Shoo Fee Ma Fee - A Restaurant Review and More...

No...this isn't some crazy babble that I just made up. This is the name of the cool, delicious, Lebanese restaurant we went to tonight. This post may be boring to some - but I know some of my family and friends that REALLY want to know about the food here (I'm talking about you Stephanie and Mary). When we found out we were coming here their biggest concern aside from car bombs, was "WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO EAT?" Food is important to us. Very important. It's especially important to Mary and Stephanie. 

Andrew informed us all that Bahrain has some wonderful restaurants...and they DO. So I'm going to start doing some occasional "Restaurant Reviews" for those that care...don't worry there's plenty of personal stories about the day in here as well.

Apparently "Shoo Fee Ma Fee" is a Lebanese catch phrase that means, "What's Up?" and "sparks conversation between friends and encourages them to express themselves". 

(I learned this from the placemat - I love learning while eating).  

So, "Shoo Fee Ma Fee" my friends? 

I'm going to bring this phrase back to the States with me. Though, when we left the restaurant I couldn't remember the name and actually Googled, "Moo Shoo Fee Shoo"...eh, close enough. If you hear me say something like this, just go with it.

We've been cooking most of our meals in the hotel lately - but since we are moving next week to the FAR AWAY islands of Amwaj, we want to visit some of these restaurants while it's convenient. We are getting incredibly spoiled. Amwaj is only 15 minutes away from Adliya, where all of the great places are, but it seems SO FAR. As far as I'm concerned the two are practically worlds away...then Andrew pointed out that back in Maryland it's about as far away as our house was from Target; and I didn't mind making that trip daily (it's Target...who cares about the distance? Oh what I would do for a Target right now...)

We ended up here by accident. Originally Andrew wanted to go out to eat at a place called "JJ's"; an Irish Pub that he remembers from his last trip to Bahrain (4 years ago). This boy loves some mashed potatoes and Shepherd's Pie (I'm sure that's what he would have ordered - I don't even know why he wastes time looking at the menu. I blame the Southern in him). When we got to JJ's, he suddenly remembered that on the weekends it's kind of a "hot spot" - and the place was crowded and ready for the party scene. So as we turned around to head back to our car we passed Shoo Fee Ma Fee and decided to give it a try. 

We were literally THE ONLY PEOPLE THERE! This big huge wonderful place and we were the only patrons. Not always a good sign. (okay, maybe there was one other family there, but they don't count because they were finishing as we arrived). Anyways....it makes a better story if I say we were the ONLY ONES THERE! Servers in Bahrain are pretty attentive, but this time it was even more so. Our server stood off to the side of our table through the ENTIRE meal. If I even looked up at him he rushed over to help. Pretty awesome. 

This is the second time I've been to a really nice, lavish restaurant and been the only party there. It's strange and kind of disconcerting. I don't even think that I can recall a time in the states where I was the only person in a place like this. I don't know how they can afford to stay open. There were like 12-14 different staff that I saw. Oh well, better service for us.

Anyways - back to the food.

The menu was pretty impressive. I've never had Lebanese cousin before, and was intrigued and excited to try it out. After eating super clean for the past week I was only looking at the salad section, then decided that since I had never had Lebanese before, I was going to try some of their dishes - hey, I never said I'm perfect. I do not regret it...well actually my stomach does, my taste buds don't. 

Here's the rundown:

Starter:

 Kafta b/Ajin Manakeesh

I'm so glad this menu had great descriptions and pictures. Kudos to their marketing partners. 

Manakeesh is "The traditional Lebanese fluffy pizza-like delicacy with an infinite choice of delicious toppings and ingredients. It comes to you fresh and hot out of the oven." 

Say what? Fluffy pizza like bread. Sign me up. 

The Kafta b/Ajin variety was, "The famous Lebanese minced beef mixed with chopped parsley and onion. Eat it the traditional way with tomatoes, pickles, and Hommos on the top." (fyi hommos = hummus)

Well - this sold us. Traditional and famous, we had to try it. 

It was good. C and A LOVED it, and I LOVED the bread part. Really - as a whole it tasted like a better more ethnic version of a hamburger to me. The bread was like fluffier better naan bread. Win. Win. That bread...man that bread...I'm going to dream about it. Halfway through my piece I dumped the ingredients and savored the bread. (Good thing I kicked my own ass at the gym today). Now I need to wipe the drool off of my face.

Main Meals:

Caden - Shawarma Arabi: C is our resident shawarma LOVER. He will do anything for a shawarma. Though we already have a favorite place, he still wanted one from here too. So he had the, "Chicken shawarma wrapped in toasted Saj bread. Served with French Fries and a platter of fresh vegetables, mixed pickles, and Tahina or garlic dip." The Saj bread was delicious (yes, Andrew and I stole some of his dinner, hey we had to try it!). C ate his french fries by dipping them in the garlic sauce. That's My boy! C gave his dinner a thumbs up. The Saj bread was just like the manakeesh bread! Delicious. 

Me and Andrew - Falafel Wrap and Djaj w/Jebneh Wrap.  Somehow we both ended up with wraps. Huge amazing menu and we both got these. Oh well - more reason to come back later. The wraps were "fluffy Lebanese bread baked in the oven and wrapped with delicious variety of ingredients."

I had the Falafel: "Fried crushed beans mixed with parsley and our special herbs. Wrapped with tomatoes, pickles, parsley and fresh mint leaves and topped with Tahina sauce"

Andrew had the Djaj w/ Jebneh: "Grilled chicken chops wrapped with lettuce, corn, melted cheese, and our special sauce. "AKA spicy chicken wrap. It was AMAZING. The special sauce was SPICY.

I had never had Falafel before and I liked it, it was kind of like deep fried hummus. Worth trying...but not as awesome as the bread it came in.

Beverage:

Since MOST restaurants aren't allowed to serve alcohol, a lot of them have fabulous juice selections. It's not like the juice you are probably thinking of (ie: apple or orange juice). They make the juice fresh when you order it. It's almost more like a smoothie - but it's only the fruit.

Andrew and I both ordered strawberry, lemon, mint juices. MY NEW LOVE!!! I need to figure out their process. It was refreshing, and delicious, and fantastic. I'm not sure how I lived before this juice. 

Davis ate his fist for dinner. I'm not sure how he gets the whole thing in there - it's pretty impressive. 

I wish I would have taken pictures of everything - but I didn't think to do this review until after we had devoured everything. It was wonderful - we will definitely go again. I am still in disbelief that we were THE ONLY ONES THERE!!! (kind of - definitely the only ones when we left)

Here's a picture of their menu that I found online so you can get a taste of what the food looks like. Wish I could give you a taste for real. Someone needs to invent that.

I think Andrew's meal was the picture on the bottom right. 

As we left and were walking back to the car I got another great glimpse of the AWESOME Bahraini drivers and parkers. 

If your car doesn't fit in a spot. Just do this. 

Block the sidewalk - black the street. No big deal.

I think it's important to note that this was parked outside of the, "Extrovert Cafe" - I'm not sure why, but this name makes me laugh. 

I laughed almost as hard as I did today when I was getting pampered at the salon on base. That sentence should be an oxy-moron. Pampered - salon on base. Hmmm...

Well, in Bahrain, the salon on base rocks. Great service, GREAT prices. I know it's Father's Day weekend, but my husband is just that awesome. He stayed at the hotel with the boys while I went on base and worked out, and got a pedicure and a wax. Hey, he owes me for leaving me all alone on Mother's Day and my birthday a few weeks ago.

Back to the funny part...Bindu, the beautician that was working with me was commenting on the fact that I had come from the gym. She was super sweet and spoke broken English. For the most part we got along. Then she asked, 

"Your husband, is he skinny...or is he like you?"

I'm not sure she meant to imply that I was the opposite of skinny...but she did. It was awesome. Thank you for that Bindu. Good thing I saw the humor in it. I told Andrew tonight and he almost choked on his juice from laughing. 

That's all for now. Now I'm going to go to bed and dream about the fluffy pizza like bread...it's going to be a long time before I eat that again. 

and That's 'Watts' She Said...