Nicolai

Interesting article. 1- Not all Sommeliers are equal in front of the Wine Gods. In case you know your wine, stick to it. 2- I tailor my food and service expectations according to the restaurant level being visited. 3- Most definitely, being a regular beats all bets. 4- In case you spot a salt and pepper mill at the table, run.... 5- If you can put one over the staff, do it. Not all wealthy or culinary aware people always dress nice. I was once asked at the table whether I knew as to what is the difference between soda and tonic water besides the bubbles. I answered that he would pay the bill if my answer is correct and I would leave a USD100.00 bill if I was wrong. He did not pick up the bet and he stayed far away from my table. T'was a nice meal though.

Ducasse is not yet in Dubai. However Gagnaire has joined the circuit at the Intercont Reflets restaurant as indicated in an earler post.

Too many to list. Try Nobu at the Atlantis Palm.....if you can get a table as booked solid for the next two month. Kitchen supply store. You need to specify. Is it for a professional kitchen or private? And are you looking for heavy cooking equipment or pans and saucers....etc?

Two Levant dishes: 1- Fava Beans Stew Fava Beans 500gms Green Coriander 1 onion choped Garlic chopped (5-10) 250gms cubed meat Oil or Samneh S&P Beef stock Colour the onions, follow with the garlic, seal the meat add stock and slow cook until tender. Add Fava Beans and chopped Coriander at the end to doneness. 2- Fava Beans in Oil Fava Beans 500gms Green Coriander 1 onion chopped Garlic chopped (5-10) 125ml olive oil (mix extra virgin with second pressing) S&P Colour onions and garlic in Olive oil. Add Beans and fresh chopped Coriander on high heat, reduce heat until cooked to doneness. Cool in same pot to room temp. Refrigerate and eat the second day if you can wait. Enjoy!

1- Jallab drink is originally made with Carob and not Grapes or Dates. 2- Jallab is served with pine kernels (raw) and raisins (rehydrated). 3- As an alternative, you could use your Jallab concentrate to make excellent frozen Ice Cream or a variant of Carrot cake. 4- The Carob pods are harvested in summer and sun dried. They are pressed in a mill and left to ferment with water then strained and finally boiled. However this is not the recipe for Jallab but strictly the Carob process. From this process both Carob Molasses=Debs Kharoob and Jallab syrup are derivated. Of course, the Kharoob molasses is enjoyed with Tahineh = Debs wah Tahineh 5- For the small history. The Carat unit to measure gold and diamond is derived from the Carob original Greek terminology "Keration" and in Arabic language the phoenetic of Carat is "Keirat" which is closer to the Greek phoenetic.....zzzzzzzzzz

Brilliant!

Interesting article. Few holes in there which makes the mind wonder. Where do I start? 1- Foul Medames Foul Medames is the Levant/Lebanese/Syrian version of the original Egyptian Foul in the sense that the original Egyptian dish does not contain any garlic whatsoever. This goes back to the 80's with the influx of Lebanese gentry who requested their Egyptian Foul to include mashed garlic. You could not and would not possibly get Foul with garlic pre the 80's in Cairo. The statement at the begining of the article makes the writer credibility put in question. It might be that this was the best burger the writer ever ate but does it make it the best burger in the world? 2- Does it really need six kitchen butchers to prepare an average of 200 burgers a day???!@?@?@? Hummm that's like 33.33 burgers per butcher per day. This means on a normal 8 hours per day, each butcher manages 4.16 burgers an hour. Something does not add up in this article. 3- Double grinding lean meat? In my dictionary, you will end up with a very fine meat mince akin the one made for the Kofta and very smooth which is not what the meat of a real burger should be. But I suppose this is a controversial statement as to which smoothness the meat of a burger should be? 4- The locally sourced ingredients being organic or not is a bit of a red herring in case they use some for the marinade (big schukle). Suffice to say that there is no beef in Egypt but what is locally called a "Kandussa" which is buffalo something. Beef and lamb is imported and not locally sourced. Easily checked in the Egypt stat on imports. Having aired my views, I remain in no doubt that the writer did like the Lucille burgers and they might be as good as claimed in the article. But "Best in the World" ..... get me another Bud!@$!@%$

It is good that you have enjoyed your trip and thanx for the pics. But are you sure this dish is Murtabak? Looks like Mutabal? Maybe a mix up in naming?

Food migrates and food taste evolves. You will be very happy to have a Chicken Tika Masala in any London rest or anywhere else in the word but the native people of India will laugh their head off at the simple mention of the dish. You can have Muhamara 50km from Aleppo or in the Outer Hebridies. The fact of the matter is to preserve the taste integrity of the dish, I would be delighted to have Muhamara made with Olive Oil, Pomegrenate, walnuts....etc from the same place and preferably eating in Aleppo as well. This is quiet complicated and difficult and the solution is to adapt the dish to use ingredients from other sources. It will still be good but will never taste the same. The dish originates from Aleppo and at least this should be established and recognized as such. Would people care? Of course not. I do.

Sorry got to laugh about the last line "Is there one restaurant all cooks in Dubai would want to work in". Yes there are many such kitchens. All cooks want to be in there, however it is not for the high standards or vibrant kitchen but for the work environment, benefits and pay packet. If I was a Chef, I would want to work at the Hyatt Regency in the Persian rest as it is open plan and the chefs are not limited in their vision to a greasy wall but can see the entire diners. Then again, I am not a Chef and it is a bias opinion. Verre was voted again this year as the top rest. But we all know that this was not a popular vote and is strictly limited to the food writer of a certain local weekly mag. So no contest as we have the single opinion of one person. Now, you may ask which is then the top restaurant and unfortunately you will get only personal views on that as there is no authority on the subject All mags needs the hotel revenues and will not jeperdize their milking cows. What is the best rest for me, would be a mix of food standard, environment, service, entertainment. So a personal top ten in no particular order would be: - The Mawal rest at the Rotana. - The chinese at Mina Salam - Bice at the Hiton - Grill at the ex Intercont - The Turkish eatery off Sheikh Zayed road. (for strictly one particular dish) - The Morocan at the Royal Mirage - The Indian at the Sheraton - The Japanese at the Towers - The fish at the Beach Centre - 19 at the Golf thingy Particular mention for the Four Seasons RoastBeef panini with a touch of Dijon Mustard. There is no chance in hell that these rests be voted top rests in Dubai and frankly that would do me fine.

I do not know Ingo Maas and cannot comment on his book or his talent. I assume the book is about his Marriott cooking or maybe about Middle East food as there is nothing called Dubai or Emirates food per se! However, what I can say is that the Marriott in Dubai is not and has never been on the Dubai culinary map. Their only restaurant worth an entry would be their steak house and that's about it. So good luck on the new book to join on the shelves endless other books. T'seems the trend started with the Jumeirah food book is picking up speed in sunny Dubai. Now, I brace myself for a deluge of other hotel chefs producing books ad nauseum.

WoW. Very hearty food but a tad on the heavy side. You may wish to add to your stuffing some cardamon and bay leaf. The chickpeas are a nice addition but I think most recipes do not have them. You can substitute the lamb/pigs feet with a lamb leg/shoulder cut with the bone or simply lamb ribs. This will help keep the taste integrity of the dish. Happy eating and thanks for the pics.

If you mean a restaurant above all restaurants, then the answer is No. If you mean some gems in their own categories, then many. Unfortunately, most restaurants are located in hotels and very few are independently owned and operated. So when you say hotel, then it is restaurant chains either independent or hotel owned. In both cases, it is packaged material under the guise of celebrity chefs or famous eateries. They are good but without any wow factor unless we are talking about the setting or the view! Then again, it depends on your expectations and whether you are looking for cutting edge Adria or fine dining where on top of the Limoges plates, ladies are provided with cushions under their feet and to rest their Chloe bags! I suppose Roman lecti cubiculares will make a come back soon!

So it is lunch for one: Lunch in Dubai is populated with so called Business-men/women and is an entertaining ballet of well dressed people from the posing crowd. You can have a nice bite to eat and enjoy the show in the following places: 1- Emirates Towers – Mosaico 2- Media City – Al Mazaj 3- Madinat Jumeirah – Any restaurant on the promenade 4- Emirates Mall – Any restaurant at the food court However, if I were in your shoes, I would go to any of the Jumeirah hotels with my swimming trunks and lay on the pool/beach to have lunch and watch the world go by.

Retro at Le Meridien is now called Tang.

There are simply too many restaurants to list. As you are looking for lunch places, maybe you can narrow it down to which area in Dubai you will be as you will have to consider Dubai traffic before any other consideration. So if you can advise as to which area you will be? and I will try to name few places where you can enjoy your lunch.

Congrats on your findings. Many recipes are used from omelette to pasta. Some recipes borrow from the European truffles preparation and other is indigenous to each particular country in the Middle East. I would consider the following - Salad with EVOO - lemon juice - parsley - S&P - Kharouf Mehshi bel Kemaa (stuffed lamb with Kemaa) the Kemaa are part of the stuffing (rice - mince meat – pine nuts – spices accompanying the lamb). - Kemaa Meshoui (Kemaa on a skewer with or without minced lamb or lamb cubes) However, I personally eat them straight from the cooking pot with a sprinkling of S&P. Of course you can serve them Nature and present each truffle tucked in a white pristine starched serviette de table a la Francaise. Alternatively, I would cut the Kemaa into thick slices and serve in Arabic bread with EEVO drizzle and S&P. The Kemaa flavour and taste is best Nature.

Yes it is correct that Muhamarra taste matures over a period of few days as the heat goes down and the flavour intensifies. As for the recipe, there is no garlic or onions or yoghurt or cumin or salt for that matter. But by all means, feel free to add any ingredient you like but dont call it muhamarra!

Many inter language translations simply do not exist as such. For Zankha, you can say Frowsty or simply Malodorous. Alternatively, you can enter it as a new English name: Zankha!

1- Shawarma in the Middle East is available with yoghurt marinate and without depending on which "joint" is serving it. In Kuwait they are mostly non yoghurt and so on. In which case it is a lemon juice and spices marinade. 2- Chicken Shawarma is a delicacy and simply alllows you to stuff three sandwishes instead of only two lamb/beef ones. Lamb is good and chicken is simply different and as good as lamb/beef. I did once or twice tried a prawns Shawarma and it was quite nice. So as an alternative, and if you want a quick light snack, you ask for a chicken Shawarma without the garlic spread or a light spread. 3- Many "joints" buy pre made skewers but by and large, famous establishments or establishments with many outlets produce their own and distribute internally. 4- As for food poisoning, unfortunately, it does happen more frequently than not and this is more due of the rubbish meat used as well as the cooking/serving conditions. However, no lawsuit has crossed the bars yet to my humble knowledge.

1- The meat on the skewer is ground only in the Turkish/Greek versions. The Middle East version keeps the meat in slices. 2- In order to avoid bacterial contamination as you rightly indicate, you have to remember that the meat is supposed to have been marinated in vinegar which neutralize to a large degree any such contamination.

I would like to draw your attention that while Wikipedia does offer valuable information, however this information is created with the submission of information by the general public and sanctioned and corrected by the general public. This is how it works and therefore any information is open to scrutiny and amendment or correction. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Con...ng_to_Wikipedia Encyclopedia Britannica it is not!