Dubai
I've spent more than a decade in Dubai - the longest stint in any city after Kolkata, the city where I was born. Possessive about Dubai, I try to convince every guest that we have had, about the virtues and beauty that lay beyond the glitzy shopping malls or the swanky cars. Dubai is my adopted home currently and most of the food posts have been juxtaposed against my Kolkata nostalgia or my living experiences in the UAE. In most of my writings, culture, history, recipes, food stories and nostalgia unfold amidst the urban backdrop of Dubai. Hence, sometimes I've not been able to clearly demarcate between Dubai and Kolkata posts...
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Hidden Gems of Dubai | My Pick of Restaurants
There are little gems all around us that can hold glimmers of inspiration. ∼ Richelle Mead Hidden Gems. The term is sometimes too clichéd and overrated, specially in an ever evolving city like Dubai. Here, big shopping malls are easier to spot than hidden gems and the few gems that have remain hidden are exposed all too sudden. The example of the latter is perhaps the popular seafood joint Bu Qtair – it’s the most *unhidden* venues of Dubai! However, not everything is lost as yet and there are still many such quaint places in Dubai that provides comfort to one’s soul. I write about such places in my *Hidden…
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My Best Brunch Experiences | Exploring The Friday Heritage
The ‘Dubai Brunch’ makes it to the definition of Brunch in Wikipedia. Although the Friday Brunch is the most common of all, lately Saturday Brunches are also becoming fashionable followed by late evening brunches that are gradually extending upto midnight. Here's a compilation from my brunch experiences.
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Leaving JBR | Capturing The Last Day in HD (Heart-Devastating) Mode
No looking back. Love where you are going. ∼ web wisdom Today (now yesterday, post Cinderella hour) was our last day of living in JBR. It has been 6 long years of living here… amidst cool sea breeze, beautiful sunsets, broken down sand castles… a few good friends… many restaurants that I have written about… we have seen some restaurants from the day their first bricks had been laid down, we have also seen some when their last brick had been taken out. We had moved in because we could see a lot of blue sea from the windows in our apartment on the 21st floor. We are moving out…
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The Desi Chai Binge With Pani Puri | And Please Don’t Mind The Hands!
“Don’t eat until you’re full, eat until you’re tired!” Hawaiian saying The above quote might be a Hawaiian one, but it could have well been mine. So it all started with a ‘Chai’ invitation. Strictly chai… strictly on time… with an expected time of our arrival being much earlier than the terrible late entries that have lately become fashion statements (hiding here – I am guilty too). The purpose? To have chai and chaat over chat, chaat being the incredible desi binging that was to accompany the chat! A tea party starting at 5pm and culminating in a late night movie at the theaters, followed by an impromptu sleepover at…
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Wakha Wakha Eh Eh (This Time For Afghanistan)!
The weekend leading to Lil Z’s 6th birthday wasn’t really all about chicken nuggets and pasta. After all, her meat eating parents also have some say in her celebratory food. Making soft toys with friends in Build-a-Bear comes later. But meat first. That too of the Afghani kind. A place that had been high on my radar after S had been talking about it. He had previously sneaked in some home delivery while the Z-Sisters and I had been away. A small restaurant just opposite Lulu Supermarket in Al Barsha, serving the most ‘delicious Chapli Kebab and Karahi Lamb’, he said. I was obviously sold. For a while I had…
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A ‘Moving’ Hidden Gem of Dubai | Ghaf Kitchen
A charming Citroen H Van driving around the town spreading gourmet foodie love - this is Ghaf Kitchen!
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Hidden Gems of Dubai | Creekside Cafe – More Than Just Food
Heritage by the Creek Creekside Cafe is my current favourite haunt and as the name suggests, it is located by the Dubai creek. I have a lot of emotions attached to Dubai creek. I have walked every single night throughout the 9 months of my first pregnancy along this creek. We used to live in Bur Dubai in our earlier Dubai days and a walk to the creekside and the Bastakiya quarters felt almost the most natural and the obvious thing to do – like daily breathing. I would ‘people watch’ and build up stories around those whom I would see everyday – the harassed new mom, the funny husband,…
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Weekend in Dubai Calls For A Brunch, A Picnic Brunch!
This is going to be one post where I am deliberately not writing much. I want the pictures to convey it all! An amazing day – a real break away from the city’s manic lifestyle… lazing on the mat, surrounded by the greens of Al Badia Golf Club, and the famous cityscape at the backdrop… this was a real picnic – a perfect picnic, a posh picnic, a must-do picnic, a can’t-wait-to-return picnic. I have never experienced such a relaxed day out in the city which boasts of as many different kind of brunches as the number of nationalities that make up the city’s demography! On top of that I…
