Lunch at the Souk

Fort in Sharjah

We have now been in Sharjah for a few days and I have spent the day yesterday walking the area and learning what is available here.  It is fun to see all the shops and how so many people do business here.  There is a whole street of plumbing supplies, one with only fabrics, one with furniture upholstery and another with watch repair.  There is a lot of new buildings, forts, old walls and an area where there are traditional souks (shops) set up down near the shipping channel.  

Today I decided to go out and find postcards and I thought one place that may have them is at the traditional souks by the shipping channel.  It is about a half-mile hike and I arrived there about 3:30 PM and most of the shops were closed for afternoon break.  I walked into one souk that was open as it had postcards but I did not see anyone in the store.  When I stepped in, I heard voices in one corner back by the counter.  When I looked where the sound was coming from there were 4 young arabic men eating there lunch of rice, naan ( a type of bread) and chicken.  When they saw me they invited me to join them for lunch.  I had already had mine 3 hours ago.  

Old home near channel

To set the scene, they had spread a piece of plastic on the floor, put the rice, chicken and naan... along with some spices ... on the plastic and were sitting on the floor eating with their hands.  The thought crossed my mind why not and before I knew it I was sitting on the floor cross-legged scooping up some rice with my hands.  They motioned to me to not eat with one hand but ... to be a man (my words) ... and use both hands to shovel it into my mouth.  They than offered me some naan and told me one batch was store made and one was home made by one of the men.  They then set some chili sauce in front of me and when I scooped some onto a piece of naan they all cautioned me it may be hot and I told them it was fine.   All 8 eyes watched for my response when I took the bite with chili sauce on it.  It was hot but not as hot as I feared it may be and it did not even bring sweat to my brow.  The chili sauce was actually good and knowing I had taken my Nexium this morning I continued to enjoy more of it with chicken and naan.  I ate some of everything they had and the only thing I passed on was drinking water from the one tin cup they shared.  The water was fine ... it came out of a water cooler ... it was sharing the cup that was the concern.

I sat there on the floor and ate with them for about half an hour.  The four young men were from Yemen and in there twenties.  They told me their names and villages they came from and I had fun pronouncing them.  Even if I could remember their names, I know the spelling would be wrong.  They told me they were allowed to have 4 wives and when I asked them what if they wanted another one they told me they would have to "discard" one (their word not mine) before taking another one.  The youngest looking one was 22 and had 2 wives and 2 children.  He looked like he was only 16.  The others did not have a wife yet.  All four of them were from different villages ... where their family was half the village ... in Yemen and had moved here to open their shops.  The were selling a lot of Arabic souvenirs and carpets.  After eating we got up and then I realized how old I am and my knees could not take eating on the floor on a regular basis.   We went and washed our hands before getting back to business.  I bought the postcards and then spent some time looking at carpets.  We looked at some with pure silk, 90/10 percent silk/cotton, partial cashmere, some with more knots per square inch and I received a good lesson in carpets from the young man who ran this store and cooked half of the lunch I enjoyed.  

It was a very good time and the five of us shared with each other in a fun way but my knowing there was genuine interest but they were also being good businessmen.  It was one of those memorable moments from this trip and will stay with me for some time.  If there were a longer time here, it would be enjoyable to build a relationship with them and get to know them better.  That would take some time.  


Last night we went out to eat and thought we would try a restaurant that indicated it served Samosa's.  After wondering the streets for a short while we found our way there and got seated.  Than they told us they only serve Samosa's and sweets.  Off again but we were fortunate enough to find a good Indian restaurant right around the corner.  I forgot to mention, this was a group of 10 of us.  We than stopped by a shop and a Magnum bar for dessert (hope you know what that is.

Enjoy this blog.  It is as much for me to capture this moment.