Saturday, June 25, 2011

Golden Spoon: A memorable place to dine in


Scanning through the Al Khuwair ‘food’ street where you have restaurants like Tropical, Subway and Karachi Darbar among others, your eyes seem to fall straight on Golden Spoon because it just stands out from the rest with its royal and charming exteriors.



On entering the place, you will be welcomed with exquisitely designed interiors and a warm aroma of ‘Tandoori’ cuisine. This is the first step to a traditional and delightful lunch or dinner, whatever you are heading for. You can choose to be seated downstairs if it’s just you or someone’s accompanying you but if you are a large group of friends or family, you can dine in the family area provided upstairs.

Golden Spoon has just the right kind of delicacies for everyone, ranging from an assortment of seafood to typical Indian Tandoori cuisine or even great Chinese delights. There are all sorts of mouthwatering dishes awaiting your indulgence.

Golden Spoon is an ideal restaurant with charming interiors which take you back to the times of British India, where the kings and emperors used to dine in the light of lanterns and uniquely upholstered ambience. For today’s generation, it is also a good place to have a candle light dinner with a romantic mood.

From the Chinese wok, there is everything from chicken szechwan to delicious mix of lobsters or fish varieties. If you love Chinese veggies, you can relish sizzling veg chowmein, chopsuey, fried rice or noodles to tickle your taste buds. Most of the items I tried from it are not authentic Chinese but taste good, its more like a mix of Indian and Chinese. Chicken sweet and sour and chicken decod in red chilli sauce are a must try, the latter especially for those who love spices in their food. Their veg chowmein and paneer in szechwan sauce taste great, just as they appear!

Turning to Indian tandoor; you have numerous delicacies which would play with your senses of sight, taste, touch and feel. The foods include, Murg tikka masala, Haryali Kebabs, Paneer Makhni, Ghost rogan josh to name a few. Merely writing about them awakes a sense of inner delight.

There is also a range of rich and creamy non-veg Indian curries for diners to choose from such as Murg makhni, gosht salan and others. I have tried their murg makhni and paneer tikka masala numerous times because they taste good and are very creamy.

To go along with these delicious items, there is an exclusive menu only on breads, ‘the bread basket’, here you can find a wonderful variety of freshly baked breads such as Kashmiri naan, Keema naan, veg stuffed parathas among others. Stuffed Aloo parathas and garlic naan are my favorites and I would advice everyone else to try them.

Apart from these main course delicacies, you can choose between different salads, kebabs (BBQ), drinks and desserts. Their raita in salads, relishing rasmalai in desserts and Paneer Tikka among kebabs are worth trying! There is also a small range of continental items and sizzlers which diners can gorge on. I haven’t tried either of them myself but have heard that Chicken tikka and American sizzlers are very appetizing.

Golden Spoon is always filled with different nationalities dining in at all times, Europeans, Omanis, Pakistanis and others. The restaurant is a favorite to all of them and is a must try for every individual especially of he/she likes to try out a mix of good cuisines. Any food connoisseur would appreciate the restaurant because of its wide ranging and satisfying varieties.

For me, dining at Golden Spoon has always been a wonderful experience. I love the ambience but I am not comfortable with the close seating, it should be made more spacious with wider space between the tables.

The service is just fine; you do not have to wait for your order for a long time. If you wish to tip the waiters for their good service, for two people, it is not usually more than 500 bzs. The restaurent also has a party hall which can accommodate 100 guests and also undertake catering during birthdays or other events.

Islamic banking may soon operate in Oman

Following a royal decree by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said authorizing Shariah complaint financial products has generated a new wave in the Islamic Banking sector.

Researchers on Islamic banking say that global Islamic finance industry is set to grow 24 percent annually. Thus, Oman too is looking into the prospects of adopting the system of Islamic banking which has proved fruitful in other countries.



Since Islamic financial companies have started to show interest in the Omani banking sector, an Islamic banking conference was held in Muscat on June 20 at Shangri La's Barr Al Jissah Resort and Spa which featured renowned experts from the world of Islamic finance who discussed the possibilities and outcomes of investing in Oman's growing banking sector, they further spoke about the possible advantages that banks in Oman could avail from the new system.

The conference was hosted by ITS (Interanational Turnkey Solutions), one of the leading business and technology solution providers for banking, Islamic financ, higher education and telecommunications sector.

Another conference was hosted by Ernst and Young, a world famous professional accountancy firm to talk about the prospects of the Islamic banking system in Oman, they presented enlightening facts and figures of the Omani banking sector.



After proving its worth in several countries worldwide, Islamic banking is finally making place in Oman and is already getting a good response from different organisations of the financial sector.

About the blog....

Hola Frendzz.....

This blog has been created by me for my Journalism for the Electronic media class. Here I will be posting news and feature articles every week, stories will be from my college, within Muscat or from any part of Oman. The stories can be about anything ranging from restaurant/ travel features to mainstream news stories, all stories will be having a relevance to the country or will be from within the country itself.

So keep coming back to the blog for reading interesting news and feature stories!

Regards,
The Author