Food

Our mornings always start with rich breakfast. There is always some eggs and bread, yoghurt and flakes with milk for the boys but everything else varies. Usually, when the landlady gets to know some food we eat in Estonia she provides Oman version next day. In example, we told her we eat often and lots of potatoes in Estonia and then there was always some potatoes for lunch (together with rice). Another morning Andres asked if they also make soups here and next morning there was mushroom soup (that tasted very similar to one that I have made at home) for breakfast. When i had told the boys usually eat porridge at home for breakfast they also got some porridge here next morning (that tasted also very similar to ours but it was just much sweeter). When she got to hear we also grow pumpkins in Estonia they made dessert of pumpkins (pumpkins, coconut milk and cardamom) for us.

I have found my favourite piece at breakfast that is some kind of flat bread. I have promised to go to the kitchen to see how the maid makes it, it is just so delicious:)

The landlady always makes sure we get to taste everything on the table. She told us Oman people have tradition “to feed the guests to the mouth”. Fortunately she is not “that active” but she still puts our plates full and I try my best to eat most of it up to be polite, that is not always an easy task!

As for lunch, they have usually also brought us some lunch (even if it is not in the price). The most usual lunch is rice (with potatoes) and chicken boiled with some spices (but fortunately not too spicy). Very simple but very tasty food!

As for our dinners – we usually go out to have dinner because we do not have any cooking facility here. Muscat is picked with all kind of international fast food restaurants and coffee shops (just another fast food places) are in every corner. But there are not too many other kind (“slow food”?) restaurants (they probably have but then the price range is also rather high), so it is mostly one type of food one can get. We have found our 3 favourites: a Turkish fast food restaurant not far from us that have delicious wraps, a Chinese restaurant further from here that has good Chinese food and a place called White Coral not far from here that provides grilled meat and fish. As for the prices, at Chinese restaurant we usually pay around 7 OR(= 14 EUR) for food and drinks for 4 of us. At White Coral the main courses (grilled meat or fish) cost around 3-3,5 OR (=6-7 EUR).

Super/hypermarkets have a very good product selection here. Especially when it comes to vegetables and fruits. We have not seen either tasted even half of them they sell here! Most of the fruits and vegetables are imported from Asian and African countries, but also from Oceania (i.e. meat is imported from New Zealand). The big hypermarkets also have fresh fish and the selection is very wide again, from baby sharks to Norwegian salmon. In addition they sell rice and flour in big 5-10 kg bags – something that we can never see in regular supermarkets in Estonia. Yes, i am already waiting for an opportunity to cook here but I am not sure we can use everything interesting they have here.