Oink, oink!

Here's a bit of back ground information first on pork in a Muslim country (for those who do not know). Pork isn't usually easy to come by in a Muslim country. They just don't agree with it! Something to do with pigs eating their own sh*t I think. In some countries in the Middle East it's actually illegal to import or sell it. So, if you are lucky enough to live in a country that is allowed to sell it you usually have to head to a limited number of supermarkets that supply it. Once inside you go into a special room next to the 'normal' meat counter that has a warning above the door stating 'Not For Muslims'. It really can make you laugh when you first see it. That's enough background for now.

I had finished work for the weekend on a Wednesday and decided to go shopping in the supermarket underneath my office. This supermarket is luckily the only brand that sells pork in Oman (it's called Al Fair) so it's nice and handy for me. A bacon butty would be a nice way to kick off the weekend tomorrow morning I thought. My jaw literally hit the floor when I saw how much a pack of bacon was! £15 (9.5 Rials)......YES, read it again, £15!!!! For a pack of bacon??? I thought pork was expensive in the UAE, but it's nothing compared to Oman. I am told this is because of a 100% import tax the government imply on it, but still, £15?!! That's just a joke. It even makes the £15 full English breakfast in McGettigans pub in Dubai seem cheap.

So what is the solution to this pork dilemma? Boot leg it from Dubai of course! The week prior to me travelling to Dubai for the weekend I was flooded with pork requests from fellow colleagues. I discovered pork (in all it's varieties!) really does take up a lot of space in a regular shoulder bag when you have roughly 5 kg's of it!! I don't charge a fee for this service as yet, but a simple dinner invite from the receivers is as good of a payment as any.

Around half of the pig order