Shrimp or Chicken Rizo - KFC, Abu Dhabi

Riso is rice in Italian ... KFC in the UAE took some artistic license and called their "rice side dishes" ... Rizo.


Previous review: 2010 in Abu Dhabi
I had the Spicy Chicken Rizo a while ago (That's the one on the left, 8 AED), but KFC recently launched a Shrimp Rizo (10 AED, on right). I did find both overly spicy this time, and didn't enjoy it so much. It is still a nice "change" for KFC here to introduce rice dishes :-)

Home cooked Mexican food - A gem in Abu Dhabi

Jes farewell dinner at our home ... Thanks to MD and DS for the delicious home-made Mexican food! Seems a local lady here in Abu Dhabi makes it once a week to order ... and voila, they picked it up, and we had a scrumptious dinner at our home!

The Corn cake, Salsa and Guacamole were genuine highlights of the meal ... Delicious! There were two varieties of tortilla-wrapped chicken and spinach wrapped enchiladas too.


Nice Mexican rice ... both the plain, as well as the "black" variety. Seems black rice is created from black beans ... Yum!


Jes ... we will miss you. Can't wait to see you again, soon!

Evans & Tate - Margaret River Chardonnay 2008

Jes' farewell dinner :-( last night ... I opened a bottle of wine I had been saving for over a year now, Evans&Tate Margaret River Chardonnay, 2008. It was worth the wait, beautifully balanced and utterly refreshing.

Along with Cloudy Bay from Marlborough in New Zealand, and Shaw&Smith M3 from Adelaide, this ranks amongst my favourite white wines.
Website: Margaret River - Evans & Tate

Bandung - Indonesian food in Abu Dhabi

One evening over the weekend, we couldn't decide where to go ... then I remembered Dee's recommendation from her home-country :-) So we headed into Abu Dhabi town, and looked for ... Bandung.


Location: Tourist Club Area (TCA), Abu Dhabi
Review: TimeOut Abu Dhabi
Map: Google Maps
Tel: +971 2 645 2008 , +971 50 415 8495

A humble eatery in the heart of Abu Dhabi. However, what I didn't like was, whilst Bandung has a smoking and non-smoking area, and we sat at the non-smoking area, part way through our meal ... the gentlemen at the table near us lit up their kereteks / Gudang Garam / clove ciggies. Eeeeeep!

And no ... its not child friendly. They do not have high-chairs here.


Frankly, the food is only average, but that could be because we are partial to Bali-nese food, rather then traditional street Indonesian food. We had ... Nasi Goreng Ayam, 20 AED. It was served with a firey sambal concoction.


The Rendang was slightly tough, but the rendang sauce was rather good, 20 AED. Then there was the Can Kangkung, which had sliced mushrooms and pieces of beef, 15 AED.


And ... Sate Ayam, 16 AED. It was served with the traditional Indonesian-style satay/peanut-sauce with a drizzle of Kicap manis or sweet soya sauce. Pity the chicken was partly-burnt, sigh ... so much potential, but failed to deliver :-(


We also had two plates of white rice (Nasi putih), which was 5 AED each, and a bottle of Masafi spring-water, 3 AED. Overall, decent value, at 84 AED for the two of us, but the food ... just missed the mark. And the cigarette-smoke spoilt the meal!

Here's the Takeaway menu, they have a comprehensive list of items on it ... and to be honest, I would recommend taking away any day rather then eating in the actual cafe!

China Friends - Spiciest chinese food in Abu Dhabi

A new find! ... China Friends

Located: Electra Street, Abu Dhabi - Near Lifeline hospital (That's the golden building!)
Map: FourSquare


Best Sweet and Sour Chicken in town? Quite possibly! Price? About 35 AED.

We tried the Yung Chow fried rice here too, nothing to shout about ... but still good nevertheless! It cost about 25 AED. We also had a bowl of plain rice, which was good value at 3 AED.

China Friends prides itself in strong tasting and very spicey food, but we asked for a "not spicy" Tofu. Here is what they gave us, fish slices with tofu ... Really good! I think this was about 45 AED.

The final bill came up to 110 AED, or RM$90, which is really good value for such large portions, and delicious food ... We will be back! This did make me chuckle though ...

Ford Mustang GT - 5th Generation

Here's what my D7000 captured in rather dim-light at a car park :-) A true modern interpretation of an American muscle car ... This is the 5th generation Mustang GT by Ford.

A real power-scoop on the hood!

Its so damn muscular from every angle!

Also known as a Pony Car :-) this variant comes with an upgraded 5.0 litre powerplant. Wow!

The price in the Middle East / UAE ... Only 150K AED, or RM$120K. Heh heh ... that's the price of a Honda Civic in Malaysia!

This lucky owner even put some black Hamann rims on his Mustang GT, nice!

New City Palace - Delicious chinese food in Abu Dhabi

Not far from the great looking NBAD (National Bank of Abu Dhabi) building ...

... you will find New City Palace chinese restaurant, here in Abu Dhabi.

Located: Khalifa Street, opposite Mashreq Bank
Tel: +971 2 626 2765
Opening hours: Daily, 11:30am - 3:30pm , 5:30pm - 12am
Child friendly? They have some good high-chairs, but there are a few steps when you get into the restaurant.

Seafood in sizzling plate with Tofu ... and Garlic steamed prawns. Excellent!

More dishes which were pretty good ... Stir-fried Brinjal on left, and Kung Poh Kai Ting (Cashew nuts and dried chilli with Chicken) on right. Dishes are moderately priced, by Abu Dhabi standards, at 25-40 AED each.

Look what was on our table ... This is wrong ... on so many levels ;-) Heh heh!

Curry Laksa - Home cooked treat in Abu Dhabi

Here are some shots from DL's kitchen ... Looks firey!

Beautifully plated, and it tasted EVEN better. So good, I had two huge portions :-)

The Curry Laksa went perfectly with the Korean beer OK served us, and we loved the leng-chee kang style dessert too ... What a wonderful treat, thanks guys!

Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe - Abu Dhabi

Look what we spotted outside McDonalds at Khalidiyah, Abu Dhabi near the Corniche over the weekend ...

Price in the UAE: 2 million AED, or RM$1.5 million (USD$500K).
Number sold in its first year of production: Only 253 WORLDWIDE! Now that's rare!!


Even in car mad Abu Dhabi, this is a rare sight, the first Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe I have seen!


If you MUST have one in Malaysia, look no further then - Ground Floor, Quill Building, 9112 Jalan Semangat, KL. You can call them at +603 7947 6333. Or contact the Naza Showroom along the Federal Highway!

Or ... go for a "used" one in Malaysia, a 2008 model year Drophead can be yours for a paltry 2.2 million ringgit.

DriveArabia.com describes this car quite perfectly ...
The extravagantly-large car is powered by a 6.8-litre V12, mated to a 6-speed automatic and a chopped Phantom rear-wheel-drive platform. Standard features include the goofy name, a CD stereo with an amazing fifteen speakers, massive 21-inch alloy wheels, and power everything, including electrically-closing doors. The cloth roof that is said to be quieter than most other hard tops, and 15 cows died to provide the leather cabin!