Disney Date: Aladdin

Disney Date #1: Aladdin

Ah, Aladdin!

Exotic, funny, charming, adventurous, prince and the pauper type fun. I’ve always loved Aladdin, in large part because he was the first ‘prince’ to be an underdog and was ever so much more developed (and ever so much more fun to watch) because of it. Plus, no one can convince me Robin Williams wasn’t a genius as the Genie!

Our ideal date for Aladdin would probably be to ride a magic carpet around the world—heck, we’d settle for camels! But, as both are in short supply here in Halifax, we had to decide on something more realistic. Luckily, Halifax isn’t lacking in much other than camels and magic flying carpets.

We decided to pay homage to our Arabian friends with a date to our local Black Market.

Sounds perfect, right? Where better to emulate a street rat? But don’t worry; the Halifax Black Market is a (perfectly legal) hot spot for foreign goods, perpetually crammed with shoppers looking for a piece of the exotic at home. You know the type- smells perpetually of incense and is comprised mostly of goods from India or Thailand (suitably marked up to compensate for the local access). But the smells, the music, the colours and fabric and beads and dangles and general madness do comprise to create a mini cave of wonders: exactly the feel we were going for. The best adventures always start at a cave of wonders! Luckily, we didn’t have to traverse a desert or get swallowed by a dubious sand cat to get in; just elbow past some locals on a lunch break.

To get in the spirit, we tried on some (uber comfy!) Aladdin pants. Sadly, the comfyness was matched by the price, and so my dreams of princely pants have been put on hold for another day.

Look guys! This is my attempt at Jasmine hair haha. It works a lot better with thick black Disney Princess hair, I guess!

We did, however, walk out with these litte treasures: Earrings that Max bought for me :) Which I love!

Our adventure continued with food. We weren't sure what to eat for our Aladdin theme, because food doesn't play a huge part in the movie, but we did manage to come up with a few ideas! Since the intro song is Arabian Nights, we decided to work from Arabian; and since Saudi Arabia covers the majority of the Arabian Peninsula, we thought Saudi food would be a good place to start.

Then we faced the dilemma of deciding to cook for ourselves, or trusting the experts. So, our first stop was to the Halifax Farmer’s Market (which I adore) to hunt up spices and chefs.

There we found part one of our meal: The delicious mango lassi, a thick, yogurt based smoothie type drink which is popular all over the Arabian peninsula. But the market had little else to reveal in the way of treasures, so we headed out again and this time landed at Mary’s Place II, a delightful and affordable cafe in Halifax which specializes in Middle Eastern food. There we dug up another classic: falafel. While this was only the second time I’d had lassi, I’ve eaten falafel a few more times, but it holds a special place in my heart because I’d never eaten it before dating Max (who, once I mentioned I’d never eaten falafel but wanted to try, promptly took me out for falafel. <3) So it was a wonderful addendum to the date meal, in my opinion!

Our meal requirements were at that point mostly covered, in my mind, but it felt like cheating not to make something ourselves. So with one last inspiration in mind we headed home.

Remember the loaf of bread Aladdin steals, setting off the “One Step Ahead” musical scene? Well, we figured, a loaf of bread is something we can work with! With that in mind, we added cheese (Max’s Dutch roots flexing themselves! Haha), but to keep it extra Arabian we used cheese flavoured with cardamom. It made for an interesting flavoured grilled cheese sandwich, but hey! Exotic Aladdin Meal complete!

Lassi, Falafel and Grilled Cheese!

Date and Meal complete, we were ready to snuggle in and enjoy our movie! Unfourtunately, disaster struck and I realised I’d lost one of the lovely earrings (Already! I know, I was impressed too L). I guess we should have spent more time looking for a magic lamp!

Until next time!

Sarah& Max

The little heart on the left is painted rocks pressed into the cement outside the black market. Adorable :)