“A Taste of Thailand” at Asia Restaurant, Shangri-La Until March 9th

As I posted before, Shangri-La is a having a Taste of Thailand promotion until March 9th.  As a local blogger, the wife and I were invited to the first night’s media invitation along with several other bloggers and newspaper/magazine outlets to sample the food for ourselves! Bend my rubber arm! As if we need an excuse to visit Asia! 😉The evening started with social drinks and entertainment in the form of dancing in the courtyard of the Omani Heritage Village before dinner started. Fabulous way to start off the evening!Here’s a much better pic from the Shangri-La Barr al Jisseh facebook album of this event.If you’re interested, you can click here to see my original restaurant review of Asia. Or here for their Indonesian promotion they had in November.Would you believe they served us an 8-course meal?! Wow!  Here are the dishes we were served one by one: This appetizer is called Miang Kham: fragrant betel leaves filled with thai herbs, chili, lime and dried shrimps.  Make sure you have plenty of water nearby if you try this as it’s spicey!This soup was SO good! Tom Yam Gung – hot and sour soup with prawns flavoured with lemongrass and thai herbs. If you get to Asia during this promotion, be sure to try this soup!One of the guest chefs hard at work in the kitchenThe salad was quite good.  Yam Ma Muang Pla Foo – Crispy shredded catfish with green mangoes and cashewnut salad.This was one of my favorite dishes of the evening.  Kaeng Massaman Nuea – Slow-braised beef short rib in rich peanut curry.  It went so well with the steamed Jasmine rice (Khao Suai).The other dish that was one of my favorites was whole lobster in dry red curry (Chu Chi Kung Mangkorn).  By this time, I was getting pretty stuffed!  Not enough to stop, mind you! 😉The guest chefs pictured here who flew in from Shangri-La Hotel in Chiang whipped up this dish specifically for this photo. Here’s a closer look at the dish:It’s always a treat to meet up with Ingrid Hotanijaya, the Communications Executive.  Nobody does hospitality like Shangri-La! 🙂Back to the set menu…Steamed seabass with lime and chili sauce (Pla Nueng Ma Nao).  This was quite a delicious dish.  Only one more dish to go…dessert!Khao Niew Ma Muang did not fail to please! Sweet sticky rice with ripe mangoes, sesame seeds and honey.  Great way to end a fantastic evening at Asia! We showed up at about 7pm and didn’t leave until around 10:30pm with all the socializing and fine eating. Wow! I’m glad that Rasha al Mandani insisted on getting a pic of me and the wife under the Asia sign just inside the main entrance. Here we are together with Rasha who always makes everyone feel right at home when visiting Shangri-La:Thanks Rasha, Ingrid and the entire crew at Asia for another unforgettable evening!The chefs take the time for a thumbs up (from Shangri-La’s facebook page), but it’s really them and their cooking that deserve a big thumbs up! Try to get down to Asia before March 9th to try all these great dishes for yourself.  There are also specialty drinks specifically for the Taste of Thailand menu that are definitely worth trying out!

“Sale of Fish and Girl”?!

I am REALLY hoping that is supposed to read “grill”… 😉  (This photo was taken in Al Khuwair near Switz Bakery by one of my facebook friends.)

Manhattan Fish Market, 18 November Street, Azaiba

     The Manhattan Fish Market (Tel: 2449-9102) has been open for about 2 weeks now (since Feb 12th).  The pics and videos we’ve seen being shared on facebook were enough to convince us to try this restaurant out for ourselves. It was this video in particular with their new “sea-lections” that really caught our attention:

The Manhattan Fish Market is on 18 November Street in Azaiba.  If you’re driving from the direction of the Wave, it’s on the right hand side of of the road just before the shell station and Al Fair supermarket.    Several tables near the front doorSeems to have more privacy in the back room where we decided to sit.                                                The menu is fantastic.  It contains some of the history of this restaurant chain and plenty of clear, laminated pics of all the dishes.  Manhattan Fish Market also has branches in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka. It obviously originated in Manhattan! 🙂We all enjoyed the Fried Country Mushrooms (1.9 OR) for our starter. Here are all the starters available at MFM:2 choices of soup and 3 chowders.  They only make one of the 3 chowders each day so you will only have 1 choice. On the evening we went, it was salmon chowder. For salads, they have garden (1.7) and Caesar (1.9) with the option of add-ons: crispy whitebait (.9), grilled chicken (1.7) and tuna (.9).  They also have coleslaw (1.8), corn salad (1.7) and potato salad (2.2). Sides include Chef’s baguette (.4), garlic herb rice (1), chippy fries (1) and hot veggies(1).The wife and I both had the Salmon Chowder (1.5 OR). Delicious!Our friend, Geoff, enjoyed the Cream of Mushroom Soup (1.2). The pastas look SO good. Will have to try one on a future visit. This is just one of the pages of pastas available.  It is hard to decide what to get from the menu as it all looks so great.Grilled Dory (3.2 OR)My wife had the small flame (4.9 OR). Manhattan Flaming Prawns with grilled dory fillet on a bed of garlic herb rice, chips and veggies. Our Omani friend had the fish and chips (3.2 OR). You can choose Dory or cherry snapper for the fish and chips. Our friend ordered cherry snapper and he didn’t have anything bad to say about this dish!The MANHATTAN FLAMING SEAFOOD PLATTER (11.9 OR) which we were told is the “1 indisputable choice of manhattan seafood market fans”.  After trying it, we could see why.  This was a fantastic platter and highly recommended.  Hand battered fish fillets, oysters, calamari and Manhattan flaming prawns, all on one dish! This dish is large and intended for at least 2 to share. 2 more of the 6 platters available on the menu  Citrus Mint (1.8 OR)  Gummy Bear (1.6) From the menu: “The exciting flavors of Curacao and tropical fruit mix is guaranteed to liven up your senses”. Looked more exciting than it tasted…  4 satisfied customers! 🙂Overall, we had a wonderful dining experience at Manhattan Fish Market! In total, the bill for 4 people came to only 37.39 OR which works out to only about 10 rials/person.  We highly recommend this restaurant and we’re already looking forward to our next visit.  Check out their facebook page and go through the menu items in the picture folder there. We didn’t have room for dessert, but they looked incredible.  Have any of you been there yet? If so, how was your experience?  (Tel: 2449-9102 / 2449-9627) http://www.manhattanfishmarket.com 

“A Taste of Thailand” Promotion at Asia, Shangri-La (Feb 26-Mar 9)

Looking forward to this! If it’s anything like the Indonesian promotion they held a few months back, this is sure to be scrumptious!

The Ari Roland Jazz Quartet: Free Cultural Event Thursday, Feb 27th at Crowne Plaza

Sounds like a fun evening of jazz at the Crowne Plaza next Thursday. This was just tweeted by the US Embassy in Muscat.  We attended a similar event hosted by the US Embassy 4 years ago (with the Little Joe MacLerran Quartet) and we had a blast.  The poster reads that “restaurants and bars will be open before and after the event for your enjoyment”. What about during the event?! They had an open bar on the lawn last time we attended which was a great idea.