Thursday, July 10, 2014

Ramadan 2014 – Day 10-11, Meals and Soccer


Last night a bunch of friends and I decided go to Souq Waqif to have iftar and then stick around to see the World Cup semifinals (Argentina vs Netherlands) on the big screens at the Souq. My Turkish friend and his wife were with us so we booked ahead to try the new Turkish restaurant in the Souq called Bosphorus.

It’s a small restaurant and most of the tables were occupied by Turks. My Turkish friend did all of the ordering, first came the soup and selection of mezzahs



Then a house specialty, a 2-metre kebab dish. I think this was the first time the restaurant had prepared it as even the staff were taking pictures.



Before eating they gave us each cups that contained dry ice which they then used to create a dry ice fog.





Then a plank of desserts, the pastries were really good and they sell them for takeaway so one of my friends will be stopping by this weekend to buy some for home.



And of course Turkish coffee.



I know, I know, too much food. I managed to keep a rein on my stomach and not overeat. Despite there being 7 of us there was still food left over.

Before we left one of the ladies at our table suddenly received one more mezzah. When we were eating the appetizers she felt that the rice in stuffed vine leaves was a bit undercooked. Unbeknownst to us when the chef heard that he immediately started cooking rice and surprised her (and us) with a new sample of the stuffed vine leaves for her to try, to ensure that she ate one that was to her satisfaction (it was).

After dinner there were still plenty of time before the game so the ladies went home while my buddies went to the mosque for tarawih prayers. Afterward we noticed it was still pretty hot and one of the guys remembered that there was a fanzone at Aspire that was really good, open air yet air-conditioned, comfortable seats and so forth. He said it opened an hour before the match which would give us time to get out there and get in.

So off we went to the Aspire fanzone.



The place was huge, probably the size of a football field. There was about 100 people waiting for the gates to open and there was a bit of a crush to get in, not sure why as the place could probably hold 2000 people so it was not like people weren't going to get seats. Anyway we sat down in some nice cushioned seats, got some water and sodas from the drink stand, and sat back to enjoy the game. The place even had shisha on offer!

Like my buddy said despite it being an open-air area the air-conditioning was really strong, after a while some people wished they had brought light jackets as it was a little chilly. Anyway it was a nice fanzone and I'm glad we went there instead of sweltering in the heat.

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