Dinner time

Off again to Mubarak's for dinner, bearing a dozen bottles of the finest Scottish mineral water. He picks me up himself and en route we stop off at an Exchange shop from where he sends money to his Filipina friend in Bahrain. I express surprise that he should have to travel to Bahrain, given the availability of Filipina friends in Doha. We then have a jolly five minutes discussing Arabic equivalents of the phrase 'never shit on your own doorstep'.

"We're having fucker for dinner, Mr. Simon."
"Pardon?"
"Fucker, it's very good. My cousin found a good amount in the desert last year."
The light dawns. He is talking about faq'h, the desert truffle, which we had discussed in class a few weeks before, and which grows only where lightning strikes... Voiceless uvular plosive, not velar.

We sit in the مجلس sipping the mineral water. Mubarak's son is going to France this morning for a football tournament, and I discuss the delights of Paris with him. Unfortunately he is only 14, so some of those delights are as yet unavailable. After he has gone Mubarak sighs, "He's growing up so fast; soon enough I shall have to start looking for a wife for him."

Dinner comes: a delicious stew of baby goat and vegetables. I make a better fist of eating with my fingers this time. The fucker is exquisite.

Comments

MeltonM said…
I do love that Scotch mineral water. What an extraordinary place you're living in - rather like time-travelling in some respects. Or does it seem a bit tame after China?

We had kra'p for dinner at our hotel in Melton Mowbray.
29 April 2011 at 10:36
Simon M Hunter said…
I wouldn't say tame. There is not the energy here there was in China, but there is the same, fascinating, apposition of the traditional and modern.

Sorry to hear about the hotel dinner, but I have to say I cannot remember a great hotel meal in England (unlike France, where it was a surprise not to get a memorable feed).

I admit I may be prejudiced by my a) having worked in too many such establishments and having seen what goes on behind the scenes and b) having been unable or unwilling to spend the money that exquisite food commands there.
29 April 2011 at 12:37
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