Merry Christmas everyone Ho ho ho

Merry Christmas one and all!

Body Shop has some nice gift hampers of body wash, perfumes, lotion etc (ranging from AED 99 to 200 something) and Nine West has a cool sale on handbags (around AED 200) :)

But just step into any mall and I'm sure you can go crazy....

My dad's recipe for ribs....rib-i-licious ;)

On my trip to the supermarket I saw a packet of ribs and I instantly knew what I wanted to do with them.

My dad had cooked chops while I had been home on holidays and I simply loved them. So I’m sharing the recipe with you all. Try it and let me know how it goes.

Marinade

1kg Ribs

1tsp Cumin powder (Jeera)

1tsp Red Chilli powder

1tsp Coriander powder (Dhaniya)

1tsp Black Pepper powder

1/2tsp Turmeric powder (Haldi)

1/2cup Yoghurt (or a little more but enough to cover the ribs)

1/2cup soy sauce

2tbsp Tabasco sauce

Marinate the ribs with the above ingredients and keep overnight in the refrigerator.

1) Take a pressure cooker. Add some oil and fry about 4 cloves of garlic, 2 cloves, ½ inch cinnamon stick and 1-2 green chillies (for a little heat).

2) Add the ribs and fry them just for a minute.

3) Add a little water in the cooker so that it won’t burn. The soy sauce should provide the liquid component but in case your pressure cooker is a big one then you may need to add a bit of water too.

4) Wait for about 5 whistles before turning it off.

5) In a plate, mix barbeque sauce  (HP Sauce) with equal parts of honey (if you find it too sweet then add more of the sauce and less of honey). Wait for the ribs to cool and then dunk them in the mixture and finally fry them for a minute or two on each side just so that they become crispy on the outside.

Voila – serve them with mashed potatoes and stir fry veggies and you are good to go!

Persian khana anyone? HATAM (Dubai Mall)

Hatam is a Persian restaurant located inside Dubai Mall in the 2nd floor food court area.

 

We went on a Friday for lunch and it didn't seem to be crowded at all. We sat in one of the booths near the windows so that we could get away from the freezing cold air inside the mall.

 

We started off with hummus (AED 16). They also brought some Arabic bread/naan and a plate consisting of salad, olives, cheese and pickles. For the main course we shared - Rice with slow cooked lamb (around AED 35) and a plate of Kababs cooked in yoghurt with French Fries(around AED 40). We also ordered 3 fresh strawberry juices (AED 18 each). The number of items we ordered seems less when we were three of us but the tall glass of strawberry juice along with rice just filled our tummies and I'm glad we didn't go overboard. In fact we still had some left over rice.

 

I would definitely go there again for some of their tender juicy lamb. Yum yum yum!

 

 

Finally some news on Bangkok...

I know I know I promised to write about my trip to Bangkok. Things have just been in full swing ever since my hubby and I returned from our holiday.

Instead of writing a day to day summary of what we did in Bangkok (which wasn't much apart from eating and getting massaged... :)... ), I thought I'd write a brief on the restaurants and spas around ploenchit road/chidlom where we were put up for 8 glorious days.

 

We stayed at the Renaissance Bangkok Ratchaprasong Hotel located right next to the Chidlom skytrain stop. The room was spacious with an attached bath which was all glass! I later figured out how to draw the blinds.

 

Breakfast was a complimentary buffet which had dishes like fried rice and pork! This was definitely unusual for us but a nice change and my hubby couldn't resist the dim sums and Thai pancakes. They had the usual fare too which included American and Indian breakfast dishes.

 

The hotel seemed to be a full-house. Considering we went in the middle of October I guess they get a lot of tourists as the rainy season comes slowly to an end.

 

But a lot of the guests seemed to be there on business trips more than leisure so I guess either way it does pretty well. The hotel also has a swimming pool and gym neither of which we used (yup we are very lazy!).

 

So that's the hotel. Stay tuned for the Floating Market and Tiger Temple reviews!!

watchout for my post on Bangkokkkkkkkkk :)

 

Driving License driving me mad...

Yayyy I got my first 1000 views to my blog and I'm so excited!!

I just gave my driving test a few days back so I thought what better to write than the whole drama of driving in the Gulf. I speak for Muscat and Dubai as these are the places I have had to learn so far.

In Muscat the whole process is quite straightforward. You get a no objection letter from your sponsor and then enroll with an instructor and voila he does the rest. I think you have to go in person to get your learner's license (I can't remember what I did). Anyhow, the procedure in Dubai is unfortunately not that simple.

 

Note - The below steps may or may not be in their correct sequence.

 

Step 1) Enroll

 

I enrolled for my 40 classes - you can't take any less if you don't have a license from another country which is valid for more than 2 years. So 40 it is. I asked for the total cost and was told it was AED 2,400 for 40 classes. I now proceed to the cash counter and pay AED 2,400 and am given my receipt. I notice it is split into lectures, signal test and books. So I presume that the 2,400 covers all this (40 classes and lectures etc). I was just too naive. I thought when I enquired about the cost of the classes they would give me the wholeee cost. So well I just found out 2 weeks ago that the 2,400 I paid did  not cover everything. They deducted a part of it for a few classes and as I said the remaining was for the lectures etc. So I had to pay some more for the remaining classes and by some more I mean AED 1,800 including 2 road test fees (assessment and final tests).

 

Step 2) Decide if you want the weekend or weekday class

 

Oh and since I enrolled for Friday classes I am now paying AED 80 for each class (20 mins) which is otherwise AED 60 for 30 mins. You have to take 4 classes on every Friday.

 

Step 3) Female or Male Instructor

 

I go for a female because I figured I would be more comfortable. I didn't know that the Friday female instructors are high in demand.

 

Step 4) Lectures/Tests

It's preferable to get the lectures out of the way before you begin driving classes. It can last a whole day if you opt for it as you can complete all the lectures in one day (which I did). You can now proceed to take the signal test (you can mug the stuff up from the books). Get this out of the way too. 

 

Step 5) On the road and missing classes due to emergencies or sickness

 

Sorry you are  not allowed you to skip any classes - if you do, you are considered absent and you have lost the money you paid for those classes. If you also by chance mention you need to miss a day they immediately pounce on you telling you that your instructor will be assigned to another eager student (because apparently you are not that eager otherwise you would not be missing).

 

Step 6) Pray that you finish the classes and all the tests in one shot

 

There is 1 signal test as I mentioned earlier. You will have to do it a small room with a few computers. It is mostly multiple choice and not that difficult to clear. After a few driving classes you can give the parking test which includes parallel parking, angle parking, garage parking, slope and emergency brake. Then comes assessment road test (taken by internal instructors) and finally the main road test (taken by RTA).

 

If after all this you have passed you should treasure your license and maybe even frame it on your wall.

 

 

Tea Junction (Oud Metha, Dubai)

Tea Junction is a cozy spacious tea house in Oud Metha and is very close to the Movnenpick hotel. They have upstairs seating which is perfect if you are a big group of people. They also have a carrom board and Uno cards so after a heavy breakfast you can sit down to a good game of carrom. They don't hint at you to leave like many places do and you can sit there from morning to evening if you wish.

I went there for breakfast and ordered "the full house" which consisted of sausages, beef bacon, scrambled eggs, grilled mushrooms, baked beans and toast. The full house was AED 26 (I think). They also have variety of teas and coffees and I had the "spicy chai" which was milky tea with a touch of spice (cloves and cinnamon?). They also had "cutting chai" which is a specialty of Mumbai and other teas like Moroccan Mint tea, Zaafrani Chai etc. Other items on the menu included omlettes, crepes, subs, sandwiches, mocktails and desserts. The service was good and the only odd thing was that the tables were too low. I guess it was designed as a cafe (obvious from the name) but it was a bit uncomfortable to lean forward each time to take a bite. What would be ideal was if they had a mix of high and low tables. There was 1 high round table which could only seat 3 people so that was of no use to us as we were around 8 of us.

I recommend going there to try out their tea and coffee and I think it's a nice place to hang out with friends and family and the carrom and uno cards just bring back good old memories of family re-unions. :)