Vegetarian Menu in Riyadh: Solved

You want to grab a bite with your family and friends but they’re carnivores and you’re a herbivore? And you just happen to live in Riyadh, the city where people fuel on meat. Kebdah for breakfast, kabsa for lunch, and probably another rice dish cooked with meat for dinner.

You might think restaurants hardly have any good vegetarian options in Riyadh, but you only need to look close, some of the most famous restaurants here have great vegetarian dishes that will make you and your company leaving with a smile and a few pounds.

Here are some of our favorites:

Najd Village

Traditional Saudi food doesn’t stop at home, Riyadhi’s favorite local food restaurant! Indulge yourself with comfort food at its best, Jareesh! Crushed wheat and milk magically transformed into a rich flavor that you can’t have enough of.

Zaatar w Zeet

For a light meal that’ll leave you feeling as light as you felt when you go in, Manakeesh Wild Zaatar wild thyme with special onion and tomato sauce on multi-cereal dough. Simple, and tastebud-pleasing.

Sushi Yushi

JAPANESE FOOD! (also great for all the pescitarians out there) There is a wide variety in the Hoso Maki Son section; cucumber, avocado, carrot, and philadelphia cheese.

  • Bonus point: order the vegetable tempura to help you resist the shrimp!

Lavash Cafe

The new ‘it’ place, you’ll surely end up there sooner or later. One order that caught our eyes is the Honey Rocca salad. Now that got you drooling, didn’t it?

Embers

Beautiful outdoor seating, and great service. Imagine winter in Riyadh, sitting outside sipping on a pumpkin or wild mushroom soup, then moving to Pesto Gnocchi and finish it off with a cronut and tea. That’s a great dining experience right there.

Nozomi

People usually reserve at least 3 days prior, and you can’t question them, their menu is gives your tummy butterflies! And the star of the show for all the vegetarian customers is *drum roll* MUSHROOM TAKIKOMI-GOHAN RICE.

La Rustica

Every Riyadhi vegetarian’s dream restaurant, literally only one thing in the menu that is not vegetarian. The seating area might not be the biggest, but once the food arrives you’ll be in your own bubble.

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Things you’ll find on every table during Ramadan

Arabs from around the world have more in common than they think, and it’s in the Holy month of Ramadan that we realize how similar our cultures are, and nothing unites people like food and mutual hardship! http://mirziamov.ru

Things on table 1 Things on the table 2

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Tarah Event to Preserve the Earth

Where art and entertainment met to preserve the earth, Tarah took place in May in the beautiful Masharef Hills in May.

Many workshops were provided for both children and adults like origami and restoring old jewelry, alongside various artworks by local artists and live art shows, the graffiti was our favorite! There were a lot of shops displaying their products, food and beverages, clothes, stationery, and much more. Qomra also had an award winning documentary showing with outdoor seating that many seemed to enjoy http://webbanki.ru.

Overall, the event was great for families with activities for all and left you with a smile and a happy tummy.

 

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A Sneak Peek into Zawi Line

With a vision a Saudi female had, Zawi Line was established on January 2016, bringing a cutting edge style to the market that reflects the founder’s lifestyle.

The Dark, their very first collection, offers unisex accessories that uses authentic leather, beads, and natural stones like onyx and lava stones. The concept of the store is to introduce a new, daring and out of the norm fashion line to the Saudi market. The production of The Dark is all handmade that comes from Vilnuis, Lithuania, expressed with sharp cuts, smooth surfaces, and clean finishing that’ll give you a fresh bold look that’ll certainly give a statement.

Zawi Line is going to have a franchize in Bahrain, Jeddah, and Riyadh. Currently offerring their products through instagram and in-house appointments. Offering affordable prices that go from 100-400 SR, and pieces that will grab the attention of all ages and genders. (eldiariony.com) And don’t forget to be on the lookout for their website that is launching soon, you won’t want to miss it!

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How To Wow Your Ramadan Guests for Dummies

The Holy month is just around the corner, and so are gatherings with friends and families. Getting things right from food to decoration is no easy job, this is why we assembled these steps for you to pull off a foolproof gathering!

Step one: dates dates dates

Its not only a Sunnah, breaking your fast with sugar helps you from overstuffing yourself during futoor. You can get dates from any supermarket, or if you want the real deal, visit the Riyadh seasonal date market

Step two: Get an air fryer

You just have to pop anything you want to fry inside and you don’t even have to worry about the calories, because there is no oil needed to cook! MAGIC, I KNOW. Get your own from the nearest Tamimi.

Step three: Appetizers for beginners

A few months before Ramadan you often see all arab families wrapping sambosa in preparation for the daily sambosa dosage. Its ok if you forgot (or got to lazy) to prepare, because you can get pre-wrapped sambosa! And you’re in luck, Chopped has that in their menue this year!

Step four: main dish

Cook your own by following one of Riyadhi’s favorite dishes, the infamous chicken kabsa! And it has been made easy by one of our editors, check out the recipe here:  Chicken Kabsa.

Or you can opt for the easy way out, order in!

Step five: decorate

The Ramadan spirit is not complete without all the colors and islamic patterns draped all over the house, and what better place to find them than suwailm, new designs every year and great deals http://mirziamov.ru/zaym-bez-otkaza.

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12 Dishes you Have to try in Riyadh

Its such a magical thing when you order something at a restaurant and it turns out to be savory. One of our favorite things in Riyadh is when we discover this one amazing dish in a restaurant and keep coming back for it, and guess what! We have the ultimate list for when you want to have your tastebuds tingling, take your pick below

1) Soft pretzel from Buffalo Wild Wing

Fluffy bite size dough topped with dough comes with a side of honey mustard and cheese. Mouthwatering. Trust me, you will want to try this one. You’re gonna come back to Buffalo’s solely for this order.

2) Brownie pudding from Burger Boutique

The fudgiest brownie you’ll ever have, topped with melted chocolate paired with nuts and vanilla bean ice cream. It’s the warm hug that you need on a sad winter night.

3) Parmesan fries from The Counter

You won’t believe how amazing the pair of french fries and parmesan is! Make sure you order more than one, because you’ll be chowing it down like wolves LoansCashNetUSA.

4) New York cheesecake and Tiramisu from Apetit Kitchen

Creamy cheesecake with your favorite cookie as a flavor? Tiramisu that is as light as a cloud? You better get earplugs, because this well get people to make those uncomfortable sounds when they’re really enjoying themselves.

5) Fried shrimp from Steak House

Crispy and juicy appetizer PLUS IT COMES WITH FRENCH FRIES. ALL HAIL THE GENIUS WHO SUGGESTED THAT.

6) Aged Wagyu steak from The Butcher Shop & Grill

If you’ve never tasted aged meat before, then I’m sorry you didn’t get to experience the tenderness that meat can have. The only place that sells aged meat in the city, and you HAVE to try it.

7) Pecan pie from Lilou

A new addition to their wonderful selection of sweets, but this one got us on the floor with a pecan pie baby in our tummies.

8) Eggs benedict from Bateel

This one is a DR staff favorite, the perfect morning treat to get you whistling through the day.

9) Pomegranate kebba and cherry kebab from Lusin

What goes amazingly with beef? Fruits. Specially red ones! People actually fly in for these two dishes at Lusin.

10) Thabiha stuffed with warag 3inab from Taiba restaurant

Two things that have to be on an Eid table in one. You cannot go wrong with this one, find the location here and don’t forget to order a day ahead

Location

11) Banana cream pie from Magnolia Bakery

THE best banana cream pie in town, make sure you go there early before they’re soldout!

12) Cheesy garlic bread from Pizzaiolo

Even our garlic-fearing editor loved this! Caution with this one, though. You’ll get intense cravings that might lead to getting out of your way to get your hands on it.

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The Man Behind Rusted Studios

Rusted Studios has made it to the top list of our favorite guitar lesson youtube channels, with over 333K view on their first video they were able to wow the Arab world with their music knowledge and quality production. We got to know the story behind the man in front of the camera, Ziad AlNajdi, and here it is…
When did you start playing?
I started playing guitar in late 2005, just as I started my prep year at KFUPM.
Why the guitar?
On a ridiculously hot summer day, I made the educated choice of staying in and watching a movie. A movie in which the protagonist teaches elementary school kids how to play rock n’ roll. It was unknown to me at the time that this movie will have more influence on me than any other movie I watched. In one scene, the lead actor teaches a nerdy kid how to play the electric guitar. I was blown away by the versatility of sounds the electric guitar could make. I re-watched that movie a few times, rewinding (yep it was on VHS) the parts where they focused on the electric guitar. When I returned that movie to the store and happily paid the delay charge, I felt this deep desire to have my own electric guitar.
How did you learn to play the guitar?
When I bought my first guitar, I was overwhelmed with excitement. I called my friend and asked him to come to my house to gaze upon my prized possession. He came over and we unboxed my first ever guitar. It was a cheap odd looking electric guitar that sounded horrible. It was the Nicki Minaj of guitars but I loved it.

My friend and I placed the freshly unboxed guitar on the floor. We decided it’s only logical that two people can play the better than one (more hands). That didn’t go well, that didn’t go well at all. After 30 minutes of making pure unadulterated noise, we gave up. The next day I went to Jarir book store to search for a book that would teach me how to play guitar, all while guilt of buying an instrument which I knew nothing about is eating me up. I found nothing in Jarir that can help me except a colorful children’s book. The only thing good I can say about that book is that it was indeed very colorful. I bought the book and tried very hard to learn something from it, but I made little progress. Then I met some British guitarists online and they gave me some pointers. Little by little, I started getting better. After that YouTube started exploding with tons of videos. Those helped me immensely, and through practicing every day, I reached my goal.

I was and still very passionate about playing guitar and writing music. There have been times however where weeks have passed without me being able to practice. That’s because I have the tendency to suddenly focus on a project and give it my full energy. It’s a curse and a blessing, because although these project can sometimes be costly and time consuming, they taught me a lot. Be it scuba diving, marine biology, electrical engineering, game design, programming, systems engineering, chemistry or astronomy. Luckily though, I would always miss my guitar soon after and return to it.

Who is/are your favorite musicians?
In the unremarkably mild winter of 2006, I was desperately searching the internet for guitar tutorials. I tried using an ancient file sharing software called Lime Wire to search for video guitar lessons and while I was weeding though the virus infested results I stumbled upon something remarkable. It was a short clip of Jason Newsted of Metallica playing a heavenly bass solo on stage followed by James Hetfield singing Nothing Else Matters. You all have to understand that I was into Rap and R&B at the time. It all changed at that moment. I felt like I never listened to music before, and started reading up on Rock n’ Roll, Blues, and Metal.

Currently, I really enjoy classical rock artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Hendrix and Deep Purple. I also appreciate the soulful tunes of the blues, with artists like Eric Clapton, BB king and Stevie Ray Vaughan. Furthermore, I truly enjoy the complex and interwoven melodies and harmonics of the melodic metal genres. Artists like Metallica, Tool, Insomnium, Nightwish, Opeth really inspire my guitar playing.

Why did you start a Youtube channel?
Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to spread any knowledge I have acquired to those around me. When I was 12, I wrote my first “book” on an unused notebook I had. The book had four chapters: Biology of the body, The Sea, Plant life and Astronomy. After writing all the text, I sough pictures from magazines and newspapers and then cut and glued them where appropriate in the book. Before I can share my humble creation with the world, our maid throw it out by mistake while she was cleaning my often messy room. That however didn’t affect my love of spreading knowledge to others. For a while I used to teach others how to start fish aquariums and successfully breed the fish, then I went into my Wikipedia articles editing phase. Once I started becoming able at playing my guitar, few friends asked me to teach them how to play and I did. I remembered how much I struggled when I first started learning the guitar due to the lack of good guitar teachers locally. That made me come up with the idea of starting a YouTube channel and teach people how to play guitar. I did a quick YouTube search noticed the absence of good guitar lessons on YouTube for Arabs. That drove me more into stating Rusted Studios. I told my band mates and they loved the idea and started helping me with the filming and directing of those video lessons. I wanted and aspired to make a guitar lessons channel in Arabic, which has not only high production quality, but also very clear and easy steps for students to follow. Once I uploaded the first video, I got plenty of positive feedback that I used to improve the channel.
Why did you call it “Rusted Studios”?
When my friends and I formed our band, we started thinking of an awesome name for it. Many suggestions where suggested, and none seemed good enough (RAM, The Chick Flicks, Two and a half, …etc.). It only took us few years to come up with a name we liked; Rusted.

At first I was going to name the guitar lessons channel: Rock star, but since we planned to film the guitar videos at our band’s man cave, I thought rusted studios would be more appropriate. After that I contacted a designer and we started designing the identity of the channel.

What’s the biggest challenge you faced in your channel?
To be honest, not many. Due to my previous experiences, I already knew how to film, edit, publish and promote my videos.

The only challenge I can think of was finding time to spare. At the time I was establishing a company to promote prebiotics and healthy living, and that took much of my time.

How did you overcome the challenges?
When I was in college, I spent countless hours editing video, learning how to use various programs like Photoshop, After Effect, Visual Studio.Net and many more. This helped me a lot. Furthermore, the drummer in our band is into filming and photography, so he took care of all the camera work and as you can see from the videos, he has done an excellent job. I tried to balance my time between my job, my research at the time and Rusted Studios.
Do you play for a crowd? If you do, to whom?
Mostly friends and family (or people I want to impress). I would like to have the opportunity to play for a bigger crowed but due to my focus on my new project I just can’t find the time.
What are other music related activities do you do?
I like to write music and come up with new songs. I don’t share most of these as they are very personal. I write songs as a way of dealing with my emotions and internal struggles. That’s why most of the songs I write never get shared to anyone other than my band mates. I love singing as well, and thankfully I was able to train my vocal cords as well as my guitar playing to a level that allows me to enjoy myself and entertain those around me.

Rusted Studios

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Take a Food Tour around the World

There are some things in life you can’t miss out on, and experiencing different flavors from around the globe is one of them. There are over 350 spices, and blending them gives us even more! And these don’t even include the herbs! These are the 6 dishes you can try to take your taste buds on a trip

Poutine

Photo Credits: upload.wikimedia.org

Photo Credits: upload.wikimedia.org

  • Where: North America, Canada 
French fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. All your favorite comfort food in one dish, God bless the Canadians!.
  • Find in: Big Smoke Burger 

Lamingtons

Photo Credits: sbs.com.au

Photo Credits: sbs.com.au

  • Where: Australia 
Sponge cake coated in delicious chocolate and covered with coconut shreds, moist and sweet with the perfect crunch from the coconut!

Make your own:  Lamingtons Recipe

Dulce de leche

Photo Credits: turismoinformativo.files.wordpress.com

Photo Credits: turismoinformativo.files.wordpress.com

  • Where: South America 
Creamy caramel like sauce that translates to “Sweet from milk”, used as a filling or a topping for a dessert to give a rich creamy experience.
  • Find in: Hagen Daz Dulce De Leche ice cream in supermarkets 

Piri piri chicken

Photo Credits: foodfrom22.files.wordpress.com

Photo Credits: foodfrom22.files.wordpress.com

  • Where: Africa  
Translates to pepper pepper chicken, which uses the piri piri sauce as a marinade for the chicken to intensify the flavor. Roast or grill to end up with a smoky, spicy, and slightly sweet juicy chicken.
  • Find in: Veri Peri 

Gogigui (Korean barbecue)

Photo Credits: P41.media.tumblr.com

Photo Credits: P41.media.tumblr.com

  • Where: Korea  
Prepared at the dinner table on gas or charcoal grills, the meats used are usually already marinated thinly sliced and served with kimchi sauce.
  • Find in: Korean Palace 

Chimney cake

Photo Credits: bakracakes

Photo Credits: bakracakes

  • Where: Hungarian 
A sweet dough covered in butter and baked over charcoal, the surface will caramelize and is usually covered in topping of your choosing like cinnamon or walnuts.
  • Find in: Chimney Cake exit 15 

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Top 5 Cafés to Study in Riyadh

Being a full time student and part time writer I know the struggle of not being able to focus. Putting myself in a different calm environment helps me get my piled up to-do list checked, and knowing how moody I am I’d go to a different place each time. Here is my ultimate list of places you can study in for every mood you are in.

Kitchenation

IMG_0623

Located in the most busy street in Riyadh, Tahliya, its vibrant and trendy. Good food, pretty theme with something interesting around every corner to get your creative mojo on. And to start your study session with a smile, you can play the classic “Ism, Jamad, Haywan, Nabat, Bilad” that they offer as soon as you sit in their comfy seating areas.

Location:

Waynes

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With its clean design and atmosphere, you’ll definitely be able to focus on your studies. Did we mention that they have great coffee and wifi? The best of both worlds!

Location: Waynes Coffee, Riyadh

Dr Cafe Meeting Rooms (King Abdullah and Khurais)

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For the ultimate privacy and intense study sessions with a group of people, its best to head to Dr cafe’s meeting rooms available in two locations within Riyadh, King Abdullah and Khurais.

Location:

King Abdullah location

Khurais location: 

Caribou

CaribouCoffee_Cups

If you want to feel cozy and comfortable, caribou is unmatchable. With their rustic design, leather couches, and fireplace all your stress will melt away.

  • Tip: The one in front of PSU has a long table and chalkboard for males.

Location: Caribou Coffee, Riyadh

New cafe Bateel

0299

Every time I want to study I get this urge to spoil myself, and what better place to do it other than a nice seating outdoors overlooking Olaya street with some delicious desert? I definitely won’t mind this kind of stress eating.

Location:

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Italian culinary secrets with Chefs Corrado and Roberto

Al Faisaliah’s La Cucina and Belmond hotels worked together to introduce a series of cooking classes to bring the taste of Italy to the people of Riyadh. Taught by guest chefs from Belmond, Chefs Corrado Corti and Roberto Toro. At the first class conducted the chefs prepared the crowd pleaser, Pesto sauce, and all the way from Sicily, the Sicilian Caponata. Using ingredients that can all be found locally, and giving the secrets to bring the most out of the dishes.

We’re bringing you the ingredients, procedure, and some of the secrets that we learned, Buon Appetito!

Pesto Sauce

Pesto Pasta

IngredientsProcedure
  • 100 gr Pine nuts
  • 150 gr Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 Clove garlic
  • 5 Bunches fresh basil
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • 16 gr Pecorino cheese (can be substituted with Parmesan) 
 

Mix the basil, Pine nuts, garlic and olive oil into the food processor (Add two cubes of ice to keep the bright green color) until smooth, then add a pinch of salt and pepper for taste, an pulse a few times. Add the mixture with the cheese in a bowl, mix, and you’re set to go!

Sicilian Caponata

Caponata

IngredientsProcedure
  • 1 kg Eggplants
  • 2 Onions
  • 300 gr Celery
  • 200 gr Black olives, pits removed.
  • 100 gr Salted capers
  • 3 tbs Tomato paste
  • 16 gr Granulated sugar
  • 2 tbs Apple cider vinegar
  • Extra virgin olive oil 
 

Heat some oil in a skillet and add diced eggplants to cook until soft and golden brown, then transfer into another plate. Add more oil and cook the diced onions until golden, add in the garlic and celery, cook until soft, then add in the tomato paste. After cooking for a minute sprinkle the suagr, mix, then add the vinegar, olives, and capers; cook for 1 minute.

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