Vini Edi Dormi

Paris in the Spring

2012-01-20T16:03:00.000+04:00

I've been ignoring this blog for a long time. I wish I had a good reason for doing so, but I don't. Since my last post I have stayed at some great hotels and eaten at some fantastic restaurants. I wish that I had blogged about those places.

I was going to restart my blog with a review of an Ethiopian restaurant in town but I've discovered that don't like Ethiopian food. Instead I'll blog about my parent's recent trip to Paris.

My parents reguarly travel without me, abandoning me alone in the house. So when they told me that they were going to Paris without me, this was not surprising. They did make a big deal of insisting and showing me "evidence" that this was the first trip that they have taken without me. They also went on and on about there being a cast of thousands staying with me or calling me on an hourly basis (spying on me, really) while they were away. This was of course entirely beside the point. So now I have to write about how much fun they had in Paris while I sat at home eating cold soup out of a can and dodgy luncheon meat.

They are tastier in Paris

They stayed at the Keppler Hotel on 10 rue Kepler (the loss or addition of the "p" is very confusing). They said that it was wonderful hotel "furnished beautifully with an impressive eye to detail, spotless, quiet and staffed with friendly, knowledgable people".

Paris and good food go together like abandonment and tears. So anyways here is a list of all the places they ate at:

Le Chateaubriand : "Young chef, we had the tasting menu with the wine pairing, ate these fantastic fried shrimp marinated in passion fruit and the dessert included a raw egg yolk encased in caramelised sugar. The wines were unusual and perfect."
L'Office : "I had a wild mushroom consume and beef with polenta. Excellent!"
La Marine: "Fun brasserie next to canal St. Martin. Great scallops and oysters."

They also hung out at the following bars:

Frenchie Wine Bar : "Small, extensive selection of French wine, amazing nibbles, great staff."
Curio Parlour Cocktail Club : "Imaginative, well crafted cocktails."
Experimental Cocktail Club : "Speak-easy style bar, cool cocktails for cool hip people like me and my friends." (meh!)

I'm sure that they a lot of fun but I am equally sure that they would have had more fun with me. In any case they came back with three cans of cassoulet from Le Comptoir de la Gastronomie.

Abu Dhabi Hotels: Qasr Al Sarab

2010-02-13T13:36:00.004+04:00

Temporarily not so empty

When I told my father that camping was my least favorite sporting activity he pointed out that camping is not a sporting activity. Have you ever heard of a German Olympic camping team, he asked. Notwithstanding my protestations we went camping on New Year's eve in the Empty Quarter. The Empty Quarter is a desert that covers 650,000 square kilometers and consists entirely of sand. No rocks, a couple of shrubs and temporary visitors like us. And that is it. By the way, this sand is not the grainy sand you find on the beach. This sand has a consistency which is slightly less fine than flour and it gets in everything. It took me two weeks before I stopped finding sand in my clothes.

Did I hear the dinner bell?

After we set up camp we started cooking. Cooking was a collective effort and all of us pitched in. We had Indian potato salad and Asian coleslaw. My mother brought ripe avocados and insisted on making fresh guacamole. All the men where involved in cooking the steaks over a fire (the wood came from a sustainable wood farm in Norway, if you must know). For dessert we had chocolate brownies (which where perfect), christmas cookies (which I helped make) and dates. Finally, what camping trip is complete without roasted marshmallows.

A mirage

After a long and painfully cold night, our reward was a night's stay at Qasr Al Sarab. I was so excited to get to the hotel and get 10 tons of flour grained sand out of my hair. Unfortunately, my shower was postponed for another three hours due to the hotel mismanaging our check in. We got our rooms after my mother and her friend staged a sit-in at the reception. Usually this kind of delay doesn't bother me. But having to sit in a restaurant for three hours which was too busy to give us a table was too much for me and I went and joined the sit-in.

Balcony

Our room was very pretty. It seems that all of the rooms were set up to look over the dunes at sunset. They even have a "sunset" lighting feature in the room. Be warned, no amount of pushing the "sunset" button will accelerate the sunset. The bathroom is very large. It has to be given the size of the bathtub. The tub is circular and has a diameter of over 5 feet (based on me lying in it and stretching). We felt guilty about filling up such a large tub in the middle of the desert. In any case, my pre-bath testing concluded that it was not a bathtub built for a long soaks.

Your room is to the left

Qasr Al Sarab is built like a small city. It consists of three different areas: a hotel, a group of luxury villas and a smaller group of super-luxury villas. The common areas were lovely and very well designed.

The Qasr Al Sarab falaq system

Rooms with a view

Sand

The walled city of Qasr Al Sarab

One of the pleasant surprises of Qasr Al Sarab is the quality of the food. We ate at the Gahdeer (their poolside restaurant) that evening. I had lamb chops which were amazing even for a region where cooking lamb is an art form. My father had the seafood grill which included Gulf shrimp and Omani lobster. Again, cooked absolutely perfectly. In fact, everyone was pleased by their selection. When I took a bite of the crema catalana my grandmother ordered I knew the Chef had to be Spanish. He is, in fact a Catalan.

The real surprise was the breakfast. I had more poached egg toasts with avocado and wrapped in smoked salmon then I care to admit. The eggs florentine were also wonderful (and a rare find in this region). The salad bar lent a brunch feel to the breakfast and that is how it turned out for us, as we clocked in about 3 hours at the breakfast table. We actually stayed while they were setting up their lunch buffet. It was a seafood bar on ice and the variety and quality was outstanding (of course my Dad says, the Chef is a catalan). We had to leave before trying the lunch buffet (and we couldn't justify it given the amount of food we had for breakfast) but we will certainly try it next time we come, if we can get to our room in time.

Ice Cream Barcelona: Planelles Donat

2009-11-29T17:44:00.000+04:00

Barcelona is a city that is not famous for its ice cream. After years of in-depth study, I have come to the shocking yet obvious conclusion that there is no Spanish equivalent of gelato. Ice cream and gelato found in Barcelona are the same ice cream and gelato which can be found elsewhere. But that doesn't mean that you can't find good ice cream. Planelles Donat makes good ice cream. Located at Avinguda Portal De l'Àngel 7, Planelles Donat is another Barcelona food institution which has survived almost unchanged for generations.

Step 1: Get Ice Cream

Step 2: Buy Turrons

Step 3: Repeat

Ice cream is not one of my favorite foods, so I can't tell you if the ice cream at Planelles Donat is the best ice cream ever or just really, really good. They serve the typical ice cream flavors (chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, pistachio) but they also serve more unusual flavors like turron, stracciatela and rum and raisin. If ice cream isn't your thing, then try drinks such as granita, milkshakes and orxatas (none of which I've had).

Getting ice cream is just a pass time while we choose turrons to bring back with us for Christmas. Turrons come in many different kinds, such as:

the fruity one (which I don't like);
the burnt cream one you put in the freezer until Christmas day (which everyone likes);
the really hard almond one you smash against the floor to break it up into serving sizes (which everyone likes to smash);
the marzipan one (good if you like marzipan); and
the soft nutty pasty one (which I don't like but everyone else does).

Planelles Donat makes excellent turrons and currently there are two or three in our freezer. Family rumor has it that my grandmother gets turrons delivered to her from family in Barcelona which are better than those from Plannelles Donat. She has never shared them with any of us and she even denies she gets them. Until we wring a confession from her we will happily make do with our turrons from Planelles Donat.

Restaurants Barcelona: El Xampanyet

2009-09-20T18:18:00.000+04:00

Abandon all hope of leaving sober all ye who enter here

El Xampanyet is one of our favorite places in Barcelona. It is located on C/ Montcada 22, up the street from the Picasso Museum in the center on the tourist section of Barcelona. Notwithstanding its location, El Xampanyet doesn't grovel for tourist money by making bland Disneyland Spanish food. This place is very animated with both locals and tourists overflowing onto the street. El Xampanyet is famous for its house cava which is lighter than normal cava. Poured from 1.5L bottles the cava is perfectly chilled and refreshing morning, afternoon and night (or so my parents tell me).

Worth every Euro

The only food they serve is tapas and they are simple, fresh and delicious - their anchovies are famous. The father, mother and son team behind the bar are extremely friendly.

There are few places in Barcelona where having tapas could be more enjoyable.

Restaurants Barcelona: Els 4 Gats

2009-09-03T20:45:00.000+04:00

Els 4 Gats is lovely restaurant located at Carrer Montsió, 3. It was originally established by a Modernist painter and was where other Modernist artists would hang-out during the early 1900s (including Picasso who had one of his first one-man shows there). The 4 Gats is in a building designed by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, an architect responsible for some of the most wonderful buildings in Barcelona. Inside, the restaurant walls are covered with Modernist paintings by artists such as Ramon Casas, one of the original owners. Both the interior and the exterior of this restaurant is beautiful.

2 of the 4

It is the beauty of the place that makes us excited about going to Els 4 Gats every time we are Barcelona. And it is the beauty of the place that makes us really want to like the food. But.... Unfortunately the food is not great. It's not bad but it doesn't seem that they put a lot of effort into preparing it. In a city like Barcelona where (outside of tourist areas) eating well is not difficult there is little reason for eating at Els 4 Gats. Go have a coffee or a drink, enjoy the very beautiful space but eat elsewhere.

Restaurants Barcelona: Dulcinea

2009-08-29T16:00:00.000+04:00

At last!

Finally after three years of one thing after another stopping me from having churros and chocolate at Dulcinea (Carrer de Petritxol 2) this year was the year. Every time we went there was always a reason why I couldn't have churros and chocolate:

the churro machine was broken:
they were working on summer hours and we were too early or too late;
we got there on time but they had run out of churros; or
we got there on time, they had churros but we were on our way to have a seven course meal with family and my parents refused to allow me to have churros and chocolate before dinner.

You can eat 3000 calories of chocolate and churros and still be thin.

Dulcinea is famous in Barcelona for its churros and chocolate which consists of a large cup of melted chocolate (thicker than hot chocolate but thinner than just melted chocolate), a plate of churros (deep-fried dough) and a plate of freshly whipped cream. It was amazingly delicious: not too sweet, not greasy, just perfect.

A window to a garden of earthly delights

Dulcinea is the only place in Barcelona to get churros and chocolate. And this has been the case since my grand-parents were kids (according to my grand-parents). This is definitely a case where being persistent and struggling to overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles is worth it.

I Am Going on a Summer Holiday

2009-06-26T18:33:00.001+04:00

My summer holiday is finally here. By the end of August I will have travelled to Barcelona, Paris, Freiburg, Montreal, Toronto, Calgary, Red Deer, Vancouver, Seattle and Edmonton. The trip will be a lot of fun, but by the end of two months I will long to sleep in my comfy, comfy bed. When I'm in Barcelona I want to start a "Pastry du Jour" feature on the blog. Barcelona is one of my favorite eating cities. And if I'm very lucky we'll get a last minute table at El Bulli (although every year my father tries to get in by pretending to be an Gulf Sheikh arriving by helicopter and they still turn him down).

Let me know if know of any good restaurants in any of the cities I will be in for the next two months.

Restaurants Umm Al Quwain: Umm Al Quwain Beach Resort

2009-05-23T11:17:00.000+04:00

This is the restaurant where I met my beloved pet chili Fred. When I first set eyes on Fred he was just another chili on a big plate of vegetables (you know plate that you get in all Lebanese restaurants as soon as you sit down). The Lebanese Restaurant at the Umm Al Quain Beach Resort is the mother of all Lebanese restaurants in the UAE. It is by Dream Land Aqua Park where all the kids want to go on the week-end and close to Barracuda where all of the adults want to go on the week-end. I have friends that told me that the restaurant reminded them of restaurants in the mountains of Beirut. I don't know what the name of this restaurant is so I will call it the "restaurant".

My friend Fred

In addition to Fred I also met: Jaclyn - a beautiful belly dancer who does the most amazing side-stepping in heels I've ever seen (not that I've seen many side-steppings performed before) and The Singer - I liked the Singer, the young folk liked the Singer, the old folk liked the Singer, even the little baby folk liked the Singer. I defy anyone to not like the Singer.

The restaurant consists of a large banquet hall with a stage in the middle (where Jaclyn, the Singer and band perform). The set up reminded me of a wedding hall. In fact the whole experience reminded me of being at a wedding. Sure it's like being at a wedding where you only know the people at your table. But you'll never have to show up in a yellow satin strapless dress with ballon skirt ending above the knee, unless you really want to. Definitely, Friday afternoon party central.

Trust me, everybody is having a blast!

The restaurant has a set menu with all the mezze you can eat and all the Arak and beer you can drink.

I very generously let the others eat my portion of raw kebbe

This is the second time we've been to the restaurant and the we noticed that we were served far more mezze and far less grills than the first time. I also seem to remember that we got a big sponge cake with sparklers on it the first time. As far as quality goes the restaurant is as good as Al Mallah, but until Al Mallah serves Arak and beer and lets you dance on the tables while Jaclyn performs her amazing belly dance routine (what a wonderful day that will be) the restaurant does the best Lebanese brunch in the UAE.

Restaurants Dubai: Sammach

2009-05-09T11:45:00.000+04:00

Sammach does something that many other restaurants in Dubai can't seem to do: use fresh local ingredients to make perfectly cooked dishes. The food I had was not fancy (grilled prawns, grilled fish in African sauce, little fish rolled in flour and deep-fried whole and squid in a sauce my friend calls ''soak it all up with my bread sauce"). None of these dishes required an extremely high level of skill to put together. But the kitchen obviously understands seafood and puts in the effort to get it right. This is more than can be said about more expensive seafood restaurants in Dubai such as Pierchic and Picses.

Sammach is located in the Beach Center mall on Jumeirah road. The night we went there it wasn't very busy. I hope that they are usually busier. Word of warning: do not lick the wet wipes given after dinner!

Restaurants Isfahan: Shahrzad Restaurant

2009-05-01T16:42:00.000+04:00

A colorful and busy restaurant, the Shahrzad is over the beautiful Si-o-Seh bridge. I had the chicken with walnut sauce and burberry rice, it was sweet and sour and very good. The portions were very generous and one portion could easily have fed three people. As appetizers we ordered salad and olives. The salad was the same lettuce, tomato and cucumber in cling wrap accompanied by salad cream that we were given in every restaurant in Iran. There must be a factory somewhere which manufactures them. The olives on the other hand were very unique. On seeing them, our friend said they looked "recycled". And indeed they did look like they had passed through someone's digestive tract before arriving at our table. I was too squeamish to try any but the others did and said they tasted as if they had been covered in hoisin sauce.

Isfahan Restaurants: Khan Golstar Restaurant

2009-05-01T15:25:00.000+04:00

All of the restaurants our five year old guide book said were located in the Armenian district of Jolfa seem to have disappeared. So we stopped strangers on the streets of Jolfa and asked them to recommend a restaurant in the area. All of them told us two things: one, the Khan Golstar was the best restaurant in Isfahan; and two, that it was also the most expensive restaurant in Isfahan.

It certainly didn't look like the best and most expensive restaurant in Isfahan. What ever it was you are paying all that money for it wasn't for the decor. Maybe you are paying for the budding novelist who wrote the menu. This was floweriest menu I've ever seen with such descriptions as: The Exceptional Salad Bar, The Barg: Thin, Flat and Tasty, The Extraordinary Steak and our favorite the 50cm Romantic Kebab! The other thing you pay for is the size of the portions - they were huge. One order could have fed the four of us. I had the chicken with fried rice cakes and burberry rice (and butter). While it was delicious sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.

Isfahan Restaurants: Traditional Sofreh Khaneh

2009-05-01T11:47:00.000+04:00

a.k.a Traditional Banquet Hall, a.k.a Restaurant this way upstairs is a popular restaurant just off Imam Square. It opens for lunch at 12:30 and there was a line up to get in when we arrived at 12:27. The restaurant is spacious with lots of room inside and outside (on a terrace) so getting a table was no problem. The restaurant is decorated with frescoes, mirrored ceilings and stained glass windows. Instead of tables people are seated on raised platforms.

The menu selection is limited but all of the dishes we tried were very good. I especially liked the Obergon Stew - puree of aubergine with cream and spices. We also liked the Dizi, a.k.a. Deeze, a.k.a Dizee although we never discovered the proper way of eating this dish. Dizi is a chickpea and meat stew that comes in a flaming hotpot and is accompanied by one metal bowl, one spoon, one metal pestle and one piece of bread. Our observation of Iranians that ordered this dish yielded no results. The waiter with his back turned towards us, arms flailing performed the magical task of turning the ingredients into a finished meal for them. When we asked the waiter to do the same for us he looked upset and started calling for his boss. Other diners were starting to stare so we excused the waiter. We used all of the implements in all of the different ways we could think of. The result was delicious if probably not very authentic.

Isfahan Hotels: Dibai House

2009-04-30T18:22:00.000+04:00

The Dibai House is one of the prettiest hotels I've ever stayed at. Sufi and her daughter Alale have refurbished two ancient houses. The result is an oasis of tranquility and beauty.

The entrance to the hotel is situated in a narrow high walled alleyway next to the Ail Mosque just off a busy road in the middle of the Bazar-e Bozorg. Once behind the thick wood doors the noise of the Bazar fades into silence. I've never experienced silence like that in any city.

The rooms are furnished in Persian style with carpets, textiles and ceramics. Sufi and Alale have kept the original layout of the house so the rooms are accessible through central courtyards. They are high-ceilinged, bright and airy.

The rooms we had did not have en-suite bathrooms although I understand that some rooms do. I've never been in a hotel where I've had to share a bathroom but I've found sharing a bathroom at this hotel to be a minor inconvenience at best. Breakfast was included in the room price and Alale was extremely helpful and friendly. The Dibai House would be my first choice if I return to Isfahan.

Shiraz Restaurants: Shater Abbas Restaurant

2009-04-28T16:21:00.001+04:00

Located at Azadi Blvd. and Khakshenasi St. the Shater Abbas is the only restaurant in Shiraz that we really liked. Not that we had a lot of choice:

Restaurant on the top floor of the Pars International Hotel: Tourist buffet a la mayonnaise;
African Restaurant (also at Pars): my Dad stopped looking at the menu after he saw "Monkey Gland" in the entree section - he said he was afraid that "Red Assed Baboon Anus" would be the next main on the menu; and
Yord Restaurant: a highly recommended restaurant run by the Qashqa'i nomads next to a bubbling brook, set in a large yord (tent) where you eat cheap and amazing food accompanied by live traditional music. Perhaps a restaurant imagined by travel guide writers - no one we asked in Shiraz had ever heard of it.

The Shater Abbas is a great restaurant run by a large friendly man with one cauliflower ear (pretend you don't notice). The bread is baked on site and is amazing. The kebabs are generous and delicious.

Shiraz Hotels: Pars International Hotel

2009-04-28T11:40:00.000+04:00

The Pars International Hotel is a modern building located a distance from Bazaar Vakil and Hafez's Tomb but is close to Bagh-e Eram. Decorated with 70's furnishings the Pars has very spacious rooms, very clean bathrooms and pillows the hardness of a Persepolis column.

Arguably, the Pars is the fanciest hotel in Shiraz. And similarly with fancy hotels all over the world, there are details at the Pars which lets you know that you're staying at a top international hotel. The girls behind the reception desk are, in the words of one online reviewer "the peatiest girls of Shiraz" (and also very helpful). The carpets in the elevators are embossed with the relevant day of the week. I traveled in the Middle-East extensively, so immediately assumed that the carpet was meant to say "Welcome" and not "Wednesday". I was proved wrong on Thursday. The Pars also has an overgenerous central heating system.

Overall, although expensive by Iranian standards, it is no less shabby and far, far less expensive than many hotels I've stayed in London.