Friday, May 25, 2007

Love to Eat

I was tagged some time ago by a blog friend, The Moody Minstrel, to list 5 of my favorite restaurants here in Bahrain. Why it took me so long to think about this one... well, it's beyond me. But... after some long thinking, I finally came up w/ my list.

These are in order of preference:

1.) Senor Pacos. I love this restaurant. This is the first restaurant that me and Hashim went to when I came here back in 2001 for a visit. I was dying for mexican food and we came upon this place and fell in love w/ it. It's the one place on this island that reminds me of home. I love the weekends there w/ the singing and dancing, and they have the best holiday parties. Mexican food is one kind of food that I could eat every day. I love nachos, fajitas, enchiladas, tacos... you name it, I love it. ummm... it's just sooo good. So this is my most favorite restaurant.

2.) Cafe Italia. This is the italian restaurant at Seef Mall. They have some of the best spinach and cheese ravioli that I've ever tasted and their pizza... well, it's the best I've had in a long time. My favorite pizza place used to be Pizzeria Uno's in Addison, in Texas... but it was a different type of pizza all together - it was Chicago style. Cafe Italia's pizza is thin and they have so many different varieties. And... if you go there, don't miss their salads. They are sooo yummy. I love good salads though.

3.) Kei. This is a Japanese sushi restaurant at the Golden Tulip. We've been going to this restaurant for a while now and I really enjoy their food. I don't eat raw fish... not into that, but I do like their California rolls and many other dishes on their menu. They also have this fried banana dessert that is to die for... makes my mouth water just to think about it! ;) What I like about this place is that you have the choice of sitting where the chef cooks your food. They have this square area and I guess it seats about 15 ppl and everyone can watch as each dish is prepared. This is authentic Japanese whereas many of the other Japanese restaurants here aren't. I recommend this restaurant to everyone.. but I'm sure that most of you have tried this place.

4.) Hash House. This is a Thai restaurant in Adliya. I love their Red Thai Noodles w/ chicken, shredded carrots and cabbage... ummmm... just delicious. It's on the spicy side which I love... but also has a hint of sweet to it. I like the restaurant especially at night when you can sit upstairs on the cushions. This is the only Thai restaurant that I enjoy in Bahrain... the others ... well, I'm not all that impressed.

5.) Melh Al Zad. This restaurant... well... it could probably be my number 2 easily. It's an Iraqi restaurant that we've been eating at for a while now. We first went there some 3 1/2 yrs. ago w/ the in-laws for Eid. I love their hummus, and I must admit they have some very tasty lamb chops. They also have fabulous fattosh salad... I would say it's my favorite of all the restaurants that I've tried since living here w/ the salads, hummus and eggplant dip. Actually, I haven't had anything there that I haven't liked. I love Iraqi spices... they fix Arabic food like nobody's business. It's another place that makes my mouth water just thinking about it. YUM. It's located over off Exhibition Road.

Now... I'm hungry. I do love good food. I'm not a big eater but when I eat... well, I want it to be good. All of these qualify, in my book, as good food. I hope you guys like the list.. and if you haven't tried some of these places.... try them and let me know what you think.

Also... we watched the season finale of Lost tonight. I cried. I was sad to see one castaway get killed. I was hoping it wouldn't happen, but it did. From the things I've read, seems like a lot of ppl were happy to have this person killed off... but it made me sad. I'll write about it probably tomorrow. I'm upset because I really look forward to seeing this show.. and now... we'll have to wait until the next season comes along. This finale left a lot of things unanswered... and put a lot more questions in my mind. I thought it would answer a lot of questions, but it didn't. I'm bummed about that... but figured it would happen.

7 comments:

Islander said...

ur post made me really hungry.. im craving cafe italia sooo much right now!! not to mention other places like cafe lilo, cocos and mirai.. sometimes i miss food more than i miss home lol :P

Olivia said...

Ooh, you remembered to do this tag.

I'm glad you found a good Mexican Restaurant all the way out there. I stil have to try this one in Camden before I move to Harrow!

I love good salads too, the day that happened I realised I was grown up :)

I love Japanese food too - but I eat sushi; in fact I had some yesterday for lunch with miso soup, followed by a nice warm mochi and when I left my tummy felt so happy!
Do they do chicken katsu curry at your restaurant? I tried some at a Jp cafe last month and loved it!
Chicken katsu is breaded and fried chicken, but THEN they drop it in curry and it's deeelish!

And of course I love Thai food, the way they combine chili, lime, coriander, garlic. it is the most aromatic food ever.

I'm kind of impressed that you all have such a choice in Bahrain. Imagine how weird it was when the first Chinese restaurant appeared in Norway, or something :P
My Korean friend says they love Italian food, and there are a number of Italian restaurants in Seoul, run by Italians...living in Korea! I mean...!

The Moody Minstrel said...

Well, you finally answered the question that Saba kept dodging:

There ARE pizza restaurants in Bahrain!
;-)

The Moody Minstrel said...

Fried banana dessert? That sounds more Indonesian than Japanese...

Um Naief said...

sunshine, i read your post about steak.. .now that made me hungry!! you know how to make some mean steak, that's for sure! :)

olivia, i think the thai you get in the UK is much better than all the places from here - combined. i've yet to find a place that serves some of the tasty things you talk about... altho i'd love to try a few of those dishes. i've tried the raw fish... but it just made me gag. my sister loves the stuff, like you. i love miso soup. we have that every time. i don't know if they have chicken katsu curry, but i'm going to look the next time. we haven't been there since i was pregnant... ur not supposed to eat a lot of stuff like that when expecting.

there are a ton of good places to eat here. i haven't tried half of them. there's an area in adliya that has some of the best places... like the places sunshine mentions above.. these are there, and they're very popular. usually at night you can't find a parking place to save your life.

so koreans like italian? interesting. sometimes i wonder if it's just americans or what. i love good italian food.

moody, you know, there are several pizza places here. we also have the fast food pizza places like pizza hut, ceasers and dominos.. if you can believe it. but there are many good places to get a pizza. i especially like the place i listed. they do theirs in a wood oven.

the fried banana is more indonesian? i had no idea. this place is real big w/ japanese business men... maybe the deserts aren't so authentic. this banana dish is just delish though.

Olivia said...

The Thai make my fave banana dessert, which is stewed ripe bananas in a bowl of sweet coconut milk, sprinkled with sesame seeds. Mmmmmmm...real comfy food.

Unknown said...

We live to eat food and we eat food to live , so every kind of food is worth trying !!

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