Exploring the traditional Qatar

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After a weekend full of shopping (which included a stop at the World's biggest shopping cart...until Dubai builds a bigger one next month 😉, I had a chance to finally experience some the Qatari culture and food. I finally went to the souqs on Saturday night. Souqs are local markets where a goods are plentiful, as is bartering. It was quite a bit different than I imagined. In my head, I envisioned a market similar to those in Turkey with open air stalls. However, the Qatari souqs are basically just streets and streets of small stores grouped together. There are different types of souqs--gold souqs, tailoring souqs, fruits and vegetable souqs, etc. We were in the tailoring area, which apparently equated to men. The only other time I've felt like a bigger minority was taking the subway into the Bronx in NY a few years ago. I only saw one other woman the whole entire time I was there, and I probably passed a couple of hundred men. Now, what I find odd about this is that this means the men are shopping. From my observations, the custom is for the men to shop and hold hands while doing it (without any gay tendencies whatsoever). Hmm, interesting. I would love to see that at West Ed! Well, the souqs were quite a sight--in addition to the men, we also saw some crazy signs and live chickens just waiting for your kitchen table.

Last night, I finally went for a local dinner. I went to "Turkey Central" where the food is delicious, but the decor/general cleanliness leaves much to be desired. I tried tabouleh (a parsley salad that you put on nan bread) and I had a chicken and cheese pie along with chicken kofta (sort of like chicken kabobs). I polished it off with a banana smoothie, one of the many different fruit juices that make-up for the country's lack of alcohol. I pigged out. As one of my kind co-workers put it, "We're going to have to roll you back to Canada next year". Nice, huh? Afterwards, the guys I was with decided they wanted to go for a drink. Since I was wearing yoga pants and flip flops, they decided the logical place was the Ritz Carleton. We ended up sitting in the no alcohol section, so, rather than making our way to the bar on the top floor, we decided to stay and have "Grand Moroccan Tea" for the steal-of-a-deal price: $11 Cnd. However, the tea was very good and it was served on a silver platter along with delicious Moroccan sweets (a.k.a. pastry cookies). Hmm, maybe my co-worker was on to something... Anyway, I was so sad that I didn't have my camera because I missed capturing this unique experience: having high tea at the Ritz in yoga pants and flip flops!

So, there you have it...I like the local food and will never go hungry when it's in combination with every N. American fast food place you can think of.

Sneak preview of the next blog entry: I'm going on a desert safari this weekend! Stay tuned...

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Photos

Souq
Do you notice anything in this photo? Perhaps that there are NO women?

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