they are stunned – and embarrassed – that they don’t have enough riyals to cover the bill. It’s not that the places are that expensive – although some of them are – but that it all adds up so quickly, and a couple hundred gazingas may not cover a dinner for four.
In both Kuwait and Qatar, I make it a point to quickly learn where all the cash machines are, the ones for my bank, and the ones that you can use your US credit card in and get cash. You just never know when you are going to find something in a shop that doesn’t take credit cards, or find that you are low on cash and still have a couple stops before you get home. Like knowing where the clean toilets are; it’s a matter of survival. 🙂
In Qatar, 100 Qattari riyals is about $27.50, so when doing rapid calculations, I figure it is around $25, then I add a little.
We are working on getting rid of the pigeons. It took a while – when AdventureMan went to the management and said he wanted the pigeons gone, they didn’t understand him. We say “pijjens” and they say “oh! pij-ee-owns!” The cleaning crew came and cleared out the awful nest yesterday, and only one pigeon came to try to spend the night. I threw pencil erasers at him (I had to gather them all up this morning) and then clanked a big stick. Today I am going to buy a water pistol.
The cleaning crew asked if I wanted to have my windows washed, and oh, yes, I did. It really helps to have lived here before. I know that if you want your windows washed, you can go to the desk, they will schedule it and they charge you around 500 riyals – still a bargain, by stateside standards – about $128 for a two story house with some very hard-to-get-to windows. But if you ask the cleaning crew on the compound, they will come during their time off and charge about half – and all the money goes to the guys who clean the windows. I now have bright, shiny windows – I don’t think they had been washed on the outside since I left over three years ago. Now – they sparkle!
Banks in Kuwait and Qatar are way ahead of banks in the US with their use of technology. When I took money out of our bank account yesterday, AdventureMan called me immediately and asked if I had just taken money out of the account. They had SMS’d him what had been taken out and what was left!
My household goods were delivered two weeks ago today. There are still a few remaining little nests of things that need places, but – not much! We walk around the house with that satisfied feeling of knowing things are in their place, where we can find them insh’allah, when we need them, and there are no more boxes, no more piles – it looks pretty good! Even AdventureMan got his room all in order – Now he walks out of his room and says “Oh! It feels so good to walk in and everything is put away!” and he has a huge grin on his face.
Little Diamond arrives tomorrow night. We can hardly wait. 🙂
A Night at The Garden
A local well known (here they say “reputed” and I always think it strange, because if we say ‘reputed’ it implies that it may not be true, but here it is meant to say well-known and respected) restaurant, The Garden, is having a month long Indian food festival. It has Indian food year round, but during this month some specialities are introduced, different areas highlighted, etc.
I like this place because my niece, Little Diamond, likes Indian food a lot, and it is a good place to take her. They have a separate restaurant downstairs, purely vegetarian, and another restaurant upstairs that also serves meat.
We went to the purely veg one on Thursday night, and decided to try the buffet. The food was delicious. One curry was so complex that we agreed, adding meat to it would have added NOTHING! It was so tasty without it.
The chef was making little crepe-like pancakes that you can roll food in, and then these little “paniera” made with the same dough, only with chives and savory flavorings in them:
This is what they look like up close:
The Garden is located at the corner of Al Rayyan and Kharabaa (also called Old Electricity Street). If you haven’t been in that area for a while, take your hard hat. A lot of the buildings are being bulldozed. I cannot imagine what the street will be like without Bombay Silk and Qatar Studios, but I see several stores have already disappeared.
Friday Lunch with AdventureMan at Assaba
After all these years, we know each other so well.
“Where are we going to eat today?” he asks as we leave church.
“It’s your turn to choose” I tell him.
“No, no, it’s your turn,” he insists, “I chose Ruby Woo’s last Thursday night.”
“No. You didn’t. I did,” I tell him, and remind him that I also chose another place later in the week, but it was a place that he really likes.
What he wants me to do is to throw out my idea and then he shoots it down. Sometimes I throw out three ideas, and he shoots them all down!
“What are you in the mood for, what kind of food?” I ask him. Usually he doesn’t like a lot of meat, so I am surprised, really surprised, when he says Lebanese. When we lived in Kuwait, he almost never chose Lebanese except for Tanureen, where they had such good fish.
“Yeh, but now there is no good Lebanese restaurant near where I work,” he replies, “and I am missing Lebanese food.”
I know just the place. My two pool buddies took me to lunch there back in January when I visited. I THINK I know how to get there, and, as it turns out, I do! (It’s always a disaster trying to find a place when your husband is really, really hungry.) It’s called Assaba, and it is like entering a different world. They’ve taken a very humdrum building, and re-facaded and decorated the ground level and one flight up to resemble a Lebanese Village. It is a lot of fun.
We ordered mostly mezze (appetizers) and an order of shish taouk to share. (Shish taouk is boneless chicken pieces that have been marinated in lemon juice and a little garlic and yoghurt, for those who don’t know about it. It is delicious, and often served with a mighty garlic – mayonnaise. )
We agreed that the very very best dish of all was the Mohammara, a dish made of finely chopped walnuts, red peppers and a few other things. (Mishary, on Some Contrast, printed a great recipe.)
We had hummous with something that tasted a little like liver, and baba ghanoush, and meatless chickpea moussaka:
And this is how the shish taouk looks when it arrives, with hot bread to keep it warm:
It was a magnificent meal. We ate too much. It was just so pleasant, sitting there, great food, beautiful surroundings, us all relaxed after church and mellow. AdventureMan came back from washing his hands all excited – “You’ve got to go use the Ladies Room! See if they have a beaten copper sink! I want one of those!”
I did, and this is what it looks like:
I think we might have to take another trip to Damascus, and bring it back with us. Do you know what a designer in the US would charge us for a sink like that?? We can go, find a sink, spend time in a city we love and come back for what the cost of the sink would be in the US.
I want the door:
I think I had better have it made here!
Here is the shower he wants, from Robin’s House at Nkwali Camp, in Zambia:
Even Friday lunch with AdventureMan is an adventure. 🙂
Dulce in Villagio Mall, Doha, Qatar
It’s almost trite, it’s so common. You go to church, you hit Villagio. I needed to run some errands at the Carrefour, so we figured lunch at Villagio – there is so much to choose from. We were debating over two old favorites when we came to Dulce, and decided immediately to try something new.
We were so glad we did. Everything was delicious!
The Sicilian Appetizer – mixed olives, artichoke hearts, pickles – was WAAAAYY too much for just two people (we forgot and scooped onto our plates before I remembered to take a photo):
My Chicken Rosemary Wrap was so big I took half of it home with me:
AdventureMan’s mushroom pizza was SO tasty, but even so, we ended up taking half home, there was so much pizza:
Our one regret – as we were eating, we were sitting near the dessert displays, and they kept bringing out more and more, each more delicious looking than the previous. By the time we left, we were gawking, but unable to do anything about it! On the other hand, we know where we will go for dessert and coffee the next time the urge hits us. 🙂
Turkey Central
Going back to Turkey Central on Merqab Street in Doha, was both like a home coming, and a big surprise. It was the second place AdventureMan took me when I arrived the first time in Doha (Fakr al Din, the first place, is no longer there), and it was a place a lot of people hung out.
Through the years, it has had a roller-coaster reputation, sometimes closed for renovations, sometimes closed for health / sanitation violations, but – when open – packed with people in search of reasonably priced, outstandingly tasty dishes.
It’s not one of AdventureMan’s favorite places, but it is one of mine! 😉 So the night we went to the Doha Clinic to get our blood-types – beginning the endless process of paperwork and hurdles for our residency in Qatar – he agreed to take me to Turkey Central.
Oh, YUM.
In the first place, when we walked in it all looks immaculately clean. Cooks and servers are wearing hats to keep stray hair from falling into food. Tables are now granite, chairs are comfy.
The food is wonderful. The place is packed. Our old friend sees us come in and comes over to greet us. We feel at home.
We decided to try some new mezzes (appetizer / salads) instead of our same old, same old hummous, tabouli, mouttable. We tried the chili salad (made of sweet red peppers, not the hot kind, and excellent), the baba ghannoush (actually, we have had this before at TC and love it ) and the moussaka (no meat moussaka) which we both agreed was THE BEST.
The best part of all is the Turkey Central bread, hot, fresh from the oven, and covered with sesame seeds:
AdventureMan ordered the Mixed Grill:
and I ordered my old favorite, shish taouk (marinated, grilled boneless chicken pieces):
Too much food! I walked out with a big bag of leftovers, enough to cover a week of lunches!
Real Age: Restaurant Catastrophes
LLOOLL – I thought we were good, sharing a dessert between two people. Real Age suggests sharing a dessert with 4 – 5 people! Just a few bites are all you need! LLOOLLL!
The truth, as I see it, is that Real Age gives lots of really good advice on health maintenance and prevention. Do I always follow their advice? . . . hmmmmm. . . . Take their Real Age test, sign up and they send you newsletters with lots of great ideas. Even if, like me, you adopt some but not all, it is probably a good thing.
Avoid Restaurant Catastrophes
To us, a restaurant catastrophe isn’t just when a waiter spills something on you or when you accidentally miscalculate the tip. When it comes to your health, a catastrophe is what can happen in the first and last 10 minutes of a meal. But it doesn’t have to. Here’s how to dine out, enjoy your meal, and be trim and healthy, too:
Before You Go
Don’t arrive starving! Eat a little healthy fat — like about six walnut halves — before a meal. The healthy fat in walnuts triggers a chain reaction that slows the rate at which your stomach empties, so you’ll feel fuller faster. But the chain reaction takes 30 minutes, so plan for it.
The First 10 Minutes
• Raise a glass. Of water. To your lips. This can fill you up, so you don’t overeat.
• Ask for cut-up veggies instead of bread. Most quality restaurants (including inexpensive ones) provide this option.
• Dip in olive oil. If the restaurant brings you whole-grain bread, dip it in olive oil. People who opt for this over butter eat less bread.
• Request the bottles. Order oil and vinegar on the side. Relying on the kitchen to dress your salad — even with oil and vinegar — can deliver as many as 450 extra calories!
The Last 10 Minutes
• Share. Get one dessert for every four or five people, and have just a few bites. If there are just two of you, take half of the dessert home, and freeze it for a special occasion.
• Savor your wine. Ending a meal with a glass of wine lets you avoid the cloying aftertaste of sweets . . . and helps you avoid calorie-bombs, too.
• Go European. Do what many Europeans do: Make salad the last thing you eat.
A Quiet Friday in Strasbourg
“I have no agenda,” I said to AdventureMan as we walked the streets of Strasbourg, yesterday, walking and walking, through throngs of Strasbourgois, “but tomorrow I really need to go by the shoe store.”
He knows I love one particular shoe store.
We were up for breakfast by eight this morning – still nine, body time, Kuwait time, so it really felt like sleeping in. We are staying in a very exclusive hotel in Strasbourg with wonderful parking, we come, we park the car, and we just walk and walk and walk. We have a code to get into the hotel if we are out too late and the front door is locked. The rooms are simple, but bright and clean and stocked with shampoo and soap and spacious closets. The loo is separate from the shower room; I really like that. This hotel is so exclusive you probably couldn’t stay here – unless you, like us, are formerly military. The military hotels here have an agreement that people from other country’s forces can stay. There is a special rate for us former-military, a very agreeable rate that includes breakfast with the lightest, flakiest croissants in the world. I think it has to be the butter of the Alsace.
We were lucky to get a room. There was a huge crowd of people, a group, staying here, too.
So we headed out, taking our time, heading for the shoe store and an antiquities store AdventureMan wanted to visit. In the shoe store window are about six different pair of shoes I could happily scarf up, if only the store were open, but there is still a half an hour. We kill time, I tell AdventureMan I will catch up with him, and I stand in front of the shoe store waiting for it to open. Half an hour, I am still waiting, and AdventureMan comes; his store hasn’t opened, either.
It is very quiet in Strasbourg, this Friday morning, and we are marveling at how relaxed the French are about getting up. Hmmm . . . even my favorite pharmacy is very late opening. . . several of the bakeries are not open . . . the historic post card store AdventureMan wanted to visit is closed . . .
Remember I told you I can be slow sometimes? So can AdventureMan. Around 11, we start wondering if it is a holiday. When we go to lunch, we ask, and they say “oh yes! It is the day of the end of the war! It is a holiday!” and the light bulb goes on. We will have to stop by our favorite stores tomorrow, and today, we are having a wonderful, very quiet day in the heart of Strasbourg, it is wonderful having the city mostly to ourselves. Well, we are sharing it with several thousand other tourists arriving from Germany, from Italy, and from other parts of France.
It smells so good here. There are lilacs blooming everywhere, and other wonderful smelling flowers:
We love it that the French signs for picnics show a baguette and a bottle of wine in the picnic basket:
Walking in Strasbourg is so lovely; no matter where you look, there is something marvelous:
We had lunch at Le Pasha, a Tunisian restaurant. It was absolutely delicious! Sorry, we were so hungry I didn’t remember to take any photos. We had brik, a lamb stew/ lamb chops, and Tunisian pastries. It was a sweet restaurant:
And now, AdventureMan is snoozing, music to my ears. 🙂 We need a little down time as much as we need the walking, the lilacs, the vistas and the sips of wine.
The Camera-Phone Diet
Sometimes AdventureMan will say “Take a photo! You can talk about this place in the blog!” I give him the look that says “get your own blog, AdventureMan.” Like if there is no one else in the restaurant, I might try, IF there is no one watching us. If there are other people I might do it IF I can do it subtly . . . I don’t like to attract attention, and especially if it is a place I like going back to regularly, I don’t want them figuring out who I am.
But now . . . I have a whole other excuse! I think this diet from Real Age is a total hoot! Keeping a food diary is known to help lose weight, but snapping a photo BEFORE you eat helps you think about how much you are eating, keeps you conscious of it . . . who knew? I wonder who thinks these things up?
You can read all about this diet HERE
Try the Camera-Phone Diet
Could your camera phone help you lose weight? One study seems to suggest so.
When people in a small study snapped a picture of everything they ate for 1 week, something interesting happened. They took better stock of their meals — and ate less or ate more healthfully because of it.
Snap Your Way to Slimmer Hips
Just think of it as a digital version of a food diary — but better — because it forces you to think about what you’re eating before you put it in your mouth, instead of after. With written food diaries, it’s too late — people log their choices after the fact. Watch this 60-second video on how to dish up just-right portions.
Worth 1000 Words (and Calories)
In the study, the simple act of taking a picture caused people to pay closer attention to how much they were eating, how diverse their food choices were, or how healthful the food was. And that extra thought and attention actually helped them eat better.
Here are some more slim-down tricks to try:
Pace yourself. Find out how eating slowly can help you eat less.
Be regular. Here’s why you don’t want to skip meals.
Learn to decode labels. Yep, reading is good for weight loss.
Chart your weight loss with this nifty weight loss tracker that lets you see your daily progress.
RealAge Benefit: Maintaining your weight and body mass index at a desirable level can make your RealAge as much as 6 years younger.
Sunrise 26 April 2009
Last night, out for dinner, the air was not cool and refreshing. It was warm. The outdoor seating was thronged; for many, the temperatures are wonderful; for me, it is a little stale. Just the night before, we were outside and it was wonderful, still a tiny cool breeze now and then. Overnight, you can feel the inevitable approach of the scorching summer. It’s coming. It’s almost here.
Sunrise this morning was silvery. There are some fleecy little clouds up in the sky, but no, it doesn’t look like rain, only a little tease.
At 0700, it is already hot.
The pace is picking up, lists of things to do growing instead of shrinking . . . the pressure is on.
Smoke House BBQ
AdventureMan and I miss two kinds of cuisine living in Kuwait – American BBQ and Vietnamese. When I read on Mark’s blog 248 about the Smoke House, I couldn’t wait to grab Adventure Man and give it a try.
It’s the best American BBQ in Kuwait.
OK, the restaurant itself is small, and not that easy to find, but it is immaculately clean, and there is all the parking in the world. That matters to me.
The service was quick and professional. We already knew about the pie, because we saw it in the display case when we came in, and knew we needed to save room.
We like BBQ, but for us, it is also all about the sides. I adore baked beans, and the baked beans at the Smoke House are very very good. I love potato salad and I love cole slaw, and they had both, and they were both very good. I adore the genuine, very dill pickles that come with the meals.
AdventureMan had the cajun fish and I had the half chicken. They were delicious. We were already stuffed when they brought our order of sweet potato pie. Oh yummmm. The crust is like a sugar cookie, and the filling is perfect. We couldn’t eat it all. It was huge.
I am not critical. I enjoyed all the sauces too much – so many varieties, including the vinegar-y sauce I learned to love in Kansas City and the sweet and hot sauce I love from the Carolinas. I want to go back. I want to try the mashed potatoes and gravy, and the steamed vegetables and the Pecan Pie. I am not a French Fry girl, but these were crispy and very tasty, and I found myself eating even while telling myself “No! No! No!”
I adore ribs, and I hear their ribs are very good. I am just so thrilled that they exist, that someone thought American BBQ would work here in Kuwait. It sure works for me! 🙂
Here is a direct link to the Smoke House Menu.
Here is a map of how to get there, from their website:
It doesn’t have to be magnificent to get my vote – it just has to be good enough, authentic enough American BBQ to fill my need. The Smoke House is a great find.
So now that just leaves Vietnamese . . . anyone?
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