Corleen, Coco, TBK and Beshy at the Bapco club on 4.3.2022
I formed the Friday gang back in February 2021 , when I left Bapco and had planned to move to the Philippines, from my OFW friends in Bahrain . Each Friday we would meet up and go somewhere to eat. We visited The Frying Scotsman (https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/07/tbk-eats-at-frying-scotsman.html ) with Jake. We had a Boodle Fight with little Ronnie, from Tata Ed's ( https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/06/our-200th-blog-having-truly-phillipino.html for on my most read blogs and the vlog is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt1X-DwuZNk ) . Another week we went to eat a giant Halo Halo at Tata Ed's ( Jake , Beshy, Corleen and I that time ( https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/07/the-last-friday-gang-at-tata-eds-of.html ).
Friday gang dressed in black wearing sunglasses pointing their guns like Secret Agents
I think the best Friday gang was Secret Agent Jakes Surprise 40th Birthday party attended by special guests Miss A, Nugget and Ronnie as well as the core team of Jake, Corleen , Coco and Beshy. You can read about the party here https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/06/secret-agent-jake-40-friday-gang-special.html or see the vlog here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N17qendjcCk.
Corleen , Beshy, Santa and TBK at the LPOD Pinoy Pasko Friday
We had a Friday gang Pinoy Christmas (Pasko) day out at Bahrain's Water Park , Lost Paradise of Dilmun ( LPOD) attended by Beshy, Corleen, Coco and Ate Tess (https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/11/my-last-christmas-in-gulf-2021.html ) . Our Annual Iftar was at the amazing Four Seasons hotel last year and the core Friday gang team ( Corleen , Coco, Jake and I ) were honoured to be joined by two lovely ladies ( Ate Tess and Miss A) https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/04/our-annual-iftar.html.
Ian, Corleen , Jake and TBK in the secret forest , photo by Joshua
We even hired a Chauffeur Driven Limo visiting my favourite restaurants all over Bahrain for breakfast, lunch and tea with Joshua and Ian https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/02/a-wonderful-way-to-say-goodbye-to.html.
Finally Miss Andrea also took the core Friday gang members for Afternoon tea at the Orangery the day before she went down with COV 19! Luckily Coco, Corleen and I did not get infected!
Our Friday Gang afternoon tea at The Orangery
As you can see we have had so much fun I have learnt many new skills on my journey to becoming a Kabayan like taking selfies while eating, Tik Tok, The history of Boodle Fights and being Baliw ( crazy). Of course , being me, lots of stories have been told and there have been tears as some of the Friday gang members departed for other jobs . Congrats to Ronnie who moved from being a Barista at Jasmi's on night shift to being a day shift server in the Gourmet lounge at Marriott's Ritz Carlton hotel. Jake returned to the Philippines on his way to become a Teacher in Vietnam, and now it is my turn to leave, finally , for Palawan! So for our 10th Friday gang, having spent over 400 bd on taking my friends out to eat, and run out of money, we went to The Bapco club for Friday brunch.
A very slim & young looking Patrick and Corleen at the Friday Brunch around 2014
As you will have seen in my Vlog https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=gofNTZbjQ10&t=327s the Bapco club has undergone a huge transformation in the past year since I left Bapco. Before COV 19 they had a massive Friday Brunch each week using the Ballroom and the sun lounge with about 200 guests and an amazing buffet, Roast Meat and Salad stations and it cost just 5 bd. Then VAT was added and I think it went up to 6.5 bd each. With a new Head Chef , from the Ritz Carlton, they have changed the format and the Brunch is now limited in numbers, and served in the restaurant at your table. The starter and desserts are a platter to share and you then choose your main course. Unlike the Ritz Carlton water is included with coffee in the 9.8 bd plus VAT price.
Our menu for our final Brunch on 4.3.22 was as follows:
Sadly the live Sushi station was dead and the cow that gave up the beef was a very small one ( and it was luke warm and with no veg or potatoes and we had to ask for the Horseradish sauce which arrived just as we finished). On the positive the starters and deserts were amazing and the Yorkshire Pudding was better than the one I paid 15 bd for in Dubai at the Nine ( and that was just for the Roast beef dinner!) . However it was not as good as Mrs. Jaworski's ( I am ever hopeful of being invited back for one last Roast Beef and Yorkshire Pudding lunch from Wedad and John before I leave!).
Our huge bread basket
Just like in the old days we were the first customers to arrive at 12 noon ( remember Niall how your family and my friends and I were always the first to arrive and leave the old style brunch?!). During the course of the Brunch we had 8 different staff serving us or dropping by to say hello. I felt like visiting royalty as everyone came to say "Welcome back". We were served a huge basket of bread which my guests quickly consumed leaving no room for the later courses! My brother, Richard, would be pleased to hear that for once I followed his vice and abstained from eating bread to leave room for my apple pie!
After taking our selfies and passing the camera around to get individual shots we asked the waitress to take the group shot at the top of the blog while we waited for the first course to arrive.
I have now worked out how to stop Beshy being so " in your face " so I gave him my Cannon camera and asked him to take a maximum 5 photos of each course! He is very artistic ( like Coco, but Coco is quieter!) and his work is below ( well 3 of the many pictures he took and posted all over the social media!)
The new Brunch operates on sharing platters and each pair of guests gets a set of starters, so as we were four people we had two sets. My advice to my readers who plan to partake of the new brunch would be :
1. Ask for a large table as with the water glasses, water bottle, mobile phones, mobile phone chargers, bags, wallets, flowers, tissues and cutlery etc. there is no room for the food platters!
2. Keep the menu with you ( the staff took ours away and had to be asked what each dish was , and even then they did not speak slowly and clearly) so you know what you are eating
3. Pace yourselves- there is a lot of food to eat and it takes time to be cooked freshly to order and served- in spite of several requests to hurry up the desserts had only just arrived by the time we had to leave at 1.30 pm ( Beshy, Corleen and Coco all had to go back to work at 2 pm in Malkiya, Bukawara and Riffa) .
4. Do not go unless you can stay until 3 pm as you are just wasting money.
5. Order your Lemon Mint early as they take a while to make, then pour some put as they fill it to the top of the Awali hospital sample bottle , and add the sugar syrup and mix well.
The good news is that I managed to tell the story about my brother spitting out his Lemon Mint many years ago as he was too busy boring me with details of his latest vacation for me to tell him to add the sugar syrup before he drank it!
Our starters were great and there was far too much to eat. I have never had potato salad as a starter before but it was delicious served with pomegranate and finely diced red pepper ad parsley. The Hummus was great but there was not enough Arabic bread. We asked for more but due to the Language barrier they bought some Focaccia bread instead ( which really does not taste good with Hummus- trust me!)
Focaccia bread on the left and the small piece of arabic bread cut in 4 for 2 people that comes with the big bowl of Hummus on the right
The amazing Hummus and Arabic bread at the Arabian Tea room in Dubai
I guess I have been spoilt in Dubai with the amazing hot arabic bread served with Hummus at the Arabian tea rooms , or in Bahrain at Hajis ( for 2 bd with Omlette , water, coffee and salad!) or Areesh at the Lagoon at Amwaj, so I have to say I found the portion and style of Arabic bread served at the Bapco club disappointing.
As I explained it's all about having the right condiment with the right food at the right time
My story lovers will be pleased to hear that I told the story of when , many years ago, I asked for Brown Sauce to go with my breakfast and got gravy! They told me later I should have asked for HP sauce. Beshy looked very puzzled as he had not heard of HP sauce and so we had to get the waiter to bring a bottle over and show it to him. I loved the waiters humour when he presented Beshy with the bottle of HP sauce like it was expensive champagne! I also told them about when I lived in Worcester in the UK where they make both HP sauce and Worcestershire Sauce. Here is the blog I was talking about with the Worcester sauce video https://thebritishkabayan.blogspot.com/2021/11/tbk-cooks-worcestershire-sauce-with.html
Our full table with 2 platters of starters, 4 Lemon mints, the bread basket and water glasses
The small quiches were delicious and , having complained about the luke warm beef earlier the soup was so not I nearly burnt my mouth. Looking back on the whole meal experience the area that most needs improving is greater interaction between guests and servers, with a clear explanation of each dish as it is served, and the format of the meal at the start- because many guests will be first timers!
One of the things I always check when I go out to eat are the toilets and I was delighted when Corleen returned from his visit to the CR after his starter and said "Oh, Tatay, they refurbished the toilets!". So often hotels and restaurants refurbish the restaurant but leave the toilets as they were. The Bapco club toilets, built in 1962, were like the toilets you find in a school! Now they are completely automated with an automatic soap dispenser, the water comes on when you put your hand under the tap and the paper towels are automatically dispensed. It is the perfect sanitation experience in our COV 19 world! the only thing that confused me having used the old toilets for 12 years is that they have now put the hand wash basins where the Urinals were which has nearly caused me to pee in the sink twice!
The Sushi platter- not sure what happened to the live Sushi station
Eventually we finished the starters and the live sushi arrived - sadly Anis was not able to join us as I know Sushi is a big favourite of his ( haha, he was nearly sick after trying it for the first time at his 18th Birthday dinner at the Ritz Carlton 10 years ago!) . Coco gave us an interesting talk and demonstration on how to eat Sushi correctly ( if you want to know more I found this fascinating article on line and the visual below) https://www.tripsavvy.com/how-to-eat-sushi-1458298
One of the reasons I love to go out with the Friday gang is that I always learn something new from this Talented Bunch of friends. Corleen is a Fashion Designer, Coco a Pastry Chef, Jake a teacher ( sorry po, the secret is out now) , Beshy an International Tik Tok star, and Ronnie was training to be a nurse. It's a good job Patrick is no longer in the gang as he had too many jobs and lived in so many different places that I could not list them all! ( Corleen you were right, it was 7 places he lived compared to my paltry 5)
After the Sushi was cleared the luke warm main courses arrived and I have to say this was the most disappointing part of the brunch. In the old days we would go up to the Carving trolley and the friendly Chef would tell us what the roast was, carve 2 or 3 slices, and then you would help yourself to gravy, roast potatoes, a selection of vegetables and Horseradish Sauce with beef, Cranberry sauce with Turkey or Mint Sauce with Lamb. Now you pay twice as much and this is all you get:
3 of us had the Beef and Coco had the salmon and then we had to ask them to clear the table and bring the desserts as it was 1.30 pm and my guests had to go to work. I headed to the cash desk to pay and the bill for the 4 of us was still less than that for two Friday brunches at the Ritz Carlton, Sofitel, Crown Plaza etc. where where we used to eat when I first arrived in Bahrain.
When I asked for my receipts I noticed that although they refurbished the Bapco club and created new logos for all their advertising they still have the old 1960's Bapco club logo on the receipt! I was also delighted with the 36 bd discount the cashier gave me when I paid by credit card! Simple error, which I graciously pointed out, entering 15 bd instead of 51 Bd on the machine. Annoyingly though the machine would not then accept the card a second time ( and I just paid my credit card bill so there was sufficient credit) and I had to pay the 36 bd difference in cash leaving me no money for the week ahead!
Thanks Beshy for leaving some for Coco and I!
By the time I returned from sorting out the error the desserts had arrived and a very guilty looking Beshy was just licking the last of the cheesecake from his lips! He apologised and said he was late to work and ran off with Corleen leaving Coco and I to finish what was left of the desserts!
Somehow Beshy found time for a farewell photo
Corleen messaged me later to say that Beshy was 5 mins late for work and he was 28 mins late, nothing new there then. His New year Resolution is to be no more than 30 mins late for work , so he just achieved that!
Sadly we did not have time for coffee as Coco also had to go back to work so we headed off to Adilya, before Coco told me he now works in Bukawara, so we had to do a famous Patrick style U turn and head back!
Tatay's OOTD is from B4L in Dubai!
Glasses by Hugo Boss
Christmas wreath left up from last year!
Photo by Beshy , of course!
My thanks to the Bapco club staff and Chefs for looking after us so well- it was 7 pm before I could eat again ( Baboy Adobo sa calamansi and Rainbow fruit salad) and as I finish writing this blog at 9 am my fasting tracker tells me its only 2 hours until I can eat again! I really must stop writing blogs about food when I am fasting!
I do highly recommend you give the new style Bapco Brunch a try ( they still have the legendary Bapco apple pie ( but smaller) and I hope the team will take my feedback in a positive manner. Please make sure you book as spaces are limited. The price may have gone up , like everywhere else, but it is still the best value Brunch in Bahrain!
So that's it, the end of the Friday gang- thanks for the company over the last year guys and good luck for the future. Due to my extended 13 month stay in Bahrain, the costs of storage and other expenses in Palawan and my over expenditure on vacations, cameras, glasses , vlogs and blogs I am now out of cash.
So I am gonna sit quietly in my flat and wait until I get the letter from Bapco Security ( 16 days and counting) that will allow me to go to the MOI and get my updated Good Behaviour Certificate. Then I will hunt down Ali's replacement to get my documents apostilled, have a needles shoved into my pwet by my favourite Pinay nurse for 3 weeks running and scan and send all my paperwork to the PRA and await my EED. In between I have my 5000 steps and 5 photos a day to look forward to and my 16 hours fasting a day to survive . 110 kg here we come! Inshallah!
This is The British Kabayan signing out and wishing you all Ingat Palagi ( stay safe) and Kita Kits ( see you soon ) Palawan
Hello, I am The British Kabayan! Feel free to read my stories.
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