Food glorious Food

Food glorious food

Ok the depression of yesterday had worn off a bit. I stayed up really late. I have the daily long talks with Adnan, my new Bahraini friend. The only place i can get wifi is the motel lobby and at work. So Im a bit of a regular. We have these long chats. I don't think he has any American friends so perhaps Im a bit of amusement to him. I'm really interested in him and his culture and i think he is in mine. The more I can show who I am to him...the more I think I show Christ. We haven't gotten to a point of religion and politics yet, so i'll have to tread carefully when we get there. Even though Bahrain is amazingly more open, (I take my Bible everywhere) still i have to be careful since he is in the service of the Royal family here. We spoke again tonight, and he said we would go to an Arabic restaurant and eat lamb next week enshala (God willing) They say enshala about everything.

So i stayed up late watched "Seven" with Brad Pitt on one of the three English channels on my 500 channel universe on Satellite. Slept in way late, had the cleaning crew wash and iron my clothes for about $10 bucks U.S. They even iron the jeans and T-shirts. So I went to this great restaurant, ironically enough called Ric's Country Kitchen. They specialize in American food woo-hoo. I had bacon and eggs....it was divine...real bacon...the pork kind. Because this is a Muslim territory, you find lamb bacon, Beef bacon Chicken bacon, but pork is a rarity and not available at all in Saudi. In fact, when i lived in Saudi, i used to come over to Bahrain, specifically for a ham sandwich. So the breakfast was great. I Went to the office for a couple of hours then wound up with the crew at a wedding. This was a western-style wedding...that doesn't mean cowboy hats, guns, and spurs, it means non-Arabic. We don't do too many of those. Arabic weddings are interesting. In most Arabic weddings, the only male is the groom as it is an all female party that goes usually til 3 or 4 in the morning. We have to provide an all female crew for those. This wedding today was at the Ritz Carlton. The Ritz Carlton in Bahrain, is considered one of the world's greatest hotels. I see why. Its just exquisite in every way. I had the crew take several pictures, so I'll post them in a couple of days. I came just to observe and gauge the talent levels. Im very impressed with them. Their skills would easily get them jobs in the U.S. that would pay them 20 times what they are making now. Still even with the low salary, they are content and happy. They are getting more and more comfortable with me...so we are beginning to joke with each other. They have genuine joy at their circumstances and its amazing to see. They are a fun group. How many Americans do you know that could be happy and jovial making the equivalent of $700 U.S. a month. It really makes you think who actually is the richer culture.

After the wedding I was driving around trying to find a place to eat. Since I was depressed yesterday, i wanted to treat myself today. i saw a sign for a Ristorante Italiano...it sounded interesting so i followed the signs down these back alley ways to a beautiful restaurant. This was five stars...out in the middle of seemingly nowhere. I went in and it was trendy and art deco, really really nice. i was the only one there. So the wait staff treated me like royalty. I ordered the veal in lemon sauce. (The meal cost about the equivalent of $30 U.S. and this was one of the nicest restaurants in the entire country) About the veal. Those of you who know me, know I love Cheeseburgers. How can you mess those up? Well they learned to mess that up. There just aren't a lot of cows grazing in the desert. So they import all their beef...most of it is frozen. So their hamburgers/steak here tastes like it does when you reheat a burger in the microwave or when you reheat a frozen burger from Costco. Still a burger just not the same. But the lamb on the other hand...wow.... You have not had lamb until you experience fresh lamb from an Arabic diner. This wasn't a diner...but still the veal was succulent. So there i was sitting all alone in this five star restaurant in this small little obscure back alley place. And the spirit of gratefulness and thankfulness just flooded over me. I think its especially important to note this since, I was feeling so sorry for myself yesterday. Im halfway across the world, in a mysterious country, eating delicious veal in an Italian restaurant. Even though Im alone at the moment...how cool is that. I caught myself thinking, im going to write about this in my blog today. I think you readers have become part of my family. Its like coming home from work and having your spouse say,..."How was your day dear..." Well this is my way of filling you in. By the way, i am getting some amazing responses via email to some of these posts. Im glad Im able to encourage some of you. Keep the thoughts coming in. It makes me feel like we're in this together.

Rick