Nepal Kitchen House

Posted by Kanga.

We’ve been meaning to eat at the Nepal Kitchen House for a while. We noticed the small sign while driving by. On another day, we ventured into the building to check out what kind of business it was. It turned out to be a restaurant. (One can’t always tell by a business’s title what it actually sells.) A few more times we drove by on our way home from some other restaurant and said “oh, we should have tried the Nepal Kitchen House.”

This is aloo jeera fry (cubed potatoes with cumin seeds and parsley) and chicken rice (lentil soup, rice, chicken in a sauce).

These are vegetable momos (dumplings).

These are chicken momos (dumplings).

Our meal began and ended with tea. This feast was 42 AED ($11.50 USD).

I’d like to know more about the building that the restaurant is in. The building still has several businesses in it, but it has fallen into disrepair. It may have been the first “mall” in Fujairah. There is an inner court with two escalators going up just one floor that clearly no longer work. The columns are covered in beautiful tile work. It must have been impressive in its day.

Handcrafted Soap from Italy

Posted by Kanga.

Again, something I didn’t expect to find in a grocery store in a small UAE town – handcrafted soap from Italy.

Only the lemon and angy smelled pleasant to me. I don’t know what angy is, but I’m going to give it a try.

Pizza, Oh How I Miss You

Posted by Kanga.

In addition to Mexican food, it is also hard to find good pizza here. This is our latest attempt – Pizza Express.

Yes, those are green peas on a pizza. Six, six olives!

The crust was thin, soggy and floppy. The toppings were thin, too. It tasted okay, but was nothing to rave about.

New Cinema

Posted by Kanga.

The Century Mall in Fujairah opened with just a couple of stores, adding a few more along the way. As you can see above, the food court is all set, except that there isn’t a single restaurant, yet.

The cinema opened recently. This is the massive and spectacularly lit lobby. We’ve been to this theatre twice now. The admission price is a little higher than that of the old cinema which is still operating. We think this might be why the talkative teenagers are still frequenting the old cinema. That is fine with us. We prefer to watch movies without listening to the drone of teens who CAN’T SHUT UP, even being told to be quiet. Don’t get me started… It also helps to go during the Middle Eastern dinnertime 8-10pm.

Barbecue

Posted by Kanga.

We recently attended a staff barbecue. Barbecue, Arab style. We’ve eaten this food many times in restaurants, but this was the first time for getting in on some of the preparation ourselves. The meats were already cut, marinated and mixed with appropriate ingredients. All we had to do was put them on the skewers or form it into patties.

There were lamb chops, kofta, chicken tikka, and lamb tikka. The food was delicious and the company was friendly. A good time was had by all.

Cactus Bloom

Posted by Kanga.

Cacti are not native here. They only occur in landscaping. They are appropriate, however, much more than the petunias or other water hungry plants used in landscaping.

The photo is blurry because of condensed humidity. The sweaty season has begun.

An Anniversary Not Forgotten

Posted by Kanga.

Earlier this week DaddyBird said “What are we doing Thursday?” I stupidly said “Is there a reason we should do something Thursday?” Oh, yeah. That pesky wedding anniversary has come around again. Needless to say I am not the romantic in this relationship. This was an improvement over last year when we both missed our 10th anniversary remembering it a week after the fact.

So, what did we do on our anniversary? Well, we started by driving around town to find the Afghani restaurant that I had previously seen, but couldn’t remember exactly where it was. This led to stopping to photograph stray cats and dogs around dumpsters. There were eight around one dumpster, including kittens. Unfortunately, we can’t take them all home and pamper them. (If I were independently wealthy, I would have a cat sanctuary.)

We did eventually find the restaurant.

We had a really delicious dinner of mutton bukhari (the rice dish – there are two large pieces of lamb/goat meat under that rice), grilled meat (I didn’t get the name of that dish), hummos, chana dahl (lentils in a tomato sauce) and lovely bread. The red substance in the small dishes is a cold soup or thin sauce made of tomatoes and spices. It was a lot like salsa. Very tasty. It was clear that they had used fresh, ripe tomatoes. The hummos was also very fresh tasting. On the whole, yummy! The entire meal cost us 41 AED ($11.00 USD)

Then it was onto the main attraction – The Avengers movie. I find it hard to describe just how good this movie is. All superlatives seem insufficient. As we walked out, DaddyBird asked if we could see it again – immediately. I insisted on waiting until the next day. It is action packed and witty. Perfect.

The evening was not over, yet, however. We finished with a trip to Baskin Robbins because DaddyBird was in the mood for a milkshake and it is hard to find a good milkshake here. I went for the banana split.

There you have it. An anniversary well celebrated.

The Elusive Duckrunner

Posted by Kanga,

For years I have been trying to identify this bird. Pooring over my bird books did not help. The trip to the Arabian Wildlife Centre finally answered that question. This is the red waddled plover or red waddled lapwing. A rather boring name. I, however, have been calling it the Duckrunner for years. On first impression, it looked like a cross between a duck and a road runner, hence Duckrunner. They should let me name birds.

Not only his species was hard to come by. Getting this picture was a challenge. Everyday when I came out the car he was nearby, but he is so skittish, I couldn’t get close. This blurry picture is the result of using my zoom function and cropping it down.

Grocery Adventure

Posted by Kanga.

It is sometimes fun to see what irrelevant items are lumped together in the grocery store.

What constitutes “ethnic foods” in a French supermarket in an Arab country? Japanese, Thai, Mexican, and Russian. I was just glad they had fat-free refried beans. Yeah!

A Thing of Beauty

Posted by Kanga.