Valentine's Day in Riyadh

Last night Matt and I went to the Noodle House to celebrate Valentine's Day, a day early.  I believe that there are a few embassy events going on but since we have a race bright and early on the 15th we decided to celebrate early.  (I don't like to eat at a restaurant the night before a race.)  Another reason to go out the night before is because the Mutawa will most likely be out in full force as Valentine's Day is forbidden in Saudi Arabia.

At home in the US, it is rather annoying that practically the moment Christmas is over, the Valentine's candy is on the shelves.  I like Valentine's day but it's nice to be able to catch your breath after all the Christmas hullaballoo.  We really don't have that problem in Riyadh. Instead, we have the answer to the question, what happens to all the leftover candy that no one buys? You always see it marked down to 50% off and then a week later to 75% off and then it's magically gone.  I always assumed that people bought it... but evidently not!

Last November 10th while I was shopping in LuLu I came across this display:

Evidently, pumpkins that don't get purchased for Halloween jack-o-lanterns, get sent to Saudi Arabia. I'm not quite sure why you would buy one unless you want one for display on your Thanksgiving table perhaps? But the prices  were 50, 75, and 125 riyal which is the equivalent of $15, $20, and $33 US.  Ummm, no thank you. As you can see, people weren't exactly pushing and shoving to get themselves some of these pumpkins.  (I always did wonder what they did with all the leftover pumpkins after Halloween.)

But moving on to the current Holiday season.  On Tuesday I went to the Danube to do a weekly grocery shop. (I really like LuLu but the bus wasn't going there this week and traffic lately has been really horrible and Lulu is rather far away.) Anyway, I noticed that there were lot's of displays set up at the front of the store.  This is where they always put the new stuff that they get imported in.  One must always check in case there is something new and fabulous! So of course I wandered over there and had a nice little chuckle because this is what is currently on display and touted as "fresh."

 Here we have some Christmas tree boxes of chocolates along with some candy cane shaped Rolos. The perfect gift for your Valentine! A little lower you can see the Christmas colored York Peppermint Patties.  These aren't the best pictures mind you, but I was trying to be discreet because there were plenty of workers around looking.

 Our next two displays feature a variety of Hershey products festively dressed and or shaped for the Christmas season! We have holiday bells along with Hershey Kisses all dressed up in their holiday finery.  I suppose you could buy the bag and then sort out the ones wrapped in red and mix them in with some regular silver ones but these are 34 riyal! About $9 US! For OLD candy!!!! Again, no thanks.

In this pic at the top there is the candy cane version of Kisses.  I really like those and they at least have a different taste.  (We still have every version of regular Kisses in the regular packaging that are cheaper so I'm not quite sure what the draw would be to spend twice as much for Christmas candy in February.)

 Since Christmas here is also banned, I guess they felt the need to disguise the big man.  Poor Santa.  Still, someone did manage to scrape the sticker off Santa on another display but there were too many workers standing around for me to take a picture.  Besides, I am pretty sure that you all know what Santa looks like.  Notice that they put a sticker over both Santa's front and back.  Ho ho ho!  Also, the brown one next to him is a reindeer. Evidently the reindeer must be disguised as well.  There were bunches of these around.  So, since my woman colorer inner job never panned out, perhaps I can get a job as a sticker putter oner.  Although that doesn't sound nearly so skilled nor fun.

Lastly I came across these towards the middle of the store and at first I scratched my head thinking huh?? Easter is coming up, why would they have out Cadbury creme eggs before the actual holiday? And why the heck do they look so strange? They are supposed to be red blue and yellow! I know because my grandma used to buy them for me every single Easter along with the Cadbury caramel eggs.  I loved those things! So good! So I took a closer look and I saw that these are not Cadbury creme eggs, these are Cadbury "Screme" eggs.  WTH? I've never heard of them and never seen them before.  So I took a picture and when I got home I looked it up.  I believe, that they only had these in the UK but I wasn't home in the states to know if they were there as well. Anyway, the point is, that these are a Halloween candy!  With all the candy that we have in the US around Halloween time, I can't see these doing well.  For one thing, they look gross, and for another they tend to be around a dollar or $.89 each, and when you are giving out candy to sometimes hundreds of kids, that would be a bit too expensive.  They are supposed to taste the same as the regular Cadbury creme eggs, just the insides are green.  Oh, and apparently they are about 5 months old now!! But at SR3.50 they are still full price here!! And truthfully, those will probably sell because it's still pretty darn close to an Easter egg.

When living in Riyadh, one must get a bit creative around the holidays.  So this year I made white chocolate covered Oreo pops.  And yes, I did sort out all the red m&m's out of a couple of mini tubes. And yes, I do spend entirely too much time on Pinterest!

Happy Valentine's Day!!