Ramadan Kareem! While I do love seeing the city come alive during the long Ramadan nights, it’s nice to have some quality options to eat out during the day. My friends at Doha News have compiled an exhaustive listing of opening hours for restaurants, malls and other facilities across the city and Qatar Eating have done the same. But I thought I would give you just a handful of good, solid places for breakfast and lunch over the coming weeks. Breakfast Santa Monica Breakfast Club. Reports about this venue (at the Grand Hyatt Doha have been mixed, but my visit early in proceedings turned up some well executed burgers including a pulled chicken bao bun,…
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I’m in Truffle – Trying the Four Seasons’ Doha Special Black Truffle Menu
It takes a mammoth effort to drag me of the couch on a Tuesday night with a head of cold and a full evening of TV viewing on the Crime Channel ahead. But when Four Seasons Doha calls and offers you an exclusive opportunity to try their Black Truffle Month menu, I managed to summons up courage, clarity and commitment to attend. It’s Black Truffle Month and this means that hotels across town snap up as many of the morsels as they can freight. Tuber melanosporum, called the black truffle, Périgord truffle or French black truffle, is a species of truffle native to Southern Europe. It is one of the most expensive edible mushrooms…
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Milking It – A Guide to Dairy Free Cheeses
It may stun you to know that I have friends who don’t eat cheese. My friend Beth is one of those people. She loves cheese, it just didn’t love her. Beth’s problem is cow’s milk in particular disagreed with her. She told me once she really missed pizza and other goodies because of her cow’s milk cheese intolerance. Standby because I’m about to get sciency and stuff. It is commonly believed that milk proteins, not the sugars, found in milk are the cause for a dairy allergy. Although symptoms associated with lactose intolerance are similar to that of a dairy allergy, the body’s reaction is different. A true food allergy…
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Brunch Italian Style – Review of Four Seasons Sapore Italiano
Most Fridays see me languish in my PJs until noon watching shows on the Crime Channel. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But every so often I can be convinced to leave my self imposed exile to try a new experience. The Four Seasons Doha is an invite I always accept so this saw me drag on a dress, put some lipstick on and hit “record” on the showbox (Deadly Wives Marathon). The concept is simple – a family style brunch in their Italian restaurant. Meant for sharing and meant to showcase something for everyone. There are two sureties in my life – one is that I will always choose…
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Gnocci on Heaven’s Door- New Menu at Il Teatro
Yes, I know, I should be sent to Blogger jail. I’ve been a little remiss in the posting department. As you know, I get distracted easily. My distractions have been both difficult (work, life) and sometimes delightful (no comment). Recently, in the depth of my dual happy/sad funk, The Four Seasons invited me to try the new menu at an old Doha standard. Il Teatro was one of the first restaurants I visited when I moved to Doha and I have had a fondness for it ever since. The issue is, it’s a little stuffy. The interior screams “High End Hotel Restaurant”. The food is always excellent, but the atmosphere a little…
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Looking for Truffle
I’ve put on the record previously my love of simple food, but there is one luxurious ingredient that always gets me going – the truffle. The earthiness really appeals to my savory palate. I love to do the food version of “high/low” in fashion (mixing high end with high street) and especially love them on fries and pasta. The white truffle comes from the Piedmont region in and can fetch more than $USD4500 a kilo at market. that’s no small change If you are in The Four Season Doha is hosting a white truffle dinner this week (23 October), with a selection of truffle -friendly dishes paired with wine (or without). They…
- Cheese, Cheese in Cooking, Cooking, Doha, events, Food, Food Trends, Hotels, Italian, Italy, Middle East, Promotions, Qatar, Recipes
A Touch of (Cooking) Class
I consider myself a decent home cook. By this I mean I can joint a chicken, cook pasta to al dente and I also do a line in a good jus. But I can’t temper chocolate and frankly I wouldn’t even make the audition phase on Masterchef without threatening to cut someone. But like most home cooks, I like to expand my repertoire even if it is just in theory. What seems like a lifetime ago when I was a pre-teen, I was sent on some holiday cooking classes run by the local natural gas company (it makes sense if you are Australian). We learned how to make tuna casserole…
- Cheese, Cheese in Cooking, European Cheese, Food, Italian, Italian Cheese, Italy, Recipes, Travel, wine
The Grate Escape – Eating Pecorino in Italy
You may have heard, I recently went to Italy. To say this was a spiritual experience (bit like my visit to The ABBA Museum would be very accurate. I spent most of my time in Florence like Florence is well known for many things. some bloke called David, the setting of a million films and novels and of course, its’ food. I was there for the cheese – specifically Pecorino. Pecorino is the name of a family of hard Italian cheeses made from ewe’s milk. The word derives from Italian pecora meaning ‘sheep’, which in turn is from the Latin pecus meaning livestock. Like Parmesan we have all probably had…
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Full Fontina
We all know the feeling. Work is a war zone. The car is on the blink. Traffic is at carmageddon levels. A friend isn’t talking to you. Even the neighborhood stray cat hates you. For me, this is a time when only a grilled cheese sandwich will do. See, grilled cheese doesn’t judge you. Doesn’t yell at you for doing something wrong. It doesn’t care that you are wearing tracksuit pants where the elastic is broken. It’s warm, gooey, non-judgemental goodness. This little number, made recently on a cool and wet Doha night, features fontina cheese, walnut bread and some sneaky ham. Fontina cheese has been made in the Aosta…
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Making the World a Cheddar Place
They say that familiarity breeds contempt. This is perhaps why I always forget about cheddar as a legitimate contender in my own pantheon of great cheeses. I mean, it’s one of the first cheeses we come across in our lives. I remember cheddar cheese sandwiches on white bread as a child and learning to smother them in mustard. I also remember Saturday lunches, when after doing the shopping, Mum would fill the dining table with cold meats from the local deli, freshly slices tomatoes and of course, slices of cheddar. We would then make our own sandwiches on fluffy white rolls. I came across this cheddar Jones the Grocer, and…
