ginger and scotch

Saturday mornings at our place is clean-the-house-day. We have a weekly maid service that provides us with JL for two hours to help us with the heavy-duty cleaning.

I still can’t fathom the idea of leaving JL alone in the house (trust issues?) while we bugger off for a few hours so as I am in the apartment while JL is doing her part, I take the opportunity to tackle a different cleaning or tidying project each week.

This week, I polished two copper pots out of the five that I own. Now this is a huge achievement because the last time I polished the other three pots was more than a year ago. I remember because my mom was here in Dubai visiting us. I would definitely say that I’m more into the “natural” and “used” copper look than the high-maintenance shine.

Seriously, who has time to polish copper pans after every use (unless your title is Steward and it’s your job to do so every night)? I use these pans every single day!

Although, once every two years is a bit negligent, I suppose.

Anyway, besides polishing two copper pots (I’ll get back to the other three eventually…), my other tidying-up task for the week was to clear out all the old receipts that were bulging out of my already huge wallet.

Most of the receipts went straight into the trash can (or rubbish bin as Scotch calls it) but there was one receipt from mid-December that jogged my memory of a neglected blog post. Two neglected posts actually.

The receipt was from Manvaar – a Rajasthani restaurant in Karama that my girls’ supper club had visited as part of our Christmas celebration and gift-exchange night.

Not only had I forgotten about those photos from December, only two months back, but I had completely neglected to post my trip photos from my first ever trip to India – Mumbai and Jaipur (which happens to be the capital of Rajasthan) – from last April, 10 months ago!

I’m still editing the photos from the India trip but will post them soon.

Actually, that last sentence is a lie. I have edited one photo so far. Photo, singular.

Photos, plural, soon.

We are one classy bunch aren’t we? Bringing our own fold-able camping tables and ice cooler to a restaurant to display our holiday presents.

Actually, my friend BJ was returning these borrowed items to me that night and we just put them to good use.

All these images are from our evening in Manvaar. Outside, a large wooden door marked the entrance to the restaurant.

Inside, warm lighting and even warmer waiters greeted us and led us to our table in the back. We had hoped to tuck ourselves away in a corner in case our holiday revelry got out of hand.

The walls were adorned with artwork and images that I would guess are from Rajasthan (which, by the way, is the largest state in India).

I took scant notes from this dinner so it’s hard to remember what most of these dishes were. I took a stab at some of the captions so if any of the labeling looks wrong to anyone, please let me know – I’d be forever grateful.

I think these were bean sprouts meant to be scooped up with papadums:

We ordered a few dishes off the “Rajasthani Special” page. Some vegetarian: Bariya, Dal-Bati-Churma ; and some non-veg: Lal Mans, Methi Chicken.

From the regular menu, we ordered Dal Makhani, Malai Kofta, Paneer Makhani, Shahi Paneer for the vegetarian stuff. Then Dahi Chicken, Mutton Biryani, Mutton Roganosh for the meaty stuff.

And I may have ordered either a salty “Fresh Lime Soda” or a “Shikanji” – one of them had black salt but I can’t remember which one it was. It basically tasted like eating (well, in this case, drinking) fruit with salt with is something my family tend to do with strawberries and pineapple so wasn’t anything novel but also not a preference of mine.

The mutton biryani was a little dry for me although it was flavored with lots of crunchy ginger which was interesting.

Although I don’t remember many of the specifics tastes from that night, I do remember enjoying most of the dishes and I would love to visit the restaurant again.

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I must confess that sometimes with the chutneys and pickles and these limes and red onions, I don’t know what to do with them.

If the red sauce container below looks out of place at a Rajasthani restaurant, like it belongs more in a Japanese joint, that’s because it’s not part of Manvaar’s crockery set at all.

It was from one of the Christmas present that we had unwrapped.

I’m not exactly sure which dish this was but I liked the fact that BJ, who ordered this dish, described it as a spicy German spaetzle.

With all the food, cutlery, and crockery, we were running out of room on the table!

The bill came to 461 dhs ($125) and there was 10 of us so it was great value for money.

Manvaar – flavors of rajasthan: Community 318, Corner of Street 20B & 47C, Near Karama Fish and Vegetable Market. Telephone: +971 (04) 336 8332. Delivery available.

 

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