Sunday, January 10, 2010

It’s gettin haute in here: fashion and food in the Kingdom…

You’ve heard a bit about the abaya, but the men in Saudi Arabia also wear a type of dress known as a thoub. We learned from our stylish guide, Saad, that he can mix it up with different colors of thoub (white, black, beige, brown) and it’s sort of like wearing a business suit. The way of wearing the male headscarf, the shumag (or khata), differs by region. When we landed in Dammam today, trendy Saad quickly modified the wearing of his shumag to reflect the local style. Before we leave the Kingdom, we must get our Georgetown boys to wear the traditional male dress….and will fully document with photos!

For all you foodies out there, the Kingdom cuisine has been, um, divine. In addition to the potent Arabica coffee that Michael blogged about, we’ve found dates (madjoul), pistachios, and assorted fruit juices to be a highlight. Admittedly, we are big fans of the hotel buffet. In this respect, Riyadh’s buffets make it the Vegas of the Middle East – it had everything from Levant cuisine to sushi, dim sum, Indian, Mexican, etc. The breakfast buffet is overwhelming, with at least four different types of honey, mango pancakes, eggs Florentine, ricotta stuffed tomatoes, and eggs made-to-order. Local highlights are hommos, baba ghanoush, wara anab, tabbouleh, kibbeh, fatayre, fettoush, and a yummy dessert called molhaiba (better than any donut Sarah could imagine)! In addition to regional food, we enjoyed Brazilian barbecue on our second night in Riyadh, which included buffalo, chicken, lamb, beef, and prawns. We enjoyed the festive evening outdoors, wearing “furwa” coats to keep us warm and hide the fat rolls forming from the buffet meals.


Needless to say, the fact that women cannot use the gym makes the buffet all the more challenging...

2 comments:

  1. Ask if you can attend a "goat grab". That should be a real treat....

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  2. WHAT NO GYM!?! How are you dealing, Karen?

    ReplyDelete