Last weekend began with dinner at a fabulous little place called Turkey Central. It started off as a perfect example of why it's fun to live in a place like "The Bin". My friend Alli and I decided that since it was Thursday and getting to Thursday this week was particularly difficult, we needed to go out to dinner. In typical--although usually not for me--girl fashion, we can't decide where to go, what we're "in the mood for" etc., but eventually, we land on Bejing Chinese (where I've already been). As I wait for her in the lobby, another Bin-mate of ours, Kaitlyn is waiting and tells us she and a couple friends are headed to Turkey Central (where I've never been). Then my friend Kari comes down and it's "Oh hey! Are you coming with us too???", in an excited manner. Finally Alli gets to the lobby, we fill her in and it's "Oh my gosh, I LOVE Turkey Central and I haven't been there since I got back!" I obviously wanted to go to this place that I'd heard nothing but great things about but had yet to try so....guess that's that! :)
This place is great. It's kinda like eating at a food court in the mall, but there's only one choice of restaurant. You sit at these big, well...folding tables, basically and the waiter gives you a paper menu that looks akin to any take-out menu you've ever seen. There was shwarma (see earlier posts or google for full definition) of all kinds, "salads" that I'll describe later, and get this, PIES! Not the fruit kind, but lamb, beef, chicken, egg/cheese. Sadly though, I go to order and they were out of pies :( In a nut shell, the food was AMAZING. I got something called the mixed grill: grilled chunks of chiken, lamb, beef, and then what can only be described as meatloaf of chicken and lamb, rolled into long tubes and grilled. Comes with more bread and OH...SO...YUMMY. The salads consist of what we would call a spread. On one plate, you'd get hummus, cucumber spread, and a purple one that caught my eye till I tasted it and realized it was actually red cabbage spread. It still amazes me that you can go to a place like this and get an incredible amound of delicious juices. To just say, "Hey, I'd like a glass of strawberry." is just a little crazy to me. But I did do that, added some lemonade, and it was fabulous. Side note: another popular one is called "lemon mint".
This weekend, I was introduced to two great things: the "twobie-newbies" party and Jimmy's wicked fry-daddy skills. The "twobie-newbie" party is a party thrown for the newbies by the twobies. Newbies being me and some other great people and twobies being those teachers who are starting, that's right their 2nd year at ASD. Hence: Twobies. Unfortunately, system kinda broke down and the parties were planned for the same night. Oh well! For this party, we went to a compoud where a lot of the couples live. The houses are just incredible, they served shwarma and homemade treats...good times. Jimmy's party is apparntly the kick-off of the year that everyone looks forward to and bonus: he lives in The Bin (love that short trip home). Jimmy is from Missouri and loves his southern food. He fried up some tater tots, which doesn't sound all that exciting at first, but hot out of the fryer? Gooooood eats! He also made some calamari (which I heard was terriffic also, but I don't do squid), and had music and dancing. It was so much fun just to hang out with my friends, let loose, and enjoy the weekend.
YaY!! Glad to know that you made it to Turkey Central!
ReplyDeleteMixed grill is the BEST! Some time, try it at Al Hamra, too.
Juice stalls are a great part of living in Doha, aren't they?
I have lamb thawed and will do Desert Roast #37 tonight in our fire pit....a continuation of the practice that we started in the Qatari deserts. Skewers.
Btw, I noticed the last time we were at Turkey Central that they had removed "lamb eggs" from the menu, but still offered lamb brains (which fails to live up to the reputation of the rest of the foods on offer there). Lamb eggs, ironically, turned out to be sheep testicles. Where else on Al Marqab (Everything Street) have you eaten? Oh, have you found the best places for macaroons? and how about macdoos? eggplants stuffed with walnuts, etc, and soaked in olive oil. As the season progresses, you should be able to get dried apricot leather for 1 or 2 riyals per kilo....I had some a couple weeks ago that is now 3 years old and no worse for the wear. Oh...and try this - make a batch of chocolate chip cookie dough, spread half of it in a baking pan, add a 1/4" layer of date paste, then spread the other half of the dough on top before baking....I think you're gonna like it!!!