Taco Tuesday

Early in our marriage we established a tradition that we still follow 3 years later.  Every Tuesday was Taco Tuesday & Game night. We don't always have tacos, but it has to be mexican food. I recently saw a recipe for buffalo chicken enchiladas and I decided it would make its debut on Taco Tuesday.

The ingredients were simple enough, only I couldn't find red enchilada sauce here:( I did find red taco sauce, so I figured that would be a good enough substitution. So I made fresh flour tortillas, shredded the chicken, mixed the wing sauce & taco sauce, threw some cheese on there and BAM:

It looks good going into the oven doesn't it? Well that's where things went wrong. I guess it's my fault. I should have known the oven would do this to me. We have a gas oven, not the electric kind I'm used to. So when I've baked anything here, I watch the oven like a hawk because it cooks the food faster than the recipe calls for. I haven't burned anything to date, so I guess my number was up. I was so pumped about this dish, that I literally set it and forgot it.

After playing catch up with Ram in the living room for about 30 min, he asked me when dinner would be ready. I looked at the time and was like "oh crap." When I opened the oven door, the enchiladas stood before me baring third degree burns. (No picture was taken for obvious reasons).

So we attempted to eat what we could and then settled for cereal. After "dinner" we decided to skip quiz night at the golf club and stay home to play a game. We normally play Scrabble, but I thought why not play some UNO? I usually always beat Ram. And after the dinner fiasco, I wanted an ego boost. Well folks, let's just say it wasn't my night.

Anyway, that was a good wake up call because tomorrow Asif & Dima come over and I'll be making most of the meal from scratch, salad dressing and all:) Hopefully disaster doesn't strike again...

Taste of Dubai

Happy St. Patty's Day! Man I have a craving for green beer today (or any color beer as a matter of fact). Guess I'll have to settle for root beer! Ha. How times have changed. Last year on this very day we were at a bar in the Heights. Flash forward 1 year and 2 countries later....

The past few days there's been a festival in town. It's called Taste of Dubai and every year a bunch of restaurants and vendors show case their goodies for sale along with cover bands. They actually served alcohol there, which was very unexpected.  They also sold fresh coconut water which looked pretty good, too bad I don't like coconut...

They had nice outdoor seating everywhere, no sitting on the floor required! 

I was excited to go because they had several fancy smancy restaurants that had booths there, like Nobu and Siddharta, and a few others I've been wanting to try, so this was the perfect way to sample away. And sample we did:

Tacos from Nobu; Slider from The Burger Joint

Chaat and Dosa from Indego, the chef there is Michelin rated

Of course we timed our outing so we could catch The Counterfeit Beatles Band, one of the best Beatles

cover bands from the UK. The band was pretty good. I've heard many Beatles Cover bands since I met Ram, so it's hard to say which was the "best."

It was cool to see how they do festivals here in Dubai. Most of the festivals I've been to are over crowded with long lines and sloppy drunks, this was definitely not the case.  It was crowded but the lines went by fast and there were no drunkards in sight. Hope everyone is safe today whatever their St. Patty's Day plans are. Drink some beer for me!

Pin-Tested

I find that I have more time on my hands in Dubai vs Aberdeen. Hopefully that will change. Until then, what's a girl to do? Why test out some pinterest projects, of course!

One of my favorite foods is Thai but I've always been intimidated to cook Thai food. It just seems SO complicated. When I came across this pin for chicken basil stir fry, I decided to try it.  It's one of my fav Thai dishes and if I screwed it up, no biggie, I had the pizza delivery guy on speed dial.

The bonus was that I learned a new technique in the process called velveting. Velveting is a common technique used in Chinese and Thai food to keep the meat moist (and prevent overcooking) during stir-frying. There are several ways to do this, but my recipe only called for one ingredient: corn starch. So basically you just toss your chicken in some corn starch before cooking it and your family will swear you ordered take out:)

The only ingredient I couldn't find here was Rice Vinegar. But I was determined to make the dish without it. Afterall, how much can 2 tsp of the stuff affect the entire dish? (I don't think it had a huge impact on taste). The only thing we wanted was for it to be spicier, so next time I'll be sure to grab some Thai red chillis. Oh and I'll pair it with another Thai favorite, green papaya salad. Mmm.

On my pinterest high, I also decided to make Almond Butter. I've seen countless pins lately on how to make homemade peanut butter and almond butter.  When I recalled reading the pin, it only had 1 step (or so I thought). So I bought a bag of plain shelled almonds and threw them in my food processor. After a few minutes, it turned into almond meal:

After another 10 minutes, nothing was happening. It was not turning into buttah. I was disappointed. I decided to give it a few more minutes on pulse to see if it would magically change. Finally I opened up pinterest, and it turns out I left a crucial step out: roast the almonds. Ah well. Next time, I'm hoping for this:

  

You say tomato, I say tamato

The past week was uneventful. I spent most of it unpacking and organizing. If you know me, I am like a robot during this time. I was so focused, I forgot to stop for meals.  (Side note, did you know the average person burns 50 calories an hour just by standing instead of sitting?) Luckily, Ram was not here to get in the way of controvert my organization mindset. Unlucky for me, he wasn't there to put stuff away in places I can't reach. Seriously need a step stool!!! 

Anyway, since we've been here a whole 2 months, I figured a comparison blog is in order. What are the differences between the US and Dubai? Well, I'll tell you...

1.  No more one stop shops. When it comes to grocery shopping, US makes it seem so easy. Over here, just like in the UK, you have to go to several different grocery stores to complete your normal list. I'm not talking about getting fancy stuff that only a Whole Foods store would sell. I'm talking about having to go to one store for Arizona Diet Ice Tea, Pork, Greek Yogurt, and ground meat (those are considered luxuries here). And then, hopping in your car and driving 15-20 minutes to go to another store to get cheese, fruit, salads, and fresh produce. So that's 2-3 hours out of my week spent grocery shopping. On the flipside, the food here is really fresh and rarely contain preservatives, so that's a plus.

2. Behind the wheel.  It seems that Dubai has drawn from different countries when it comes to driving. Like the US, they have freeways and normal sized lanes and you drive on the right hand side of the road. But they also have round-a-bouts like the UK and other parts of the world (and I still feel like I'm going the wrong way!).  However, in Dubai, the exits are 2-3 miles apart. So if you miss your exit, YOU MISSED YOUR EXIT. There are no U-Turns. Sometimes the closest exit to your destination is 2 miles before your destination. Oh, and your not-so-handy GPS will never be up to date because roads change. every. month. So navigating here has been extremely difficult. It seriously takes forever on google maps to figure out where on that "unnamed road" in that "unnamed area" I need to be, and end up taking a taxi instead (while taking notes of course).

3. G&S. The cost of goods and services is 30-40% higher. To purchase a car you have to put 20% down. To rent an apt/house you have to pay the full year's rent in advance in one payment (I don't know how locals afford this). If you want a beer, it costs $15. If you want a cocktail, that'll be $20-40. The list goes on.  So we've definitely had to make some lifestyle changes over here. But lucky for me, Ram goes to the US for work in March. Online shopping time! Oh, I definitely need that, add to cart! 

4. Separate but Equal.  That's right folks. We're not in the US anymore. Over here Ladies have their own spas and salons (surprisingly mostly men work in these "ladies only" salons so what's the point?!). We have our own cars on the metro and section on the bus. We have our own lines at the governmental offices. Are these lines faster than men? It's reportedly true, so I can't complain.

5. One is the loneliest number. Though Dubai is comprised of mostly ex-pats, American's are the minority in this city. The most popular ex-pats are Aussies, Brits & South Africans. It appears that there are only 2 Americans, including myself, in the ex-pat group I joined. (I have yet to meet the other alleged American.) They all say that my accent is one they haven't heard. Odd isn't it? I do find that I gravitate towards the Brits & Scots, they are the nicest people, I guess that will never change.

Those are my top 5 for now. Anything you want to know that I didn't cover?

Flash Friday

Another week has flown by. I can't believe it's mid-February already. This was the first week I started to feel like I'm getting into a routine here, so not much to report other than I walked a 10k and attended by first book club. It's starting to get hot in the afternoons (30 degrees C, 86 degrees F), which is way too reminiscent of Houston weather, and I don't likey!!!! I was promised that we would have nothing but 70 degree weather until end of May, so hopefully this week was just a fluke.  Anyway, that's where our pool comes in handy:

Luckily goes from 4'5" to 5'0" so us shorties can stand in it:) We need a volleyball net pronto! 

We just found out our shipment has arrived and is presently clearing customs! So hopefully by next Tuesday, I can start piecing our house together and figure out how to decorate the rest. Of course Ram will be out of town next week when this all happens...I'm sensing a pattern here.

Anyway, in my excitement, I've decided to give y'all a sneak peak into the living room and breakfast room. These rooms are by no means complete, but here's the before:

We still can't bring ourselves to wear shoes on our rug, lol

Who needs a fireplace in Dubai?! 

Breakfast table that I <3

Hopefully by end of March, the entire house will be decorated and furnished, so I will send updated pics.

In other news, Baby Luca turns 8 on Saturday. I still remember the day I got him at 5 weeks old. He will always have a puppy face in my book! Wish we could take him to a park, but maybe I'll throw him into the pool instead....

Luca at 6 months

Birthday boy! He's embarrassed of his bad hair cut:/ 

Mardi Gras

Did you know that Mardi Gras is celebrated in over 6 countries? All over Europe and US, Mardi Gras celebrations occurred over the weekend. So I was pleasantly surprised when there was a Mardi Gras party in Dubai. It was an expat charity gala at the Ritz Carlton. I haven't celebrated Mardi Gras since college (Galveston, oh the memories). So I had no idea what to expect in Dubai...

They had a silent and live auction.  (We had some high bidders at our table!) They also did an amazing job with the decor. I felt like we were at a wedding. Cirque du Soleil was in town for their show, Drailon, and they made an appearance. What a treat!

 

All in all it was a fun night with great food (though they didn't really attempt cajun food:/), drinks & great company. 

Table centerpieces

Tuesday Happenings

Yesterday I sent Ram off to work in a taxi and kept the car for the day. Woohoo! What's a girl to do with this freedom? I'll tell ya...

It was a crisp and cool morning, so I started my day with a jog (and managed not to get lost, yay me!).  Then I drove to the Golf Club in our neighborhood to attend an expat women's meeting.  This is another group of expats that has weekly meetings and a bunch of activity groups. The best part is that all their meetings and a majority of the members live in our area. My first meeting went well, the women were really nice and genuinely interested in getting to know me, which was a nice change. I even got some digits, holla! 

Afterwards, I treated myself to lunch at Shakespeare's (super cute cafe) in our shopping center and then headed to Le Marche for some groceries. Alright, so my one day with the car wasn't super exciting, but at least it got me out of the house for a few hours.  

While I was at the Golf Club I learned that they were having quiz night that night. Ram and I used to love going to quiz nights in Houston, so I was excited to see that this is a weekly event in our own backyard. Bonus: the golf club restaurant has an alcohol license! 

When Ram and I walked into the restaurant we saw that pretty much every table was reserved. I panicked. I mean who makes reservations for quiz night?! Apparently this is a popular event in the community. Luckily, they found us a table. An hour and 15 minutes later, the room was filled with tables of 6 or more people (one table had 14). We were the only team with 2 members but we weren't scurred. We quickly came up with a team name and got ready to the play. 

Round 1 was general knowledge. This gave us an ego boost because we actually knew a lot of the answers and it was focused on American trivia. So we were off to a great start. Could we actually be in the top 10 of this thing? The next round was famous Pirates. The only pirates I know are Captain Hook and Jack Sparrow. Fail. Next was a celebrity childhood picture round. We only got half of these right. How many can you identify (without cheating)? 

Fourth round was about famous Willies. The only Willy I know is Willie Nelson and the movie Free Willy. Double Fail. And the last round was a music round. When they played Destiny's Child "Say my Name" I got excited again and thought we could redeem ourselves. Out of 10 songs, only 3 were from our generation. Triple Fail.  

Turns out most of the trivia was focused on every part of the world except US. But hey, at least we weren't dead last! Smarty Pints rock!