Breaking Fast

While breaking fast is often a family affair done at home, many people enjoy iftar at a restaurant.  Many high-end hotels offer pricy, all-you-can-eat buffets that are gut busting. I often wonder if people truly are fasting – how is it physically possible to eat so much food when you have been fasting all day? Maybe because of my eating habits, metabolism, and dislike for waste, I have a hard time going to these gluttonous affairs.  Note to fans: if you want to prove me wrong and show me a fancy night out at a 4 star hotel iftar, please contact me.

What I like about breaking fast at a restaurant is the anticipation that fills the room.  The tables tend to be already set with the iftar.  However, no one takes a bite until it is sunset, which is usually announced by the wait staff.  There is something about having food sitting in front of you and not digging right in. Torture for some, appreciation for others.

This Ramadan I’ve been to 4 iftars at restaurants.  Here are my experiences:

Noodle House:  offers a 95sr set-menu iftar. 4 courses – appetizer, soup, main course, desert, and choice of soda or fresh fruit juice. This does not include the fresh dates and kawa that are served right at sunset. The best part of this set is the fresh dates and the fresh juice. While not all of the choices are vegetarian, everything is fresh and cooked to order and they gladly accommodate various dietary restricions.

Red Chilli: offers a 10sr iftar.  Note: this is only iftar and does not include a full dinner or buffet afterwards.  The iftar is modest, but just enough for breaking fast.  We had chaana chaat, fruit chaat, samosa (with cashews inside – nice touch!), pakora, and mint chutney. Dates and an artificial type juice (Tang?) were also served.  Best part of this set: it’s 100% vegetarian, the fruit chaat was delicious, and the spice level of all of the food was perfectly spicy. The worst: Tang? - Please. [please note that they are currently closed for renovations and will re-open after Ramadan]

Marhaba: not sure of the price, but their iftar includes a buffet.  The iftar set out on the table had dates, rose water drink, pakora, samosa, 2 types of chaana chaat (one with yogurt, one sweet + sour one with a lot of onions), and mint chutney.  Perfect amount for 3 people.  The buffet included veg and non-veg Pakistani dishes, Pakistani and Arabic salads, and both Pakistani and Arabic desserts.  Best part of this set: the spice level of all of the food was perfectly spicy, the um ali was delicious, as was all of the desserts that I sampled.  While Marhaba is not my favorite Paki restaurant in Riyadh, I definitely recommend their iftar.

La Sani: not sure of the price, but their iftar includes a buffet.  The iftar set out on the table had dates, rose water drink, pakora, samosa, chaana chaat, and mint chutney.  Pampadums with dipping sauces were also present.  This was way too much for only 2 people and pampadums are the kiss of death – so delicious and tasty, but I swear they expand in your stomach.  The buffet included veg and non-veg Pakistani dishes, both Pakistani and Arabic salads, and all Pakistani deserts.  Best part of this set: the buffet was not overwhelming – a good amount of choices, but not too many; desserts were fantastic.  Worst part: spice level was not as good as other spots and I felt like there was too much waste at iftar.  While I like this restaurant for regular dining, I wouldn’t recommend it as a top iftar location.

What's your favorite restaurant for iftar? Hungry people want to know.

Ramadan Kareem

We are half way through Ramadan, a month of fasting during the day and feasting in the evening.  The eating of fresh dates is traditional when breaking the fast in the evening. 

Dates have many nutritional benefits and are absolutely delicious.  Most readers are probably familiar with dried dates.  In the US, there are limited types of dried dates that are imported.  However, in California, the infamous Shields Date Garden provides lots of information about dates, including a provocative video.  They farm a variety of dates and serve up a mean, thick, rich date shake. 

Here, in Saudi Arabia, the variety of dates is mind numbing - in the most wonderful way.  There are many stores dedicated to dates and grocery stores have special sections for dates and date related treats (date maamouls, dates covered in honey and sesame seeds, chocolate covered dates, etc.).  Lucky for us in the Kingdom, fresh dates are now in season.  We are still going through our first box of fresh dates that we bought a few weeks ago from a man selling them out of the back of his truck in our neighborhood.

Fresh dates are a unique experience.  Look at the photograph of the lovely box of dates.  See the ones that are half yellow and half brown? Those are the very special ones.  The brown part is sweet and melt-in-your-moth soft.  Tastes like a dried date, but more so, like date X 1000.  The yellowish portion is surprisingly crunchy and tart.  At first, we were put off by the combination and would only go for the all brown, sweet dates.  Do not worry, we eventually saw the error in our ways and tried the half sweet/half raw dates again.  The texture and flavor combination is one that we have never had before and we fell in love with them.  Now we only have all sweet dates left in the box because we ate all the half-and-half dates up.

Eating fresh dates with qawah is a treat, especially after fasting all day. But with such a big box, we wanted to do more.  Inspired by our trips to Shields, we've been experimenting with different date shakes - some with yogurt, some with various types of non-dairy milks, and some with vanilla ice cream.  So far, the vanilla ice cream version is the winner.

Hot Chocolate

I attended my first NYC Food Crawl: The December Hot Chocolate Crawl. The pictures speak for themselves... For more information, click on the title of this post or visit nycfoodcrawl.blogspot.com

Post-Elopement Celebration(s)

Our post-elopement cake was made by Luci Pina of Fashionably Cake. I was turned onto Luci's work after tasting a delicious wedding cake she made for my cousin. She was wonderfully accommodating to our desires - we wanted a tropical theme to match our wedding in Hawai'i. The result was a Puerto Rican Rum pound cake with a large mango filled layer, a guava filled layer, and a small pineapple layer. We were able to have the guava layer made without rum to allow those who do not partake in alcohol to indulge as well. I am not much of a dessert person (I will almost always go towards the savory, spicy, and salty over the sweet). But as you can see, this cake can change your mind too. cake is also featured on the interactive feature from "With This Burger, I Thee Wed" Reader's Wedding Food interactive http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/18/dining/20090618-wedding.html?ref=dining

not halo halo, but dessert.

halo halo

I’ve always wanted to do something that marries my love of food (eating it, cooking it, reading about it, and thinking about it) – however; nothing has ever materialized until now. Anthony Bourdain aired an episode on The Philippines on 2/16/09! Much excitement and some criticism on this episode. Even Tony himself notes that the archipelago involves over 7000 islands and that he only visited two. I was so moved by this episode that I posted a topic entitled “what about desserts?” on the discussion board of “No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain”. A bit hasty, with some typos (corrected in the cut-and-paste below):

“what about desserts?” I too am happy that tony went to the philippines - especially the fact that he explored some of the cultural identity politics. A bit disappointed that he focused so much on pork - I know that I am one of the rare vegetarian pinois out there. Also, I find it IMPOSSIBLE that he was in the philippines and did have or report on one dessert! At the very least, he should have discussed the intriguing halo halo - most non-filipinos have never had such a treat and all love it!

So, it would only be natural to begin this blog with a few desserts straight from the Philippines. Enjoy.