I was a picky eater growing up... Taco Bell and Panda Express constituted my international cuisine until a year ago. I've started branching out: first Sushi, then Indian, Turkish/Arabic, and now Australian (lamb is clearly an aquired taste), but even with a larger menu to choose from I continue to be a predictable eater... cereal with toast or pastry in the morning, sandwich or fast food for lunch, and meat with corn, beans, or potatoes for dinner (fries count). Toss in a few granola bars or baby carrots and you've got ~3000 calories a day.
The move to Doha opened my eyes to new cuisines, but thanks to Mega Mart - the local expat grocery store, we could maintain the majority of our American diet. For a 40% markup Blue Bell Ice Cream, Eggo Waffles, Rice Krispies, even Tostitos were available when the planets aligned. So imagine the emotional trama when we found out that Mega Mart near our villa was closing, to make way for a large French Walmartesque chain called Carrefour... seems the French and Americans share little taste in food. We tried one week of Carrefour shopping, saved a lot of money on half a 'trolley' of food, and noticed a substantial increase in our fast food consumption. Solution: drive to the sole remaining Mega Mart, which is half the size of our convenient location (= half the products we yearn for), and did I mention it's located at the infamous Cholesterol Corner where 80% of Doha traffic grinds to a hault. Grocery shopping in our family used to be a chore, now it's downright suicidal... but once we return to the shelter of our villa and start unpacking all of our goodies it all seems worth it. *think Gollum and 'his Precious'*
Items we are constantly digging for: Gatorade, Eggos w/ Plain Syrup, Bagels, Tostitos, Dr. Pepper. What are your favorite snack foods; we can tell you if you'd survive in Doha!
Life has an interesting way of balancing out. A week after our favorite grocery store closed, three separate grand openings have changed the way we approach food in Doha. First Macaroni Grill opened. Then we found two Sparro pizza shops within walking distance of each other. The final delicious addition nearly shut the town down last weekend - think warm heavily frosted doughnuts... apparently Italian food and Doughnuts are universally appealing. When Krispy Kreme opened at 5:00pm last Friday, you couldn't find a parking spot within 1 mile of the mall, people had camped for 12+ hours to be the first in line to get a dozen doughnuts per week for a year (only 50 people got vouchers - judging by the parking/dirt lots we quickly determined that we had missed our chance).
Still holding my breath for the first Chik-Fil-A or Inn-N-Out.
Sheri saw a short segment on the Today Show 'afternoon' broadcast earlier this week with Arabs in traditional dress excitedly bidding on license plates. Apparently the UAE, like Qatar, covets short license plate numbers and memorable phone numbers... how much money do you have that you can spend $14.5M on one license plate? Then again, in a town when anyone can buy the same red Ferrari F599 Fiorano, it's important to make a statement any other way you can.
