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Mongolian BBQ at the Khublai Khan Restaurant, Edinburgh
My sons have both been raving about this restaurant so since I am here on a short visit I just had to try it for myself.
The format is simple – choose from a range of starters before moving on to a selection of exotic meats which are prepared to order, finishing with a desert from their divine range of puddings (I am the DeSSert Diva too!)
The starters were delicious, beautifully presented and not too large to spoil your appetite for the main course. Zebra stroganoff anyone?
Head up to the meat bar for your main; choose rice, beansprouts or noodles as a base, add spices and sauces before selecting some exotic meat. There were a dozen to choose from but my favourite was the kangaroo, although my family also tried the buffalo, llama, wild boar and horse.
There are some recipe suggestions on the placemat from the ordinary “Sweet and Sour” through to the sublime “Magic Bowl” together with some tongue-in-cheek ideas such as “D’ye Ken Khublai Khan Can”, – or you can add your favourite spices to your bowl and hope for the best!
Once you have assembled your ingredients, hand them over to chef who will stir-fry them with swords (yes, really).
We chose the Full Mongolian Feast which costs 24.95GBP on weekdays and 26.95GBP at weekends, which allows unlimited visits to the BBQ station. They also have a lunch menu as well as offering pre-theatre suppers.
Our verdict – an unusual and tasty meal in a beautifully decorated building. The meal format gave lots of time to chat in a relaxed, unhurried atmosphere. We will definitely be back! Thank you Khublai Khan!
Khublai Khan Edinburgh can be found at N55 58.508 E03 09.948 – 33 Assembly Street, Leith.
Is in the desert…
Driving Jerome from Eurosport round the course. My laptop is not working so I hope you can wait til next week for the photos!
Where?
Would anyone like to hazard a guess as to where I took this photo?
Sunday Sandy Snapshot #6
Dawn in the desert on a misty morning. Snapped in the Himeem/Liwa area just after sunrise in November 2014.
Sunday Sandy Snapshot #3
We had an unprecedented amount of rain in Al Ain in the winter of 13/14. The desert literally turned green in places and these plants hung on well into the scorchingly hot months of early summer, finally giving up and withering in July. This picture was taken in April 2014 and I’m driving the jeep loaned to me by Eastern Motors so I could lead the Jeep Funatic for them.
Weekly Photo Challenge – Serenity
In response to The Daily Post’s weekly photo challenge: “Serenity.”
This was a difficult one to find a photo for! Most in my library are of cars/desert/sports, but I did manage to find this picture of a swan at Strichen Lake, taken back in 2009. Strichen is a small village in the North East of Scotland where we made our home for 14 years – one of my favourite places there was the community lake, just a few minutes walk from our old house.
Christmas in Oman 2014
I hate both cold weather and the commercialism of Christmas back “home”, so for the 6th consecutive year we spent Christmas in the Gulf. But what to do for a difference? Start as I always do, with a to-do list!
1) Locate Oilfield Christmas Tree we first discovered on our 2012 trip to Oman.
2) Decorate Christmas Tree
3) Have lunch in the brilliant Oasis Club in Salalah.
photo “borrowed” from Oasis Club’s fb page
Sounds quite simple but in reality the tree was on the edge of the Umm As Sameem (translates as the “Mother of All Worries/Poisons”) which is a huge salt mud flat, up to 50km wide, accessible via rough tracks and sand dunes in the Empty Quarter of Oman. The second point to note was that Salalah is 1100kms distant from Al Ain, so an epic journey was inevitable!
Rough plans were made, hotels booked for 3 nights of an 8 night holiday, camping supplies were gathered and before we knew it the 19th of December had come round and it was time to head south for some winter warmth. Honestly, after 6 years in the UAE, daytime temps less than 25C and night-time ones below 18C feel COLD!
Task 1 – completed easily – it was still in the same place we left it in 2012! GPS co-rds are N21° 24.021′ E56° 03.475′.
Task 2 – Done! Even brought some mince pies along to sustain us whilst decorating it!
Task 3 – A most enjoyable meal served by friendly staff with lovely carol singing in the background. Well done Oasis Club – was well worth the journey!
I hope all my readers had a lovely and peaceful Christmas – very best wishes to you all from the “sandpit”.
Black Pearl in Sanaiya
Last Friday I had the pleasure of heading down to Sanaiya in Al Ain to visit my friend Ahmed on the opening evening of his new business – Black Pearl Car Care Centre. Friends who dropped in to give their good wishes were treated to ghawa (arabic coffee) with some lovely arabic food while he showed us some of the quality cleaning products he has sourced and talked about the polishing and detailing service his centre will offer. I asked him if he had a visitors book for us to write some good wishes in but he explained that this is a western custom, and in Arabia, the most important thing to show your support is to turn up and give your good wishes personally – I am so glad I went!
The Black Pearl technicians will take your car and clean and polish it until it sparkles like new; ideal if you are selling your car or even if you just want it deep cleaned and pristine before a special road trip – typically they will spend around 3 hours, sometimes more, on each vehicle. (I know, they would need three days to make my hard working offroad car pristine!)
Ahmed is a fine young man, kind and generous and most importantly, he speaks perfect English (and understands the Scot’s version too!), so I hope some of my readers will head on down there to check out his new business. It’s located on the edge of Sanaiya (GPS N24 12.055 E55 45.750), not far from the new Boutiq Mall and Lulu, so customers can drop off their car, do their shop and have a coffee while they wait. He also offers a pick up and delivery service throughout the Garden City.
Check out his facebook page for special offers!
Good luck Ahmed!
The Desert Diva 