arbuclo

This is SO much fun! Thank you thank you thank you! Everything looks wonderfully delicious. Sam and Marlene, you rock!

Thanks so much for posting! I love Retro food too and like to hear first hand accounts of other places. I recently had a nice casual late lunch at ITSU at the Marina. They have a great menu with interesting Japanese (and a few Italian seafood dishes?!). The dishes we had were really good. And I'm thrilled to tell this story. A month ago we decided we wanted to do one of the drinks packages at the Skyview Bar at the Burj Al Arab. We enjoyed ourselves but the canapes were sad. I wrote that on a comment card and got called back by (I think) the manager of catering there. He invited us back for drinks and canapes on the house. I wasn't expecting great things and was blown away. We got all the free drinks we wanted and 3 courses of nibblies not including the normal nuts and olives. Had a big tray of deluxe canapes, some mini hot soup servers and even a dessert. We were well taken care of by the bar manager including a tour of one of their rooms (they're all suites). I couldn't believe how wonderful they were and as a consequence would definitely go back. I love good service!

Marsha, thanks for blogging. I enjoyed it, the pictures and even your sense of humour...no really! :-)

Mmmm, yum! no pics?

Hey we have painted horses around Dubai too. Cool! I'm really enjoying this blog. I don't know much about horse racing carnivals in the US but have just lived in Melbourne where the spring racing carnival is extreeeemely popular and now Dubai... Thanks!

Oh, Gosh, there are just so many places! First to comment on some of the places you list... Grossi Florentino is a wonderful Melbourne institution. Punch Lane is excellent though I think it's had some changes recently so not sure if it's still the same. Wonderful cheese and wine as well as terrific food. I've heard great things about The European, though I haven't been. David Jones food hall is great fun for browsing. If you feel like browsing around an Asian food shop, I recommend the big one (can't recall the name, though someone will probably post it here) which is on Little Bourke and Russell Streets. I actually haven't eaten at Caterina's but I took an Italian cooking course there. The place has a great mood to it and Caterina seemed like she made sure that there was excellent service. Of course the best best best place to buy those kitchen supplies is the Queen Victoria Market. You'll find all sorts of wonderful things to eat in the deli, meat, veg sections and perhaps even a cheap souvenier or table cloth or watch... Oh, and I believe there is now a farmer's market every Friday (?) at Fed Square. Hmmm, breakfast places. I'm sure there are many in the city, I just never ate there much. I did enjoy eating at the Blue Train at South Gate for breakfast, though. Make sure you post back here after your trip so I can live vicariously! :-)

I made up the foccacia dough this week because I wanted to make the fougasse shape (they look so pretty!). I put rosemary and salt on the top. Has anyone else done these shapes before and if so, what did you think...easy to make? (I think they look impressive but were easy to do; instructions made complete sense to me.)

Hopefully you can read this Retro menu I scanned!

I know what you mean about too many spices/cuisines! My cupboards are full of a great variety of them for different cuisines! The One and Only is beautiful! You'll have a great time there and you'll certainly be able to see the building of Palm Jumeirah! It's pretty hot, high 30s but the pools should be chilled. I went to the Burj yesterday for afternoon tea, the sunset and a drink at their Skyview bar. Food is only so-so and expensive at the bar (though the restaurant menu for the place at the top looks good) but I had such a lovely time with friends and the view was wonderful. Sadly the sun just disappeared in the haze yesterday without a proper setting! LOL (Oh, I forgot to answer your entrance fee question about the Burj. You need to have a booking at a restaurant or bar inside in order to get in the front gate. So there's no fee, but you do have to buy something.) As for Emirate cuisine, Almass is right, there's not much to speak of. The official cuisine of Dubai seems to be Lebanese. Which is fine by me...yum!

Akiko, zaatar is a yummy spice mixture of thyme, sumak, salt and sesame seeds. I'm sure you can get it at the spice souk or any grocery store. (I'm embarassed to say that I haven't yet made it to the spice souk!) And it'll be offered in dishes at middle eastern restaurants. As for the Burj, it's nice inside but I do agree with your husband, it's nicer to look at from the outside. One of my fave buildings in Dubai. You can definitely see it beautifully when dining at some places in the Madinat and Jumeirah Beach Hotel. If you go to the gold souk see if you can find a shwarma stand. I had the yummiest one there during my food blog. Oh, you might enjoy a dhow dinner cruise. Time Out Dubai did an article on them in last month's issue. I can't find it on their website but I could scan it and email it to you if you like. I saw that Le Meridien Mina Seyahi has just started one too. There's isn't at the creek it's at the Marina which is at the base of Palm Jumeirah, so that might be an interesting one. The food on the dinner cruises doesn't tend to be that terrific but you normally get a belly dancer and the experience of cruising the creek is very nice. (By the way, the Time Out Dubai website does have a lot of food reviews, I just don't agree with all of them! There's also this website that I go to for restaurant info.) Where will you be staying? I might be able to come up with some more ideas based on where you'll be. When will you be here? Oh, and I was thinking...you also get a good view of the city from Emirates Towers Vu Bar (I think there's a restaurant up the top of the building too; you could check their website).

Arbuclo, that sounds lovely. What kind of food is it? Thank you for the other suggestions, and can I ask you one more thing? Is Dubai really as good for shopping as everyone insists? Any stores or things that I shouldn't miss buying? I've heard all about the Gold Souk but people have also been telling me that I should find a place to buy pashminas. I definitely want to do that, they make good birthday presents for the other women in my family! ← Here's an entry from my personal blog about my visit to Retro. I'll try to scan the menu in and post it here too. There is good shopping here from designer clothes, electronics, inexpensive clothes, copy watches and hand bags (which you'll have every second person at the gold souk asking you if you want to by them). Karama is an area where there are lots of places to buy the latter. I also just bought a bunch of pashminas there. I bought 80% pashmina 20% silk ones for about AED28, but I'm sure you could do even better. As Nora mentioned you can also buy pashminas in malls. You'll always be able to find at least one shop that sells them. Other fun souveniers are stuffed animal camels that sing in Arabic, music boxes shaped/painted like an Arab man in a dishdasha etc, mosque alarm clocks where the alarm is the call to prayer (funny and novel but there wasn't a volume control on the one we got and it's LOUD! ) Pan, thanks for posting my foodblog link. Akiko, you'll see pictures of Goodies, which Nora recommended, in there. It's excellent! If you want to book anything at the Burj, you should do so ASAP. I can call an make a booking for you; it'd be no problem. Just tell me when you want the booking and any alternative dates/times since it's tough to get in there.

Thanks! I only got a small taste but it was good! I only cooked up half the batch, the rest is still in the freezer. I love that I can keep them there for a few weeks and cook them up in small doses. I did make one mistake, though. I was only cooking up half the recipe but put in the full amount of brown sugar in the caramel. So there was a bit of crunchy sugar on the topping after cooking. Still...no one complained!

Thanks for the tips on the matzo. I'll see if I can give them a try soon.

Here are my hot out of the oven sticky buns. I couldn't find pecans so I did half of them with walnuts, sugar and cinnamon and the other half date and cinnamon (date paste is extremely easy to find here...yeah!). They're too hot to taste at the moment but I can see the layers flaking from the lamination technique. I'm certain they'll be ummm, ummm, good!

Chandelier is great and I love the outdoor shisha pit dining but you can sit at a regular table. Mind you I've only had their mezze which were nice but I haven't eaten a whole meal there. My fave place recently has been Retro at Le Meridien Mina Seyahi. Extremely inventive cuisine. I can't wait to go back and try their set menu. I also recently ate lunch at Beachcombers at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel which is Asian influenced food. I had a superb Spicy Thai Prawn Salad and my husband had an excellent Duck Curry. Plus it's right beside the Burj Al Arab so you get an excellent view of it! The atmosphere is excellent at many of the eateries at the Madinat. The Meat Company steaks are outstanding. I liked the tapas at Al Hambra, but wasn't thrilled with the mains. Napa is pretty good. I've heard great things about Pierchic, The Wharf, Shoo Fee Ma Fee and Jambase. (Actually most of the restaurants and cafes there have had good reviews.) (I live in Dubai, by the way, but have only recently arrived. I'm happy to help answer any questions I can.)

I don't bake a lot of cakes but when I do it's from scratch. I love the experience of making from scratch and I know what's in it. I'd lose out on the experience of it if I used a mix. The only exception is angel food cake. I can't be bothered breaking all those eggs and then trying to figure out what to do with all the left over yolks, so I use a box. (Not that I do that very often since I can only find angel food cake mix in the US and don't get back that often.)

Seth, are they easy to roll out? Do you think they could be rolled through a hand crank pasta machine?

Pompollo, that'd be terrific if you could post when you get back. I'll keep looking for info. When do you leave?

I've heard wonderful things about Muscat, though I haven't yet been. (Have you seen the pictures of Oman on the My Oman website...wow!) Since I don't have any personal experience yet in Muscat, can't give you any restaurant reviews (but look forward to reading anything that others post, or you post when you get back!). I did find this website which is info on traditional Omani food. Omanet.om Are you travelling through Dubai? I can give recommendations for Dubai!

Wendy, thanks for the info on cutting. Just one clarification...what do you mean by a French knife? Do you use serrated or straight edged knife? How's the new fake cappuccino?

I was thinking of doing the pecan sticky buns within the next week. Anyone want to join me? I don't think mine will be pecan since I seem to be having a difficult time finding some but I'm sure I'll like them anyway!

Mine turn out basically the same as yours. They taste and look great except I compare mine to the picture. I really like the way they look in the picture. I'm obsessed with this and will keep trying until I can do it!

Wendy, my dear, you described yourself as an artist and nothing could be more true. Wow, wow, wow! Post all the pictures you want of your beautiful creations. :-) I'm in awe of such talent. Can you give advice on how to cut sheet cakes (or pans of brownies) into even pieces? I never seem to be able to do it even with an 8x8 pan!

I understand her concerns - with some of the deadliest species in the world I didn't understand why my sisters apartment (and most of the hotels I stayed in) didn't have screens in the windows or air-conditioning! I'm sure they have propane tanks ... but you'll be better off checking these things (as you plan to) before you get there and can't find what you need. ← We just brought our Australian BBQ over to Dubai where the previous tenants left their American BBQ. The regulators are a different setup/size, so you may need to get a part in order to use a new tank. Some other comments...the USA food store is great for when you're desperate for an American product but be prepared to pay a lot for them, of course. I bought frozen cranberries from a distributor in Fairfield so let me know if you need the contact details. They weren't horribly expensive and I wanted them because I love cranberry orange muffins and bread/cake. :-)

Oh, great idea re the cherry pie filling. I have a can I need to use and was looking for a good cause for it! :-)