more local food!

Lunch!

Ah, food.  I'm delighting in the Middle Eastern food, so I thought I'd show you a few more things I've been eating.  This photo was Sunday's lunch in the hotel.  From about 10 o'clock to 1 o'clock on the plate is a Mediterranean herb mixed salad with arugula, local herbs that apparently don't grow anywhere else, tomato, red onion, pomegranate seeds and balsamic vinaigrette.  Being a seasoned vegan, I took a gigantic bite, only to find that it punched my nose in an explosion that only can be described as a combination of eucalyptus, rosemary and pepper.  Every bite made me cough until I figured out that I needed to combine it with something else more bland... like the herbed roasted potatoes and olives on the right side of the plate or the hummus at 6 o'clock.  Tabbouleh (7 to 9 o'clock) made up the rest of my happy veggie plate and at the upper left you can see a veggie samosa.  Yum!  The local diet is heavy on Indian food due to all the ex-pats, which is just fine with me.

Fresh date

The next interesting snack I had was a fresh date - who knew?  Date palms grow all over the place here (well, ok, all over the place on date farms) and one of my teammates found these somewhere at the client office and brought them back to the conference room we've taken over for the duration of our stay.  Fresh dates are surprisingly crunchy and really sweet.  When you break them open, they're cottony.  My mouth felt like it had been dehydrated on contact, so although it was interesting to see and taste one, I'll stick to dried dates over fresh.

And, last but not least, Pappa Roti.  This is a baked bun that is apparently getting popular in Europe, Asia and locally in the UAE.  Imane, our local facilitator, decided she simply must have one right now, so several of us followed her lead and went along.  Well, I'm sure you can guess where this is going.  As you can see here, it's a circular bun that's kind of a cross between a donut and popover.  What's amazing about it is the smell (think:  hot off the presses donut with buttery caramel) and the texture:  inside it's light and airy, along the lines of a croissant, with a crisp sugary crust like angel food cake.  Mine was topped with drizzles of caramel - other teammates had blueberry syrup or plain.  Of course, I followed Imane again (a tiny thing who, I might add, could blow over in a strong gust) and ordered a Pappa Roti tea, which turned out to be filled with milk and sugar.  Well, good thing I enjoyed crunching that sugary crust because the darn thing mixed with the tea became a brick in my poor veggie tummy and I ended up spending the rest of the night drinking ginger tea in my room and skipping dinner so I'd feel better.  Vegan, it most certainly was not.  But, I'm being flexible these days and trying to live in the moment and try stuff so I have no regrets.  When in the Arab world, do as they do....  at least once.  Good thing is that Pappa Roti reaffirmed my veganism (along with the camel market).  #ibmcsc uae