Pizza as Birthday Cake

A local Sudanese guy's birthday was celebrated with him treating us to pizzas ............ told you it was their staple food.

This pizza is as big as a normal adult's office chair. Go measure it yourself. It's not from Debonairs Pizza but from one of those local pizza outlets.








No idea on what sort of pizza is this but I suspect it was with mutton meat as toppings.

Doesn't pass my quality and taste tests .... but cannot complain as the birthday boy bought for us ......... just swallow.





Towards the late afternoon after a series of meetings, we dropped by at Pullman Hotel of the Accor Groupe. This building was formerly occupied by Hilton and the change of hotel ownership took place in Jan 2008.












We wanted to find out the room rates and got to know with a special corporate account we coudl get a room with a single bed at US$180, all in. Breakfast will be at US$27.

At that room rate, I could book a suite in hotels located in Kuala Lumpur.
Tags: Pizza, Pullman Hotel, Accor Groupe, Hilton

Pizza is Staple Food in Sudan

At times we are lost in deciding what to eat in Khartoum. We had a meeting that lasted till 8pm plus and the idea of cooking at home is definitely out.

As we need to pass by the city centre, we thought of this pizza outlet of which I haven't tried it for almost two year now ............ hehe

It's called Debonairs Pizza. This pizza brand is the originated from South Africa and it's the leading pizza brand in the whole of Africa.

Bread is somehow considered as a staple food in Sudan and any foodstuff related to bread will be also. There are lots of local pizza outlets and we seldom try any of it if we have a choice.

This Debonairs Pizza is sharing its outlet with Steers (owned by same group of companies) that almost sell similar foodstuff like McDonalds ............... fyi, no McDonalds in Sudan.

Downstairs were occupied with Debonairs and Steers counters and kitchens. Upstairs are for customers to have their meals.


We ordered the Hawaiian and BBQ Chicken large pizzas ............ almost same names with those found in Pizza Hut's menu.













And the top texture looks almost the same too ..... the one at the bottom of the pic is the Chicken Barbeque.

Nice? Nothing really special and can't really taste the mozzarella cheese topping. I prefer the Chicken Barbeque for its tastier than the other one.



It has this free delivery service and your pizza will be free if it's not delivered 'hot'. Well, no mention of when will the pizza will arrive at your doorstep though.








How much it cost us? Each pizza cost us 22 Sudanese Pound (US$11) and three of us ordered the Happy Family size that comes with a 1.25 litre Pepsi.

Total cost 53 Sudanese Pound (US$26.50), extremely expensive.
Tags: Debonairs Pizza, Steers, Pizza, Khartoum, Pepsi

Sudanese Lunch

Some friends wonder what type of local food that I eat. Well, lunch for today was mutton stew with lots of sauce, onions, etc ....... I also dunno what you call it .............








That mutton stew dish was eaten with french loaf type of bread that has to be dipped into it and scoop up with whatever you can scoop hehehehehe

There's also a bowl of fresh vegetables that was nicely cut - tomatoes, cucumbers, green vege - that serves like a salad for us. The third bowl is more of a local spicy stuff, Sudanese style, where it acts like a hot paste.








The aftermath ................ ran out of bread. This aftermath tells you the food quality. That mutton stew was one of the best that I have ever eaten ........... we were asking for more but no more ................ ahhhhhhhhh

Next time we have to contribute more money and add more varieties ...... that sounded like a buffet course already.








That pigeon could have been good on the table for diners.















My lonely colleague who was still sitting under the hot lunch time sun ............... hello, don't you feel the heat?

Tags: Sudanese Lunch, Mutton Stew

Whale Shark Freed from Dubai Hotel

* Latest
I did mention that The Atlantis would be holding an opening ceremony that may cost up to US$35 million. So, I decided to get a friend of mine to sneak near to the area and she managed to climb on board a yacht and took this pictures.

----------------

The largest hotel built on the Palm Jumeirah artificial island development is called The Atlantis. This hotel was built at a cost of US$1.5 billion.

The large hotel has 1,539 rooms that will come with a designer shopping centre of about 27,000 square feet.

The most expensive suite with three-bedroom, three-bathroom suite complete with gold-leaf and 18-seat dining table is about US$25,000 per night stay.

It comes with a water park, Aquaventure. One could slide into (via a tube) or take the water ride in a shark-infested lagoon.

It has an open tank aquarium that houses 65,000 fish, stingrays and a large whale shark that goes by the name of Sammy.

Besides that, it has a dolphinarium, a bay around the size of 11 acre, became a home to more than two dozen bottlenose dolphins that were bought from the Solomon Islands.

It is here that has drawn the irk of environmentalists who have criticised the use of an aquarium in keeping a large whale shark and the torturing aspect of flying in the dolphins via a 30 hours flight. The large whale shark was 'captured' by the hotel and kept in the aquarium for rehabilitation purpose, as claimed. Environmentalists believed that the hotel was using it as a drawing card instead.

To the extent that Facebook (Set The Whale Shark Free From The Atlantis Aquarium Dubai group with 15,000 members to date) was used to gather people to pressure the hotel in releasing Sammy. Pressures from various groups has forced the hotel to release Sammy now due to official orders from the government of the United Arab Emirates at end October 2008. One never knows how strong is such Facebook group.

On the other side of the world, the sister resort located in Bahamas, called The Atlantis Resort ............. is facing bleak time. It has to retrench 800 staff from their payroll in order to surive due to the downturn of USA's economy. Will Dubai's heavy travel traffic help stave off the recession?

Just when they are retrenching 800 staff from the other resort of the same group, The Atlantis at Dubai will be launching an extravaganza official opening ceremony on 20 Nov 2008 that may cost up to US$35 million in total. The opening ceremony will see fireworks that will cost up to US$6.5 million and guests will get to see Kylie Minogue, invited at a rate of US$4.4 million, singing a few songs.

Before it even opens officially (soft opening somewhere around end Sept 2008), the hotel has to go through so many complicated situations ............. bad omen?

Reading: Dubai hotel urged to free shark - BBC News/Science & Environment
Tags: United Arab Emirates, The Atlantis, The Atlantis Resort, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai, Sammy The Whale Shark, Bottlenose Dolphins, Dolphinarium, Aquaventure, Kylie Minogue, Solomon Islands, Environmentalists

Asian Food in Khartoum

There is a variety of Asian food if we decide to go a bit further around the city.

One of them is the Asian Briyani Restaurant, basically an Indian restaurant, located at the Al-Manshiah area.

Our pure Mango juice (can't recall the price).

My Indian Lunch ......... a Chicken Briyani. Quite a big serving and upon finishing it ......... phew what a task.

Total price for three Mutton Briyani, one Chicken Briyani, four Mango Juice and four small Mineral Water - 55 Sudanese Pound equivalent to about US$24.
Tags: Indian Lunch, Mango Juice, Mutton Briyani, Chicken Briyani

Final Leg of Fantasy Travel

My tiring eyes that hasn't really have a good rest. Left house at 9.30pm the previous night and still travelling to reach Sudan.

I should reach Khartoum by their local time of 6.30pm (11.30pm Malaysia time) and by the time I checked out of the immigration, it should be a solid 24 hours travel from KL to Khartoum.


The numerous buttons you get to play with at the armrest of my business class seat.

Out of a total of 56 business class seats, only 9 were occupied in this final leg of fantasy travel.












In this business class, these are the drinks that could order ..... FOC and unlimited ...... of course depending on your capability as well.













Not long after departing Dubai, we were served drinks again.

While enjoying the drinks, I watched the Children of Huang Shi movie starring Chow Yuen Fatt, Michelle Yeoh and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. Marvellous movie. Talks about the time when the Japanese invaded China and two particular westerners were there to help 60 orphaned kids in escaping the tyranny of the Japanese soldiers.

This time I opted for the Taittinger Brut Reserve N.V. champagne. I find this absolutely fine and smooth. The grape taste was there but subtle.








I took the Chateau Canuet Margaux too. This is really one of those better red wines I have tasted thus far.














They do offer white wines too but didn't try.
















For starters, I ordered the seafood selection that comes with two slices of lobster meat, a king prawn and some smoked salmon.

There's the place of fresh fruits and not forgetting the garlic bread too. How generous of them.

Actually, I ordered the roast beef tenderloin for my main course but the chief steward told me that they don't have enough of that dish.

Presumably all the 9 of us ordered the same dish but impossible for the plane to have so little stock of this dish.

Eventually the chief steward offered this dish taken from the first class cabin .......... good exchange? It was finely cut beef, so tender, in veal jus that has pastas too. I didn't even leave a single bit of the gravy on the plate.

After the main course, my stomach has a bit of space left but when I saw their dessert, the stomach opened up. It was a marvellous cheese cake with some dried mamoul dates strewn over it. How can I resist it? To top it off, I must have a cup of tea with milk / sugar.
Tags: Taittinger Brut Reserve N.V., Chateau Canuet Margaux, Cheesecake, Mamoul Dates, Children of Huang Shi

Life in Khartoum

My English Lunch ................
















My Italian Dinner ................ (I prepared this)

the dinner that came with this wonderful gravy ...... full of tasty minced meat in thick tomato based sauce (I know how to do this but let my colleague to do something as well otherwise it would be boring for him to wait).

This is for my HP friends ............ this is your main competitor in Khartoum

Part of the Khartoum city centre. Their buildings are not really tall.

Tags: Khartoum, Sudan, English Lunch, Italian Dinner, HP