Before I left Riyadh in July, one of my fellow compound inmates took me to a great Indian restaurant called Bliss House.
The food was fantastic and cheap, about SR 20 each (that’s less than £3).
I was however somewhat surprised to find that they served a drink called a Hitler!
Amazed to find a restaurant that thought calling a drink after a 1940's dictator was a winning sales tactic, I enquired further with the waiter. Did the drink come with a little swastika flag? was a fake mustache attached to the glass? Why call it a Hitler?The waiter was at a loss to explain the drinks unusual name, indeed I dont think he knew who Hitler was.
It turned out the drink was just a combination of fruit juices and coconut milk and was served in a massive glass. Being Saudi Arabia, it was of course not served with any alcohol content.
I was informed by my collegue that the drink was originally concocted by a westerner who found that it went very well when mixed with home made Sidiqui spirit. He went onto explain that the restaurant had obtained some notoriety with westerners who would often try and smuggle in some illegal sidiqui into the resteraunt to mix with their Hitler!
I guess the risk of being caught with alcohol by the police and thrown into jail for 3 months gave a sense of exitement to this otherwise ordinary culinary expidition.
Aparently alerted by drunken patrons leaving the restaurant, the Saudi Police have raided the building several times, but had never found any booze.
I couldn't handle a large one, so I ordered myself a "Little Hitler".
Only in the Middle East!!
As this photo demonstrates, unfortuanatly some extremists in the Middle East are still big fans of Mr " One Testicle!!"
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