Travel Food Blog: Dubai

H and I are now in England to visit his family, but before coming here, we had an almost twenty-four hour stopover at Dubai. We took advantage of the opportunity, and looked around the city and joined a desert safari tour as well.

Two of my friends from university, E and M, are both living in Dubai, and they showed us around Dubai from morning until the afternoon; it was really lovely and generous of them. I don't think we would have enjoyed exploring the city as much if it weren't for them. They took us to see Burj Al Arab, Dubai Mall, Burj Khalifa, the gold souk, a mosque, and even took us for a boat ride along Dubai creek. It was so much fun!

We had our lunch at a Lebanese restaurant at the food court in Dubai Mall. I was completely salivating because I've been looking forward to taste authentic Middle Eastern food for the longest time!

Here are some of the salads that the restaurant offered. It looked so green and enticing.

I ordered a tub of moutabbal, which is made out of pureed eggplants. It tastes very similar to baba ganoush. The addition of pomegranate seeds to the mashed eggplants definitely gave this dip an extra yummy goodness!

For my main meal, I had lamb kofta served with parsley salad, parsley pizza and chips. Although, I'm not sure how authentic this combination of a meal is to Middle Eastern cuisine as it had chips, but it sure was tasty.

My H had lamb shawarma.

E, M, H and I really enjoyed the Lebanese feast with buckets full of interesting and fun conversation. Unfortunately, all had to end as H and I had to go to the hotel where we will meet our desert safari tour group.

While we were waiting for our tour guide, I indulged with an ashtalieh overmoze. It's a milk-based dessert with almost similar texture to a panna cotta. I'm not sure how this would traditionally taste like or how it would traditionally be served with, but this version I had was absolutely divine! The pot of milk had a nice hint of orange blossom; the honey, bananas and ground nuts gave a nice texture and flavor to this treat. 

The desert safari tour was extraordinary! H and I had so much fun, and really enjoyed the whole experience. We had an hour ride of dune bashing; after which, we were taken to a campsite in the middle of the desert where we were able to enjoy different Middle Eastern culture like camel riding, henna tattoos and shisha. We were also greeted by yummy vegetable fritters, chicken shawarma, tea and coffee.

This is a picture of the campsite. We had our buffet dinner here while being entertained by belly dancers and tanoura dancers.

The buffet dinner in the middle of the desert was something I would do again. The buffet spread included salads and hummus for starters.

Rice, three kinds of curries and an array of grilled meat were also part of our dinner feast.

We definitely enjoyed our day trip in Dubai. It was just a day, but we were overwhelmed with so much cultural experience. Dubai is definitely a place I would want to visit again!

Bisou bisou,

Charlotte