Travelling suitcase: Best food forward

I wanted to experience the city through its delicacies and fares. And, luckily, Dubai Food Festival, held between February 21 and March 9, coincided with my trip. During my previous trip to Dubai several years ago, I was part of a group of visitors invited to experience a phenomenal three-hour-long lecture-cum-tasting tour on the Arab and Iranian cuisines by Arva Ahmed and Farida Ahmed, sisters and co-founders of Frying Pan Adventures, a food and culture tourism venture. The trail took us through different streets and lanes in the oldest part of the city, and included a visit to Meena Bazar, Dubai’s “little India” known for Indian cuisines. Another delectable experience I had on that occasion was a presentation on, and my devouring of, Arab dishes. It was organised by the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural Understanding.

No encounter with gastronomy could be complete in Dubai without a visit to the spice souq (market). Located in the old district of Deira, the souq area consists of a main passage and several narrow lanes, which were all lined with stores on both sides, displaying neatly arranged rows of colourful and aromatic spices for sale. I could identify sesame, saffron, turmeric, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, cumin, caraway, allspice, black pepper, sumac, aniseed, dried chilies and so on, as well as prepared varieties of ras el hanout (mixture of spices, like garam masala in India), sumac (dried and powdered sumac plants) and za’atar (mixed condiment of savory dried herbs like thyme, oregano, sumac and several others). Along with these, there were dry fruits, tea, medicinal herbs, and all kinds of incense. The area being a tourist hub, the stores there were also stacked with souvenir items, like densely decorated plates and pots, textiles, rugs, footwear, and so on.

The food festival’s flagship event at the al fresco Swyp Beach Canteen on the Sunset Beach was ideal for a family day out. The free-to-the-public enclosure featured new food concepts through live cooking sessions with local and regional chefs while food trucks offered a multinational array of street-style dining and beverages. From one of these trucks, I ordered the Mediterranean quinoa, mixed with feta, red grapes, basil, olives, cucumber, tomato and lettuce with lemon oil dressing. In dessert, I munched freshly-baked, crispy pistachio baqlawa, layered with syrup stirred in mixed orange and lemon juice.

Following a tour through the fish hospital at Atlantis, The Palm, I visited the bar and restaurant at the hotel and relished moules marinières with garlic and parsley cream, grilled whole prawns with parsley and garlic butter and ‘nutty professor’, a concocted milkshake containing Toblerone milk chocolate, Nutella, almond milk, honey, cream, and ice cream.

Nightjar, the official roastery for some of the city’s top indie coffee spots, has a full-fledged eatery in the heart of Dubai’s creative hub, Alserkal Avenue in Al Quoz. I went to a neighbouing coffee shop, and tried a “limited edition” vegan latte which had almond milk in nutty flavour.

These encounters and experiences were suffused with the joviality of people from different races and regions. I came back, satiated, and enriched, having picked up droll alimentary phrases like “I scream”, “Donut judge me”, and “See you spoon. Have a spice day!”

(Romain Maitra is an academic, art critic and travel writer)