An Omani Adventure on Junk Fud on the Road

 This was our first true travel adventure since Covid, and it was so amazing and fun.

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Eating In Oman

 Recently Allison and I went on a two week adventure to Oman and Qatar. Today I'm going to go over a few of the fun food discoveries that we came across while in Oman. We're both big fans of Middle Eastern cooking, but we also like that many Middle Eastern countries enjoy having western food available too. This is good for us because we often visit Middle Eastern countries while we're living in other parts of the world that may not have a lot of western foods to choose from. This allows us to enjoy a nice trip some place different, but also get a little taste of home while we're there. 

The one thing we learned about the local food in Oman is that the date is king. Dates not only play a role in the cuisine, but in the social customs as well. Traditionally dates were used a way of starting meals, as well as greeting newcomers. When people would travel through the country, they would stop in villages and forts as they traveled, and one of the ways people would welcome you is with a date. For important guests it would be a large platter of dates extravagantly displayed on a giant platter, but it could also be a simple offering as well.

The great thing is that this tradition lives on. At many of the local restaurants we would be offered dates as we came in or at the end of our meal. On one occasion we visited a small museum, we started up a conversation with the one person who worked there. At one point he mentioned the tradition of offering dates and his eyes opened wide. Suddenly he whisked away only to return with a bowl of dates. He offered us one and they were fantastic. He insisted we take a handful to enjoy for the rest of that day's adventure. It was such a kind gesture and really gave me an idea of what it was like for the travelers in the past being greeted by warm hospitality and dates.

Dates are also very common in the desserts found in Oman. One day we visited a traditional Omani restaurant, and as luck would have it they had a mixed sweets option for dessert. I'm always happy when traveling to find this kind of dessert because it gives us a nice variety of local flavours to try. Very often I'm stuck trying to pick just one local dessert that I have to hope is good, but in this case we were able to sample many locally made sweets, and they were all so different, but also very yummy.

The meal at this restaurant were pretty fascinating too. I tried an interesting porridge, and best of all the sauce was made with date syrup. After learning that date syrup was a thing, the first thing we did was headed to the grocery store and picked up a bottle. I don't know what I'll use my date syrup for, but I can't imagine that I would come up with something so creative as to use it with a vegetable porridge.

While I did enjoy my porridge, and the date addition made it work, the highlight at this meal was an eggplant dish made with a very garlic filled cream. The cream was light and the flavour was serious garlic. We've had other Middle Eastern dishes similar to this, but the coolness of the cream really made this version spectacular.

While we did enjoy a few more local delicacies, including many wraps and shawarmas, we also got our fix of western treats as well. One tradition we have when we travel is to try and sample the local McDonald's pies. Not everyone knows that McDonalds will often tailor their pie flavours to local palettes, and apparently in the Middle East they love having custard in their McDonald's pies. Fortunately so does Allison, and she was sure to pick up a few of these strawberry custard pies on this trip. One unique thing we found about the pies in Oman is that they seem to make them made to order, unlike other parts of the world where they're ready to go. This means you're always getting a fresh pie, a scorching hot fresh pie that is. The thing is, it was strawberry custard, and it was yummy. Eventually we learned to let them sit for a few minutes before eating them to avoid burning our mouths.

We got a few more western meals on this trip including a stop at Chillies, a cheesesteak, and some fried chicken. We also stopped at IKEA (it was literally attached to our hotel) and picked up meatballs one evening. I believe that the meatballs might be a little different than the ones you get in western countries since I believe (and you can correct me if I'm wrong) that IKEA meatballs normally contain pork. It's funny because this aversion to pork comes across many different ways, in particular I found that many gummy brands only sold their vegetarian versions, due to the use of gelatin.

This trip was not just about food. We decided for this first Omani leg of the trip that we would rent a car and drive out to some of the sites outside of Muscat. We visited many forts, wadi's and other natural wonders. This meant that we had to be sure to have plenty of snacks for these road trips. Nuts were a staple, but I also really got into the various nut bars or chikki available as well. I made sure to have a handful of these with me at all times, and they were great for traveling. They didn't melt in the heat, and there was such a variety that I had a new treat every day.

We had a pretty amazing trip, and tasted some great local and comfortable western foods. While many of the meals were amazing, I feel like the generosity of the people giving us the food made it even better. From the nice man that gave me a band-aid at a rooftop coffee shop at an oasis in the middle of nowhere, or the amazing people that handed me a date just to say hello.

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Airport and Airplane Food To Oman, Qatar and Back

How do I put this, the food I ate while traveling to and from the Middle East was both very interesting and not at the same time. To be clear, we flew business class. While it seems like we've been doing this a lot lately, it has more to do with the current situation with airlines than it does with us being particularly fancy. First of all we found a really good deal with these business class flights, like really good. Secondly we had one overnight flight and several long waits in airports. This means we would get comfortable sleeping arrangements on the flight and lounge access in the airports. So it almost became worth the small amount extra to get business class... well sort of.

Our first flight was actually not business class, that's because the flight we took was a pretty short haul (prop plane), and they didn't even offer business class. This was also the most "interesting" meal we ate the entire journey. The photo does not give it justice because it just looks like a nice plate of butter chicken. The problem is that it was cold. When I say it was cold I don't mean it was heated up and then it didn't stay warm once it was delivered to me. This butter chicken was delivered to me as if it was a salad. Is this a thing?

Once we landed in Thailand (our first stop) we headed straight to the lounge... no we didn't. We headed straight to McDonalds. We went to McDonalds because the current place we live does not have a McDonalds. We seem to have a gift for living in countries that do not have the Golden Arches. Some might consider that a blessing, but I find that when I live in a place that doesn't have a McDonalds, I crave McDonalds all the time. So the first thing we did when we landed in an airport with a McDonalds is stop and get burgers.

We did eventually get to the lounge as we had a long layover and I picked up these absolutely beautiful desserts. The rose shaped tart was a mango tart and it was amazing. The cup dessert was the most fancy apple crumble I've ever seen in my life. It had blueberries and gold leaf added, which are both equally weird additions to apple crumble for completely different reasons. I'm starting to believe that apple desserts are considered fancy in South East Asia, even the ones we consider in North America to be very simple.

Somehow, after our first layover all we ate on the rest of our flights was breakfast. I think it had something to do with the long flights and how we were crossing over time zones. I'll be honest it was all a bit of a blur. We got onto our second flight of this adventure and prepared to sleep, which I didn't because I can't sleep on planes. I will however say, in good Candy Critic style, all of the breakfasts I selected were pretty much just desserts. It started with what I thought would be a couple of slices of banana bread (my favourite of all breads). I thought it would be a nice little snack to wake up to, instead it was probably the most over the top banana bread I've ever seen in my life.

It also came with a puck of butter. When I say puck, I mean the most perfectly round slab of butter ever created. I believe mathematicians could use this puck to calibrate their instruments.

I have a curiosity when it comes to sweets, so before getting off this flight I saw on the menu that as a snack they offered chocolate. There was no description of what kind of chocolate and how it would be delivered. At some point in the middle of the night the flight attendant saw that I was awake and asked if I wanted anything. Bleary eyed and confused I remembered that I saw the words chocolate on the menu, so I said "chocolate". She brought me back these, and they were pretty good. I mention this because it will come up again in the future. I also should mention that even though I wasn't hungry I ate both of these chocolates and while they tasted good, I don't think it was doing much for my health.

The third and final flight of this leg I decided to order waffles... and they gave me pancakes. I'm not sure where this breakdown happened, but everyone on the flight who ordered this got the same thing. I think it might be a language barrier or a simple mistake on the menu. As always my carbs came with a side of carbs and plenty of syrup and jam. Needless to say I was not feeling great after this.

We finally arrived in Muscat Oman, and had a wonderful time (I'll be posting about that later). After that portion of our trip it was time to head to Doha Qatar. This was a fairly short flight, but there were two things worth mentioning food wise about this leg. First of all I tried something in the lounge at the airport that I never thought about before, pineapple and mint juice. Adding mint to juice is a big thing in Oman, and I drank plenty of iced tea with mint throughout our trip, but pineapple juice? It strangely worked, really well. I would actually recommend giving it a try, but don't be stingy with the mint.

The flight offered a nice fancy meal, but the dessert (that round puck in the upper left hand) was amazing. It was some kind of custard treat that I could have eaten for the rest of my life. We arrived in Doha and also had a wonderful time (and once again I'll have more about that in its own post). 

After our great stop in Qatar we headed home (two flights). We left Doha at 1 am, so we decided to get to the airport around 9 and have a late dinner. Frankly the dinner in the lounge was okay, but kind of complicated. It was most complicated when the wifi didn't work for us at the airport and it turns out that if you want to see the menu of items at the lounge you "have" to scan a QR code. Fortunately they had a buffet with a few less items but it suited us well enough. While the food was fine, they had a few special items for the Chinese New Year including this beautiful and tasty orange dessert. I asked the person manning the dessert table which was the best, he said the chocolate cake was the most popular, but these orange desserts where a special for the New Year. I decided to go special over popular and I was not disappointed.

Our first flight home was another overnight flight that offered some kind of dinner at 1 am and then breakfast... again. I skipped dinner as we had just eaten in the airport, but opted to have breakfast. I thought I should get something sensible until I saw that they had a Nutella donut available. The thing about this donut is the menu said it was a "freshly made donut". I immediately assumed that they had a deep fryer on the plane and would be making them piping hot. I also assumed it wouldn't be gigantic. I was wrong on both accounts. While it looks very fancy, it was pretty average and cold in the middle.

I should also mention, on our flight back home that I ordered the mystery chocolate again, and once again it had no description. I had fond memories of the other chocolate I got on the earlier flight and I thought I would maybe get it again. I also should mention that I wanted some popcorn thinking it would be made fresh for some reason. This time however they gave me a Dairymilk bar instead of their fancy chocolates. I'd like to believe it's because they ran out of their fancy chocolates, but it also could have been how dirty and tired I looked on this last leg of our trip and the flight attendant just thought I wasn't fancy enough. The popcorn was also in bags and not fresh, but I did get both salted and caramel corn.

Our last leg we ate something that I don't really remember and I didn't get a picture. I was way too tired and just looking forward to going into my own bed. All in all the food we got while traveling on this journey was very fancy and tasty. We also got a pair of pyjamas to take home which is both weird but also amazing.

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Middle East Treats All Week!

I just got back from a fun adventure in the Middle East (Oman and Qatar to be exact). While there I ate a lot of great food, and found lots of candy to review. I thought I'd start off with a full week of special Middle Eastern treats in a fun review-a-thon. That means you'll find a new review every single day this week (assuming I don't sleep in) when you wake up in the morning. For this first review-a-thon I found a group of these candies that were actually somewhat similar, but also different.

Check out the current instalment in my Middle East candy review-a-thon right here, and check back (on candycritic.org or on my social media) every day for new reviews.

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