Tokyo- review

Cuisine: Japanese
Price:***
Food: *****
Presentation:**
Cleanliness: ***
Location: Oruba (between King AbdulAziz and Olaya, very close to King AbdulAziz Rd)

This is a GREAT sushi restaurant where one needs reservations to get a table on the weekends.
This is the first sushi I have had in Riyadh that actually used sushi-grade fish. The difference in flavor is noticeable. The sets were [...]

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Furusato- review

Cuisine: Japanese
Price:***
Food: **
Presentation:***
Cleanliness: ***
Location: Tahlia

This is an average Japanese restaurant with a French alter-identity.
There are no cubicles and the eatery features an open area with tables. One chooses to sit upstairs or downstairs depending on the cuisine that one wants.
The sushi was okay, nothing exceptional. The grilled seafood plate and the french cuisine was also [...]

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Zyng- review

Cuisine: Asian fusion
Price:***
Food: ***
Presentation:*****
Cleanliness: ***
Location: Tahlia St

This business casual eatery has decent food and BEAUTIFUL presentation.
We tried their 3 course meals and were able to select our choice of appetizers, entrees, dessert and drinks from their menu for a reasonable price. The selections include Chinese, Japanese, Thai and Vietnamese food.
The quantities were good, but not [...]

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Shiraz- review

Cuisine: Persian
Price:***
Food: ****
Presentation:***
Cleanliness: ***
Location: Abdullah bin Salman Road (left at first traffic left on Tahlia – between Olaya Rd and AbdulAziz bin Musayd Road- towards Sulaymaniya)

This is a nice, business casual Persian restaurant with really great service.
The family section is upstairs and has both individual cabins as well as a small open seating area.
The appetizers [...]

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Al- Shurfa – review

Cuisine: Seafood/Persian
Price:***
Food: ***
Presentation:***
Cleanliness: ***
Location: Makkah Road (on the left, going east, towards the Ring Rd, before it becomes Khurais Rd)

This is a good, casual seafood restaurant with semi-outside seating for families.
The seafood restaurant is upstairs and the grill section is downstairs. The first view when one goes upstairs is rather nice- it’s a high ceiling [...]

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zucchini muffins

(recipe adapted from “Mom’s Zucchini Bread” on allrecipes.com)

1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/8 cup raisins
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup finely grated zucchini

Preheat oven to 180C. Oil and flour muffin pan. Makes 8 muffins.
Mix together: flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon.
Beat together: oil, sugar, egg.
Stir in [...]

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make haste towards welfare…

I’m up very early this morning and while sitting here in the dark with my laptop, without the air conditioning turned on, I finally clearly heard the adhan!! Actually several of them, with overlapping sounds calling people for prayer. Normally one hears nothing when indoors because of the loud hum of the room air conditioners [...]

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menu: spinach soup and feta-chicken turnovers

Spinach soup (adapted from Creamy Spinach Soup recipe on allrecipes.com)

400grams (~1lb) chopped frozen spinach
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 onion, minced
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Boil everything together until spinach is tender

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup flour
3 cups half and half (or evaporated milk)

Make a roux- melt butter in saucepan over medium heat, stir in flour, cook for 1min.
Whisk in [...]

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Ammouneh: review

Cuisine: Lebanese
Price:***
Food: ****
Presentation:***
Cleanliness: ***
Location: Thalatheen (?) between King Fahd and Takhasussi

This is a good Lebanese restaurant with tasty food and non-interesting decor.
We tried an assortment of appetizers and ended up being too full to finish our meals. Our meal included  hummus Beiruti, yummy hummus with meat, good fried chicken liver (I am not a huge [...]

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life of luxury- part 2

Yesterday I was ranting about working and giving back. I think part of the problem is that I feel like I have been living this life of luxury and not doing anything particularly constructive for a while now. It’s a weird kind of guilty feeling as I know that I OUGHT to be doing more, [...]

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eat, sleep, go out for dinners- live a life of luxury?

We recently went to dinner at a compound where a met a few women. Everyone else already knew each other and had been in the Kingdom for much longer. We started the usual small talk and the topic of work came up. I was mentioning how I need to start looking for contracts here now [...]

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online viewing

I think what I miss the most outside the US is access to free TV and videos online. Every major broadcast station has full episodes available on their website. Hulu has TV and full length movies. All these are free, legal and wonderful for people like me who do not have cable at home and [...]

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Feroz Chacha passed away

A few days ago my mother’s uncle (my grandfather’s brother) passed away after a long and painful battle with cancer. His prostate cancer had spread all the way up his spine to his throat and mouth- his last few days were spent in the hospital. He drove himself to the hospital, had a heart attack, [...]

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