Cheese and za'atar bread: superfastfood

I think every country in the world has their own version of cheese bread. In the Philippines, you can buy one pandesal and stuff it with your choice of cheese; if you like the bottle types you might slather CheezWhiz, and if you like fresh cheese, you'll stuff it with kesong puti. In the States, the breads are usually pre-stuffed or the cheese is sprinkled on top, like the ones in Panera. Wherever you go, cheese breads are the way to go. THE way.

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Shopping at the local comissary is always fun for me. I get to spend time wandering the store's aisles with my mom, looking at all sorts of food that catch my eye. And while scanning every single vegetable, pasta box, or organic cereal there is, my order at the small bakery is quickly baking, whether it be a cheese or za'atar bread. Remember za'atar? Well, here is a picture to paint what I had described in my very first post:



There are so many sensations you experience when eating za'atar bread, and this specific bread makes it even beter. The za'atar filling is nutty, sour, and salty all at the same time, blending together and not one of the tastes overpowering each other. It should have the slightest taste of bitterness, so very slight that it should make you wonder if the taste was just in your imagination.
The bread is crispy but still soft inside, and gives the flatbread a good crunch. 9.5/10

Za'atar Bread

This is what za'atar looks like before it's sprinkled onto the bread. A dull green, and mixed with some sesame seeds.

Actual za'atar seasoning

Cheddar cheese bread

It's not the cheese you usually see inside a cheesebread here in Saudi, but it's good nonetheless. Look at the gooeyness of that cheese, it really was that good. The quality of the cheese they use is very good, I believe it's of medium sharpness, good enough for bread. The bread is the same used with the za'atar, crispy and soft at the same time. 9.5/10

Honey and labneh bread

Labneh is a type of cheese that is made from yogurt that has been strained. It has a soft and smooth consistency, and is added to other saltier cheeses to make cheese bread or like above, mixed with honey to make a sweeter cheese bread. Labneh tastes like cream cheese, just softer and almost feels like it was whipped. I must say, the combination of the labneh with honey is something you really need to try with this warm bread. Because it gets really messy, the flatbread is closed shut like an empanada before stuffing into the brick oven. Then, when you take a bite, it just oozes out with the perfect amount of labneh and honey all in one bite. 9.7/10



These breads are all really good, and you can mix and match as you please. Za'atar and bread is really good, and so is za'atar and cheese, although it can be a little salty. Mozzarella cheese bread is probably what I order the most; the saltiness of the mozzarella cheese goes perfectly well with the flatbread. Too bad they didn't have it at the time I was there.

Anyway, till next time then. Enjoy!

Chinatown

I believe that all the drinks I consume here in Saudi consist either of cold water or iced tea. It's the token beverage in balmy weather. Probably something about the sexy amber color the tea radiates and the dewiness of the glass it's poured into; it really is the essence of summer. It has to have a little sweetness in it too; I don't believe in unsweetened iced tea.


Brew your favorite black tea,
chill with some ice,
add some simple syrup,
throw in a few mint leaves,
and a wedge of lemon or lime.






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We went out the other night to Chinatown, a restaurant I haven't been to since I was probably 11. It still looked chic and blue because of the lighting, with the cute little pond housing about 100 goldfish.

We ordered iced tea first. Gotta have that. Then wonton soup, which I couldn't get a good shot of. It's okay, it wasn't that great. I like it when soup is extra hot, and this wasn't. 3/10

Spring roll

This one was really good, quite crunchy and not at all oily like other types are. Inside were bean sprouts, strips of cabbage and carrot, and chicken. They had this great chili sauce on the table, which is what I ate the roll with. 8.5/10

Garlic and plain naan

I was a little bummed that we weren't able to go to the Indian restaurant next to Chinatown, but later found out the two restaurants were owned by the same people. And I ordered the one thing that I really wanted from that Indian restaurant, which was naan. It was good, but not as soft as I usually like naan to be. 8/10

Chicken Balti

I don't know very much about this dish, so I searched the origin of this lovely chicken plate online. Even after reading a couple of articles on chicken balti, I'm still not clear on the origin of it as there are different articles that claim it is a Pakistani dish, and still others that say it is an Indian dish. Wherever it is from, it was served on a sizzling hot plate and was very delicious. It was a type of hot curry, with chicken, onions, tomatoes, ghee (clarified butter), and all sorts of spices like coriander, turmeric, cumin, and garam masala powder. I loved all the flavors they used with this dish; the spices were not at all overpowering as some curries are. Certainly a 10/10, the highest score yet!

Chinese crispy noodles

You can almost feel the texture of the noodles through this picture, a little stiff looking, but crispy nonetheless. These noodles had broccoli, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms and other vegetables. I loved how the noodles stayed firm and didn't get soggy even though there was a little bit of sauce. 9.5/10

Sweet and sour fish

Yes, again. This time, the fish was cut into pieces, with a light coating surrounding the cut. It was then cooked with onions, bell peppers, pineapples, and other vegetables. The sweet and sour sauce was thinner than other styles of this dish I had tasted before. Personally, I like Thai house's sweet and sour fish better than Chinatown's. 7/10



Now that I'm finished writing this post, it doesn't seem like any of the dishes we ordered were Chinese food at all, considering we went to a restaurant that bore the country's name. But nevertheless, Chinese methods were used in making these dishes, such as the chicken balti. A good restaurant to check out and its partner next door - Spice India.

Fuddruckers - Dhahran Edition

No, it's not a dyslexic's curse word.

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Fuddruckers - a hamburger spot that had its humble beginnings in San Antonio, Texas, and has spread to the whole world. It is a suprisingly popular restaurant in the Middle East, as franchises are popping up all over including right here in Dhahran. This burger joint has been here in the local mall of Al-Rashid for over 10 years now, and is a regular place to go for birthdays and other celebrations in the community.

What I love about Fuddruckers are their buns, which are baked fresh daily. They are so soft and delicious, you might even eat it first before remembering to put it on top of your burger or sandwich, as one of my childhood friends did way back when. [You know who you are. =) I still can't forget how much you made me laugh.]

TRUE STORY: A friend of ours invited a bunch of us to Fudds and coincidentally it was this guy's first time there. He devoured his top bun first, marvelling at how delicious his "garlic bread" was, even though it was clearly placed right next to his naked burger. After much snickering from the rest of the table and no top bun left for his cheeseburger, he sheepishly ordered an extra bun - "No, not the bottom bun please, just the top, yes, thanks" - as we all roared with laughter while he placed his request.

At least I know one other person who can swear by their bread besides me.

disclaimer: I've decided to start putting the pictures first before the description because, well, that's just the way it's done everywhere, and silly, silly me for not doing so as well.

Lemon pepper chicken sandwich

We went to Fuddruckers twice this week for two separate occasions, so I tried to get pictures of as many different things as I could. This was my order on Day 1. I found out about this sandwich after high school, when I wanted to try something else besides burgers. I love citrusy flavors, so I decided to give this one a try. Ever since then, this is all I've been ordering; my go-to meal at Fudds. The chicken is so juicy even though it's white meat, the seasonings so lemony and peppery, and the bread? Perfect combination. 9.6/10

Original chicken sandwich with onions and mushrooms

My mom is a sucker for mushrooms, so she ordered extra with her sandwich. The chicken pretty much tasted like the lemon pepper chicken without the lemon. Also white meat, also juicy. I'm glad she ordered toppings on hers, otherwise I probably would not have liked it as much. 8.5/10

The Tumbleweed

I probably bullied my brother into getting this burger with its well thought out name. Yes, it looked very appealing to the eye on the menu, but it was also very good. The onion strands resemble tumbleweed, a type of shrub that breaks away from the original plant and tumbles around in dry climates. They look like jumbled up barbed wire; not pretty to touch. But very pretty to eat. The onion strands, bell peppers, and swiss cheese are perfect matches with the burger, giving it a southwestern flavor. The 1/3 pounder was juicy and flavorful, although they could have added some more spices to it. 7/10

Grilled hamour, baked potato, blanched vegetables, and garlic toast

My dad's order the first day, my mom's order the second day. The hamour was lovely, flaked perfectly and the spices used made the fish what it was. The baked potato was cooked just right as well. If it could be called al dente, I would call it that, which is perfect because I love a good al dente. The vegetables were not great, generic I should say. I would give the hamour an 8.5/10, while for the whole dish, it would have to be a 6.5/10.

Grilled chicken with caesar salad

My order on the second day. This one was not a good choice. The lettuce leaves were somewhat wilted, and not as crunchy as I would have liked them to be. The dressing was substantial, but the chicken seemed drier than the sandwiches. 4/10



...and finally, for the piece de resistance:

The 3/4 pounder Fullworks

This picture does do this cheeseburger justice. A 3/4 pounder might not be big you think, but it looks more like a5 pounder than anything else. This was ordered by one of my titos, and when it came, head spun and a zillion questions were asked. "Geez, how big is that thing?" "Are you going to finish that?" "Isn't that a heart attack in a bun?" Yes, quite large this one, and I did not have the pleasure of sampling it, but I was more than welcomed to photograph such a feast. It was topped with cheddar cheese, beef bacon, and sauteed mushrooms. Heart attack indeed. He did not finish the burger, but packed it up and probably enjoyed it for the next two days.




As a last note, Fuddruckers is a good place to go when you're in the mood for all American burgers or if you feel like being lazy. But one should venture out and try the grilled chicken sandwiches if feeling adventurous.

Thai House

Did not expect to be eating out tonight; I thought we were just going to be rummaging through the streets of Khobar looking for nothing in particular. My dad called however, said that he would be coming home fairly early and that we could possibly eat at Thai House, a popular corner restaurant where ironically, a lot of Filipinos venture to.

And I smiled mischievously because I knew I brought my camera today.


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The waiter approached us without menus; this was not out of disrespect, rather, he knew we were regulars and could probably pinpoint three quarters of what our order was going to be. A lot of families that Thai House attracts are regulars or soon to be regulars, so the waitstaff recognize familiar faces and match them to their respective orders.


For starters, we had the tom yam soup, otherwise known as poh tak, otherwise known as seafood soup. It's sour and spicy at the same time, with more spice than sour. From the consistency of the soup, it seems as though it contains the same ingredients used in miso soup, plus ginger, squid, shrimp, fish, mushrooms, lemongrass, cilantro, and all sorts of spices added in. When you order a medium/large size of this soup it comes in a charcoal pot that looks so interesting, I think we might have to order a medium next time just so I can show it. It hits the right spots in your body, especially if you have a sore throat. So good I'm going to give it an 8.5/10.

Poh tak (seafood soup)

Our next order has been a new addition to our normal Thai House order since last summer. My dad saw it on someone's table and decided he wanted to order the same thing. It's a squid salad with romaine lettuce, cooked squid, red onions, green onions, cilantro, white vinegar, and a good amount of chilli flakes to make it spicy and tart. It always has me puckering my lips with delight. Definitely a 9/10.

Squid salad...scrumptuous!

This order is somewhat Filipino influenced. We've always ordered it as pancit canton, but I wonder what the real name on the menu is. This pancit (noodles) is curly and has a bunch of vegetables similar to what they use in stir fry recipes - carrots, cabbage, string beans, onions, you name it. It's also got a variety of meat and seafood in it as well. I really like the way these noodles are cooked, the sauce it comes with is always so distinct and really good. I believe they use oyster sauce and other spices to bring out the flavor. Easily a 9/10.

Pancit canton with a bunch of vegetables

Sweet and sour fish. Yeah, I know I've been eating a lot of seafood and fish lately, but it's a lot healthier for you! I'm trying this new thing where I eat fish four times a week, white meat twice a week, keeping red meat sparse at one day out of the week. So far I haven't been disappointed, especially since the fish I've been eating are all cooked marvelously, with different types of flavors and cooking styles. This one below is a sweet and sour hamour, a local fish here in Saudi. They fry it and spoon over their great sauce with chopped vegetables and it's pretty damn good. 9/10, for knowing how to make a good sweet and sour, and not just as a dipping sauce.

Sweet and sour hamour

We also had some fried chicken, fried rice, and plain steamed white rice, which I ate nothing of. Except a little piece of fried chicken. Okay, so I cheated a bit...bite me. But one of my favorite things about Thai House - their killer iced tea. I've never tasted sweet tea from the South in the States, but I imagine this is what it's like. It cleanly washed everything down, and cooled off the heat from walking around. 10/10. Definitely.

Iced tea, lovely.

'Tis all for now, next blog will be about good old Fuddrucker's. Oh and maybe, just maybe, a little peek at the famous "broasted" chicken. Goodnight!

Breakfast + Bahay Kubo in my Bahrain trip

No, it is not raining in Saudi Arabia. Not yet anyway.

This is a picture of how humid it is here. Just like a steam room in the gym, the water condensates on the windows making the weather uncomfortable and the air hard to breathe. My toxins are being released, yes, but does it have to be done so excruciatingly? I am blessed with genes that encode my body not to sweat profusely but with this humidity it's impossible not to.

My little rant. But this is also a picture of me inside the Dining Hall, where a couple off days ago I had a perfect breakfast by myself at 7 in the morning. Gives me time to think, read, and chill, literally - before I have to go out and brave the natural steam room outdoors.




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Breakfast is the top meal of my day. I'm one of those people who can have it morning, noon, 4;00 PM or midnight. A lot of my friends find it quite disgusting, but I love it. And what I love most of all is a nice, crispy, golden brown waffle with small squares, not the Belgian waffle types. The only place I've seen this type of waffle is surprisingly here in Saudi Arabia. There is no IHOP, Baker's Square, Marie Callendar's, or Denny's that carries this type of waffle in the States. This was the waffle I grew up eating at the Dining Hall here in Aramco.

Small squares is the way to go

There's just more crispiness in the waffle, which is the type of texture a waffle should have. Plus, you don't have to use as much syrup as with a Belgian waffle, so you're actually eating better. [Yeah, that is my rationalization and I'm sticking to it.] Another dish on the menu:

One egg white omelette with everything, please.

This one has mushrooms, onions, bell peppers, tomatoes, and low-fat cheese. Surprisingly good. It was the best way to start the day doing errands in Aramco. Waffles definitely a 9.5, while the omellete a 7. [I'm going to start rating food, now.]

My family decided we wanted to go to Bahrain for the day today. For those of you who aren't familiar with Bahrain, it is an island off the coast of Saudi Arabia but is a separate country both geographically and culturally. It's about half an hour away, but can take up to 4-5 hours to get to with all the traffic and gates you have to pass.

Today we ate at a Filipino restaurant deep in the curves and turns of Bahrain, but it was worth getting sort of lost. The place was called Bahay Kubo which plainly means "hut house", and is the national house of the Philippines. The interior was made to look like the old Spanish houses that you can still find in some parts of the Philippines.

The outside and the inside

Old school ladles and small baskets when you first enter

We ordered a bunch of stuff. Pay attention, there will be a lot of Tagalog words:




Lumpiang sariwa:
"Fresh spring roll" in English. This type of lumpia is delicately wrapped with a thin wrapper that has the consistency much like that of a crepe. It's stuffed with carrots, string beans, lettuce, and sometimes sweet potato and bean sprouts.

7.5/10

This is the sauce that is served with the lumpia. It's made out of soy sauce, cornstarch to make it thick, and topped with crushed peanuts. It brings out the flavors in the lumpia and the peanuts give it more texture. It's more sweet than it is salty, but blends well with the lumpia.

Sotanghon soup:

Sotanghon is a transparent type of noodle used in soups, not to be confused with bihon noodles. The soup we had contained green onions, white onions and chicken, but it was way too salty. I didn't care much for this dish.

3/10






Beef tapa

This beef is marinated in spices and then dried to preserve its flavors. Then it is either grilled or fried (this one was fried) and usually eaten with fried egg and rice resulting in tapsilog: an abbreviated form of tapa, sinangag (fried rice), and itlog (egg). My brother ordered the tapa, and we all had low expectations since it's been a long while since we've had really good tapa, but the spices on this beef married well with each other. Not to mention the beef was just the right texture - not too hard but had a good bite to it. The only thing I disliked was the excessive amount of oil the dish was dripping with. Other than that, it was the best tapa I've had in a long, long time.

9/10

Fried Bangus:

Known as fried milkfish in the English, it is probably the most popular fish in the Philippines as it is relatively inexpensive and is very nutritious. Sometimes the bangus can be marinated in vinegar and garlic such as this one, which tasted pretty good. It was served with grilled eggplant, which was a good side to this fish. (Sorry the picture is a little blurry; the fish is the top part, while the eggplant is the bottom left)

7.5/10

Relyenong alimasag:

When I saw this on the menu, I didn't know how the crab (alimasag) would be cooked. When it came in, I understood. Just like the way a Mexican chile relleno is prepared where the chile is first stuffed and then dipped in the egg batter and fried - the cooked crabmeat is stuffed back into its shell together with some peas, onions, and diced tomatoes, dipped into the egg batter and fried.

I ordered this dish. I really liked the way it was presented, in the mini wok it was cooked in. The egg was fried just right, and the crabmeat was soft and tasty. They served it with bagoong - a salty shrimp paste - which I would have probably used if the crab wasn't already salty.

7.5/10

Ampalaya with beef:

Ampalaya is basically bitter gourd, a green vegetable used in a lot of dishes in the Philippines. You have to have an acquired taste for ampalaya as it is very bitter. In this dish that my dad ordered, it is sauteed with onions, garlic, bell peppers, and beef. Overall, the dish was okay but what I liked about it was that the beef in this dish was very tender.

7.0/10

and for dessert...

Mais con hielo:

The simplest after lunch dessert ever. The cousin of the ever popular halo-halo, mais con hielo translated is corn with ice. Really. I've always preferred this one over halo-halo for some reason, but don't worry, halo-halo will be debuted in the near future. Crushed ice, creamed corn, a little sugar, and some evaporated milk are usually the base ingredients of mais con hielo. However, the cunning chefs of Bahay Kubo decided to add a little something. It had the slightest hint of coconut, which might have been from a type of syrup. Whatever it was, it made it more different from what I'm accustomed to, and it was heavenly. God knew I was going to be eating there that day. Although it was a little on the sweet side, it gets props for the secret coconut essence that made it just a little bit better.

9.7/10

Such a good lunch.

We went to the mall to walk off what we ate and window shop. And I couldn't help but pick up a smart vest that was on sale at Zara. Silly me.

More to come soon!

Home is where the heart and stomach is

So I shortened that shawarma video, but it's still not uploading onto my posts! I don't understand. Maybe it really is the internet connection.

My family and I dined in a very chic Mediterranean/Chinese infused restaurant yesterday evening; relatively new, and very, very good. And then I figured out that I left my camera at home. Cringe. Never again. I will re-visit that restaurant before I leave and show you how a childhood snack bar transformed into a dimly lit, sultry ambienced tandoori restaurant. Promise.


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It's so nice to be at home and be able to get Filipino food made from scratch. None of that microwaved stuff in restaurants or gluten-gluten-gluten, soy-soy-soy! from the cafeteria at PUC. Over the weekend my parents made sinigang, a sour and sometimes spicy based dish that has tomatoes, onions, radishes, your choice of meat, and of course tamarind flavoring. Its consistency is that of a soup, yes, but Filipinos usually eat it as a type of ulam, something that goes along with their rice. Our sinigang also had kang kong - a type of leafy vegetable grown in the tropics - and my dad decided it was going to be made with fish. For the life of me I am forgetting what type of fish we used. Anyway, it was really good. Just the right amount of sour to make your lips almost pucker, and then a slight aftertaste of its spices. Always best when piping hot.

Sinigang!

Mom serving me some in a bowl

That day, my parents also boiled some crabs, along with some tomatoes and onions. Very fresh and sweet they were, and I devoured them with some vinegar and garlic, a really good condiment to fresh boiled crabs.

Crab, rice, and a little bit of kang kong


You're mine.

I was so full.







My new love is brie cheese. I can love that even more when it is paired with crunchy green apples and mountain honey. Breakfast of champions. I discovered it when I used to volunteer at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View, CA, and a very generous doctor decided to donate a bunch of snacks to the downstairs cafeteria to all the hospital workers. They were always healthy, but he knew how to pick delicious food. So I decided to try it, and as I've told you, I've fallen in love.

Melted brie, honey, and apples.
How can you go wrong?
You can't.

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And for dessert?
Take a peach,




Broil it with a smidgen of brown sugar,




Top with vanilla ice cream.

Devour.




And start again.









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ulam - A term used for a main dish usually eaten with rice. Usually a type of meat, e.g. Fried chicken was my ulam for lunch.