Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Food on Voyage - Dubai (Part 1)

Dubai
Burj Al Arab - View from the Jumeirah Beach

Short trips that break our boring schedules bring sheer bliss and adds a lot of spice to our life :)

I'm just back from a fabulous five day trip to the modern city of Dubai :) Oh my God!!! just wondering how a country could grow up so fast!! Be it the metros, roads, the tall buildings, man made islands and what not! Its surely one of the best tourist spots ever I believe.

Its my first over seas trip and this reason made it even more exciting for me. Flying in a Boeing 777 Emirate flight was a pleasure again :) Landing on an Arabian land which is so developed was fascinating. Enjoyed visiting almost all the land marked places :) At the end of the trip all I could say was "I love you Dubai" :)

The memories are green and I would like to share some of my foodie experiences with you all. 99% of the Arabian dishes were non-vegetarian, hence I had to depend on multi-cuisine food from all food brands of the world :)

Food on voyage1

Cruising down Dubai creek is a novel experience, one which you should never miss when in Dubai. Its truly aesthetic to have dinner on a Dhow Cruise viewing the fascinating lights of Dubai creek with mild music at the background.

The Dubai sky line view at the night is fantastic. The tall buildings illuminated with colored lights make them look brilliant. That too on a full moon day.. Do I really need to say?? ;)

Food on voyage2

Coming to the food, they welcomed us with an Arabian famous dates and then a chill mango drink. Which was followed by a grand buffet with loads of continental dishes. Since I'm a herbivore, there were restrictions for me. :( Anyways I enjoyed the fresh vegetable salad, Chickpea salad, Corn and bean salad, pita with hummus, bun butter jam as well as a main course of dhall rice with vegetable gravy and a small serving of spaghetti napolitana. :) Is that it??? No no no..

Dessert was the best part. :) four yummylicious desserts namely, Cream caramel, Pineapple souffle and two others were Arabian special namely Mohalabia which was a milk based pudding dressed with fresh fruits and last was UmAli which means “queen of puddings” basically made with puff pastry. It was so different and scrumptious :) I enjoyed every bit of it.

You can have a virtual treat through the pictures :P

Food on voyage3

Dubai Dhow cruise to sum up - Delicious Dinner! Awesome ambiance! Fantastic view! and a lovely sail! Sheer bliss :)

Food on voyage4

Next agenda of the trip was a half a day city tour through the roads of Dubai. :) We visited the Grand Mosque first followed by a quick look at the Jumeirah open beach. The first look at the Burj Al Arab was so fascinating and made me jump in joy. Oh my!! I just wished Dubai had a moderate climate. Uffffff it was burning hot that we could not enjoy it much.

Next was to the Jumeirah shopping mall and aquarium. We could not resist having a cold icecream after a short walk under the scorching sun.

Food on voyage5

Cold stone ice-creams are those which my sister used to flaunt about when she was in US. So now it was my chance to test it and yup, she is so true. They were simply classic. Loved the richness of the ice-cream. We had dark chocolate and cake batter flavors. Yummmmmm :)

Food on voyage6

More than that, the gymnastics that the guys out there did while serving us the ice-creams were so eye catching and awesome. One would pick the choice of ours and roll it into a ball using the scoop and throw it to another at the other end of the store who would catch it rightly in a cup and serve it to us. It was mind blowing :) They were our proud Indian guys :P Check the pic above :)

Later we traveled by a Mono rail to have a view of the palm islands and finally had a look of the Burj Khalifa as well.

Food on voyage7

The other half of the day was geared up for desert safari :) I had the least idea of how it would be! Thought it would be a boring drive into the dry desserts, but then I was totally wrong.

It was truly an adrenaline rush experience. OMG!! it was a crazy rash drive into the dunes of the desert for 45 longggg mins in a super cool Land cruiser :P I thoroughly enjoyed it. Have never loved a rash drive before. :)

Finally reached a camp area where we had a short camel ride, some Arabic mehandi do etc.

Food on voyage8

They welcomed us with an Arabian sweet called the Luqaimat which is an all purpose flour combination balls dunked in dates syrup. It was so damn tasty :)

Food on voyage9

It was followed by a candle light BBQ dinner.. awww again its 100% non-veg. So I had to depend on the other vegi dishes like some Chinese noodles, carrot rice, penne pasta, pita with hummus and few salads.

The dessert of the desert was paalpayasam ;) I don't know what they call it in Arabic. But it tasted just like paalpayasam. :)

Food on voyage10
Picture credits for mall of emirates: here.

The next day's touring started off with Mall of Emirates. Ski Dubai was the highlight of this mall. We enjoyed some happy go skiing for a while and then walked around the mall for hours. :)

Ski dubai is a lovely creation I say. Its such a contrast of climate indoors. Simply classic experience :)

Food on voyage11

My tummy demands for the lunch time was satisfied by Subway :) I have tasted subs here in chennai, but they they were not so fresh and good as it was on this specific day. Oh so soft and yummy.

I had a foot long veg sub with sweet onion and honey mustard sauce :) So delicious and filling it was :) Gave me the energy for the rest of the day :)

Food on voyage

After a little more of walking and window shopping, we recharged ourselves at Starbucks.

We cherished a cup of Strawberry vivanno smoothie topped with cream and also a coffee. Ummmmm it is definitely special to have it here. Perfect and lip-smacking :)

The view through the window made us awestruck. The most expensive cars ranging from Lamborghini to BMW and what not. Name it and it was there!! Sophistication and wealth of Dubai could be seen :P

food on voyagee

This day ended with a walk into the gold souk of Dubai. Awwww shining and dazzling gold all over!! :)

Coming up next - Part 2 of trip to Dubai with the royal breakfast at Burj Al Arab - the largest hotel of the world and one of the most luxurious one too. Keep waiting :)

Written by: Nithya
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34 comments:

Nithu Bala said...

Wonderful write up Nithi..awesome pictures..

Finla said...

I would love to visit Dubai, but i am sure i won't as hubby is not that intrested unless :-(
Looks like you had a fab time yeah i agree shot trips are the best not that i don't love long trips :-)

Anuradha said...

Oh wow... Nice write up nithi! Great job!

Sayantani Mahapatra Mudi said...

ohh watching Dubai through your eyes is great Nitha...I want to visit this country too. amazing pictures and awesome cuisine.

Nivedita Thadani said...

Lovely!!
You brought my memories back now.I stayed in UAE for 12 years.
Missing my days and UAE!
Thanks for sharing your experiences with us that too with lovely photos.
I have to tell my DH to arrange a visa for us to go back again or at least for a month!

Panchpakwan said...

Wow super clicks..enjoyed reading abt your trip and ofcourse all food too..

Menaga Sathia said...

nice write up!! amazing pics!!

Priya Suresh said...

Thanks for this virtual visit, feel like flying to Dubai..beautiful clicks and wonderful write up Nithya..

Anonymous said...

fantastic pictures and a neat narration !! sad to know that Dubai didnt cater vege orientals :(

Prerna said...

Looks like you've had a heck of a time :-)
Gorgeous photographs!

Pushpa said...

Nice write up Nidhi...have to visit Dubai sometime....Beautiful clicks...

Anonymous said...

Wow,

Lovely shots Nithya...Loved the ones especially of the skylines taken from teh cruise...did you use a tripod? were you moving? fast lens? please let me know..I wonder with all the fest in front of him, why that little boy in the pic was looking so sad??? Did you get a chance to see the Burj up close? Isnt is awesome??

Shobha

Suja Manoj said...

Awesome pictures dear..lovely writeup

My Kitchen Antics said...

even i loved the desert safari the most and the grand feast after that even more:)..well this was about 5 yrs back so im sure a lot has changed.

Swathi said...

Nice writeup and nice clicks.

Love2cook Malaysia said...

Felt like I visited Dubai just by watching those beautiful photos! Hehe...

Excellent photos and write-up! Really enjoyed reading them. :)

Raks said...

Nice post,thanks for sharing the lovely photographs nithi! :)

Smita Srivastava said...

Loved the virtual trip & the nice writeup !!!

Unknown said...

I read it the first time u published itself....was waiting for it :) Now completed the whole post....nice one, luved all the clicks!

Savi-Ruchi said...

lovely photographs & great food. Enjoy your vacations.

Unknown said...

Hi Nithya,

nice write up...Been to Dubai few times as i stayed in Muscat for few years!!Great and lovely place...nice pics...

Dr.Sameena@

www.myeasytocookrecipes.blogspot.com

Sailaja Damodaran said...

Thanks for showing me Dubai..i too had a great time reading your experience.

Indrani said...

Thanks for giving such awesome virtual tour to Dubai, amazing place and moreover your amazing pics..lovely post

vidhas said...

Loved reading your dubai trip article. Awesome clicks.

Jeyashris Kitchen said...

fantastic write up with a visual treat.

Divya_Anil said...

wow nithi..nice write up...am a big fan of yours...you r really gifted..so many talents in one person..grt nithi...when u r free pls go through my blog....am new in blogging and don't have much knowledge in this field..hope to get your precious advices..all the best to u...

indianspicemagic said...

Nice clicks

Priya Srinivasan - I Camp in My Kitchen said...

Nice Writeup Nithya!!! I stay here, so its like a second home to me, Waiting for ur next post on the only 7-star Burj-Al-Arab!!!1

nirupamasundar said...

Nithya
This travel story is interesting and amazing, a very clean and interesting write up, nice pictures to sum up all. Pl continue the good work+

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Nice pictures and wonderful write up nithi....

sinu said...

Nithya,

Which camera are you using now....wonderful clarity

Unknown said...

Wow super clicks..enjoyed reading at your trip and of course all food too..Wow super clicks..enjoyed reading at your trip and of course all food too..

Unknown said...

Wow super clicks..enjoyed reading at your trip and of course all food too..Wow super clicks..enjoyed reading at your trip and of course all food too.
Overnight Desert safari Abu Dhabi

Unknown said...

Everyone is talking about Dubai! Have you visited Dubai before? If you planning a holiday to Dubai we recommend you to plan your trip in advance as we highlight the best that our city has to offer, as well as tours to explore the rest of U.A.E. desert safari

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