Omani Cuisine

This recipe is simple easy way for making  a very tasty chicken grilled in the oven. It takes 10 minutes of spices preparation and around an hour of grilling without the need to check it. I consider it a healthy meal as itdoesn’t require any oil for cooking and contains a couple of herbs and spices which are rich with helpful minerals.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole chicken, 600grams or 800grams
• 2 crushed or thinly sliced green chili
• 1 medium sized onion chopped in cubes
• 2 medium sized tomatoes chopped in cubes
• 5 crushed gloves of garlic
• 1 tea-spoon of black pepper
• A hand-full of chopped coriander
• ¼ tea-spoon of turmeric
• ½ tea-spoon salt
• 2 lemons

Method:

1.  Clean the chicken well and peal the skin off
2. Rub the green chili, garlic, black pepper, turmeric, and salt all  over the chicken.
3. Fill the inside of the chicken with the chopped onion, tomatoes, and coriander.
4. Squeeze the lemons on the outside and inside of the chicken.
5. Wrap the whole chicken with aluminum foil and put it on an oven tray.
6. Put it into the oven for an hour.

If you are using a gas oven switch the down flame at medium to high heat. If using an electric oven use 260‘C.

Optional vegetables could be grilled next to the chicken, but make sure you wrap it with aluminum foil otherwise it will burn for that long.

The chicken could be either eaten with rice or bread. If rice is used its advised to have some sort of curry such as Dal (lentils) as the chicken wouldn’t be very saucy even though the tomatoes is inside it.

Enjoy.

We paid a visit last weekend to Kababji, one of the new kebab places in Al Khuwair, if you read any of the local newspapers you must have seen their ad campaign which has been going on for a couple of weeks now. Kababji is located next to Badr al Samaa health centre in Al Khuwair. It is an Arabic/Mediterranean grilled food dine-in restaurant and sandwich coffeeshop.

Kababji is quite spacious inside and has a separate big room for families. We were two guys, so we sat in the open section, which got slowly filled up with families once the family dining room got fully occupied. We were impressed by the staff of Kababji as they swiftly guided the families through sections of the open section and then sealed up their tables using section barriers. However, the longer we stayed the more and more families filled up the open section until we started feeling uncomfortable (you can’t look in any direction other than in front of you as people will think that you’re staring at their daughter!!) I couldn’t even photograph the place afterwards because of this!

I did not think that there was anything extra special in Kababji’s menu, it is the known Lebanese/Turkish/Mediterranean menu, for starters they have hommous, tabouleh, fettoush, moutabbale, etc. They have several types of kebab: halabi, khaskhash, istambouli, orfali, several grilled dishes, pizza-like pastries, fatayer (pies?), shawarma, a couple of rice dishes, and some sandwiches.

We ordered a Kababji Special, which is a mixed kebab grill that has kebab halabi, chicken kebab, tikka, shish tauk, eggplan kebab, and Italian kebab (don’t ask me where they got that from). The Kababji Special comes as a dish for four or for two, we got the smaller one, it came with two plates of hummous. The food we got was not the most amazing, it tasted very average and no where as good as the grilled food of other places such as the Turkish House. Some of the tikka we got was not even cooked well enough.

Starters in Kababji cost RO 1 to RO1.5, grilled sandwiches about RO 1, meal for one person RO 2.7, and meal for four RO 9.5. Shawarma sandwiches cost RO 0.350 each, a plate costs RO 2.5. Desserts cost RO 0.5 to RO 1.5.

We did not order anything other than water and our Kababji Special dish, that cost us about RO 5.

The service at Kababji was excellent, there was no shortage of waiters and the food came quickly. However, we did not think that their food was special at all, I wouldn’t say that it was bad, but I can’t see myself saying ‘oh, I feel like having Kababji’. It looks like a good place for couples and families wishing to eat in a private place, but we surely did not feel comfortable as families started invading our section of the restaurant.

Something is happening in town, several high-profile new restaurants opened all almost at the same time during the last couple of months, one that I visited and had to write a review about is The Noodle House, a Chinese restaurant in Muscat City Centre. The Noodle House is found on the first floor of City Centre, right at the entrance of the newer side of the mall (same side as the Boarders bookstore). It is really nice to have an option other than Chili’s for people like us living on that side of town (we do not acknowledge the existence of Hamburger Nation, we are THAT much unhappy with it).

The seating of The Noodle House is quite unique, it is very spacious and open. The main seating area in the center of the restaurant is made up of long tables and benches on which diners have to sit on. It kinda feels funny at the first few minutes when sit on s bench because there is nothing to support your back, but you can drag the bench a bit closer to the table and then lean on the table, I thought that this felt more comfortable. There are regular chairs on all tables by the sides, so you can sit on any of these if you cannot sit on the benches.

Part of the ‘Noodle House Experience’ is ordering from their menu, each table has a paper pad of menus, from which you have to tear one and mark up dishes you would like to have. The menu has a selection of appetisers, wet noodles & soup, wok fried noodles & rice, specialities, and desserts. In addition to the order pad, there is a long list of drinks on the table. They have tens of ice teas and fruit soda mixes.

I’ve been to The Noodle House twice: the first time I shared two dishes with a friend, the second time I went with a large group of people and we ordered more than half the menu, it was cool as we tried everything, but the problem was that I had no idea what I ate or what I liked the most, so I really don’t think I can make any serious recommendations on what to try, but generally we were very happy with the food. It was rich with flavour, very nicely presented, and in a good quantity.

You should watch out when ordering that not all dishes come with rice or noodles, especially ones from the Specialties section of the menu, but you can order side dishes such as vegetables or rice to make for it.

Desserts are also usually ordered in advance at The Noodle House. We tried the banana beignets with mango syrup and vanilla ice-cream, a friend of mine was crazy about how good it was, so we tried it but, we were no impressed with it as much as her. We also tried the crispy friend wontons with caramel ice-cream (pictured below), the group did not think that it did not have enough caramel, I didn’t think that it was special at all.

Starters in The Noodle House cost from RO 2 to RO 3, main courses cost from RO 2.5 to RO 5, desserts about RO 2, and drinks range in price from RO 0.7 to RO 2. Two main courses, with three drinks cost about RO 13 – taxes included.

I had a great time at The Noodle House, even though I never tried their starters and did not like their desserts, but their main courses were great, the service was good, and the place has a nice atmosphere. Make sure you try it out next time you go to Muscat City Centre.

This post is dedicated to one of our favourite English teachers, the one and only, Mr Don Yager. We invited him over to the Omani Cuisine during his visit to Oman this year, he retired three years ago and now lives in Iowa, USA. Chicken 900 is a chicken steak served in an American style with three side dishes, namely, mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and honey green salad. Named Chicken 900 after the legendary English 900 book.

Chicken Steak Ingredients (For Four People):

• 4 tender boneless chicken breasts
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp of honey
• 1 tbsp of red grape vinegar
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 1 tsp freshly crushed black pepper
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Salt

Method

1. Crush the garlic cloves, add half of the black pepper, honey, vinegar, tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce, mix them well and then put the combination in the fridge for half an hour to allow the flavour to blend.
2. Season the chicken breast with salt and the remaining crushed pepper.
3. Heat a frying pan and drizzle some EVOO. When the pan is screamingly hot place the breasts on it.
4. Get the mix from the fridge and wait for one of the sides of the chicken breast to whiten in colour, when that happens, flip the chicken breast and brush that with the mix. Wait for the other side to whiten, then flip and brush. Repeat the process until the mix finishes.
5. Add water to the pan, wait for the water to evaporate, then check if the chicken is cooked using the knife test. Repeat this stage until the chicken is cooked.
6. Serve with mashed potatoes, garlic bread, and salad.

Optional:

• You can optionally fry slices of zucchini along with the chicken.

Cafe Barbera is an Italian Coffeeshop that opened last year in Shatti Al Qurum right next Shatti Cinema. For some reason, it never seemed inviting enough for me and only checked it out when a friend of mine suggested we go to it as apparently he comes to have lunch at it quite regularly.

We attempted sitting outside at firstt, but the weather was way too cold for us to survive. The place looks very nice inside, it has a unique antique look and feel, and some really nice sofas all over the place. It is still relatively small though and because smoking is allowed inside it does not necessarily feel comfortable.

The menu of Cafe Barbera is quite big, they have a variety of drinks and juices, spaghettis, club sandwiches, and other hot dishes as well. We had orange juice, mint and lemon juice, and a called coffee drink called ‘Roma’ that looked nice and, according to the friend of who tried it, tasted good as well.

For our main courses we had a Barbera chicken club sandwich, a chicken baguette, and shrimp bruschetta dish. All the dishes we ordered were served with salad and two of them were served with potato wedges. We generally liked all of our dishes, I personally ate the chicken baguette, which I thought was good but not really special. I hated the wedges, they did not look or taste nice. Unlike me, my friends thought that their dishes were excellent.

We thought that the service at Cafe Barbera was good, it was fast, the food was what we ordered, and the waiters were friendly and talkative. My friend says that it gets bad at lunch time when the place gets crowded and many people sit outside. Never had that myself, but thought that I’ll just let you know.

Drinks at Cafe Barbera cost from about RO 1 to RO 2 and main courses cost from RO 2 to RO 4. We ordered three drinks and three main courses and our bill came out at RO 13.79 – taxes included.

Cafe Barbera was a nice change, their place is nice, the service we had was good, and the food was as described. The place is however small and smoking is allowed inside, so it is not necessarily for everyone.