EVENT Riyadh: Show You Care BE Aware !

We received this From the organizers of "Show You Care BE Aware !"


" A campaign done by the members of (the Speech Language Pathology & Audiology Student Club) as a fund-raising charity event to promote awareness about cancer and its affect on speech and hearing, and to raise money for the Saudi Cancer Organization. On Thursday the 16th of February in King Faisal Specialist Hospital & Research Center's Ghar garden from 4-10pm

Event Activities:

1) Educational Stations:

- Types of cancer (brain cancer, oral and neck cancer, auditory tumors, and childhood cancer).
- Promoting awareness about smoking and its effect
- Art therapy and its relation to cancer.
- A station dedicated for KIDS =D where they can play and enjoy their time.

2) Art Gallery that will feature some paintings done by cancer patients & the members of the student club, in addition to photos by a talented deaf photographer.

3) PLUS a BBQ!! there will be a Barbecue charity dinner =D where you can enjoy a variety of grilled goods in the Ghar garden along with your friends and family.

** Please buy your ticket here,, LIMITED NUMBER!! =D
Description http://slpasc.ticketleap.com/cancer-campaign/t/666bbcc02ca3ca08e88622724694960e/
** TICKET PRICE PER PERSON: 70SR

please deposit your money to the following account numbers:

Riyadh: SA 8620000002120077499940 Samba: SA 1540000000007007009697

P.S. PLEASE PRINT YOUR TICKET AND ATTACH YOUR DEPOSIT RECEIPT TO IT AND BRING IT WITH YOU ON THE SAME DAY OF THE EVENT, OTHERWISE IT WILL NOT BE VALID
--

Chiles shut down by Riyadh municipality

Seven months after Chilies was shut down by the municipality of Abu Dhabi for unsanitary conditions, the Riyadh municipality shut down chillies restaurant tonight. There are rumours all around about the reasons for this sudden shutdown, a call by our office to the municipality did not confirm anything since the municipality preferred not to comment.

Event: Globe Summit 2012

After a successful event Last year, Al Faisaliah is at it again. A taste-bud festivity with it's Globe Summit 2012. High in the skylines of Riyadh city, the Globe restaurant will be hosting 4 International Chefs to participate in this food extravaganza. Yet this time the chefs will also be in charge of preparing dinner for a few selected days in La Cuccina as well as The Cristal restaurants. Continuing the tradition of last year, there will be seminars given by the chefs in addition to the lunches and dinner. The Summit will start off on the 13th of February and will end on the 17th. If you are interested in reservations for this event, please feel free to use artofdining.net or contact us directly.

we will post couple of more posts about the chefs in the next few days, if your interested follow us, and you wont miss out.

 

Layth

Event: rff12 GreekFood Festival at Sheraton Riyadh

Sheraton Hotel is hosting the Greek Food Festival 2012 Part of the Riyadh Food Festival 2012. They have invited Chef Apostolos Dimou from Westin Costa Navarino, Greece to bring in a taste of Greece to Riyadh.

The Sheraton Hotel Riyadh is Hosting this event from 18 January until 2 February 2012 and are promoting it with a unique and exceptional chance to win prizes which include free-night stays in one of their sister-hotels in Greece!

The Festival will be at Al Bustan Restaurant in the Sheraton Riyadh, for more info check out their link:

http://www.albustaninternationalrestaurant.com/menus

 

Event: rff12 Indonesian Food Festival at Al Faisaliah

This is the press kit we received From Al Faisaliah Hotel in regards to the Indonesian Food Festival at La Brasserie:

The Indonesian Food and Cultural Festival will take residence at Al Faisaliah Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel, from the 18^th to 31^st January at La Brasserie Restaurant.Everyone who joins the culinary and cultural extravaganza will be given a chance to encounter Indonesia firsthand.

The Grand opening dinner on 18th January, will launch the Festival and welcome the Indonesian Ambassador, his Excellency Mr. Gatot Abdullah Mansyur ,and other senior officials from Embassies and the hotel in order to officially open the cultural and culinary Indonesian Festival.

"We are excited to bring the rich, celebratory spirit of Indonesia to Riyadh with the arrival of the Indonesian Food and Cultural Festival," said Mr. Peter Finamore, Managing Director for Al Faisaliah Hotel, A Rosewood Hotel." Hotel guests and Riyadh residents will be able to sample authentic Indonesian dishes in a festive atmosphere, a very entertaining option for families."

Regular guests to La Brasserie Restaurant will not recognize their surroundings as the restaurant is transformed into an authentic Indonesian environment featuring traditional music and decorations like traditional uniforms and Gapura, Payun Susun and Indonesian umbrellas. Dance and instrumental Indonesian music will be performed during the Friday Brunches and opening night by the Indonesian School in Riyadh and Indonesian Rosewood staff.Guests will be able to experience different modern and traditional dances as Tari Rumingkang from West Java performed by 5 dancers on energetic beats and Kuda Lumping performed by 6 dancers riding horses.

Admission to the festival is SAR 185, all inclusive, per person for the brunch and SAR 165 + 15% service charge for dinner on all other nights.A mix of buffet selections and live-cooking stations will represent the diverse cuisines of Java, Sumatra, and Bali as well as dishes representing the culinary styles of Indonesia's 6,000 inhabited islands. Guests will be able to appreciate mouth watering freshly grilled sate, lamb, chicken, beef and duck with Satay sauce; starters as Toba lake style duck salad, Gado Gado and Soto Madura; traditional sides of Indonesian pickles, Sambal, crackers and Nasi Goreng; other Indonesian favourites like beef stew with coconut, fried fish with yellow paste and seafood curry and desserts as rich stuffed rice cakes, ice creams, Indonesian traditional stuffed pancakes and Javanese gluten rice flour cake, fresh fruits.

So Here is the summery of the statement:

• The Indonesian Food Festival opens to the public on the 19th and ends on the 31st
• The Event is hosted at La Brasserie Restaurant and is open for Brunch and Dinner.
• Resident Indonesian Chefs will show case the favorite dishes from their regions.
• Prices are : Brunch :SAR 185 , Dinner SAR 165 + 15%
• The schedual will be as follows:
  
  • 
    Day 0- January 17th OPENING NIGHT At Al Kindi Place in Diplomatic quarter with SCTA
    
  • 
    Day 01 - January 18th - Dog dog glonjor 10 dancers OPENING NIGHT at Al Faisaliah Hotel- La Brasserie
    
  • 
    Day 02 - January 19th  - Ria Jenaka 4 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 03 - January 20th - Traditional Indonesia song BRUNCH (not dinner)
    
  • 
    Day 04 - January 21st  - Saman Dance 13 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 05 - January 22nd  - Tari Piring (Dance with carrying plates) 9 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 06 - January 23rd  - Kuda Lumping (Dizzy Horse Dance) 6 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 07 - January 24th  - Rumingkang Dance 5 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 08 - January 25th - Dog dog glonjor 10 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 09 - January 26th  - Ria Jenaka 4 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 10-  January 27th - Traditional Indonesia song BRUNCH (not dinner)
    
  • 
    Day 11 - January 28st  - Saman Dance 13 dancers
    
  • 
    Day12  - January 29nd  - Tari Piring (Dance with carrying plates) 9 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 13-  January 30th   - Kuda Lumping (Dizzy Horse Dance) 6 dancers
    
  • 
    Day 14 - January 31st   - Rumingkang Dance 5 dancers CLOSING NIGHT

Event: rff12 Italian Food Festival at Four Seasons

We were presented with limited info in regards to this event, along with a bit of research here is what we gathered:

• The Italian Food Festival starts on the 19th and ends on the 2nd of Feb
• The Event is hosted at Elements Restaurant and is open from 7PM- midnight
• Chef Marco Terranova is the Guest Chef his linkedin profile
• The Restaurant will still ofer its sea food section and the other sections, but the larger section will be given to the Italian Food Festival

Event: Riyadh Food Festival 2012-- Overview

We are approaching the beginning of the Riyadh Food Festival of 2012. People have been tweeting about it, and many have been asking when and where. We have received information about couple of the locations that are hosting the event, anywhere from a media kit (thank you), to links that give interesting information about the event. We decided to write couple of  posts about it. This being the first, we will just give an overview of the locations and the type of food.

• Four Seasons Hotel with Italian theme.
• Faisalya Hotel (Rosewood Hotels) with Indonesian theme.
• Marriott Hotel with Spain theme.
• Sheraton Hotel with Greek Theme.
• Holiday Inn Hotel with Lebanese Theme.
• Raddisson Blu Hotel with Morrocan Theme.
• Inter Continental Hotel with Nourth Africa Theme.
• Hilton Garden Inn with American Theme.

We will update the links to each of the sites as we find more info about them and post new posts


We are using the hash #rff12 for this event on twitter...

Layth

MB CO: A drink tragedy

As Promised this is my recollection of my revisit to MB Co family section. Bare with me with all the detailed descriptions; after all this is a blog.
My first surprise was that the door of the family section was locked. After waiting couple of minutes for the door to be unlocked, I walked over to the men's section to check if the place was even open. as I approached the men's section I heard some of my family members calling me back as someone has opened the door. We went in and walked up a somewhat narrow stairs to the upper floor where the family section is.
Interior design-wise; the family section has the same type of couches and tables as the men's section, yet the section is vast and cozyness is close to non existent.
the waiter presented us with menus. It had selection from sandwiches to enters, along with cold and hot drinks. We decided to order some drinks first, and this is when the tragedy started.
Couple of the family members ordered decaf, skim milk lattes and cappuccino. The waiter replied by talking about the concept of MB CO and its organic coffee, he stated that MB Co uses organic coffee, and organic coffee does not come in Decaf ! Then he mentioned that they don't have skim milk, or any milk other than whole milk, and this is because of the foaming qualities of whole milk! he even went as far as saying: if he knew people where coming to order skim milk he would have sent out someone to buy some from the grocery store!!
I was in total shock from his replies, after all, I am the one who recommended this place. I knew for sure that decaf organic coffee exists, and also knew that the foaming qualities of milk rely partially on its fat content but mainly on its homogenization (that is a different story, maybe for a later post). Therefore i decided to go downstairs and look for the manger. The manege in turn told me that they dont serve decaf coffee, even-though it does exist organically, and that they did have low fat milk!!
In any case the order eventually consisted of couple of cold drinks, a latte, a cappuccino, as well as tea. The order took around 30-45 minutes to arrive (that is for 7 drinks... this seems to be consistent with my earlier post). I will summarize the quality of the drinks in this table (1 being the worst, 10 the best):

Mint	4
Frapucino	7	too sweet
Strawberry	2	syrup added not mentioned in menu + separated
Cappuccino	4	coffee under extracted, beans tased burned
Latte	3	no micro foam, same as above
tea	9

The only food that was ordered was an order of the Trio mini MB Co burgers, and i must say they were very good. Perhaps their food is worth considering for the next review.
In summery MB Co has potential, for its atmosphere is excellent in the men's section and decent in the families section. It is sad to see service that bad in a place such as this. Their drinks were disastrous for the exception of the tea, yet their food showed great promise. An additional comment to all the cafe owners and mangers in Riyadh, no mater how great of a coffee machine you have, a trained user of the machine is a must. La Wein, as well as Java time provide training in most cases.

P.S : Pictures will be added later on.

Layth

MB CO Initial Review

Driving through to Tahlia Street could get bothersome at times. For it seems all Riyadh cars want to be on that street at the same time. Hence the popularity of many of the side streets such as Abdullah bin Sulaiman al Hamdan (AKA Dish street).

On one of my occasional travels along this street, My friend and I decided to park our car before reaching the Tahlia intersection and took a walk looking for interesting restaurants and shops around the intersection. This is when we stumbled on MB Co, a fancy looking cafe with a small patio right across Anthurium and cafe Roma). The interior design was intriguing for us to step in and try it out.
Walking up a few steps we passed a small terrace that was uninhabited in the unusual cold winter of 2011.

Upon entering the cafe, we glance ahead and see a display counter with wrapped sandwiches and entries, nicely design yet the food in it was obviously only for display and not to serve since it looked somewhat orphaned, even though appetizing. A brick wall kitchen and oven laid behind it along with a good looking professional espresso machine.
We took a seat along side the window, on some lounge leather couches that felt comfy as well as moderately cozy. The waiter approached us in a very professional manner, both in his action and his outfit, and wanted to hand us some menus. We decided to order straight off and see what surprises would be delivered. Hence we went for the usual, a Turkish coffee for my friend, and a cappuccino for myself. As the waiter left with our order to the Kitchen, we were scanning the design and organization of the section of the restaurant we were in. A curve was the foundation of the design, the space was curved, the couches were square yet with a slight curviness, the place flowed nicely. The guest of the cafe were of a business casual type of people. we noticed couple of business meetings taking place, along side couple of relaxed friends just having some coffee. I must say the section is relatively small; perhaps a total of 10-15 tables, with two couches or seats at each table.
After 10-15 minutes our order of two drinks finally arrived - a bit long for an order of two drinks-, the Turkish coffee was decent according to my very critical Turkish coffee drinking friend, my cappuccino was decent to good according to myself. It was a very foamy cappuccino, the foam was of the old style big bubble foam, not that of a micro foam, which is somewhat acceptable for a cappuccino . the espresso itself wasn't extracted at the right point, I believe it was slightly under extracted.

An overall great experience in the men's section of MB CO, which means this place has to be reviewed again to determine the consistency and how well their family section compares to the men's section.

Summery:
Atmosphere	10
Service Speed	4
Service Attention	8
Service Professional	9
Drinks	7
Food	unreviewed

Layth