Hainanese Chicken Chop - Reem Island Cafe, Abu Dhabi

I like Reem Island cafe ... a lot! It provides a little taste of Malaysia when we are so far away from home ... and it had been some years since I last had one of my FAVOURITE dishes, Hainanese Chicken Chop.

Located: Reem Island, Abu Dhabi
More specifically: Tamouh site office
Tel: +971 2 650 1996
GPS:
N24 29' 30.4"
E054 24' 04.4"

Thursday is ... Hainanese Chicken Chop day at Reem Island Cafe!

The cafe serves specials each and every day - Monday is Kuay Teow T'ng day, and on other days there are Malaysian favourites such as ... Chicken Rice, Roast Duck, Curry Mee etc as well. On most days you would find chap fan, economy noodles for breakfast, kaya toast, as well as Wan Tan Mee and Mee Jawa, and Yong Tau Foo is served rather regularly as well. One can enjoy a full dinner of ala-carte dishes each evening as well!

But Thursday is my favourite .. Hainanese Chicken Chop Day!

There's a sucullent and generous portion of breaded and deep fried chicken, some mixed veges and shoe-string fries, and a couple of slices of tomatoes and cucumber ... all for the princely sum of 15 AED or RM$13. Bliss in the desert!

On another occassion .. I tried it with rice instead of chips, for an extra 3 AED or RM$2, delicious as well!

There's much local history to this dish -

No you won't get this on Hainan Island, in fact you won't get it outside of Malaysia and Singapore as this is a British colonial legacy shared by both our countries. A dish created by the Hainanese who worked for English households using tomato ketchup, worcester sauce, potato chips and peas. It is still served at most remaining Hainanese owned coffee shops in Malaysia and Singapore these days.

Yes ... I am a huge fan of this dish. Malaysia serves some excellent chicken chops including those at Tanjung Malim (Yik Mun v E&L springs to mind!), or KL's legendary Coliseum, SS2's famous Yippee Cup or perhaps the lesser known but equally excellent 99 Steak and Chops in TTDI.

BUT ... its next to impossible to beat the home-cooked variant :-) Prepared with much love!

Reem Island Cafe - Featured on TripAdvisor!

I was really surprised - Reem Island Cafe, our humble little cafe, is now featured on TripAdvisor and is ranked No. 321, out of neary 1,500 eateries in Abu Dhabi!

Location: GPS Coordinates
Our verdict: Needless to say, this is one of our favourite places to eat in Abu Dhabi - A taste of home!

There were even two reviews, and I am glad to see both were glowingly positive :-)

Bonna Anne - Ethiophian restaurant, Abu Dhabi

My 1st ever taste of Ethiophian cuisine, thanks to my host for the evening .. Mr B!

Located: Bonna Annee - Salam Street, Tourist Club Area

Adjacent: Near the "new" Beijing, which was next to our favourite chinese supermarket which was closed down!

Tel: +971 2 491 2128 Map: Its off Salam St 

Its not often I get to go to a restaurant where I don't recognise ANY of the dishes :-)

  

 

Excellent customer service, nice simple decor, and described as "Tastes like home!" ... It was an excellent experience!

First .. the meat arrived, on a sizzling platter. Smells wonderful!

Then ... the special Ethiophian bread (Which my makan partner in crime for the evening, Mr B described as having been flown in daily from Ethiophia!) arrived infused with juices from more meat ... This is called Injera (Can basically be described as a pancake-like bread with a really special aerated texture) and it comes with delicious spicy meat!

Special Tibs mixed with Tibs Fir Fir ... Eat with your hands, voila. Really good!
Good value too ... 70 AED for 2 persons including a bottle of water.

Carrefour Marina Mall - 10am opening on Saturday, Ramadan opening hours

What time does Carrefour at Marina Mall, Abu Dhabi, open during Ramadan?

The website claims ... 9:00am on Saturday mornings. I went at 08:55am .. waited. Guard told me, "9:30am". I asked "Are you sure ...", went for a drive and came back half an hour later.

Next guard told me ... "10:00am!". DOH!!! I decided to leave and came back later in the afternoon :-( This ARE the Ramadan opening hours ... Sigh!

Bak Chang - Dragon Boat Festival, celebration in Abu Dhabi

Zongzi (sticky rice dumplings, or Bak Chang) are traditionally eaten during the Duanwu Festival (Mandarin: Duānwǔ; Cantonese: Tuen Ng), which falls on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar (approximately late-May to mid-June).

Home made with love here in Abu Dhabi - thanks AFC :-)

Being AFC's home, which is our home-away-from-home or the 2nd Malaysian Embassy in Abu Dhabi to many, we had other delicious food items too - Hokkien mee, Fried mee-hoon, Paratha or Roti Canai with home made onion curry, and ... Soya bean too. Yes, Tau Huey or Tau Foo Far!!

 

Abu Dhabi - Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Ramadan Kareem ... from Abu Dhabi

Needs no caption ... The 8th largest mosque in the world, located here in Abu Dhabi

Peugeot RCZ drives past Abu Dhabi's amazing Al Bahr Towers

Yes, we think that Aldar HQ aka the "Round building" of Abu Dhabi is fantastic, as is following the construction of ADNEC or the Leaning Tower of Abu Dhabi in our 4 years here ... But I think LY is right, these Cocoon Towers are Number One :-)

Aedas was appointed to design the new Abu Dhabi Investment Council Headquarters following an invited international competition. The 25-storey twin office towers in the United Arab Emirates will each accommodate between 1,000 and 1,100 employees. The design concept is both culturally and environmentally appropriate and complies with the aspirations of the recently published 2030 Abu Dhabi Development Plan.

The south facing roofs of each tower incorporate photo-voltaic cells, generating approximately five percent of the total required energy from renewable energy sources.

The cocoon-like buildings are based on a pre-rationalised geometric form, fine-tuned via parametric design tools to achieve optimal wall to floor area ratio. A solar-responsive dynamic shading screen further decreases solar gain. This ‘Mashrabiya’ acts as a secondary skin that mediates daylight and reduces glare. The system is driven by renewable energy derived from the photo voltaic panels.


It is not only amazing architecture that catches our eye in this wonderful city, the cars do as well :-) Here's a Peugeot RCZ! In a land of Veyrons, 911 GT2s, 458 Italias and Aventadors, its refreshing to see how a RM$100K car can still catch my eye!

Shin Ramyun Black Edition - With love from Seoul

We recently went to Lotte Mart in Seoul Station, Seoul - Korea ... and brought back a lot of food stuff. This is just one of the items :-)

Yes ... Shin Ramyun Black!

An exerpt from Amazon.com ... Shin Ramyun Black. There are three soup packets that are enclosed to enjoy with the noodles. The soup extra contains high quality, fresh and chunky beef and vegetable flakes including shiitake mushroom and green onion. The ‘sul-long-tang’ soup base is made up of garlic and bone marrow. The third soup mix has delicious hot and spicy spices. 

My verdict? Delicious ... but not so different from the "regular" Shin Ramyun, which is already delicious!

The French - McDonalds Tastes of The World

I had The Asian some months ago, followed by The Mexican ... and now it was time for McDonald's latest Tastes of The World here in Abu Dhabi.

 

Kinda looks ... blahh... cos' it was rather much so! Prosperity Burger it sure wasn't :-(

We also had the new "Deliciously sweet strawberry custard pie" ... It was ok, lar!

 

Shake Shack at Delma Mall rocks!

Our favourite burger in Abu Dhabi .. It has to be Shake Shack, at Delma Mall :-)

My Double Shack Burger ... Perfect!

Pasar Malam - Malaysian Embassy of Abu Dhabi

The Embassy of Malaysia

Add: Villa 715B, Al Saada Street 19, Abu Dhabi

Tel: +971 2 448 2775

GPS: 24°27'11"N   54°24'13"E

Its been a while since we went for a "Pasar Malam" at the ever-festive Malaysian Embassy, here in Abu Dhabi ... so we went 2 weeks ago when we received the email-flyer!

 

 

Wow ... Mr Nasir, the second secretary, hard at work at the Satay Station ... "Its all for charity", he reminded me!

His wonderful work ...

20 AED for 5 sticks ... a steal, considering we were 6,000 km from home. DELICIOUS!

We also had other dishes like nasi campur, nasi lemak ayam goreng ...

And wonderful Char Kuay Teow, malay-style. Delicious again!!

Indomie is not Ibumie - Mi Goreng from Malaysia

I am a wee bit confused ... this is Ibumie, NOT Indomie. But doesn't the packaging look ... the same!?

 

Found a nice little comparison here ... Mi Goreng Wars!

Umi Fusion - Al Wahda Mall, never again!

A poor eating-experience and one we hope to forget about soon, one weekend lunchtime at the new extension of Abu Dhabi's Al Wahda Mall...

Fusion? Seems Umi Fusion has an outlet at Jumeirah Beach Residence, Dubai ... I hope that it is purely-Japanese in that outlet, as the meaning of fusion here is genuinely confused! Fusion in Umi Fusion-speak means Mediterranean, Chinese, Japanese and other dishes. It is NOT a fusion of different dishes on one plate - Just a mixed up menu.

Child-friendly? Not at all - One high-chair in the entire restaurant, and when asked for a "child-friendly cup", we got a plastic cup (The disposable type) with a sharp-lip that cut my daughter's lips. Outrageous!

I chose the Paella - I am not sure what mediterranean flavours and colour-profile was agreed upon by the Executive Chef and owners, but it certainly turned-out un-Paella like. Funny enough, it was probably the best of the 4 dishes our lunch-party chose (v the Chicken Rice, v the Hor-fun or Kuay Teow, and definitely v T's mackerel which was promptly returned to the kitchen!).

I am not sure what inspired us to order the Chicken Rice, but we did ... Chili was overly-spicy and without flavour, the chicken was dry ... and the rice? Plain ol' plain ol'!

 

Prices? Japanese Edamame (18 AED), two Japanese Kappa Maki Roll (aka Sushi - 29 AED each), my Mediterranean Seafood with Chicken Paella (69 AED), Japanese Saba Shioyaki (Wait a moment - Isn't that the Mackerel which T sent back!!! 79 AED), and a large bottle of local water at 12 AED. Looks like we got the Chicken Rice and Oyster-sauce-heavy-Hor fun "free".

On a positive side ... They accept The Entertainer. This meal for 4 (4 adults + 4 children) came up to 236 AED, and note that this was WITH the Entertainer vouchers and T had sent back his mackerel!

As Edgar Allan Poe described in The Raven, "Nevermore..."

Costa for breakfast - Al Wahda Mall

We like Costa ... we like Al Wahda Mall ... we really like the GIGANTIC "soup-like" portion of Cappucino at Costa, for not many a dirham :-)

Our favourite? The Turkey and Ham twist ... but look what was brought to us, a Turkey Ham and Cheese toastie :-( Seems it wasn't the first time we experienced this, I guess I gotta either "point" next time, or speak slower ... or perhaps ... It was the staff!

Any how ... the toastie was actually delicious, and we got a Twist later any way (We did pay for it!). A self-reminder for the next time we visit Costa at Al Wahda Mall!!

Mini Cooper S ALL4 Countryman - Looks as big as a VW Toureg!

When did a Mini start to get so .. bloated!?

Yes, that's a Mini Cooper S ALL4 Countryman next to a VW Toureg... Looks the same size!!

Drivearabia.com ...

The Countryman comtinues BMW's trend to make the Mini model range not-so-mini any more. It is a sub-compact crossover SUV with four doors and a tailgate, larger in size than the Mini cars, and yet powered by the same Mini engines, namely the 1.6-litre 4-cylinder in turbo and non-turbo forms. The base model for the GCC will be the Mini Cooper Countryman in front-wheel-drive, while the Cooper S Countryman will come with the turbo engine as well as a choice of front-wheel-drive or "ALL4" all-wheel-drive.