“The Terminator” at Marah Land Amusement Park

  Just listen to those Omani girls screaming in unison, haha!  🙂

Top 5 Cities in MENA (Middle East & North Africa)

Muscat has made the list of the top 5 cities in the Middle East & North Africa!

The major objectives of this report were:

• to understand the opinion of people living in the Middle East about the city they reside in.
• to assess the key cities in the Middle East on various aspects that have direct impact on the Quality of Life of its residents.

Click here to read the entire report which consists of 85 pages.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Purple

Purple. Another color post! These artichokes in full bloom are absolutely gorgeous and the purple doesn’t leave room for any other color in this photo. Subtle, waning purple of a sunset; vibrant purple of grapes or eggplant – what kind of purple caught your photographic eye?

Share a picture that means PURPLE to you!

Purple Flowers at the Philippine Eagle Center in Davao, southern Philippines

The Astoria pool in Boracay, the Philippines

Flowers from Eden Nature Park and Resort, Davao, the Philippines

Flowers at Karon Viewpoint in southern Phuket, Thailand

This incredible Filipino dessert is known as “Halo Halo“.  The purple ingredient you see in the cube is known as “ube” and the more rounded form on top is simply “Ube icecream“.  Delicious stuff and cause for much pride from Filipinos! 🙂

Lots of purple throughout this stained glass window. A lot of people might assume this is from a church but this is actually from the Philippine Embassy in Muscat, Oman.

“New to The Daily Post? Whether you’re a beginner or a professional, you’re invited to get involved in our Weekly Photo Challenge to help you meet your blogging goals and give you another way to take part in Post a Day / Post a Week. Everyone is welcome to participate, even if your blog isn’t about photography.”

Weekly Photo Challenge: Inside

“Share a picture that means INSIDE to you!“

We found a mouse inside our house (hey, that rhymes!) but I thought it would be too freaky to post a pic of the dead mouse inside a bag for the squeemish readers out there…so instead I present a pic of the inside of the cord that the mouse had obviously chewed through.  I really am thankful that it did not cause a fire as I do believe that such things happen! Thanks once again, Lord, for watching over us!

My son’s latest obsession is with “Mickey Mouse eggs” or any chocolate egg for that matter.  Here is what comes inside one of these eggs:

Inside a “Bob the Builder chocolate egg” – but that doesn’t stop my son from referrring to these treats as “Mickey Mouse egg”.

Speaking of “Bob the Builder”, here’s the “Heavy-Metal Gershom Version” of the Theme song:

A different toy inside a different egg (on a different day mind you!) – this one obviously a real “Mickey Mouse egg”.

Our happy little munchkin once the egg is open, the toy is out and the chocolate is in hand!

Gershom loves his new Imaginarium Mountain Pass Railroad Set which lets him put his various trains inside a big plastic mountain.  (RO 29.9 at Toys ‘R’ Us) We were so happy this was on sale (usually over 50 rials) as he loves trains. That’s about $75 US and it sells for $103.97 on the Toys R Us website.

Gershom always has a fantastic time inside Magic Planet in Muscat City Centre Mall. (Pictured here sitting next to his buddy, Mickey)

This last pic is of a Ramadan charity campaign inside Muscat City Center in which people can donate used eyeglasses, mobile phones, books and non-perishable foods for the needy by placing them inside these large boxes to help make a difference!

Royal China Restaurant in Qurum

Royal China is a new “authentic Chinese restaurant” in Shatti Al Qurum, just across from Qurum Natural Park and the new ice-skating rink in Qurum Gardens Complex.  They are still officially in their “soft opening” as they’ve open been opened about a month now.  We first learned of this new restaurant from Omani Cuisine’s June 7th review and my wife has been waiting for us to try it out!

Royal China is on the corner of the building so it’s easy enough to miss from the main road unless you’re really looking for it.

Cool door! Reminded me of many of the temple entrances I saw when living in Beijing for 3 months. You first have to enter a glass door and it’s next door to “Retro”, a new restaurant that should be opening very soon.

As you can see looking into the restaurant from the main entrance, there is plenty of seating and the lighting is nice.

I always appreciate a menu that tries to educate us with the style of cooking or background to the restaurant! Interesting to read about the 4 main schools or styles of cooking in China.

Of course I feel somewhat awkward snapping pics of all the menu pages, but I love the idea of someone (maybe on a budget) being able to calculate almost to the dime what they will choose and what they can expect to pay before coming to a restaurant!  It’s always so nice to be able to know exactly what’s on a menu!

Kimchi! As you look over the menu, waiters bring complimentary kimchi and jasmine tea to the table! Sweet! 🙂  It’s not that spicy and anyone who’s familar with Korean kimchi will probably notice that it’s not quite the same taste but it’s still appreciated!

You can never go wrong with Shanghai Spring Rolls! (RO 2.7)

The Crab Cakes (3.3 RO) were alright.  I thought they’d be better as they are one of the “Royal China Specials” which is indicated on the menu by a yellow dragon just left of the item.

Plenty of choices for soup!

I chose the “Eight Treasure Soup” (seafood style) which was fantastic! (RO 2.4)  If you are wondering why they call it “3 treasure soup”, it’s because there are 8 different types of vegetables in it!  I didn’t take a photo of all the soups (there is a limit to my madness, haha!) but my wife had Noodle Clear Soup Veg. (1.5) and our guests had Sweet Corn Soup Chicken (1.7).  Our guests asked one of our waiters if they could share the soup which was no problem.  He brought 2 slightly smaller bowls but there was still more than enough. (Almost as much as ours and they only charged for 1! Nice! ;-))

The Golden Fried Prawns (RO 3.6) were smaller than expected but pretty good.

Konjee Crispy Lamb (3.8) was very delicious. Although it’s listed with the starters, I’d recommend ordering this with the main course(s) as it goes so well with rice.

Pardon the horribly blurry picture of page 1 of 4 for Main Courses

At RO 9.5, Lobster (with Ginger and Spring Onion for us) is the most expensive item on the menu. A delicious dish indeed and nice to order when inviting close friends out that you want to pamper and spoil which was our case this evening out! 🙂  When the lobster is gone, don’t waste that sauce. It was SO delicious poured over the rice!

Beef in Blackpepper Sauce (4.5).  One of my favorite dishes of the evening! Now that I think about it, I’ve enjoyed every beef dish we’ve ever had in our numerous Chinese restaurant visits around Muscat.

Kong Pao Chicken (3.9 RO) was another of Mrs. Brown’s brilliant choices! The sauce went so well with the rice!

We didn’t order anything off the 4th page of Main Couses (Vegetables) but there is always next visit!

Egg Fried Rice (RO 2.8).  No complaints here!

Hakka Noodles (Chicken) (RO 3.2) was a fine selection by our guests of honor! Getting hungry just looking at that pic!

2nd page of “Rice & Noodles”. Apologies once again for the blurriness!

With all that we ordered there was no chance of squeezing dessert in (Next visit!) as we could barely roll ourselves to the door, haha!

For Muslims who enjoy Chinese food, you’ll be happy to know that there are no pork dishes served here at all.

Phone: 2457-1339

With 13 items on our bill and 2 good sized doggy bags when leaving, we were pleasantly surprised at how low the bill was – only 44.4 OR! (50 rials total including tip.)  One of the best things about this restaurant is that there is absolutely no tax charged.  The prices you see are the prices you pay!

Anyone out there been to Royal China yet? If so, how was your experience?  We loved it and will definitely be back!