Inauguration Chicken

Not really in honor of Barack Obama, but in celebration nonetheless, my husband and I made up a seriously tasty chicken dish which we ate the night of his historic inauguration. Here's what we did. Early in the day, make a marinade of lime juice (about 4 limes), olive oil (enough to cover 4 chicken breasts together with the lime juice), 2 tsp of salt, a Tbs sugar, 2 tsp chili powder, 4 diced cloves of garlic and lots of chopped cilantro (including the stems).

Let that sit in the fridge all day. When you're ready, light up the grill.
Heat up a can of refried beans in a pan (to give them a little burned taste). In another pan, lightly saute diced fresh tomatoes, diced green peppers, an onion, and lots of garlic (we like a ton). You can add other veggies like mushrooms if you like. Flavor it with coriander, more chili powder (you can add a little fresh chili if you have it), and the left over juice from the marinade (too good to waste!) Just make sure you cook it long enough to make the chicken juice safe to eat.

On a tortilla, wrap, or big lettuce leaf, place the chicken, refried beans, vegetable mix, and sprinkle with fresh cilantro. Melt shredded cheddar on it too!

Goes great with a beer or rum and coke!

Props to Obama for inspriation.

burning dessert

My carrot cake was very tasty. Moist and rich and spicy. But ovens in Oman get hot, really hot. And on top of that they just have a hot to really, really hot temperature spectrum. No Fahrenheit gauge to speak of. This mean that you end up more often than not with a perfectly done inside and top, and a charred bottom.

Nobody ate my carrot cake. Except me, that is. Someday I will conquer the Omani oven.

Chicago Pizza....in Dubai

Chicago is known for its deep-dish pizza, something that just can't seem to be found in the vast majority of the Middle East. It shouldn't come as a surprise that international, cosmopolitan Dubai is the one place I have been to from Palestine, to Jordan, Bahrain and Oman, combined with my husbands searches in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, where deep-dish pizza has found a home.

Deira's City Center in Dubai at least teases you with the possibility. It has imported Chicago's deep-dish birthplace, Pizzeria Uno, or at least its sign. Who knows if it imported pizza chefs along with it. More often than not, chains are brought over in logo form, but leaving behind the food we love.

I didn't get a chance to check it out, but for all of you deep-dish pizza loving expats, it's worth a shot next time you're in Dubai.

Here's the sign in Arabic: Uno, Chicago Grill, since 1943.

and i thought i didn't like beer

The Belgian Beer Café in Dubai smartly hides like cultural and social treasure from the din of glamour and glitz that envelops the city. We stepped through the doors, and given how packed it was, no way we could be seated without a wait. This is the sort of place though, that no matter how hopping, where there is always room for more. The ambiance was comparable to an impressive niche bar you might find in Chicago, making the Belgian Café a rare find in the Gulf. Norah Jones crooned softly in the background, while men and women (mostly 20-40 somethings) milled causally. At the bar, couples met and chatted remarkably un-creepily—it was a breath of fresh air to see respectful and healthy male-female interaction in the Gulf. The drink list was just another pleasant surprise after soaking up the surroundings. Dozens of Belgian beers, strong enough to knock you off your feet, were complemented by tasty and authentic snacks. The pork sausages and deep fried mussels we ordered were needed to absorb some of the massive steins of beer brought to the table. The kicker was a beer I’d never heard of before, Cherry Kriek. The color of cherry soda and the taste of sweet sparkling wine, I could hardly believe it was actual beer I was enjoying. I might still pick wine over beer on any old night, but the Belgian Café’s atmosphere and fantastic selection made it a place to remember and revisit. As always, Dubai-pricey, but this time, well worth it.

the best western coffee shop in town

Arabic coffee is tasty, and fun to drink out of those tiny little thimble cups.

But where to go when you just want a big mug of hot chocolate or a real cappuccino?

Muscat (unlike the rest of Oman) has a fair share of western coffee shops, but to me, one stands above the rest. My favorite spot in Muscat to relax with a book on a Thursday afternoon is the corniche by the Intercontinental Hotel. You can pick from the perennially present Starbuck, or the less than great Costa Coffee, but my choice is always Second Cup. Maybe it's just that mammoth dollop of home-made whipped cream they put on top of everything? After a drink and a few chapters, take a stroll on the public beach that is blissfully tolerant of all sorts: bikinis, hijabs, speedos and dishdashas. It makes for a very pleasant couple hours, and for me at least, a much needed break from the mountain isolation.

apple pie

Everyone loves apple pie. With vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce is even better. Apple pie just smells like home too for some reason. So, I'm not in America, I'm in Oman. All the better. The expat's cure for homesickness (at least for desert), is a nice homemade apple pie.

At least apples are cheap and fresh here in the produce shops in my town. It was so much fun pealing the apples and making an old-fashioned lattice top just like my Grandma taught me how.

You should try it!

Making a lattice top is easier than it looks actually. You roll out the crust, and then slice it in 1 inch strips. Start with the longest strip and place it across the middle of the pie. Then cross it the other way. Now lift up one side of the first strip you put down and lay another strip down underneath. You have to keep lifting up the strips on one side and placing a strip underneath to give it that criss-cross look that seems impossible to make. Just be careful not to break the crust...but you can always squeeze it back together.

Here's a picture of my finished product. Yum!

food fit for an expat

This is a blog about eating, cooking, restaurants and kitchens.

My kitchen in Oman is my safe-spot as an expat in the Middle East. I can relax there, create there, and feel at home there.

I hope this can be a place where expats and non-expats alike can share home-cooking recipes and eating-out ideas!