Saturday, March 16: The WordPress Weekly Photo Challenge is lunchtime. Michelle of WordPress writes:
Time to show us your lunchtime. This might seem like a pretty narrow task, but if you think of “lunchtime” as a theme, there are lots of places you can take it:
- Show us what you actually had for lunch.
- Show us what went into your lunch — a stunningly saturated pile of red radishes at the farmer’s market, or the process by which you construct the Ultimate Turkey Sandwich.
- Show us what a mealtime is like at your house. Who’s there? What are they doing?
- Show us a photo of someone truly enraptured by what they’re eating and capture the deep satisfaction of an enjoyable meal.
- If you don’t have time for lunch or eat on the run, show us that.
- Show us your favorite place to sit while you eat lunch, or your favorite place to prepare food.
- Capture a candid photo of the guy behind the counter of your favorite greasy spoon.
This is meant to be another phoneography challenge, which I’m not at all keen on since I don’t have a camera phone. Since I usually eat lunch at my desk at work, and since I didn’t feel like hauling my camera to work to take a boring picture of me eating lunch at my desk, I thought I would post some of my favorite lunchtimes I’ve experienced in my travels.
I’ll start with the smoked salmon, cream cheese and caper baguette I ate for lunch on Thursday at the Blue Marlin at Marina Bandar al Rowdha in Muscat. I have to say I didn’t find the lunch all that exciting. On the contrary, I found it totally uninspiring. I probably wouldn’t go back to this place again to eat.
Smoked salmon baguette at the Blue Marlin
Only one time in the whole year and a half that I’ve been in Oman was I invited to an Omani’s house for lunch. First they brought out this.
the snacks before an Omani lunch
Those beans on the left hand bottom corner of the large tray were delicious. So were those French fry-like things. I ate and ate, thinking this was our lunch. After I was fully stuffed, they brought out this.
the main course, rice and chicken and salad
Needless to say, I tried to eat as much as I could, but it was hard because I wasn’t hungry at all after eating all those beans. (nakhal fort, lunch with an omani family & a wild drive up wadi mistal)
Here’s a hole-in-the wall lunchtime place, similar to many such places in Oman, that Mario and I encountered when we went exploring wadis on a rare day of flooding in Oman.
a “restaurant” on the way to Wadi Damm
Here’s a “restaurant and coffee shop” (they don’t seem to believe in naming restaurants in the interior) in Ibra, where my family and I ate lunch while they were visiting Oman in January.
a typical Omani restaurant like most you will find outside of Muscat. This one is in Ibra.
My son Adam eats lunch with his hands, Omani style, in Al Hamra.
To be honest, I’m not all that crazy about Omani food or Oman’s Indian food, the only alternative outside of the capital. I normally like Indian food, but in these types of restaurants, the menu is limited to Chicken Biriyani or Chicken Masala. Both Omanis and Indians in this country are really fond of chicken.
Neither did I care much for Korean food when I lived in South Korea, but here is a typical Korean lunch of bibimbap I shared with my son Alex when he came to visit me in Korea.
Korean lunch of bibimbap
Koreans have to wash a lot of dishes for breakfast, lunch or dinner
However, in most of my travels, I adore the local cuisine. Turkish and Greek food were my favorites, but I also loved the food in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Here are some pictures of my Greek lunches.
Sardines and caper leaves in Fira, Santorini, Greece.
Eggplant rolls in Fira, Santorini, Greece
Greek salad for lunch in Akrotirion, Santorini, Greece
Bruschetta with feta cheese and olives & Greek beer in Fira, Santorini, Greece
the owner of the Meteora Restaurant, who serves her customers right from the huge pots as we bring our dishes around
My delicious meatballs at the Meteora Restaurant in Greece
Here is a lunch I enjoyed at a riverside restaurant in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I love this kind of food. It seems so healthy. 🙂
Cambodian lunch of steamed fish with dipping sauces 🙂 YUM!!
In Nepal, I ate a wonderful traditional Nepali lunch outdoors while enjoying a view of the Langtang range of the Himalayas. This was my most recent special lunchtime break. 🙂
traditional Nepali food for lunch
my view of the Langtang Range of the Himalayas during lunchtime in Nagarkot, Nepal
I love taking lunchtime breaks while traveling, but if I make the mistake of having a beer or wine with my lunch, I get really lazy in the afternoon. I try to save wine or beer for dinnertime, but I’m not always successful. 🙂
a nomad in the land of nizwa 
Mmmm, yum. These all look delicious. I’ll have the Greek meatballs first thanks!
Yes, Carol, me too! I loved those meatballs and I could almost taste them again when I posted the picture. I think they were lamb meatballs and that sauce was delectable. All the food was home cooking by that lady and her family who have run the Meteora Restaurant for generations.
It won’t be the same, but I’m thawing some ground beef right now. And I have some peppers on hand. Maybe I’ll try to create something similar for dinner. 🙂
How did it turn out?
Haha, I think something was wrong with the beef because I felt sick all night. 😦
Oh dear, that’s a shame.
Yes, it was a bummer, but I’m fine now. It was only day of an upset stomach and now I’m back to normal!! 🙂
Great meals!
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
Thanks, Francine!
Lovely shots Cathy. Enjoyed traveling back to some of those places with you too 🙂 Particularly Greece and Cambodia. We thought Cambodian cuisine was comparable if not better than Thai!
I think I would have to agree with you there, Madhu. Cambodian and Vietnamese were both fabulous. Thai is a little heavier and greasier.
Great pictures-as ever!!
Thanks so much, Kathryn. 🙂
Your lunch looked a whole more appealing that mine (corned beef sandwich down at the allotment)!
Ohhh, Dallas, that doesn’t sound very appealing to me either. 🙂
Mouth watering dishes – I am hungry and I just ate breakfast!
I know, Annette, all this food was making me so hungry I had to create some meatballs like the Greek ones above, except… they were not nearly as tasty as those. I’m not a very good cook, I’m afraid. 😦
Love these foodie photos of yours! Nepalis eat the same meal, Dhal Bhat three times a day their whole lives and I know after five months I never got sick of it and I don’t like Indian style food or flavours that much! I ate momos too (any photos of those??) typical Tibetan meal, but in India I ate Chinese food all the time as it was on every menu. How odd was that!? I agree, the over-cooked tuna steak at the Blue Marlin was a meal I would not repeat, but the day made up for it and my photos turned out great! Best meal…. ever? Had to be in Thailand. Wish I could remember the name of it, it was well-known. You picked out your poor prawn with really long blue legs while it was still alive. When I ate meat, there was a restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland called the Outback where you picked out your piece of raw crocodile, kangaroo, or whatever you wanted, and there was a BBQ a giant one, and you cooked it yourself! Amazing place! But I am appalled now that I ate stuff like that being vegetarian for so many years now. Am going to try to force myself to make local Omani food my way, starting with a coconut rice recipe from the Indian slant on things here. Agree, sitting at our desks eating on the run is not an inspiring way to share a meal with your readers!
I think I’d have a hard time getting sick of Dhal Bat myself, KvK. I did eat momos as well, which I loved, but darn, I forgot to put those in. The post was getting quite long especially because I just went back and added some pictures of a lunch I ate in an Omani house. I loved the momos though.
Yes, the day did make up for the poor meal. We’ll have to try a better restaurant next time. 🙂
Crocodile or kangaroo? I’m not sure those would ever appeal to me! Yes, I don’t think sharing the meals I have been eating at my desk lately, namely cream of chicken cup-of-soup, would look very appealing to my readers. 🙂
great collection of recipes from different countries
http://amarnaik.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/weekly-photo-challenge-lunchtime/
Thanks, Amar. Love yours of those yummy Indian dishes. 🙂
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The Santorini lunch for me please! 🙂
Sure, I’ll serve you that one right up, Elaine! 🙂
🙂
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This is a wonderful array of deliciousness! That Greek salad really looks good. I like the photo of the coffee shop exterior a lot. And I know I’d like the Nepali lunch, because I love dal and curries and most any Indian food. But also, the Meteora lunch – a memorable experience – and the Cambodian plate – how beautifully they present food.
Thanks so much, Lynn. I’m glad you enjoyed my array of lunches. That coffee shop exterior is typical in Oman, except most of them are a lot shabbier than this one. The Dhal bat and Thali in Nepal were fabulous. I’m a little burned out on Indian right now, because other than bland Omani food, that seems to be all there is in Oman. All of my Cambodian meals were very artistic. 🙂
I like your laconic sentence: “…Koreans have to wash a lot of dishes for breakfast, lunch or dinner…”
I love that word “laconic,” Frizz. Thanks so much for that gift. 🙂
Wonderful delicious post Cathy with so much information.
– I cannot imagine why Omanis eat so much Indian food. I’m allergic to chicken so I know not to visit
– the meal in the Omani house looked really good
– love the little bunch of chiles in the Cambodian dish
– love the way the woman serves from her huge pots in Greece
– the food in Nepal looked delicious and when you eat a meal with a view like that is a huge gift
Such insightful comments,Rosie. Thank you for these. I’m so sick of chicken, I can’t even tell you!! The Omani meal was good but blah. Omani food is generally very basic, chicken and rice with very few seasonings. Or goat and rice. Some kind of meat and rice. BORING!! I can’t wait to get back the richness and variety of all ethnic foods in America!! I loved that Cambodian dish more than you can imagine, especially with those dipping sauces. I loved that home cooking at Meteora Restaurant too. And yes, lunch with a once-in-a-lifetime view: priceless. 🙂
What a huge variety of lunches, Cathy. The Greek salad and the Bruschetta appeal to me the most; in fact all those Greek lunches make my mouth water. 🙂
Me too, Sylvia. I really would love to live in any of those Mediterranean countries with their wonderful food: Italy, Greece, Spain, Turkey!! I’m so tired of living in countries that lack a great cuisine. 🙂
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That is simply tragic. ONly once have you ever been invited for an Omani lunch? When are you leaving? I invite you (which date I have no idea) for an Omani style lunch before you leave.
That would be wonderful, Princess! I would really enjoy meeting you and having lunch with your family. 🙂
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