Bowlings Abroad

It’s so easy to get caught up in the business of a weekend—catch up with family, knock out the laundry or maybe clear out your emails (most teachers have at least a portion of their weekend eaten up by prepping or grading). However, the weekend is just enough time to take a short but meaningful trip around the world.

This past weekend, we decided to pop over to the city of Al Ain, the “cultural center” of the UAE, just east of Abu Dhabi city. You may remember our first jaunt back in 2020 as documented in the post “160kph in a Nissan Micra”.

We live 7500 miles from “home” but have family only 90 minutes away. My sister, Faith, moved to Al Ain a few months ago. So everytime we visit her, we make an effort to explore her new town. In prep, I binged Google reviews and a few foodie Facebook pages. Most of them promoted restaurants rocking $$$ and little flavor. But, I don’t give up on food that easily. I was determined to find reasonably priced, delicious mom-and-pop, uncle-and-cousin eateries.

Some of the best restaurants are located in the most obscure places. The way cities are planned here are very neighborhood oriented—the neighborhood for home goods, the neighborhood for automotive repairs, the neighborhood for fabrics.

Friday Night: Our first stop was Korea. Bulgogi and Korean fried chicken spilled out of our bento boxes, begging to be consumed. The lack of pictures to show off is indicative of how hungry we were (and how good the food was).

Saturday Lunch: Next, we decided to go West to Morocco. We found Amazigh (get it, Amazing?) Restaurant Moroccan Food tucked behind a grocery story and next to a cell phone repair shop. The staff seemed surprised to see two white women and a Black dude roll in but immediately handed Nate a menu in Arabic. He promptly passed it to Faith, who’s studied Arabic for the last four years. The next 8 minutes she translated the menu section by section. Once we settled on our order, the waiter came over and spoke to us in almost perfect English. The end results was a beautiful array of couscous, roasted vegetables, mutton and salad.

Saturday Dinner: You’d think we’d be full from lunch but we drove south to Ethiopia. A cluster of men, squatting and chatting eyed us momentarily as we exited the car. Inside the Addis Ababa Restaurant, the owner sat at an empty table working on something. You can see from the images, this place was all about the atmosphere. The food did not disappoint either and we left very full and very satisfied. We order tibbs (grilled beef in sauce) and Special Kitfo (beef tartare).

Sunday Lunch: We decided to keep things a little more local, only traveling 2,769km away to Kerala, India. Not quite a record scratch, the staff and customers glanced up, sized us up and then went back to eating mounds of Biryani, curry, and other deliciousness.

Ya’ll, a little Googling and petrol can go a long way. Hopefully, you’re feeling hungry and adventurous to check out the hidden gems in your own city or one nearby.