Mama Noura, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Well this photo just sums up this joint!  Delicious Schawarma, no, very delicious schawarma.  Yes, you read this correctly, this blog is about the closest thing we could get to authentic tacos in Riyadh.  Let me start off by saying, there are no complaints from us about this meal.

Don't these two look amazing with their shaved heads?  I'm so proud they came to the shiny marble side.  They look down right fantastic and they know it.  We've been hounding our colleagues out here to take us to great shawarma, we told them we wanted the best.  I didn't think I was going to tell y'all about it but feel compelled after eating there and the awesome experience.

When the car parked, this was taken from the window outside.  How could anyone not be excited to see this?  It is totally impossible to not want to eat at this place.  It is very clean, very nice to look at, bright inside and incredibly inviting.  The guys working there are all working hard, but don't look upset or miserable.  I loved the vibe.  Energy in a restaurant is so important and these guys nailed it.

Fresh fruits line the restaurant.  It is awesome!  Yes, they are making fresh juice with it for sale and I enjoyed the delicious blackberry.  Josh had the pomegranate which was also beyond fantastic.  I can't help it, I just love the fresh fruit options that are available in other countries.  They are really tasty!

We went up and ordered at the juice counter to get our beverages, which were awesome!  After that we made our way over to do this:

We took pictures and watched and salivated over these cones of chicken and beef.  Here, let me show you, yes I show you:

Top is chicken, bottom is beef.  Kind of cool, they have Crystal's Louisiana Hot Sauce on the tables, we totally went to town with that stuff.  It really paired perfectly with the shawarma.
RATINGS:
BEEF: 3, this is good stuff.  A really nice treat and something that I enjoyed.  They do a good job of  keeping it super hot and everything was cut fresh to order.  There was not an over salty or rough taste in anyway.
CHICKEN: 4, ahh, this was good.  Everything that I could have hoped for in a meal.  It misses the 5 because of the shawarma in Kuala Lumpur at the street vendor.  This was close, but that one has the option to be served spicy and was just a little bit tastier.  Don't get me wrong, you will enjoy this and should not miss it if you are in Riyadh.
JUICES: 4, fresh squeezed juice is something that you can not go wrong with.  I wanted to go 5, but that is not fair to El Placio de los Jugos in Miami or many of the fantastic places that we got to try in Malaysia.  Fresh juice is under-appreciated in most of America!

I know, you were expecting to see the spread of food after the ratings.  Well, we got there a bit before prayer so they handed us our food in bags like this, said thank you and kicked us out so they could shut the place down for prayer.  I loved it.  I appreciate the reverence to tradition.  Kind of a cool experience being from the US.  The bags are pretty nice, huh?  I liked them, they were sturdy, but not too heavy or thick.

This time beef is on the top and chicken is on the bottom.  I can't say enough about how delicious and tasty this was.  They even look like tacos.  For those of you who don't know, pastor originated iin Southern Mexico and Central American when the Lebanese workers were there and tried to recreate shawarma.  They came up with something superior working with the locals.  The result of pastor was local fare, spices and flavors.  It is some good stuff, no some great stuff.  Point is, this is some of the history of it that we are enjoying.  We all of course know that shawarma came from Gyro's which is Greek.

So like I said, we were booted for prayer so ate on the car.  It was pretty rad, hot, but rad.  It was kind of like going to a taco truck in the states and eating on our cars.  I really enjoyed it.  Helped a great experience stay fun and different.  Gave us some more depth to a pretty deep evening.

Thank you to everyone and all for reading.  I waited to post my Riyadh trips until after we left.  Pretty awesome and fun to write about another country that is so different and offered such a great cultural experience.  Please keep re-posting, re-tweeting and telling your friends to check out the adventures!  As I've stated before, if you hate the blog, tell your enemies to torture them.  I appreciate that just as much.

Today's goodbye/gratuitous photo is of JJ, Josh and I with the shawarma in the background.  We really enjoyed getting to go to this place and these two guys are pretty amazing and resilient travel partners.  Please enjoy them with their shaved heads in this photos, they really look like a couple of wee sexy bastards.  I can't say thank you enough to both of these guys for their commitment and perseverance irrespective of the circumstances.

Stay Excellent!