eastcoastwestcoast

Local Shwarma Place Interior

Satwa Evenings

We've started a nice tradition of going out for a good dinner the evening after running a halfer. And by good, I don't mean "swanky," but rather mean "awesomely delicious favourite place."  Friday evening's candidate for awesomely delicious favourite place was Ravi, a Pakistani restaurant on Satwa that I've written about a few times before, and we hopped in a taxi in anticipation of a meal of rice, naan and butter chicken.

On one of our early visits to Ravi, James ordered that chicken dish and it was so amazing that it has become the go-to entree every time.  On this visit, the outdoor tables were all occupied by folks who had just sat down with menus, so we headed indoors for our meal.

After dinner, we had a stroll along the boisterous road just as the call to prayer was sounding from the mosque in the neighbourhood centre.

Here's a short video, with the muezzin calling to prayer.

Courtesy policy on a Satwa store, the usual rules of respectful clothing and no smooching.

I liked this storefront sign, though when we passed their front door, it was more of a cake and flower shop than a coffee shop. We figure that they moved into the store and just kept the previous owner's fancy neon sign.

And Mini Eggs

Planetary magic. In the photo above, to the left of the skyscraper are two blurs of white light: Venus (lines up with the red light atop the skyscraper) and Jupiter (at "10 o'clock" compared to Venus). They are very bright, the only stars in the early evening sky.

Weekend highlights:

• Had one of my top-of-the-lifetime-charts samosas: One of the best samosas I've ever had was from a roadside streetfood vendor in Chemin Grenier on Mauritius. Another was enjoyed this weekend, at the Indego by Vineet booth at Taste of Dubai. It was the first little morsel that we bought at the event, and even after many other tasty purchases, it was one of two things for which we returned for a second helping. The samosa was delicious, settled into a bed of spicy chickpeas and drizzled with fresh green cilantro sauce.
• Had one of my top-of-the-lifetime-charts sticky toffee puddings: I haven't had a lot of this dessert in my lifetime, but the first taste of it was memorable. On an afternoon stroll through Nottingham, I counted my pocket money and had just enough to order a dish of this at a nice cafe in town. I sat at the counter with an excellent book and ate the caramel-flavoured dessert, very slowly, very leisurely. The second taste of it occurred this weekend at the same Taste of Dubai event, and it was the other dish that had us back for seconds: a little slab of spicy cake drenched in warm, caramel sauce.
• Sandwiches for dinner one night: After the fun of the Taste event, we ate at home the rest of the weekend. One dinner comprised sandwiches of ultra fresh bread, fresh mozzarella and fresh tomatoes, and a dollop of pesto spread. Simple and delicious.
• Two excellent runs: Friday morning with James, who serves as my speed coach when he joins me on a weekend run, we aimed for a short distance but then stretched it out for a 40 minuter. Saturday morning, I was hoping to go for an hour, but took the turnoff that brought me to the finish at 50 minutes instead. It's getting hot out there. Two good runs, nevertheless.
• One excellent nap: There are just those moments, lying on the couch with a book, when the waves of tiredness suddenly sweep through my brain and I enjoy a nice afternoon nap.
• WiFi reading: Two people can now sit and read on two devices on two seats in the window, instead of being attached to the cord in the wall in the corner.

Sweet Shop Purchase

We wanted to get a photo of the candy-coloured goodies at Rauf Sweets in Satwa, and so we bought a box (a tariff for photo-taking, in our opinion: give the guys a copy if they pose, or buy something so that we're not just taking without giving back). The sweets are thick with dense sugar and condensed cream. Many are soaked in a buttery sweet syrup. Some are spiced with subtle tamarind.

I love sweets, but these are very rich and potent for my taste, like eating a thick pat of icing. We tried a few and then stored them in the fridge overnight so that I can give them to the Pakistani drivers at work today.

Here's the Instax pic

Four Eggs, Two Gold, Two Yellow

J&J Film Festival

I've mentioned before that the movie selection here in Doobz can be a little flimsy at times, and we've often resorted to checking out terrible dubbed French action movies in an attempt to satisfy a craving for arthouse. And then there are weekends like this last one.

Whereas in North America, January and February tend to be devoid of good releases as studios have saved their blockbusters for the previous Christmas season and any potential award-winner has been premiered to slip into the awards season. Jan and Feb in Dubai, meanwhile, are a catch-up time. Finally, NOW, crawling into theatres are some Good Movies.

We saw four that appealed to us, and narrowed it down to two for a Saturday outing. The J&J Film Festival!

Over to the Dubai Mall, were we first saw Ralph Fiennes' interpretation of Shakespeare's Coriolanus (excellent).

We then had an hour-long break, during which we headed down to the restaurant that has a sushi bar zigzagging throughout the entire seating area.

After good sushi, it was back up to the theatre where we sat back to watch The Artist (also excellent). A funny note on this movie, which is a silent film and black & white: the latest issue of TimeOut noted that theatres were having to inform ticket buyers of both of these facts, as people were complaining that they didn't know it would be silent/b&w. We loved it.

J&J Film Fest, great success.

2011 Year in Review: Cooking Up A Storm!

Thanks to cooking classes and some nice recipe websites, I got into cooking some yummy dinners this year. My top favourite recipes were:

White Bean Stew - hearty and filling, good with a chunk of bread, green salad and a glass of white wine. Recipe

Chickpea vegetable soup - I made this a bunch of times, such a great way to get a good dose of veggies. We liked adding some meatballs for extra substance. The amazing part of this fragrant soup is the grated parmesan cheese topping that has lemon rind, pepper and rosemary mixed in. Recipe 

Potato salad with mustard dressing and pickled onions - Pickled onions became a permanent fridge fixture after this recipe, used in lots of stuff. This recipe was so refreshing and tangy, and when our first box from the Farmers Market had a ton of potatoes in it, this was a great way to use them up. We nixed the radishes the second time around, and it was just as good. Recipe 

Scalloped tomatoes - Especially good on toasts the next day. Sweet tomatoes with good cheese. Recipe

Moroccan Chicken Stew - my Mom told me to check out this recipe in the Anne Lindsay cookbook, and it was so good. Tons of veggies and rich flavour, with saffron and sweet raisins. Recipe

Zaatar Recipes from Arabic Cooking Class - zaatar has been an amazing discovery since arriving in Dubai, combinging thyme, sumac and sesame seeds into an excellent, flavourful spice. You can use it in a ton of combos, mixed into yogurt like a dip, spread on pitas with olive oil and then broiled for chips... and then these two recipes from my Arabic cooking class. 1. Layer chicken, potatoes, tomatoes, mushrooms and onions and marinate the chicken in lemon juice, zaatar, garlic, and various other goodies. Bake it up! 2. Chicken marinated in tomato paste, lemon juice, zaatar, garlic, etc. Like chicken tikka masala, yum.

Tomato and Sausage Risotto - James wanted to cook a recipe so we picked this one out and headed over to the grocery store with the behind-closed-doors pork section so that we could get sausage. At every step along the way, we kept exclaiming, "this is going to be amazing" and it was!! Recipe

Chicken in Dill Mustard Sauce - What to do when you buy a massive bunch of dill at the Farmers Market? Find recipes that use it up! Like this one, which was deeeeelicious. The sauce was fantastic. Recipe

White Beans and Cabbage - The title sounds bleh, but this recipe includes toasty, tasty beans and a whopping pile of grated parmesan cheese. I bought my Mom this cookbook for Christmas because I had read so many rave reviews online this year (surprise mom!) and flipped through it before packing it away - this recipe is on the cover, and it looked so good, so I tried it out. Yum. Recipe

Desserts
Lime Coconut Cake - James' 1st cake. Inspired by Lime Tree Cafe, we saw a link to it, and both instantly knew we had to make it. And it was INCREDIBLE. Recipe

Chocolate Cake - This recipe reminded me of the chocolate corks at the High Rise Bakery in Cambridge, MA, which are dense and chocolate-y and delicious. This one pan cake was fantastic and filled the house with cocoa fragrance as it baked. Super easy to make, once I found the cocoa at the grocer store. I made it for James' bday and it was very good with some vanilla ice cream (Recipe). There's also a red wine version, that James made me for my birthday, and it was delicious, like a rum ball (Recipe).

English Toffee - For our office Secret Santa, I made this recipe and it reminded me of the yumminess that Iolanda used to make at Christmas. So easy, so simple, yet the ingredients combine to make something that is irresistible. Recipe

Other good recipes to remember:

1. Potato leek soup (especially good the next day, when the potatoes were browned a little on the bottom of the pan)
2. Stuffed peppers with couscous and feta
3. Ratatouille (eggplant, zucchini and tomates from farmer's market)
4. Zucchini loaf
5. Cabbage and apple salad
6. Eggs cooked in tomato sauce
7. Endive salad with toasted walnuts, apple slices, pomegranate seeds and goat cheese
8. Braised leeks
9. Barley risotto
10. Baked rigatoni - These little meatballs were so tasty. This dish used almost every pan in our cupboards and took about 2.5 hours to make. But it was as light and tasty as promised.
11. Cellophane noodle salad with roast pork - We couldn't figure out the pork, improvised, missed the required 4 hr marination until we started to cook at 8pm. But deeeelish.
12. Fajitas - chicken breast cut into cubes and cooked with pesto, strips of onions and red peppers, avocado mashed with tomato, tortillas heated on the stove element. Mix and match, add salsa if desired
13. Zucchini fritters - I love these, we DEVOURED them with a dollop of sour cream, smoked salmon, a squirt of lemon and pickled onions
14. Simple vegetable paella from the NYT. A great way to get tons of veggies - chickpeas, beans, red & green peppers, onions, peas, tomatoes, with the filling substance of rice. The saffron makes it fragrant and delicious.
15. Lemon risotto with summer squash. Tasty, the squash I used was orange on the inside, like pumpkin. It was so good with lots of extra greens wilted right in. Didn't use garlic. Delicious when freshly made, but I didn't enjoy the leftovers.  
16. Steak salad with blue cheese.
17. Broccoli gribiche
18. Homemade pasta
19. Cauliflower curry

Farmers Market

Small fee, big box of veggies!

Rambutan and Mangosteen

Tasty fruits from the grocery store. After removing the spiky, soft peel of the rambutan, a lychee-like fruit was left-behind. The mangosteen was like a small, ghost-white mandarin orange interior, segments of pulpy fruit.

I liked the pink-into-green colour of the rambutan, and the cartoonish "leaves" on the mangosteen.

Evening in Bur Dubai

Our first Dubai friends are embarking on new adventures and opportunities in London, and we met them for one last dinner before their departure at their favourite place in town: Special Ostadi.

Here's what the NY Times wrote about it a few years ago:

You can take only so much newness before the urge for authenticity strikes. Veer off to one of the city's most historical restaurants, the curiously named Special Ostadi Restaurant. The small spot is 41 years old — ancient by Dubai standards — and is run by a boisterous Iranian man named Muhammad Ali Ansari. There are only a handful of tables, all covered in a half century of memorabilia, all packed with local businessmen wearing traditional kaffiyehs or shiny Italian suits. The natives come for one thing: grilled lamb kebabs doused in a tangy yogurt sauce and served with pita, onions, cucumbers, arugula, tomatoes and a fat wedge of lime. Order a dish of sweet dates and a cup of mint tea to wash it all down. The whole meal comes to 20 dirhams.

After dinner, we walked along the Dubai Creek, where abra drivers sat on their water taxis, bobbing in the water, and big lit ships cruised along. Our friend pointed to the corporate logo lit in neon across the way, and told us that this was his mark on Dubai - years ago, he had money left in the marketing budget and sponsored this sign, which was to be one of the last neon signs in the city before they were outlawed.