Divine Pistacchio Cake and Other Treats

A favorite restaurant of mine in Jeddah is Maison de Zaid.  It offers delectable specialty desserts in addition to a full menu with a Middle Eastern flair for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  One of their specialties is pistacchio cake which tastes as divine as it looks. 

They offer many other fine and fun treats, like fruity tarts and an unusual caramel cake topped with caramel popcorn. 

I haven't been to a restaurant in such a long time now. I am dreaming of all the great restaurants here in Jeddah and longing for the day when I can revisit them. 

Yummy Felafel

Felafel is a favorite vegetarian Middle Eastern food, made of ground legumes and vegetables, like chick peas, fava beans, scalions, garlic, and parsley. The ground up mixture is formed into ball shapes and then deep fried, but they can also be oven baked.  Most often they are eaten in a pita sandwich, stuffed with things like tomatoes, pickles, cucumbers, peppers, and tahini sauce.  

Jeddah - Shababik Mural

This is part of a huge wall mural in the lobby area of the Shababik Restaurant here in Jeddah.  The cuisine of this restaurant is Lebanese / Meditteranean / Middle Eastern.  The mural shows a few of the men wearing the fez, which is not commonly worn here in Jeddah.  It also depicts several patrons smoking hookah pipes, which Shababik is a popular haven for.  

Jeddah's Beautiful Naranj Restaurant

Naranj Restaurant is a lovely elegant Middle Eastern cuisine restaurant in Jeddah.  The architectural style and details of the building are gorgeous.

The menu offers typical Syrian-Lebanese dishes, meaning lots of lamb. The outdoor patio seating under the stars is spectacular and comfortable, with the peaceful sounds of running water from the fountain. 

Yummy Dates

Saudi Arabia and the entire Middle East has a constant love affair with dates.  There are hundreds of varieties of dates that can be found in this region of the world and there are even huge markets that solely sell dates. Some dates are soft and gooey, while others are hard and dry.  Some are eaten before they ripen.  I've liked every single kind that I have tried so far! 

The dates pictured here are soft and gooey. First we separated them because they stick together, then we cut them in half, took out the pits, and then placed a nut, like walnuts or almonds in the center. Then we rolled each date in sesame seeds. It makes a delicious and nutritious healthy snack.  It's a messy job, but it's really fun to lick your fingers when you're all done!

Yemeni Food

Middle Eastern countries have many similar dishes but with their own twist on them.  Unleavened bread similar to tortillas is commonly served in many ME countries.  Usually torn into bite size pieces and then dipped into tasty dishes, these flat breads are fabulous even on their own.

Our World: Strung Dates

These are dates that have been pitted, strung, and dried.  Dates have long been a very popular staple in Middle Eastern diets and are usually offered in Saudi homes to guests who come visiting.  There are many varieties of dates, which are produced by the date palm tree.  They can range in color from a very light brown, to reddish or golden brown, to almost black, and their level of sweetness can vary as well.  Saudi Arabia is the world's 2nd largest producer of dates, as dates thrive in desert climates and conditions. 

Different kinds of dates are eaten at different stages of ripeness depending on when they are harvested.  In Arabic, dates are known by their state of ripeness.  Unripe is known as kimri.  The 2nd stage is called khalal, where the date is crunchy and large.  The 3rd stage of ripeness is known as rutab, which describes dates that are soft and ripe.  And finally, ripe and sun-dried dates are called tamr.



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Our World: So She Won't Get Away

Camels are apparently quite easy to contain and manage. They are corralled in very simple rickety enclosures made of a few short posts with a string of barbed wire. I've seen many camels with scars on their legs and I'm not sure if it's from the barbed wire or perhaps they are markings or brandings to indicate ownership. You can see these markings on this camel and also on two that are seated on the ground.

I've also seen many camels with a short rope tied around their front feet, enabling the camel to take short steps but inhibiting her from running. The rope around her hump and body is actually a bra-like contraption that is put on nursing mama camels to prevent their babies from drinking too much of the milk that is sold to customers. The camels are milked on the spot when a customer requests fresh milk. Babies are allowed to suckle for a short time then to get the milk going and then the baby is kept away so the attendant can milk the camel. I've seen this done by one man, but it appears to be much easier if there are two guys doing the job.



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Tiling Building Exterior

I have featured many photos of hard laborers on this blog. These workers come from a variety of poor Asian and African countries, like Bangladesh, India, and Yemen. They come here to Saudi Arabia because they can earn a lot more money here than they can in their own countries, enough to provide well for their families back home, even though it may not sound like much money to people from more affluent countries. Many of these hard workers are frequently treated like second class citizens. They work long hours in the hot blazing sun and oftentimes perform dangerous jobs, without any consideration given to their safety. This type of back breaking and dangerous labor is never done by Saudi men.

Where Men Wear Skirts...

It is common to see men dressed casually wearing a type of skirt that is very popular among Middle Eastern/Asian men. It is called a "futa." It is just a simple large piece of fabric sewn together with one seam, and open at the top and the bottom. The man steps into it, folds it across his belly back and forth about three times, and then folds it down from the top a few times. There is no need for a belt to hold it up. My husband likes to wear them at home, as the futas are very comfortable. Many men like to wear them out, like the man in this photo who has just walked down to this small neighborhood grocery store.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Tranquility

Nothing quite spells tranquility like the vision of a mosque minaret at sundown and the sounds of the calls to prayer coming from all the mosques in the area at the same time. There is something magical about it.

City Daily Photo is an online group of photo bloggers who post photos of their cities so we can all be armchair travelers and learn about other places in the world. The first day of each month is City Daily Photo’s Theme Day. Tranquility is this month's theme.

Click here to view thumbnails for all participants

Restaurant Sign

I guess you could call this a "fast food" restaurant. It offers a typical dish called ful and tameez that is wildly popular in many countries in the Middle East. In the mornings, you can easily spot restaurants that sell ful and tameez because there is a crowd of workers in front of the shop eager to get their breakfasts. Ful (pronounced "fool") is a fabulous dip made of mashed fava beans and is cooked in large round steel pots with a small opening for a very long spoon. Tameez is a large flatbread that is baked in special rounded ovens and like many breads, it is scrumptious right out of the oven.
You might enjoy reading this post I wrote about ful and tameez after my husband had heart surgery, or this Arab News article about it.

Our World: Birthday Cake Buildings

At night, many of the buildings here in Jeddah remind me of birthday cakes because the tops of the buildings are ablaze with lights.

Since addresses aren't commonly used in Saudi Arabia, landmarks, businesses, or schools are used to give directions, so buildings lit up in different colors are a good way of identifying them. Don't you agree with me that the buildings resemble birthday cakes?

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Oud

This stringed musical instrument is popular in the Middle East and in Middle Eastern music. I wrote a more detailed post with more photos of the oud on my other blog, Susie's Big Adventure. If you are interested in reading more about the oud and hearing its sound, please click here.