A Dinner to Remember

One thing about this trip that is immediately clear is that they want us to all gain 20 pounds (or I suppose that would be kilograms here!). We went to a seafood restaurant tonight on the Persian Gulf (Saudis call it the Arabian Gulf—Iran calls it the Persian Gulf, as do we). This was a very fine restaurant, and we were the guests of a host from the public relations department at Aramco for the evening. However, before I tell you about this meal, there is another story. On the way to the restaurant we stopped by a bank to exchange money from dollars to riyals. However evening prayers were happening so all Saudis were in a mosque, so we had to wait. When prayers were over we were led down an alley and into a side entrance into an empty bank. It turns out that there was a huge line outside waiting for the bank to reopen, but it was delayed because of the special treatment we received. I felt a little bad for all the people waiting outside until we were done.

Our police escort took us to the fine restaurant overlooking the Persian Gulf. We began with some Saudi Punch. In Saudi Arabia alcohol is illegal, so instead of wine or any other alcoholic beverage they have this punch that is quite famous. It varies, but it is fruit juice and some carbonated water and fruit. It is very good. You can see my drink below (it's jokingly called Saudi champagne):

Now this was a seafood restaurant. We started with a pre-appetizer of seafood as seen below.

Then we had a pasta salad for an appetizer (not shown), and then we had our main course of lobster tails, crab, and lots of other interesting sea creatures. It was quite a feast.

(P.S. Two people shared each of the two plates seen above.)
Dessert was also equally amazing.

And, we even celebrated a birthday today with more dessert in the form of a birthday cake! After the dinner we went to the balcony and had tea and coffee. Then, the abayas arrived for the women. They all tried them on as you can see below. . . it was quite the spectacle. They will need to wear them to the airport when we fly to Jeddah on Monday.

After a visit to the bookstore where I bought Harry Potter in Arabic, it was time to go home and go to bed. What a day! I leave you with a picture of me enjoying a fine Saudi Champagne.