Shopping

Things have settled down nicely after the ‘near miss’ of our Wadi-bashing adventure last week. We laugh about it now of course; telling tales of derring-do and close shaves with crumbly, mountain passes. We survived to tell the tale so, naturally we went shopping.

Food shopping is never a barrel of laughs but shopping experiences in foreign parts often give rise to some unforeseen gem to delight and excite for one reason or another. The excruciating pain of the supermarket trudge was, in this instance, alleviated by such hypnotic wonders as these everyday, supermarket items:

All looks delightful doesn’t it? But then there is the dreaded hassle of cooking the stuff. Wouldn’t it be easier to bypass this whole torrid affair and pick up a ready meal or some frozen trash in a tray? NO! I had my eye on those good looking chaps centre right. That’s them, the one’s with the appealing blue hue and beaky mouths. Yep, Parrot Fish! Ordinarily I’d be paying good money to snorkel in azure blue seas and watch these beautiful fish go about their daily business but not today. Here I am eyeing them up for a tasty little supper treat. The shame of it all. Last week’s dinner, the Nile Perch, try to tempt me yet again with their pearly white flesh (a rubbery texture and a little tasteless to boot) but I was looking for new tastes, new experiences, a whole new culinary extravaganza.

Although these beauties were on special, I succumbed for the ever reliable and jolly tasteful, although a little bony, Red Sea Bream. Here they are, on my chopping board with knife at the ready and spices on standby…

Supper was duly served with a dash of lemon and a light salad on the side. What to do next…

Ah yes! Shopping. With a renewed sense of adventure, the horrors of last week’s expedition having fading into the dark recesses of our minds, we headed out to one of the famous Souks. In search of the densely packed, Pashmina stacked hotbed of tourist gems and tat that we had heard so much about we anticipated an authentic taste of old world Souk shopping and haggling. We were not disappointed…

Apologies for the ‘grainy’ shots but this was true covert work going on here. Some of the locals take exception to being photographed and to openly snap a trader’s wares without permission would inevitably have resulted in vociferous pleadings and wild gesticulating.

Clutching our souvenir Pashmina we headed for home, stopping briefly at a kebab stand where a mutton sandwich was hastily consumed. With all due expectation, it reappeared during that very night.

As always, a happy picture to finish off with…