The Little Sailor in Najma
This is a story of good advertising and good luck. In a recent Peninsula magazine was a full page ad for a new restaurant, the Little Sailor. It looked clean, and interesting, so we decided to seek it out for a seafood dinner.
We are so glad we did. The Little Sailor is located on a not-that-easy to reach street – either you are coming from Airport Road on C-Ring and you turn right, I think at the third right turn from the light, or you go down Najma, from C-ring, turning right at the small roundabout just past the Commercial Bank on your right, go to the end of the road, turn right, go a short distance to the end of that road, turn left and then turn left again on the next street and you will see the Little Sailor on your left.
It’s small, but they are doing a steady and continuous business. At one point, every table was taken, people coming in and placing to-go orders. They don’t have a printed menu yet, which always makes me nervous, but we plunged in, hoping we had enough to cover the bill. 🙂
We started with the seafood soup, which was delicious – it tasted like good health as soon as we started eating, and was full of fish chunks. It is hearty and filling. They have two versions, a cream version and a clear version. We went with the clear version; we loved it.
I chose Fish and Chips for my entree, and AdventureMan chose grilled shrimp. We had more than enough, the portions were generous:
The batter on the fish was light and airy, like tempura batter. It allowed the flavor of the fish to shine!
As he was talking with the manager, AM learned that The Little Sailor is associated with the same company as Al Maharah, in the Suq al Waqif hotel. No wonder everything tastes so fresh and so delicious!
When our bill came, we got a happy surprise:
QR 104 comes to around $29. for this feast of fresh seafood. 🙂
Who Knew? Pumpkin Shortage, Pumpkin Pie
“Have you heard about the great pumpkin shortage?” asked my friend Grammy. I think I snorted. I thought she was kidding.
No. No, she was not kidding. Today I found this on AOL News where you can read the whole story by clicking on the blue type.
Pumpkin Shortage Means No Pie for Thanksgiving
Posted Nov 18th 2009 2:30PM by Susan Wagner
Planning on serving pumpkin pie next week for Thanksgiving? You might want to find a back up — maybe pecan pie, or some spicy gingerbread. What’s wrong with pumpkin pie? Nothing — except that there aren’t any pumpkins available this year.
Rainy conditions in the midwest this fall have washed out the pumpkin crop, leaving retailers at a loss for canned pie filling. This week, the LA Times reported that Nestlé, which controls 85% of the pumpkin crop for canning, was all out of pumpkins. The company issued a surprise apology, saying that the rain had destroyed the remains of an already-small crop. Nestlé plans to stop shipping canned pumpkin after Thanksgiving, and the company says that once this season’s supply is gone, there won’t be any more pumpkins available for canning until August 2010.
Don’t lose hope!
For one thing, here in Qatar, there doesn’t appear to be any shortage of pumpkin – or, well, squash. It tastes like pumpkin, but looks more like old fashioned pumpkins, not like the generic vanilla USA sugar pumpkin.
My beautiful French friend’s nose got that pinched French look when she heard about pumpkin pies made with canned pumpkin.
“Why would you do that?” she asked in genuine bewilderment. “All you have to do is to cook the pumpkin pieces until they are soft, then use them as you would canned pumpkin, except that it’s fresh, and has no added chemicals.”
HER pumpkin pie was out of this world, made with fresh pumpkins and her special spice mix:
2 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tablespoon ground ginger ( or1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger)
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon mace (or ground nutmeg)
1 pinch anis seeds ground
1 cup dark brown sugar
Ground all the pieces together than add the sugar, keep it in a closed lid jar.
Her filling : 2 pounds fresh pumpkin flesh, steamed, mashed and cooled down, 1 cup of packed brown sugar, 3 eggs, 1 teaspoon of baking soda, half a cup of the spice mix.
Her pie was amazing. I would bake at 350F/180C for about an hour; it makes a big pie.
Corn Chowder
This used to be a recipe sent to me by Allrecipes.com, but I changed so much of it they probably wouldn’t recognize it. AdventureMan and I loved it! It’s great for winter days when the nights are getting longer, and the temperatures are dropping into the 80’s. Brrrrrrrrrr! 😉
Corn Chowder
Ingredients
• 1/2 cup diced bacon
• 4 medium potatoes, chopped into small cubes, maybe 1/2 – 3/4 inches
• 1 medium onion, chopped finely
• 2 cups water
• 3 cups frozen corn
• 1 teaspoon salt
• coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 cups light cream
1. Slice bacon across the top, so that you have lots of little bacon pieces, fry until cooked through. Save the grease (there is only like a tablespoon).
2. Mix potatoes and onion into the pot with the crumbled bacon and reserved drippings. Cook and stir 5 minutes. Pour in the water, and stir in corn. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, and cover pot. Simmer 20 minutes, stirring frequently, until potatoes are tender.
(You can prepare earlier in the day to this point, then add cream and heat just before serving)
3. Warm cream in a small saucepan until it bubbles. Remove from heat before it boils, and mix into the chowder just before serving.
Mom’s Fruit Cake in Qatar
Life has gotten busy, and somehow November is here and I haven’t made my fruitcakes. I need to fix that! For those of you who think fruitcakes are a joke – my Mom’s fruitcake has a secret ingredient – chocolate. Even people who don’t like fruitcake love this fruitcake.
I am in Qatar – I have brandy. I have rum. No, I don’t drink hard liquor, but oh, they do make my fruitcakes tastier. Today, I will soak the raisins in brandy overnight, so they will be ready to go tomorrow!
I am reprinting this recipe for those of you who would like to give fruitcake a try.
Mom’s Fruit Cake
This is the original recipe. I remember cutting the dates and prunes with scissors when I was little; now you can buy dates and prunes without pits and chop them in the food processor – a piece of cake!
1 cup boiling water
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lard or butter
1 T. cinnamon
1 t. cloves
3 Tablespoons chocolate powder
1/4 cup jelly
1 cup seeded raisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup candied citron
1/2 cup cut prunes
1/2 cup cut dates
Put all in a pan on stove and bring to a boil. Boil for three minutes. Let cool. Add:
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
Flavor with lemon
Bake at 350° in loaf pans for one hour. Makes 2 normal bread loaf sized cakes.
My variations: I put in about three times the fruit, the difference primarily in the candied citron – I prefer using whole candied cherries, because they are so pretty when the loafs are cut. This recipe doubles, or quadruples with no problems.
Pans: Mom used to line all the pans with brown paper and grease the paper. I grease the pans, then dust with more of the chocolate powder. Use a good quality chocolate, not cocoa. When the cakes come out of the oven, let them cool for ten minutes, loosen them with a knife, then they will shake out easily. Let continue to cool until they are totally cool, then wrap in plastic wrap, with several layers, then foil, then seal in a sealable plastic bag. Let them age a couple months in a corner of your refrigerator. I make mine around Halloween, and serve the first one at Thanksgiving.
I never make these the same any two years in a row.
You know how raisins get all dried out and taste yucky in fruitcakes? The night before you intend to make the fruitcakes, take all the raisins you intend to use (depending on how many fruitcakes you intend to make) and put them in a glass container. Pour brandy over them, to cover. Microwave just to the boiling point. Let stand in the microwave overnight.
The next day, you can drain that brandy and use it in a stew or something, and in the meanwhile, you now have plump, juicy raisins to use in your fruitcake, and just a hint of brandy flavor. Yummmm!
Real Age and Boost Your Immunities
A while back, there was a blogger, Fonzy, who was more here there and everywhere than . . . Here There and Everywhere. He found some of the most amazing resources, and Real Age was one of them.
I took the Real Age test, and got a shock; there were things I really needed to do to keep my health and fitness at peak. I hadn’t been doing them, thought I could slide. Real Age won’t let me.
Every week I get bulletins from them on new findings in health issues. They are always packed with valuable information. Here is one of the most recent ones:
Boost Your Natural Immunity
June 30, 2009 3:14 PM by Mehmet Oz, MD and Michael Roizen, MD
New flu strains. Antibiotic-resistant tuberculosis. Germs in and on the foods we buy in supermarkets and in restaurants. Flesh-eating bacteria. Feels like you’re in the midst of a scary twenty-first century germ invasion. And while you try your best to keep from meeting the nastiest bugs, there’s only so much you can do without living in a bubble. That means boosting your immune system matters more than ever.
And steps you take to boost your immunity may also protect you from the chronic diseases associated with aging. See, immune busters — everything from aging and stress to lack of sleep, too little exercise, and not-so-smart eating — can pull the plug on how well your white blood cells, natural killer cells, and chemical messengers can attack and destroy foreign invaders. Didn’t know you had an army of defenders, did you? Well, you do. And the very same actions that lessen their ability to fight off bugs also cause trouble by encouraging chronic inflammation — a hot-button health risk now linked with asthma, heart disease, diabetes, and even some types of cancer.
Keeping your own personal security force strong and disciplined is easy:
Feast on fin food. EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), the essential omega-3 fatty acid found in fatty fish (and fish oil, of course), limits several cellular processes (involving dendritic cells and interleukin 12; aren’t you glad you asked?) associated with inflammation, so they can’t do their dirty work. Serve yourself salmon or trout at least twice a week, or get 2,000 milligrams of EPA plus DHA, another omega-3, from supplements daily. Don’t like the fishy taste or the size of the pill? Just get the DHA from pills made from algae — that’s where the fish get it.
See red or go nuts. Red wine, red grapes, and peanuts are great sources of resveratrol, a compound that protects against immune system aging and inflammation.
Learn the art of ahhhh. Your nervous system and your immune system are linked more closely than fraud and Bernard Madoff. Extreme stress reduces your natural killer cell count — one reason widows and widowers are more likely to get sick after the death of a spouse. Even periods of short stress (say, road rage) can boost levels of proinflammatory chemicals called cytokines. Set aside 10 minutes a day for relaxation, whether it’s meditation, intimacy, a walk, or the pure bliss of playing with your kids or grandkids. And learn some coping skills that help you talk your stress level down while you’re still in traffic or whatever situation gets on your nerves.
Tuck yourself in. Sleep deprivation torpedoes immunity and increases levels of proteins associated with inflammation. Stop shortchanging yourself and jump into the sack a half hour earlier tonight . . . and every night this week. Add another half hour next week, and keep going until you’re getting 7 1/2 to 8 hours of shuteye per night. Every night!
Take a walk today. Regular physical activity can help keep immunity where it should be. You don’t have to be a gym rat: When a group of overweight couch potatoes started exercising five times a week, they gained a definite cold-fighting edge over nonexercisers.
Pop some vitamin D. This vitamin can’t do its immunity-boosting job if you don’t get enough of it . . . which includes at least 30% to 40% of us. Since it’s difficult to get what you need from food alone, get 1,000 international units a day from a supplement if you’re younger than 60, 1,200 if you’re 60 or older.
Munch apples, broccoli, and red onions. All are bursting with quercetin, a flavonoid that shores up immunity, even when you’re fatigued. The fiber and antioxidants in these natural goodies also help reduce or mute inflammation instigators.
Think zinc. Go to the end of the alphabet for a mineral that supports immunity (it may also thwart cancer cells). You can get the zinc you need — 12 milligrams a day — from crab, oysters, pork, poultry, beans, cashews, and yogurt. Or find a good multivitamin with less than 15 milligrams. Too much of the stuff could stop other important minerals from doing their jobs.
Don’t forget classic “C.” This vitamin helps you produce more bullets to kill invading germs. Bell peppers are chock-full of vitamin C; other good C options include strawberries, cantaloupe, and broccoli. Or take 400 milligrams of vitamin C as a supplement three times a day.
Al Maharah, Souk al Waqif Hotel
I got it half right. I was good taking photos until our main courses arrived, but when we got to Al Maharah, there were only a few groups. I took all the photos before there were a lot of people there. But the truth is, when our main courses – the seafood skewers – arrived, they were so good, I forgot to photograph them.
The secret is out. The food is SO good!
It was one of those wonderful nights in Doha when it isn’t so hot anymore, there is a breeze blowing. No, not a cool breeze, a comfortable breeze, and all of a sudden, all you want is to be outside. We roamed the souqs, making a purchase here and there, until we got to the hotel. We had actually intended to eat somewhere else, but the food in the hotel just looked so good.
The service is friendly and attentive, without being intrusive. They get five stars right off the top for striking that balance.
The menu is in Arabic and English, and has beautiful photos to help you decide what to order. We were totally tempted by the soups, but knowing we will be back, we both ordered the salad bar and the Mixed Seafood Grill Skewers. Oh WOW.
The restaurant is beautiful and serene. Several tables were reserved, and pre-ordered arrangements of hors d’oeuvres were being set out in beautiful serving dishes. We were so tempted to snatch a bite on our way back from the salad bar – the arrangements were artistic and tempting.
The Seafood Bar:
Part of the Salad Bar:
Our salad plates – they had so many good things!
They also had piping hot fresh out of the oven bread, Yumm!
The only problem is that the restaurant is right by one of the souk exits, where you pay for parking. Because everyone is so important, and jockeys for non-existent places in the line which has formed, it can be a little exciting sitting next to the window, not knowing if the yahoo who is trying to edge his way into the line even has a driving license. There is a fabulous terrace on this hotel; I wish the restaurant were up on the terrace area!
After dinner, there is also a dessert bar, or you can order a la carte. We couldn’t eat another thing, but it sure is tempting:
Not only will we go back, we will take our friends, especially now when being outside is so divine! It was a lovely, elegant evening, the food is reasonably priced. We didn’t see any wine being served, so if that is important to you, you will probably be better off at one of the more western hotels. And – get there early if you don’t have reservations. By eight, every table was taken.
Doha or USA?
On the homeward drive, I saw this sight, and laughed. There is a clue as to where this is, but it sure looks a lot like a street in the USA:
Halloween and Extreme Pumpkins
All it took was one Google: pumpkins carved
It took me to Extreme Pumpkins.com, and it will give you minutes of helpless laughter. People are SO creative!
Yesterday I bought a pumpkin, not the traditional American sugar pumpkin with it’s thin skin, but a thick, ribbed Indian squash, and when I took it, the clerk said “You want the WHOLE thing??”
It’s not that big. But normally, people buying this kind of squash here buy it in pieces, not as an entire (carvable 🙂 ) pumpkin.
This is not my pumpkin; it is another from Extreme Pumpkins.com I am making cat pumpkins this year. 🙂
Turmeric Kills Cancer Cells (Pass the Biriyani, Please!)
Curry spice ‘kills cancer cells’
From BBC Health News
An extract found in the bright yellow curry spice turmeric can kill off cancer cells, scientists have shown.
The chemical – curcumin – has long been thought to have healing powers and is already being tested as a treatment for arthritis and even dementia.
Now tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centre show it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab.
Cancer experts said the findings in the British Journal of Cancer could help doctors find new treatments.
Dr Sharon McKenna and her team found that curcumin started to kill cancer cells within 24 hours.
‘Natural’ remedy
The cells also began to digest themselves, after the curcumin triggered lethal cell death signals.
Dr McKenna said: “Scientists have known for a long time that natural compounds have the potential to treat faulty cells that have become cancerous and we suspected that curcumin might have therapeutic value.”
Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This is interesting research which opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmeric could be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.
“Rates of oesophageal cancer have gone up by more than a half since the 70s and this is thought to be linked to rising rates of obesity, alcohol intake and reflux disease so finding ways to prevent this disease is important too.”
Each year around 7,800 people are diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in the UK. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer death and accounts for around five percent of all UK cancer deaths.”>
Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
I saw a mention of this book in an Amazon.com referral as a book I might like, and was almost set to order it when something said “go check the stack of books Little Diamond left for you” and sure enough, I already had the book.
I use books as an incentive to get me through life’s inevitable tasks I don’t like – like “if I finish this project on time, I get to read this book as a reward.” It works for me.
When I first started reading Marsha Mehran’s book about three Persian sisters starting up a cafe in a small Irish town after fleeing Iran, I found it sour. The author has a critical point of view, and generally speaking, I don’t like hanging around with people who criticize others and judge them harshly. At the beginning of the book, Mehran introduces a lot of people, many of whom we are not meant to like.
Even the sisters are not all that sympathetic – at the beginning. But also, near the beginning, she discusses Persian cooking, the idea of balance in a meal, hot and cold, spicy and bland, so you kind of get the idea that if there is sour, then there will also be sweet. In addition, at the end of each chapter there is a wonderful recipe, a wonderful, fairly easy-to-follow recipe, and she included one, Fesanjan, that is my all-time favorite Iranian dish and now, I know how to make it, Wooo HOOOO!
Three sisters, orphaned by fate, held together by love and duty, start a cafe, which, against all odds, becomes a raging success. Raging success does not heal all the old wounds, however, nor the hearts that bear them, and we learn through the book what the sisters have borne and overcome.
It turns out to be a sweet book, one well worth reading. And oh! the recipes! In each chapter, there are also hints that make them even better, so you can’t just copy out the recipes and use them, you really have to read the book. 🙂
It’s a pity that two of the most wonderful countries in the world – Syria and Iran – are off limits. We’ve been back to Syria, and it was everything we remembered (see the Walking Old Damascus blog entries) but oh, how we would love to explore Iran. Sigh. The world turns, and we can only hope to be able to get there in our lifetime. Stranger things have happened.
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