One summer my in-laws took an istahara during Eid. At the time, I was incredibly pregnant, fat, uncomfortable in every position, and chronically sweaty from the 110+ degrees days. I’m sure they just invited me as an extension to my husband’s invitation, but still they were very nice to do so because I imagine I…
Category: Food
Choklava
The other day while walking around the mall with my husband, he got a craving for something sweet. While standing in line and waiting for him to buy some desserts, I happened to spy something I’ve never seen before- chocolate baklava. I’m usually not a huge fan of sweet foods like baklava, but I do…
My Obsession
When I lived in Qassim, it was just one giant food fest all the time. While I got to try lots of new, interesting snacks, one stood out to me more than the others: Rollanti Ronce Rocky Road. I’ll admit, it’s a bit ugly to look at, (so much so that when I took it…
Coffee Hour
One of my favorite things about my job is the people I work with. We are all very diverse, and come from multiple countries and backgrounds. Once a week we gather for something called “coffee hour.” The organizer brings “ghawah,” or Arabic coffee, and everyone else brings something to eat with the coffee. While we…
Bella Roma, Qassim
Qassim, Saudi Arabia isn’t the most exciting place on Earth… In fact, many people would argue that it’s quite boring. I’m not disagreeing with that, but in my time living there I did discover a few nice things. My coworkers and I would sometimes head away from the compound and treat ourselves to a nice…
Presentation day
I always love it when my students have a presentation. It’s so amazing to watch them progress in their language abilities and come out of their shell. Their progression is made better by their visual aids- FOOD! That’s right, every presentation yields enough food to feed us for a week. No matter what their topic is,…
Home spicy Home
Eating habits really are a weird thing sometimes. When I am home all I want is to try something new and interesting. Give me any ethnic food! I would love to eat Indian cuisine one day, Lebanese the next, followed by Chinese. Now that I live in Riyadh it is totally different and my friend…
It’s the weekend
It seems every weekend Mamdouh and I find ourselves at his family’s house. Not complaining, because I’m one of the few people on earth that actually likes her in-laws it seems… but I am still a newlywed and still relatively new in the family (although not the newest as my brother-in-law got married in July…
That’s cheesy
Getting around in this country is rather difficult, especially for women. I mean it’s hard for men because most of them are scared to drive, but women aren’t even afforded the choice of driving or not. It’s straight up illegal for a woman to operate a car here. Yeah, it’s a stupid rule, and demeaning…
Riyadh and chill
This weekend was fun because I got to get away from my ultra- conservative city here in Buraidah, and head to the capital city of Riyadh. It’s still conservative, but not so conservative that I can’t ditch the niqab and head to Buffalo Wild Wings with my friends. It’s kind of like replicating the American experience,…
Cooking update
A while ago I mentioned that I was going to try to learn how to cook. I promised I would give you guys an update as to how it went, and so here it is. The food turned out pretty good actually. I mean I made one curry and absolutely ruined it, but otherwise everything…
Eid feast photos.
Eid is to Saudis as Thanksgiving is to Americans- a day to eat, eat, and eat some more. Then eat again. I spent Eid with a Saudi family, and they slaughtered 3 sheep, so we were able to have a bountiful feast. There was a lot of meat to work with, and they worked it…
Kendra in KSA 