The next stop was Maya from Le Royal Meridien and their Hammour Ceviche. “Hammour” is the Middle Eastern name for a grouper. They are extremely popular fish here, particularly because their size yields an enormous amount of edible meat. The very basic ceviche recipe was quite refreshing on the hot day. I was pretty impressed that they had used hammour, rather than some other type of fish (fish are in abundance here).

Hammour (Grouper) Ceviche

Our next stop was at Pisces. I love “confit” items and since they had “confit grey snapper seafood dumplings and king crab risotto”, I just had to try it! After asking 3 people how they made the confit, finally the chef came out and discussed it with me. Since snapper doesn’t have too much fat, they used lemon and olive oil for the confit. I was a bit disappointed at the drab look of the snapper. Sure, it was “grey snapper”, but it looked old. Overall, the taste was mediocre. It looked pretty, but the seafood dumpling was flavorless, the confit grey snapper was bland, and the king crab risotto tasted like plain risotto. They have the recipe online - maybe you can do it better?

Confit Grey Snapper, Seafood Dumpling, and King Crab Risotto

Last, but not least (in this post), was our favorite: “Surf and Turf” by Legends. The surf and turf was a “union of seared kangaroo and marinated prawn served with a carrot orange puree, roquette leaves tossed in a truffle Parmesan dressing.” I mean. Kangaroo. Why not? This, by far, was the best dish at the Taste of Dubai. The prawn was embedded inside of the kangaroo medallion - amazing both on the eyes and in the mouth. I think we’ll head to Legends to have this some time. If I can find kangaroo, maybe I’ll try the recipe.

Kangaroo medallion with prawn