The equestrian world and the epicurean world have much in common.  While we can be sure that all equestrians eat, we are less certain that epicureans are all equestrians. No matter.  I am an equestrian who also loves the fine points of cooking and food. I am in a great learning curve here in the Middle East, as the use of spices here, known for centuries, is a wondrous land.  In a good deal of the western world, a basic spice cupboard might include cinnamon, allspice, ginger and cloves (for Christmas baking), garlic, rosemary and thyme and three kinds of salt (and this is new).  Here, the cupboard will have these and, to name a few,  a fresh supply of basil, rosemary, cumin, tumeric, coriander, currys (at least three kinds), masala mix, mustard seed, sesame seed and fresh ginger.  I am proud of my curry plant that is 5 ft tall out the back door. This is the small green fragrant addition to curry recipes here and in the US can be found in “speciality stores”.  I didn’t even know what the leaf looked like when I moved here.

Since this is a desert land, there is not much natural food grown here.  Recent additions include greenhouses that produce lettuce, rocca, strawberries and tomatoes, but most of the fruits and vegetables are imported.  The food stores carry in-season items and these are grouped with signs designating from where they have been imported.  We enjoy oranges from Syria and South Africa, lettuces from Holland, celery, apples and carrots from the United States.

On the the equestrian world.  We are reading about the snowy and miserable winter weather in Europe.  Meanwhile, here in Abu Dhabi we are basking in the sun at 75 F or 23 C.  This is the perfect time of year for all of the horse events that are scheduled – for the main part in the 3 month window of January-March.  It is incredible that one can go to flat racing, endurance, show jumping, dressage and polo almost every day of the week and these are class events.