Missives from Muscat: Dining in Family Rooms, Hungry Bunnies and Yemeni Delights

I'm not sure if you can see the name of this restaurant, but it's "Hungry Bunny." The logo under the door says "I'm so hungry," which is probably why people go to restaurants, true, but it's just so funny to me. This little joint is right next to our flat, but I refuse to eat there. Instead, we ate at a Turkish place and enjoyed the comfort of the "Family Room."
Most restaurants in the Middle East have a "Family Room." This is a room that's reserved for women dining alone, or families dining together - men aren't allowed unless they have a woman in their party. It's pretty nice - Julia and I had the room to ourselves, and it was totally private, the windows all covered. The host, or the hustler guys who try to get you to come to their restaurant, will often shepherd you to the Family Room, assuming that's where you'll be most comfortable. When I had lunch with my Arabic professor in Damascus, he was excited that we could eat in the Family Room. "It's just nicer," he said. It was. I tried my best to stare as one of the women across from us lifted her niqab (face veil) to eat each forkful.

Omani digestif - shay ma' na'na (tea with mint leaves)

This morning I woke up to the above view: two rings of hills encircle our neighborhood. I love mountains. Last night, a group of us went to a Yemeni restaurant I could see from our living room window. I just wanted something other than Turkish...
The restaurant had several booths, without tables, but with plenty of pillows for sitting. We ate on the floor, with a plastic "tarp" covering the floor. None of us were familiar with Yemeni food, so we just ordered basically every other dish on the menu and crossed our fingers. Our intrepidness was deliciously rewarded!

Appetizer: lime soup

The menu (upside down, sorry)

 Below, our beloved lamb "quesadillas" (even though there was no queso in them...)

As you can see, we ate really well (and for $3/person)! We couldn't remember the names of the things we ordered, and tried unsuccessfully to match the dishes to the pictures on the menu. When that failed, we just started calling the dishes by what they seemed like: chicken paste (surprisingly good, think chicken salad, but...Middle Eastern) and quesadillas (lamb meat sandwiched between pita flatbread). There was also delicious mutton on saffron & spiced rice, as well as (what we think was) goat.

Tomorrow we got to Nizwa, to visit the animal souq, and to Al Hamra and Misfat al Abreyyin...more soon!