So Jaco and I decided to attend the Iftar Feast at the Hilton Hotel. We got a babysitter and off we went. I spotted the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel, being that it had fake camels outside and the decor looked OTT gaudy. Walking in, one encounters 3 tables full of food, arranged in layers. It looks like an enormous amount of food and it is!
We were seated at our table and then we started the game of looking around to see if anyone else was drinking the water that was poured for us (more about this later) or eating the dates, nuts and other dried fruit placed on the table between us. It appeared that some people were dishing up already and I spotted others taking sips of water so I decided to risk it and chomped a date. I felt a few eyes on me so I decided that perhaps that would be my last morsel until we could be sure. With that one of the staff rushed past us to get outside and muttered 'Just a few more minutes ma'am'. He was the lookout...or 'listenout', waiting to hear the muezzin with his call to prayer (or, in our case, call to EAT). Upon his hearing it, he signalled to the man at the CD player to play the call to prayer for us.
Thereupon we noticed people tucking in so we decided to get started on our soup we had dished up. The soup was pretty mediocre but the breads were phenomenal. There was an entire table (bar the 2 pots of soup) dedicated to different types of breads. It reminded me of the displays the church used to put out for Harvest Day.
From the breads, we moved onto the cold starters which were utterly phenomenal. A large table, up and down both sides in 2 or 3 layers staggered up the table of salads, pickles, olives, dressings and dips such as hummus and labnehs (Arabic yoghurt-type paste). After finishing this we were starting to wonder how we were ever going to do the main course justice but we were going to give it a good try!
Outside on the patio we found a long row of hot dishes, a braai with koftka and kebabs on the go and another long row of hot dishes down the other side of the patio. There were curries, lovely lamb dishes, mixed grills, pastas, shawarma, vegetables, potatoes, rice and small pastries. We took small portions of those things we really wanted to taste and gave the ordinary things (like pasta) a skip.
After this we were both feeling extremely full but we simply had to try at least some of the desserts that had been tempting us from the start of the evening. There were many different types of Arabic pastries, including my favourite kanafeh with cashews or with pistachio's, rich-looking cakes and moussey type things in individual cups. I managed 3 or 4 pastries (they come in tiny bite-sized pieces) and half a slice of cake before I had to give up and admit defeat.
The meal is advertised at Dhs 80 per person (about R160) but that excludes the lovely R25 bottle of water, the tourist tax and the 10% service charge. In the end it was closer to Dhs 100 per person (R200) but nonetheless well worth it! Next year I will have to fast on that day to get the full experience and to enable me to try more yummy things.
In other news, my neighbour picked up a stray kitten of minuscule proportions who she was unable to keep for various reasons so we decided to adopt him. He did not look especially well so we took him to the vet here in town in Al Ain. He is a Russian who has zero bedside manner but, luckily, nice
enough staff. His surgery is rather rough but at least they serve coffee which Jaco wasted no time in taking advantage of. When we went through to see the vet, we were given over to a Russian girl who proceeded to examine our tiny baby. She asked me many questions, which I answered, but when I asked her questions I was not given more than a yes or a no. After she had looked at him she went to call who I assume is the actual vet who came and glanced perfunctorily at the kitten and took out 4 or 5 large bottles of liquid. When I stated that I was concerned about worms he muttered something about him being too young for deworming and then took out what I can only assume was a deworming tablet. He then filled the syringe 4 or 5 times with the medications and handed it to the woman who injected the little thing in his groin. It was traumatic, to say the least.
We were asked to come back in 2 days time, which Jaco dutifully did, at the same time that we were there previously, only to be told the vet wasn't there but would be back 2 hours later if we wanted to come back then. This meant he would be in at 8pm. We decided to give up on him, despite his very affordable prices and have since taken the baby to the German Vet in Abu Dhabi who has given me a course of antibiotics (the cold he was treated for before had returned) and has estimated his age a week or two older than the Russian guy which, at his age, is quite a difference.
That's all for now. Hope to have more for you soon enough. Did I mention I've been trying to work off the Iftar Feast ever since? No rest for the wicked....
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