My recent excursion to Riyadh was uneventful because of work-related timings and managed the logistics for a six-person team. We did stop at one place, Mama Noura on Oleya Road near the Sheraton. Its a mainstay of inexpensive good eats. Three of us went and got some eats:

Large plate of cold mezza (one plate)
a Fruit Juice (they serve it unsweetened) (three mugs)
and a meat-based sandwich (meat kebab, chicken kebab, and shish tawook) (3 sandwiches)
Price: SAR 52 — $13.87 TOTAL

Plate of cold mezza

Fruit Juice (Mulberry)

Shish Tawook Sandwich

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).

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?

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.

The Taste of Dubai is an annual food and beverage event in Media City, Dubai. This year my mate Nic couldn’t use her tickets and gave them to me. So, we headed out for a Friday afternoon of food and drink.

The event is held outdoors and it was decently hot - about 33 (91 for those in the states). Luckily umbrellas were everywhere. We went to the Friday afternoon session which means: no alcohol and very few people. Sadly, most of the chefs were not in attendance at that time either (our VIP passes included a “meet the chefs” session and no chefs showed up). I only saw Gary Rhodes during his presentation and then later at the Rhodes Mezzanine booth. On to the food:

Date mustard

Dates are widely grown here and in the region. I’ll go more into them in a later post, but many chefventor types have started making a variety of products with them. We stopped at one of the companies producing a wide variety of date-based products: Bateel. Based out of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), Bateel handles date production all the way through end product. We tried the date mustard and it had an odd taste - like honey mustard. I was a bit disappointed that the mustard part of the mustard wasn’t that strong and that the date overpowered it - but, these are date manufacturers, not mustard manufacturers.

Our next stop was Rhodes Mezzanine, by the tv-famous Gary Rhodes. We’d never been to his place before and had heard a lot about how it was the (fake British accent) finest British food in Dubai. Lo-Lin ordered up the Braised beef with fondant potato and caramelized onions.

From a taste perspective, it was pretty good, although Lo-Lin thought it was overcooked. We both think traditional British food is kind of boring, so take our comment for what it is. From a presentation perspective, even out in the 33 degree heat and on styrofoam plates, the dish looked excellent.
Cost for the sample: 40 AED/$11

more in future posts.

I’ve been settling into a new job and have been reading a bit too much.  I’ve been ignoring my usual online reading haunts (ones that I either don’t want to RSS or that don’t have RSS!)   And until yesterday, I didn’t know that Mahmut Aygun passed away!!!!!! The god of drunk food, the inventor of DONER KEBAB!!!!!

For the uninitiated (hey, I never had doner until I went to Europe), this goodness is similar to a gyro, or a pita bread with lamb meat filling - and other goodness. This summer, my wife and I ate doner at least 3x a week. Simple, inexpensive, delicious goodness that you can carry home after a long night out

Mahmut - we will miss you, but we will never forget you.