Food

I am going to attempt to respond to some of the questions that those of you who have left comments have asked.  Several people have asked about what I eat here.  I cook my own food so I eat stuff that is very similar to what I ate in the states.  I am happy to report they have all the chip and candy bar varieties you can handle including lots of new flavors of chips and lots of candy from Europe.  There are toblerone bars everywhere you look...but beware of the Saudi version of Ketchup flavored chips...I learned that one the hard way!
 
I shop at big beautiful grocery stores that look more like grocery stores in California and Utah than those in NYC.

 

 They even have a lot of the same products.  You can get just about anything here that you can get in Europe or the states as most of it comes from those places. That goes for products at the grocery store as well as fast food restaurants and clothing and make up stores. All the major restaurants and stores are here including Applebees, Outback Steakhouse, Sephora, Mac, Bath and Body Works and on and on and on.  Saudi Arabia is such a young country that it hasn't had time to really develop its own stuff.  Before 1930 it was still made up of warring desert tribes, when all of a sudden oil was discovered and it was magically transformed into one of the richest countries in the world.  They needed to act like a first world country and fast, so that the people would have somewhere to spend all this new money, so they borrowed from the other rich countries and as a result have malls that look a lot like posh malls in America and Europe.

 

They have an assortment of cereals.  The ones from the US are a little more expensive but after trying the Saudi version of coco puffs I can assure you it is worth it.

 

The Saudi's are fond of ketchup.  My students put it on EVERYTHING! ie falafel, gyros, turkey sandwiches, pretzels etc.

 

The Saudi's have attempted to create their own versions of all of these imported processed goods and most of the imitations are AWFUL.  As you can imagine, produce is pretty sparse in the desert. Watermelon and carrots grow here but not much else.

 

So most of it is imported from Europe which makes it taste kind of old.  There are some produce items imported all the way from the states.  Some even came all the way from my hometown!

I am pretty sure these came from Bakersfield too, since it seems they are charging us for their plane ticket.

 There are small differences if you are looking for them. Some are good and some are bad.  The hummus, taboulah, eggplant tahini and babaganoosh are fantastic. As is the pita bread they make fresh each day.  I east a pita at each meal and they are delightful. They have some delicious juices.  My favorite is Kiwi Lime.

 Here is a jar of homemade pickles.  I played it safe and bought vlasic.

Locally grown and halal approved if you dare...

 

 I dared...it tastes gamey and tough and the flavor is pretty bad, so I would prefer chicken to camel but camel to cow stomach (which they also sell, but i fortunately learned my lesson in Chile).

If I ignore the women shrouded in black,  I often feel like I am in the US in the supermarket right up until you hear the prayer call and the whole store closes.  They lock the doors and nobody can come or go and all the employees disappear for 30 minutes to go pray, and you are stuck in the refrigerator section, not wanting to put the items in your cart until the pray is over.

So I eat hummus and pita and oranges from Spain and apples from France and lots and lots of European chocolate.

My friend Alana and I went out one day to have real Saudi food at a Saudi restaurant.

We took a picture of the front of it, but we couldn't enter at the main entrance (being women and all) so we snuck around the back to hidden women's entrance.

 The decor was all very traditional. No tables and chairs, just rugs and pillows on the floor for more of a lounging around eating.

 They serve the food on the floor on a big woven mat. We got some cucumber, yogurt salad, some camel kabsa (nasty) and some pumpkin chicken mixture (amazing).

 The women eat upstairs in these private rooms so NO ABAYA...WAHOO!!

 We also went and had Turkish food one night.  It was really good.

 I didn't get a picture but a group of teachers went and had Armenian food one night which was fascinating.  I had lamb that had been cooked for hours in what tasted exactly like cherry pie filling. It was better than dessert.

Middle Eastern food is good, but the Saudi's are embracing American and European food so fast that it is hard to find, and most of the fast food Saudi restaurants don't allow women at all, so perhaps I will never know.  If my students are any indication of what Saudi's eat I would say they have a steady diet of coffee, chips and candy bars.