Dear Almosters
It was a pleasure to attend this years Meat and Greet.
The 5- drive finish at the location of the Meat And Greet around 530pm, unfortunately most of the drivers had to head off without being able to stay for the evening event.
I quickly went to Last exit and collected my wife (decided not to try bring the Tesla into the dunes) she was a bit delayed as there was an accident on the road leading to Al Qudra.
Once we arrived back at the Event location
@alshamsi_m was sitting at the mobile homes of our sponsor 4Wheel - this added a certain touch of glamour and sofistication to our event with the 2 Highend RV's set up with lights, running water etc.
Everyone started to arrive and the competitors began setting up, it was a little disapointing that from the 9 members who initially signed up for the chanllenge only 3 turned up to show off their skills. but wow they had some skills to show off !
We had
@Hisham setting up a full grill station and salad production section. his kebabs would turn out to be the winning challenger, with great presentation on platers including hommus and other side dishes to complement the brilliantly cooked skewers
@Aljamhi and his crew (including
@AhmadHasan ) started setting up chopping, mixing and prepearing everything from scratch onsite - a comendable effort to undertake so much preperation in the desert.
@Aljamhi although only taking out 2nd place cetrainly won the award for most prepared competitor complete with his hairnet and surgical gloves to ensure no contamination of his dishes - his operation was cleaner than many restaurant kitchens in Dubai - had Dubai Municipality Inspectors been the judges he would have won hands down.
Adding a European flavour to the event
@Jarema and his family shocked us all with his portable gas Pizza oven, really amazing to be sitting the Al Qudra Dunes eating freshly made Magarietta pizza !
And of course we had our very own Master of the Meat & Greet
@haider alnuaimi quietly preparing a complete feast with starters, soup and main course - that included a crab expertly transformed to look like our Almost4x4 scorpian logo - very cruel to do that to a crab adding a tail ! but it felt nothing as it was dead before the attachment was inserted !
there is no wonder this guy was a champion of the event in years passed. This years challengers were lucky he was not offically competing
.
All in all this was another great Almost4x4 event (8th year I believe) bringing together many of the founders of the club, new and old members alike with family and friends.
And lets not forget the presentation of the birthday cake to
@alshamsi_m the man who manages to "manage" all the various componets that keeps the club functioning and running as the professional organisation that we all love.
To everyone who took part in the event - Founders, Marshals, Advance, Intermeadiates, Crew and Club members thank you for making this a truely memorable event !