The Saudi workweek is Saturday through Wednesday, which makes Monday hump day, and today was casual day and TAIW!! You know, Thank Allah It's Wednesday!
This morning I moved out of the hotel and moved on camp. They have a hotel for short-term visitors named Steineke Hall, named after the guy who found the first major oil strike in Saudi Arabia. It's not bad really, for a short visit. More or less a normal, tidy hotel room. Not really designed for long-term stays like mine, but it will work fine - I just have to be clever about where to put all my clothes!
Someone asked about the food, and I've waited to report on that until I've had a chance to test the waters a bit. The hotel had a morning buffet that was, let's say, eclectic by American standards. Every day the buffet included baked beans and fried fish - no, I didn't try baked beans for breakfast, thank you. Other choices, which tended to rotate, were chicken and beef sausage (no pork here, remember) but they were both rather flavorless. Beef bacon, which I know is bringing puzzled looks to your face! They slice some cut of beef very thin, and do their best to imitate bacon with it, but essentially it is a tough, stringy piece of steak. Most days featured a very tasty chicken with onion and red pepper stir fry which I enjoyed often.
Some days there were fried eggs, some day scrambled with onion and peppers - very tasty but always runny, but maybe juicy would be a better term. Several days there were grilled chicken cutlets, and some days were essentially small steaks and they were very good! Nice little medium rare steak for breakfast - not bad.
There was always a large bread buffet with toast, rolls, croissant, and a variety of pastries. I've been working to cut down on my bad habit of eating loads of stuff that's bad for me, so every day I had a light serving a variety of the things above, and maybe a roll or piece of french toast, and added a nice plate of fruit - usually watermelon, pineapple, and orange slices.
Lunch has some great choices here. An adjacent building has a big cafeteria with a multi-cultural buffet. There is always Arabian food, and another line will have a wide variety of dishes, and there is always a salad bar with a huge array of options. Today I had sauteed vegetables which are actually perfectly done, not cooked into a mush, and two grilled fish filets which may have been the best I've ever had - perfectly seasoned, wonderful flavor and light flaky texture. Oh my, so good! I cheated today and had the first dessert of the trip - a small serving of a local version of bread pudding with raisins, dates, and sliced almonds - very tasty! Add a bottle of water and my lunch cost about $8 (32 Saudi Riyals).
There's a dining hall across the street from Steineke. Some of the consultants have complained loudly about it, but I'm finding it to be all to good. At least three different buffet lines, with at least 10 entree choices. I've been there a few times for lunch so far, but have enjoyed every meal I've had. Maybe I'm just weird, but I'm not hobbled by the expectation of traveling to a wildly foreign place and expecting it all to be just like home. Just because a pastry doesn't include 2 cups of sugar per serving doesn't make it awful, just different! It actually makes it more like the rest of the world has things. I think the American national diet of sugar/salt/preservatives proves that just because we do it doesn't make it right!
Tomorrow I'll test the dining hall for breakfast, and may visit a local mall and find lunch there. You may notice I didn't mention dinner. In fact I've stopped eating a big evening meal, opting for fruit instead - lovely apples and oranges and kiwi and bananas! In fact when I got back to my room tonight they'd left a very nice fruit plate for me, and it's just about time I went and enjoyed some! More soon.
This morning I moved out of the hotel and moved on camp. They have a hotel for short-term visitors named Steineke Hall, named after the guy who found the first major oil strike in Saudi Arabia. It's not bad really, for a short visit. More or less a normal, tidy hotel room. Not really designed for long-term stays like mine, but it will work fine - I just have to be clever about where to put all my clothes!
Someone asked about the food, and I've waited to report on that until I've had a chance to test the waters a bit. The hotel had a morning buffet that was, let's say, eclectic by American standards. Every day the buffet included baked beans and fried fish - no, I didn't try baked beans for breakfast, thank you. Other choices, which tended to rotate, were chicken and beef sausage (no pork here, remember) but they were both rather flavorless. Beef bacon, which I know is bringing puzzled looks to your face! They slice some cut of beef very thin, and do their best to imitate bacon with it, but essentially it is a tough, stringy piece of steak. Most days featured a very tasty chicken with onion and red pepper stir fry which I enjoyed often.
Some days there were fried eggs, some day scrambled with onion and peppers - very tasty but always runny, but maybe juicy would be a better term. Several days there were grilled chicken cutlets, and some days were essentially small steaks and they were very good! Nice little medium rare steak for breakfast - not bad.
There was always a large bread buffet with toast, rolls, croissant, and a variety of pastries. I've been working to cut down on my bad habit of eating loads of stuff that's bad for me, so every day I had a light serving a variety of the things above, and maybe a roll or piece of french toast, and added a nice plate of fruit - usually watermelon, pineapple, and orange slices.
Lunch has some great choices here. An adjacent building has a big cafeteria with a multi-cultural buffet. There is always Arabian food, and another line will have a wide variety of dishes, and there is always a salad bar with a huge array of options. Today I had sauteed vegetables which are actually perfectly done, not cooked into a mush, and two grilled fish filets which may have been the best I've ever had - perfectly seasoned, wonderful flavor and light flaky texture. Oh my, so good! I cheated today and had the first dessert of the trip - a small serving of a local version of bread pudding with raisins, dates, and sliced almonds - very tasty! Add a bottle of water and my lunch cost about $8 (32 Saudi Riyals).
There's a dining hall across the street from Steineke. Some of the consultants have complained loudly about it, but I'm finding it to be all to good. At least three different buffet lines, with at least 10 entree choices. I've been there a few times for lunch so far, but have enjoyed every meal I've had. Maybe I'm just weird, but I'm not hobbled by the expectation of traveling to a wildly foreign place and expecting it all to be just like home. Just because a pastry doesn't include 2 cups of sugar per serving doesn't make it awful, just different! It actually makes it more like the rest of the world has things. I think the American national diet of sugar/salt/preservatives proves that just because we do it doesn't make it right!
Tomorrow I'll test the dining hall for breakfast, and may visit a local mall and find lunch there. You may notice I didn't mention dinner. In fact I've stopped eating a big evening meal, opting for fruit instead - lovely apples and oranges and kiwi and bananas! In fact when I got back to my room tonight they'd left a very nice fruit plate for me, and it's just about time I went and enjoyed some! More soon.
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