The Arabian Experience

The best part about being back home is being able to spend time with family.... Eating kabsa.
I love being back in Saudi Arabia. There's just something about the food here; a bland yumminess. Sigh.
My problem is I can never get used to desi (read Pakistani) food with all its spices and all the amount of water you have to drink to get yourself to stop breathing fire. My taste-buds are more tuned to the delicious blandness of Arabian/Lebanese cuisine.
My all time favorite would be hummus! I mean, who doesn't like hummus? It goes with everything!

• You can dip fries in it.
• You can eat it with falafel.
• You can eat it with grilled/deep-fried chicken.
• You can use it as a dip for Doritos.
• & if you're feeling diet-like, you can slice up a cucumber and use the hummus as a dip for that too!

I tried introducing a room-mate of mine to hummus once, brought from the Lebanese restaurant in F10.. Not only did she not like it, she made a face that made me go all defensive on account of the bowl hummus sitting in front of us.

But of course, that bowl of hummus was nothing compared to the REAL hummus that you can get here, in Saudi. Creamy perfection, indeed.

Hummus, my love. <3

And how can I forget the staple of Arabian cuisine, the one thing you can NOT miss when you're in any Gulf state: Kabsa. No Arabian dinner is complete without it. It's like as soon as the first spoonful goes into your mouth, you start hearing drum-beats and the image of Shakira belly-dancing suddenly appears in front of your eyes! But what's even better than kabsa is...

... Fish Biryani!!

Thanks to Shawaya House for an amazing dinner!

Stuff like this can only be found in the Gulf. And since I am here for only 4 more days, I ate much more than I should have and was at the point of exploding when my Mom reminded me I had the perfect thing to avert any food-explosion.

Excellent photography, indeed.

For those of you who can't read or speak or understand Arabic, this is yogurt, the peach and apricot kind. And it is very yum. The perfect dessert for when you feel like you're about to explode. It's like a blanket for the inside of your stomach; makes everything feel OK!

"Draw me, like one of your French girls."

In the end, here's a picture of my cat, to wrap things up.

Happy eating!