Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Fajitas and beer, NRG Sports Bar - Le Meridien Abu Dhabi

My first 'wet' night out in Abu Dhabi since I arrived :-) The Le Meridien is located by the beautiful waterfront in downtown (Heavy traffic!) Abu Dhabi. We chose the NRG Sports Bar...


Add: Tourist Club Area , Abu Dhabi 46066 , United Arab Emirates
Tel (Hotel): +971 2 644 6666
Tel (NRG Bar): +971 2 697 4663
Opening hours:
Sun - Thurs, 4:00 pm - 1:00 am
Fridays @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 am
Saturdays @ 1:00 pm - 1:30 am

Pity they allow smoking in air-conditioned bars and restaurants, grrr!



Our choice, beef and chicken mixed Fajitas, 55 AED ++


A generous portion, enough for one glutton ... and it was simply magnificent. Tender, very tasty, juicy and delicious dips to go alongside. Best meal since I arrived!!
Starwoodpressclub.com
Large Plasma screens showing live as well as recorded games, pool tables, and sports specials throughout the year! What more could you want? NRG Sports Café is the ideal place for sports fans from all over town. You can test your skills at pool and darts, or just sit back with your friends and other sports buffs and enjoy your team’s opening match of the season. Its contemporary look creates the dynamic environment, along with the variety of light food served and vast choice of beverages.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Chicken Briyani, Gad - Khalidiya, Abu Dhabi

What did I buy for 25 AED (RM$25) from Gad Restaurant one evening?

Add: P.O. Box 32177, Khalidiya
Tel: +971 2 667 5445


I was surprised how HUGE the portion was, in fact I ate it over two days!


Pity the bread wasn't very tasty (My preconception was that there would be some super yummy local breads here - That would come true in a later meal at Lebanon Flower Grill, near Gad, where they serve incredible warm bread) ... but that wasn't the case with this particular meal. I did like the chicken though, and was so impressed by how huge the TWO thighs were. The rice was decent, as was the soup.


Overall... satisfying :-)

Sunset over the Corniche, Abu Dhabi

As I walked out of Khalidiyah Street, towards the Corniche or waterfront of Abu Dhabi, on my first evening here ...


I was greeted by this desert sunset :-) Lucky I brought my Nikon D80 along. Gotta protect it from all the dust though!

Sunday, June 28, 2009

How much is a Krispy Kreme Doughnut?

Wanna keep cool in the 40+ degrees C heat, and its only early summer here (Wait till it gets to the mad 50s in August-September!), look no further then the many malls here in Abu Dhabi!

Khalidiyah Mall only recently opened, and has a wealth of shops, and an incredible carpark filled with the latest AMG Mercs, M-powered BMWs, all the S-models from Audi you can think of, as well as American SUVs which probably don't sell very well these days in their native country!



Location: Level A, Khalidiyah Mall
Tel: +971 2 635 455

Dunno how much a Krispy Kreme is in Malaysia, but here it is 4 AED or roughly RM$4. Yummmm ... I struggled to not eat the fella before taking these photos :-)


One more shot before I scoffed down the donut ... this simple glazed donut was sinfully sweet, but sooooooo very delicious. Perfectly glazed!

I quite like this mall, there are a number of shops, from perfumeries, to western brand-names such as Nike , Body Shop et al, and a large food court upstairs, as well as the large Lulu Supermarket (or was that Hypermarket?).

Golden Fork, Khalidiyah - Abu Dhabi, UAE

Sorry for lack of posts of late, it has been hectic ... but I shall endeavour to keep posting, albeit it will be from a world faraway :-) Yes, greetings from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates!

Food hunting here is unlike Malaysia in many ways, especially in choice, meat type and the cost, but I shall leave my future posts to do the talking :-) Here's one of my first meals locally!

Located: Near Sheraton Khalidiya, Khalidiya Gardens
Tel: +971 26 673 121



Golden Fork , serves a variety of food mainly focussing on its Filipino roots, is actually rather reasonably priced, compared to many of the restaurants in AD, this meal of Egg Fried Rice with BBQ Chicken cost me 15 AED, which is basically 1:1 with Malaysian RM, ie RM$15. It was really delicious, tasty chicken, but o' so average rice (Which I will have to get used to whilst I haven't unpacked my wok!).

Saturday, June 27, 2009

I like Etihad!

Etihad flies from Kuala Lumpur to Abu Dhabi, direct. In just shy of 7 hours you will be at your destination, arriving just past midnight local time. The food was really decent, wine was OK, but what was best was the video entertainment onboard :-)


Many miles from home ...
I have to say that Etihad's visual entertainment system is the best I have ever used on any airlines, in any class! Wow :-) The sheer number of movies, that allow you to go to any part of the film, and an excellent information system (Such as the flight path below), is quite mind-boggling!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Pit Access at Sepang - Porsche Cup v Lamborghini

Thanks to TW, for an all-access day to Sepang's pits :-) Here're my efforts with my Nikon D80, and Tamron 17-50 f/2.8 as well as my trusty Nikkor 55-200mm "value" VR zoom!

Sven of The Instructors had invited TW to help shoot the training session he had arranged, what a treat!




Lets get closer!


As the Porsche Cup heads out, so do we!

We dashed around the marshall-lane / inner-lane of Sepang, finding various corners and vantage points on a very VERY hot day!
We caught some action of other cars on the track too, namely another Porsche and a Lambo too.

The world famous "payung" ... our grandstand!
All access means the hallowed pits which the mighty teams such as Brawn, Ferrari and McLaren use each F1 season, and these floors would have been walked on by Schumie, Hamilton, JB and the like!

Really up close and personal with SH's gorgeous and powerful Porsche Cup GT :-)

Lets go!


Mighty sound ... Lamborghini's raging bull!
Two more shots before the noon session began! Must have been over 42 degrees C on track today...