Janaki's Blog

We had dinner from “ Greens ”, a salad bar, a few days ago. Dad is a herbivore. I like salads as well, but I always try to chuck out any tomatoes. Plus, if I don’t like the dressing, there’s a good chance it’ll be left uneaten. An actual salad bar is very rare to find in Riyadh, other than the side salads you can take at restaurants like Pizza Hut and Steakhouse. Naturally, this fueled our curiosity, and we made our way there. The restaurant was bright and cheery. A variety of food like fresh juices, shakes, and a whole lot of other stuff that was organic and healthy were available, plus racks of chips with all different kinds and flavours. I’ve never had a chance to choose the ingredients for my salad before, so it was quite a task, because of the several options.   The place held a calm and peaceful atmosphere, and we really did enjoy dinner.

It was a long time ago, but I vaguely remember Mom pulling up Google Maps on her laptop and typing frantically to check if there was any branch of Nando's in our city, or the next. But now, a Nando's has come up just five minutes away from our home, which means Mom’s prayers have finally been answered. It was very unexpected, and Mom and I got this bit of news from Dad while we were still in India, which only proceeded to me requesting Dad if he could book tickets at the earliest date possible, so that we could fly over immediately after the exams. We had lunch yesterday from the aforementioned restaurant, and the wait was definitely worth it. The restaurant also had a really cheerful atmosphere and was pretty lively. My parents and I love peri-peri chicken more than fried chicken because it is more healthy and juicy, plus you don’t get tired of it easily. There are other restaurants, though, which also serve peri-peri chicken. I had mentioned in one of my ear

Trying out new restaurants is a happiness my parents and I share together, and we found that there was a great one right under our noses. (There is absolutely nothing better than feeling the weight of a fork and a knife in my hands and thinking of all the good things to come). Herfy Café and Grill had its name written in Arabic, so it wasn’t something very noticeable. We’d drive right past without realizing how we had just missed something that was built for the growth of mankind. It’s a cozy little restaurant, more different from the rest in terms of seating because the chairs are more like couches and a lot more comfier.­­ ­­ I ordered a Herfy chicken cordon bleu (absolutely delicious) with pasta as a side dish. The breakfast menu also seems interesting, which means I’M COMING BACK! It’s something we would definitely like to come back to and try again, and I would recommend it to food lovers like me (Welcome to the club, y’all). After a food-filled week in Riy

Just two more months and then we can say ‘adieu’ to 2016! It’s crazy how fast the year went. I can’t believe how so much happened in 2016. School kept me busy most part of the year. Finally it was time for SA-1 exams, which marked the ending of the first semester. The minute I reached home after the last exam, I took my laptop and crawled into bed and spent hours on the Internet, before catching up on much-needed sleep. I’m currently spending the Pooja holidays, which began on the next day after the exam and continue till Thursday, in Riyadh. It feels great to be back. I’ve already decided all the restaurants I need to go to because I miss most of my favorite ones like TGI Friday’s, Buffaloes, and Portuguese Grill. Plus the one at IKEA, they have amazing meatballs. Mom and I went to  Barbecue Nation along with Kunjunni, Kunjichechi, Valyamma and Valyachan. The food really was incredible.   

Update:  Great news! Nando's has finally come to Riyadh! It’s not Nando's, but it’s the next best thing- Veri Peri Portuguese Grill ! Dear readers, you know the passionate love for the restaurant ‘Nandos’ that my family and I hold ever since we tried it for the first time in London when I was six  years old.  After we reached Riyadh, Mom searched the Internet for Nandos. No luck. Nandos didn’t exist in Riyadh. But then BAM! 6 months back, Veri- Peri Portuguese Grill started itself about a mile away from our home. We tried it out for the first time today. Can I just say it was TAS-TY.  And it’s already popular. The restaurant was teeming with people when we got there. Just like the menu said, the chicken was juicy and had our favorite Peri-Peri sauce.  The chicken is soaked overnight with the sauce which is why it’s so delicious . If you are a Nando's lover living in Riyadh (hi-five), this is the place for YOU.

When I walked in through my front door, the first thing I got was some heat blasted into my face. It was hot summer in Riyadh and with no air conditioning for more than a month, well, you can imagine how an ice-cream feels while melting. For the first two days, I was in a wistful and empty-in-the-stomach-with-nothing-but-sadness-and-vacuum feeling in me. But that night we ate out at McDonalds for dinner and when I saw the Chicken Deluxe I got, somehow I started feeling happy. I don’t know how. We had a lot of fun in India. When Kunjunni came over, my, parents, Kunjunni and I would sit in the balcony with Dad and Mom on chairs and me and Kunjunni with our feet through the railing and ask GK questions- “How many years do you think took to build that apartment?” “I don’t know. Wait! I think I know. Probably 2.6 years.” “Your turn now.” “Ok, Gandhiji’s riding on a scooter towards west. To which direction will his hair blow?” “I don’t know. Backwards?””

“Do you know Vineet Bhatia is opening his restaurant in Riyadh?” Mom asked.  I was standing with her in the kitchen. “He is opening ‘ Maharaja ’ in September. It is beside Chilis.”  “Who is Vineet Bhatia?” I asked. “He is a famous chef of India. His cookery show comes on Travel and Living channel.” Mom loves watching Travel and Living.  They show a variety of places, steaks, ice-creams, sandwiches etc. But she does not want to experiment any type of different food. I would have protested against that but then I realized I probably would lose my love for those foods ;-)  Google is going to release self driving cars . Dad showed me this on Larry Page’s Google+. The bright side is that it would be really useful for old people and kids. The day when there will be only self-driving cars will be a great day. We will just have to ask parent’s permission and then we can go by ourselves to Baskin Robbins for ice-cream, or to a friend’s house or to the park or anything. An

Since today is the weekend, we have a couple of restaurants to try out in our mind and one of them is the ‘Red Lobster’. I don’t know if it’s good or not but my father had his heart set on eating big, fat lobsters so he seems very enthusiastic on going there. You see, Dad would be non- vegetarian the first 6 months and be vegetarian the other 6 months. Which is also one of the reasons I call him an omnivore. He loves eating salads a lot. But, in the very rare times we would buy ice-cream or if I would be having any fruit, he would request for a ‘small bite’, but by the time the ‘small bite’ would be taken, the fruit would not be seen. I saw the movie ‘Frozen’ a few days back and I really liked it. My favorite character was definitely Anna, and she looked very cute when she was young. There is a metro coming in Kochi, so according to the video, it is fun, you can save 20 to 50 per cent of your normal travelling time and more. The metro's starting point is at Pet

I can’t believe this! Only 9 days left for my vacation to end. I am so angry! I don’t know why the days of vacation have to whiz by and the school days go so, so slowly. My family loves trying out various restaurants, so just yesterday, we went to Backyard Grill because whenever we passed it, we would say ‘Hey! Why haven’t we tried that out yet?!’ When we entered the restaurant, we felt the ambiance was not as good as compared with Apple Bees and Steak House. It seemed a little dull. There weren’t many options in desserts either. But the food was just great. I had a Silverado burger, and I could not stop eating the minute I took the first bite. I would have chewed my fingers too if I hadn’t got a grip on myself. My Mom was going to order chicken teriyaki, but it hit her that whenever we would order the chicken teriyaki, it would always be sweet. We aren’t exactly fans of sweet chicken so she skipped it and ordered a sizzling fajita combo meal. We checked

Just one day after the vacation started, we went to Dirab. It is a place in Riyadh which is really worth seeing and is a 30 minute drive. We can see many valleys in Dirab. It was mid-morning when we went there and then we wished we had thought of the time more clearly because Dirab looks best in the evening. When the sun’s rays shine through the mountains in the colorful evening sky during sun set, it looks just great. The sun’s rays on touching the clouds reflect the clouds with a bright golden colour. The blue sky is transformed into pink, purple and golden. There are farmlands and a horse stable  at Dirab. From a distance the valleys look beautiful. My Mom loves Dirab a lot. She always insists on going there since it is such a relaxing destination. Since the valleys are low, every time we go on the  hairpin  road downwards, my ears pop. Thankfully it goes just as quickly. My ears pop in flights and they begin to hurt a lot. The foggy hearing that I get only goes after a

There was deep rumbling from somewhere. Unfortunately that was not thunder, but my stomach growling. We were on our way from the badminton class. I was getting hungrier by the minute. I was given 2 options - Asraya Turkish restaurant or some other Arabic place. I did not have any interest in either of them but I saved when Dad pointed at DQ Grill & Chill , which we hadn’t tried till now, we could have our food from there. We loved trying out new restaurants. This place was called Dairy Queen (DQ) though I had no idea why it was called that. As long as I was concerned, it seemed to have burgers and the usual stuff and I didn’t think it to have any dairy items. We ordered onion rings, quesadillas, 2 grilled chicken burgers, large grilled chicken salad for my Dad and 2 sandwiches.  The place was a bit crowded, but still there was not much noise and we found a table. The onion rings were delicious and the quesadillas were to die for. Everything was yummy and the growli

I picked up a slice of yummy pepperoni pizza, cheese trailing after it. It looked and smelled delicious. In less than 4 seconds my slice was gone. Dad was looking at me, astonished. “Nobody is going to steal your slice.” I gave him a suspicious look. If Dad requested for a small bite of anything I was having, from guavas to ice creams, pretty much half of it would be gone. Go figure. We were at l’OLIMPO , an Italian restaurant. For me, dessert is more important when we go to restaurants like these, and I would always go to dessert section first, whether we bought any or not. For Mom, the place looked like a ‘wonderland’, for me it looked a little like ‘ Steak House ’, only little more stylish. I like Steak House, but now whenever I think of it I always remember the ‘great zucchini’ incident . We had chicken Caesar salad first. Dad love salad a lot, which is why I called him a ‘herbivore’. I poked my fork and attacked the lettuce since I found it difficult to stab it.

Last night, for dinner, we had an Egyptian dish. Can you guess which?  (Hint- It starts with “Ko” and ends with “shari” ) Of course! It was koshari ! It consisted of rice, macaroni, noodles, chick peas and lentils topped with small chicken pieces. The noodles were cut into pieces (some people might think this is a weird combination but it is not. ) It was delicious but kind of heavy and was a beautiful combination with a sauce like salsa. Some of Dad’s colleagues are Egyptians and sometimes they buy koshari , that is how we came to know about it. We had it from a restaurant called “ Koshari Express ”. We gobbled all of it up and washed it down with a bottle of ‘Mirinda’. I remember that 2 years back in 5 th grade, one of our teacher’s told us that Pepsi and other fizzy drinks were very harmful for us and they could cut our intestine. Well, that did the trick. Whenever we had Pepsi, I always gave it the evil eye and refused to drink it. My parents assure

Thursday was a busy day for us, but busy in a good way. We had two occasions to attend, one was a 25th wedding anniversary and the other was a marriage. It was the first time we were going to a marriage in Saudi Arabia but all of us were happy, especially Mom since she loves occasions just like me.   Since we mostly get invited to marriages in India, I and Mom can only attend ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­one or two and we only stay for a couple of months in India. Wedding anniversaries are also a lot of fun.   The wedding anniversary was held at a restaurant called Al Nouras. They had delicious buffet.  What I loved especially was the chicken fried rice. Yum!!!  Too bad we could not eat a lot because we knew there was a marriage also waiting for us. Mom and Dad also thought that the food was awesome and they are thinking to go back to the restaurant again during a weekend. The marriage was held at a school auditorium. It was an interesting occasio

“Here we are” Dad announced as he parked the car in front of a restaurant called 'Bangkok seafood restaurant'.  “Thai food is served here as Bangkok is the capital of Thailand“ Dad explained. It was spick-and-span inside. There was a fish tank too. We scanned the menu quickly. All the food had funny names like ‘Goong gang’. Then we called the waiter. “Which food is good among these?” Dad asked the waiter. The waiter and he spend some time like that and I started to feel hungry. Finally we ordered ‘ Tomyam goong ’, which is soup, ‘ Pad thai noodles ’, some beef, chicken and ‘ Halo Halo ‘ for desert. Our waiter was from Nepal. Unfortunately it was a long time before Dad realized that he knew Hindi. And it would have been more easier to speak with him in Hindi, because Dad knew it too. “Hello Hello, what is that?” I wondered out loud, after the waiter left.  “It is sweet of Philippines, and it is ice cream. Don’t say it’s name as Hello Hello. It is Halo H

I will now continue with the happenings of Diwali party:- After playing we had gone home, Raja and Rohini came to each of our house and this is what they said “Meet at the ground in 10 minutes for the bursting of firecrackers.” But we all started to dress at the speed of a race car and reached the ground in 3 minutes! After checking everybody had arrived, Raja & Rohini’s dad announced that due to the death of Prince Sultan, noisy firecrackers wouldn’t be used. We just nodded our heads; we didn’t care about anything, but just wanted to start bursting crackers.  The firecrackers were superb. First, there was this type of cracker that sent sparks up like a fountain, then those types which we can hold in our hand. Another would spin and then fly into the air (which was totally cool) but then one of them instead of flying targeted forward and almost hit Raja who was in front. So that was the end of spinning-and-flying cracker. There was a long magic wand like cracker, the type whic

Yesterday we went to Goozy. It is a restaurant and has tasty food. But the most I liked was the Kunafa , which is an Arabic sweet. I was sorry that I could not finish it up because I was full. Me and parents were feeling fat, I couldn’t walk properly. We have to buy a birthday dress because of my birthday next month.