Friday’s Featured Food: Shared Camel🐪Lunch at Ainadeg Restaurant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia🇸🇦

I spent 10 days backpacking slash working in Saudi Arabia in 2018. As the world of travel fades out of view from existance, it’s time to dwell on those halcyon days. Riyadh is the capital city. We had a total of three days backpacking in Riyadh at the end of that trip. We had lots of local food and experiences during that trip and I rarely covered it on here. One day, our tour group lads took us to Ainadeg restaurant for a Camel Meat treat. The restaurant looked like this:

This was only my second time to try camel meat in my life. I had tried the Camel Meat Stew in Iran in 2013 and the memory of that jogged back briefly here in the Saudi Arabian capital city. You walk inside Ainabeg restaurant and find an empty booth. You sit on the carpet and order from the waiter.

There are no females here at all – they are not allowed. The workers are male and the customers are male. You take your shoes off and put a plastic sheet on the carpet. The food and drink will be put on the carpet. When it arrives, it is covered in silver foil and in a dish for all of us to share. We get separate plates and all tuck in together to devour the feast.

Drinks-wise of course tea is served. I also had water and Almarai. Almarai reminded me of Laban, Tan, Ayran and Kefir.

It is a communal lunch here as many are. As well as camel, there is sauce, rice, carrot, pepper and spices.

What we don’t finish we can take away with us. I cannot say I totally loved it and took any away with me – I let the others take some back to the hotel. This was enough for me. It’s a great experience doing all these things like trying camel in downtown Riyadh. But you know what, for this time, for this life, I don’t want to be there again. Many of these places I write about are time-trapped. I don’t need or crave a return to Ainadeg. Somehow, this journey has become a collection of things I did once and left at that. It would be nice to have them all written about though.

Here is a video I made in Ainadeg Restaurant in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia eating camel: