Top Nosh

As you may have read in some of my past posts, a lot of what you do in the evenings in Abu Dhabi is geared around bars and restaurants (unless you are a keen shopaholic and just love the malls). As I go to new eateries I will try and summarise them as much as possible, and so far have written about some great places ranging from top restaurants in hotels to cheap as chips curry houses in the side streets of AD. Well, last nights food tops the lot so far! Not only because the food was good, but because of the whole experience! And it wasn't in a restaurant or a back street cafe, we actually ate at home.

Yesterday evening we took a drive down to the AD fish market by Port Zayed. As we walked into the market hall, even at 7 in the evening there was the hustle and bustle of fish mongers selling the days catch. We walked up to a couple of stalls and chose a large whole hamour fish that was in the sea less than 12 hours ago. It was weighed at 2.5k, packed into a plastic bag and cost us a tenner!

Armed with our carrier bag of fish, we walked over to another side of the market, where for less than 1.50 a guy guts, fillets and chops the fish for you in front of you. A fantastic sight, done with skill, precision yet great speed! Then, with the same fish already now prepared and looking nothing like the whole sample we'd bought, it was over to another side of the hall, where special stalls coat and fry the fish for you to your specific requirements for less than 80p. 10 minutes later you have fresh, fried, hot hamour ready to take home and eat with a salad. Beautiful! What surprised me the most as how there weren't any expats there at all but apart from us, just locals, however it is a definite must visit and try experience! Will be going there regularly just to try all the different seafood, from whole tuna and sardines to sherry and hamour.