group of us gathered on Thurs. nite at the beach for a picnic. Many of us there were newcomers and it was fun to meet several other new families. The water is finally cooling off so Sallie and Robert enjoyed swimming. Our friend Peter brought his guitar and we sang thru the evening. It was so peaceful and relaxing.
The night before our picnic I found out that one of my old friends from Aruba was living in Qatar. Her brother and his wife just moved here and she and I were talking when we realized that I had been in Aruba at the same time as her husband's family. I couldn't believe it. Joni was in town this weekend , and we spent Sat. morning talking until we were almost hoarse. She has kept up with several other friends from our Aruba years and it was so fun to catch up.
We christened our new grill last nite with Snapper and shrimp. The grill takes up our entire balcony...and not because it is a big grill. Mike and Ryan went to the fish market and brought home dinner. It was delicious. I've never been a big fish eater(that's an understatement) but I decided I need to broaden my horizons. Ryan made the cocktail sauce and we dined on a delicious meal. And I didn't have to cook....:)
From Mike:
The fish market was a bit of an experience itself. It is housed in a building at the port just around the corner from the Iranian souk (another story). You smell it about 50 yards before you get there, when you coax yourself inside there are about 100 booths and 300 Indian and Arab fishermen selling everthing slimy, slippery, and smelly fresh from the Arabian Gulf ! Yards of stainless steel tables laiden with crushed ice and fish. Shark, tuna, squid, lobster, snapper, red fish you name it, much of it still wriggling around a little bit on the table. We're talking fresh! Ryan and I chose the prawns (shrimp). Not Texas shrimp, more like miniture lobster, these were about six inches long, four of them made a meal for about 3 bucks. They grilled them up right at there at the market (key item here...keep the smell and the mess out of Momma's kitchen). We brought the snapper (cleaned and fileted by the fisherman...ref:note about momma's kitchen) home to cook it up ourselves on the new grill. Even food critics Robert and Sallie were transformed into seafood lovers...well sort of. The Baskin Robbins ice cream for dessert was probably the bigger hit.
Mike and Mattie
for the Seafood lovers in you!
