Oman dining: Try authentic Italian food a Omede

T-Mag Wednesday 01/November/2017 19:53 PM
By: Times News Service
Oman dining: Try authentic Italian food a Omede

To all those who think that Italian food is limited to fast food or just pastas and pizzas, then here’s some delicious news for you. Omede at Holiday Inn Seeb will open your eyes to the world of Italian cuisine every Monday between 7pm and 11pm.

Italian cuisine is a combination of dishes from different regions across the nation that come together to provide a range of ingredients and recipes that is enjoyed by people across the world. Italian cuisine heavily relies on vegetables, sauces, cheese, meat, and fish. Italian food is never too spicy or elaborate and is usually fresh and subtly seasoned.

Throughout the winter, Omede will be serving different variations of Italian cuisine in their own unique style. The basement restaurant is a spacious place with a buffet counter extended along its length. The warm ambience makes you want to spend more time here, than just the great food that can be refilled over and over again. I made that my excuse to overstay my welcome.
Chef Rami, who has worked with many Italian chefs in his career, has prepared an exclusive menu comprising high quality ingredients and Italian recipes.

At the Bella Italiano’s flavoursome celebrations, I was confused by the number of dishes I had to choose from. There was a station with the usual warm and cold starters including all kinds of salads and mezzes to warm up the palate. Bruschetta, an Italian antipasto is the next station on the counter with delicious variations including bread topped with tomato, basil, cheese, and even meat.

We all know that pastas are one of the highlights of Italian cuisine. What makes the pastas here worth trying is the fact that it is homemade. The batter is hand-prepared, the dough is carefully mixed and kneaded, so it will be a refreshingly new taste compared to the processed pasta we all usually eat. Some of the homemade pasta you should try are pappardelle, which are the large, broad pasta noodles similar to the fettuccine; tagliatelle and tagliolini, which is the long cylindrical spaghetti-like pastas.

Risottos, the North Italian staple, is another must-have. You cannot go for an Italian meal and miss out on the deliciously brothy rice dish with meat, vegetables, and lots of butter. I would call the risottos here juicy and non-bland unlike the risottos I have had elsewhere in Oman.

You will also have a kind attendant coming to you with the classic Italian pizzas that are rare to find in Oman. These are exactly how pizzas are meant to be, and are extremely cheesy and delicious.

The authentic Italian pizzas are probably the only type of pizza that I can have without the chicken, sauce, and overload of vegetable toppings – it is good without it all.

Choosing the right dessert got tricky for me as I had stuffed my face with everything that was served, but since it all looked delicious, I thought it would be unfair to not give it a try. So I took some cannoli with ricotta cheese, a creamy sweet dish wrapped in a pastry tube. It’s a mouthful but a sumptuous mouthful. What I call the Italian mousse, pannacotta, is the one thing that you will regret not trying. The smooth Italian dessert thickened with gelatin and aromatised with vanilla will melt in your mouth and make you melt in a Sicilian wonderworld. —[email protected]

Omede Restaurant
Holiday Inn, Seeb
+968 2208 0555