It's harvest time and the dates are delicious! As the temps rise very high we are offered the special treat of fresh dates! Oh what an experience. For those of you in the West reading this blog here is a suggestion. A tasty treat from Oman. Wrap fresh dates in turkey bacon, a sweet and salty treat!

Living in Oman has offered many adventures in eating. In my latest book Man Oman: a Redhead in Arabia I share the following story:

Once, I went on a business trip to Salalah, about 1,000 km south of Muscat, but still in Oman. Salalah has about 250,000 residents. It’s rainy season lasts two months. The city gets more than a million visitors during that time, mostly from the Gulf countries and Europe.

The branch manager picked me up at the airport and was my host for the two days. At the end of the second day, after I had finished my interviews, we went out for lunch before heading back to the airport.

He drove to a special place – not a restaurant – where six men were working intently over a fire pit. My host was very excited to take me there. He said it was the best meat, the babies. I asked for clarification and he told me he was talking about baby goats. Okay – I could almost deal with that, would try and be a good guest and at least sample some of the meat. Just as that thought went through my head, didn’t he just have to go and point out that they were at that very moment bringing in another kid for slaughter? I looked, and there was the cutest little baby goat, wrapped up in a blanket, being carried to the slaughter room!

Inside I was screaming, but I remained outwardly calm. We waited quite a while for the meat to cook, then it was brought to us in a package of tin foil. My companion threw the package in the back seat of his SUV, and I thought I had been saved; I wasn’t going to have to eat it after all.

HA!

We proceeded to a restaurant, and he brought the package of meat in with us! He asked for an extra plate and began to happily eat the meat. Several times he invited me join him. After the third or fourth time, I accepted and somehow choked it down. I said I simply could not eat anymore, and my fellow diner accepted that.

I can still see that cute little baby goat….

This was truly being 10 times bolder for me!