Gulf Map

Here are some tidbits about Bahrain & Saudi for those of you that don’t already  know: (for those newbie readers I am an Australian, living in Saudi Arabia)

• Bahrain is an island country in the Persian Gulf (made up of 33 smaller islands) joined to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia by a causeway toll bridge – that’s how we get to Bahrain.

King Fahd Causeway from Saudi to Bahrain

• On a good day, it can take usually an hour from our where we live in Saudi to Bahrain which includes  getting through both countries’ customs and immigration checkpoints, on a bad day you could be looking at 4 hours!
• Bahrain, unlike Saudi, is NOT a dry country, however drinking rules are a little stricter than most countries, being a Muslim country, you can only drink in 5 star hotels.
• There are no movie theatres in Saudi, so when I get the chance to go to Bahrain, I like to try and schedule in a movie in when I can however we do have  a small movie theatre on our compound which shows a combination of recent releases, Indian and Arabic films.
• When I go off our compound here in Saudi, it is highly advisable that I wear an abaya, similar to this one, however I am not required to cover my hair or my face, but sometimes I might cover my hair in more conservative parts of town. I may or may not wear my pyjamas underneath my abaya to go out shopping I’m told even Chanel, Burberry, Gucci, and Louis Vuitton design abayas also. Even in the budget range they can come in many different styles and fashions however they are mostly preferred in black. Only in Saudi is it law to wear this abaya, however you will see women wearing them also in other Gulf countries (UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman etc)

Abaya

• The compound I live on is like a slice of little American suburbia (or so I am told) and I am not required to dress any differently than normal, but just with respect.
• Women are not permitted to drive in Saudi Arabia, however on the compound we can. I have a beat up ‘Raw Mobile’ and also a scooter (which excuse me needs a wash) and a push bike that I use to get around the massive compound.

Raw Mobile

Check out the RAW sticker!

My scooter needs some TLC

• Saudi Arabia is the custodian of the two holy mosques, Median and Mecca (the two holiest places in Islam).
• Dogs are not usually owned by locals unless for protection, however many expats have their dogs, like me with my Lucy girl.  However cats (stray and homed) are EVERYWHERE. This is a real problem here both in Saudi and Bahrain with stray cats breeding like crazy.

Me & Lucy

• Shopping in Saudi needs to be planned out whether you are grocery shopping or otherwise, as prayer time occurs 6 times a day for around 20minutes each time. When prayer time falls within business hours, most stores are required to close to observe this time. Some larger stores however will have a lock in, where you cannot leave or come in or make any purchases. I have a prayer time application on my iPhone as the times change weekly based on sunset and sunrise. Although all other Gulf countries observe these times, business are not required to close. Also, it is not permitted for women’s clothing stores to have fitting rooms. I HATE that so I usually wait for vacations to stock up my wardrobe or go shopping in Bahrain.
• Coming to Saudi Arabia as a tourist is almost impossible for non muslims. Sorry guys, no visits, but if you want we can catch up in Bahain which is much easier to visit for tourism. They even have the Formula One there every year!
• Saudi business days are Sat-Wed and Bahrain’s are Sun-Thurs. My weekends are Thursday and Friday and I still call Friday a Sunday

Well I hope that has given you a little more insight into where I live and the differences in customs, traditions and environment.

Maybe later this week I’ll give you a bit of a video tour of the compound and my house if you like?

Tell me a bit about where you live! I’d love to hear about it!

Australian Readers: Don’t forget about the spiraliser giveaway here. It ends next Tuesday at midnight EST time. You gotta be in it to win it!

UK Readers: Have I got something exciting in store for you!!! 3 Awesome Giveaways that I will be announcing next week so stay tuned. I am really thrilled!

Rewind to Monday and here’s a smoothie I’d thought I’d try and replicate from my days becoming a raw chef at 105 degrees, oh how I miss thee

Blue Bee Milkshake

Funny thing is I never actually tried the smoothie when I was at school there, but all my classmates where in love with it, so I am not entirely sure I even got it right, but looking at the online menu here are the ingredients:

Blueberries, Almond Milk, Local Honey Gelato, White Chocolate, Bee Pollen.

I used Blueberries, Almond Milk, Oklahoma Raw Honey, White Chocolate (Cacao Butter), & Bee Pollen. Not bad but needs refining.

Then I went to work on the plane, and had two of my favourite smoothies that I am training the caterers to make:

Avocolada (from Matthew Kenney & Sarma Melngailis Raw Food, Real World) and my own recipe Green Smoothie (erm here it’s looking a more like a Brown Smoothie – but it’s got spinach, banana and mixed berries).

Then it was time to get down to business and finish off my raw cake for my client.

Before

After

Ready for pickup.

I used Becci’s cake as a basis for the cake (as that is what the client has seen on my blog here and had requested) but due to availability of ingredients – or lack thereof – something that makes eating raw fun, exciting and dynamic, I changed it up a little and amended the ingredients somewhat.

What resulted was a less fudgey cake and more of a dense heavier muddier kind of cake.

And of course I made myself a sample size version:

And invited a couple of girlfriends around for cake and smoothies instead of going to boot camp as originally intended. Sometimes a girl has just gotta have her cake and eat it too.

And another attempt at the Blue Bee which I think I may have just perfected!

What was funny was after about an hour of inhaling enjoying this deliciousness, all 3 of us girls (and later my boyfriend) were noticing how drunk? high we were feeling. I realised it must have been our superfoods high from the cacao, bee pollen and blueberries. Ahhh the joys of raw food!

For those of you that don’t already know, I have a day job. One that requires me to live out of a suitcase now and then, and also requires me to be supremely organised – something that is my purpose in this life to master. I never get any better at packing (one of my favourite bloggers, Gillian, has a great video here that helps me out when I get analysis paralysis during packing time) and I rarely enjoy the experience, dragging it out for as long as I can…..

Over the years I have lost countless belongings, being left in hotel rooms, in crew transport and pretty much all over the world. I have tried to learn from it and aim to become more organised with each trip but 8 years of being a flight attendant and it seems to have gotten worse. This trip, it appears I have lost not mine, but my boyfriend’s beautiful camera, my iPhone case, and my ability to hold onto things it seems. I have a feeling the camera may just be on the plane when I get back on it tomorrow (fingers crossed), if not it will be a very expensive month for me I lost my very own point and shoot camera a few weeks back, but with all my moving I am hoping it is just stuck under a pile of dirty washing or somewhere between houses and hopefully will show up!

Do you have any tricks for keeping everything under control, particularly when you travel? I have pretty much mastered the art of being ‘raw on the road‘ and remaining on track diet wise whilst away, but I just cannot for the life of me stop losing stuff on the road!!

In other news, my pal, raw partner in crime and fellow flight attendant, Becci, who moved from Saudi onto greener pastures to Milan recently, has started up a blog of her experiences of being a raw foodie in Italy – the best food place on earth!!! Well one of them. I love that Italians believe in the Slow Food Movement (which is everything opposite to FAST FOOD)  and I enjoyed eating my way around Italy myself in August last year.

Anyway check out Becci’s bloggy here if you want to see how a Raw Foodie copes in Milan. Tell her I say hi. But don’t go just yet Here is a recipe from the archives. In honour of Becci’s new blog, I’d thought I’d share with you the raw birthday cake she made  for me last year (when she was still thinking eating raw was a little strange – but she was such a good friend she borrowed my dehydrator whilst I was away on a work trip to create her own raw cake!) Isn’t she a darling?

Becci’s Raw Vegan Birthday Cake

Bottom Layer
4 peeled bananas
2 cups of dates soaked for 20mins
1 cup of walnuts soaked overnight, rinsed
2 cups of carob powder
1/2 cup of water

Puree all in a high speed blender. Place in a circular cake tin. Dehydrate in dehydrator on 110′ until dry (approx 6 hours) on one side then turn over and dehydrate on 110′ until totally dry (approx 4 hours)

Cream Layer
2 cups of macadmia nuts (soaked overnight)
1 cup of brazil nuts
1 cup of water
Juice of 2 lemons
150g of dried apricots
2 tablespoons of raw honey (or enough to taste sweet)

Puree all in a high speed blender until creamy

Top Layer
1 banana peeled
3 avocados pitted and peeled
1 cup of dates, soaked for 20 mins
2 cups of carob powder/ 1 cup of carob syrup
1 cup of brazil nuts
2 cups of raw cacao powder
handful of almonds

Puree all in a high speed blender then place in the the cake tin on it’s own. Once again dehydrate in dehydrator on 110′ for approx 6 hours on one side then 3 on the other.

Frosting/Icing
3 avocados
1 cup of dates
1 cup of carob syrup
1 cup of raw cacao powder

Blend until combined. Spread on top of completed cake. YUM

When planning my menu for this long (LONG) flight I decided to add to my menu some of my favourite raw (and a couple of cooked vegan) dishes that some of my favourite bloggies have brought to my attention of late. So here goes: (These were not my eats but a sample of what was on the menu for passengers AND crew)

Pre Departures were care of Gena from Choosing Raw’s Mini Pizzettes with Nut Cheese (the caterers didn’t present them as nice as you Gena but what the hey!)

I snacked on a Green Smoothie:

and Creamy Carrot & Ginger Soup (recipe to be uploaded later this week!):

Dairy Free Betty’s Sweet Potato Fries:

And the Pièce de résistance!

Sour Cherry Tart with Almond Cream from this book (a Christmas gift from Becci!!!!)

Can you believe this dessert is 100% RAW??

and I paired it with Kristen’s Black Forrest Sauce from her Dessert ebook here. OMG. I think the crew hated it! I sure did

Let me know if you end up giving any of these recipes a shot. They all turned out great! The only thing regarding the Sour Cherry Tarts it that the tart shell didn’t really hold together that well, so good idea to keep frozen close to serving! Still tasted delicious.

Time for me to catch some Zzzz’s. Just as I was getting over the jet lag from coming home from Australia, I got me some more. My body doesn’t know where it is!

Don’t forget, today or tomorrow, depending on where you are in the world is the last day for the Giveaway here. If you haven’t already entered to have a chance to win then you don’t have long. I’ll be drawing and announcing the winner on Wednessay. Good luck! And see you tomorrow