Dubai Diairies: Day 4 - Tom&Serg, you made my day!

Breakfast/Brunch are, hands down, my favorite mealtimes of a day. They’re also the meals I get to have the least because: Sleep over food - always! Unless you live in Pakistan where brunch is usually after 2 pm!

Admit it, you can’t ever get a spread like brunch. Waffles, pancakes, gazillion types of eggs, burgers (sigh), fruits, and basically a breakfast-ized variation of any food item.

Tom&Serg won our votes for a nice brunch out on Day 4 thanks to Zomato, which showed an average rating of 4.2!

The warehouse look of the restaurant instantly gave a casual feel and we were hurriedly seated to order the “A.M Food” before the clock struck 11.45am.

Obviously, since we don’t go anywhere without a party of less than a cult, there were a lot of palates and taste buds to satisfy and “a.m foods” in general, are quite personal and sensitive matters.

click to enlarge

We were recommended their bestseller “Shakshouka Baked Eggs” which was definitely worth ordering. It was served fresh in a hot pan (straight out of the oven) consisting of eggs mixed with a rich, red sauce that was blended with a lot of herbs and spices. Very flavorsome.

Shakshouka Baked Eggs

The “Scrambled Eggs on Toast” was my favorite. I don’t really understand how people mess up a dish as simple as this (like me...), but it amazes me when they succeed in making it better than the best one you’ve had. Tom&Serg did that. Beautifully executed and presented.

Scrambled Eggs on Toast

“Two Eggs – Scrambled” served on toasted sourdough bread with veal bacon on the side was mysteriously different than the other scrambled eggs, but delicious nonetheless.

Everything tasted so simple, yet perfect. I especially appreciated the uniqueness that any ingredient can be removed from a recipe but not added, they were more than happy to serve it on the side though.

Two Eggs - Scrambled

We also ordered their gigantic Breakfast Wrap, which was dominated by Mexican flavors. The first bite told you how fresh it was made and the compatibility between flavors was brilliant!

Breakfast Wrap

The Eggs Florentine was one of the finest tasting one I’ve ever had. Even though the appearance was conventional, the rush of essences felt in every bite was mind-blowing.

Every item seemed to burst and melt in your mouth like a world-class molten lava cake.

Eggs Florentine

Could our table ever be deprived of a burger? YA THINK? Never!

I’m going to unwillingly admit that I didn’t have a bite of the Tom&Serg Burger, because with the fifty shades of eggs circulating inside my tummy, I really couldn’t have done it.

My uncle thought it wasn’t the best burger he has had, but their breakfast items really did raise our bar real high.

Tom&Serg Burger

Desi appetites do not touch the finish line without dessert. Our choices were Flourless Chocolate Cake, Blueberry Tart and the Tom&Serg Éclair.

Blueberry Tart, Flourless Chocolate Cake, Tom&Serg Eclair

The best out of the lot was the tart, very moist on the inside and perfectly tough around the outside.

The other two weren’t bad, but probably not good enough to remember. Maybe if they can eggo-nise a dessert? Hmm…

Blueberry Tart

Tom&Serg has a very friendly staff and one of the most creative places I’ve been to in Dubai. Their menu is simple, the recipes and presentation is phenomenal and to my surprise, I didn’t even miss fancy pancakes and waffles that I normally like to flirt with at brunches.

P.S: Orange Juice with eggs FTW

P.P.S: Please your eyes or envy me through the Hangry Words instagram account: @hangrywords

Dubai Diaries: Day 3 - "Hello, Salters!"

Disclaimer: This review is from when Salt was located on KITE Beach

A burger is the only thing that could ever encourage me to head out to a beach at 1:30pm in Dubai.

Salt or #findSalt, as it was trending before, was in my top 3 places to visit during my trip since I had heard way too much about it and the reviews on Zomato, although mixed, were convincing enough for my burger brain.

(I wish we had Zomato in Pakistan by the way, that app is a blessing).

Zomato

We arrived at Kite Beach and believe it or not, God gave us a feeler of the heat we could experience in Hell. The sun, the sand, the heat and the idea of sitting outdoors in this entire setting were really not my thing.

Touche!

It was easy to choose which sliders I wanted from the very to-the-point menu pinned to their food truck. 

I hate it when people ask “with cheese or without?”… why is that even a question?

LOL! Truth be told!

The order buzzer vibrated within 8 minutes with our 22 sliders and 7 servings of French fries ready to be collected from the pick-up truck.

 What happened next? I FELL IN LOVE WITH SALT!

Shake Shack, what? Shake Shack, who? Heat, huh?

Left: Cheese Fries, Right: x2 Single Cheese Burger

Holy mother of food! I wolfed down those two burgers that sat in front of me with dripping cheese sandwiched between those perfect, buttery and soft buns. If I didn't have a crew of 11 family members judging my appetite, I'd be down for another set of those blissful pieces of ecstasy (trust me, they deserve the dramatised description).

Definitely worth going to the beach at that horrific hour, though I’m sure it’s even more heavenly right before sunset.

Shake Shack might still be a winner for cheese fries, but for the love of burgers – don’t miss out on Salt!

Shake Shack cheese fries

Salt cheese fries

How do juries find their hamburgers?

Grill-ty as charred. *SNORT*

Dubai Diaries: Day 2 - Busaba Eathai

The London nostalgia has been kicking in a lot lately and this time I had my sister-in-law to reminisce with. We were jumping out of excitement when we found out that Busaba Eathai had opened in Dubai and were ready to head there the very next day for lunch. We were back in JBR, which was to my advantage, because I really wanted to swing by the place during the day. Strolling down ‘The Walk’ became a tad bit fatiguing in the scorching heat but as soon as we arrived our destination, I felt like I was stepping inside Busaba Eathai at Bond Street Station.

JBR Walk

 We were the only customers there, but that may be because it’s hidden in a secluded area in the insides of JBR. Busaba has a modern, contemporary but a very simple layout with long wooden benches around large, square shared tables. The entire kitchen along with the chefs at work is visible through a glass, so you can clearly see what’s going on inside.

Busaba Eathai takes from Thai cuisine but isn’t entirely authentic, so it’s best not to expect nose dripping curries or Tom Yum Goongs. This is more of an eccentric Thai meets Western taste buds sort of cuisine.

We remembered the favorites from London, but our Brady Bunch of seven had varying palates. That’s actually the best part about Busaba, the menu is quite brief but everybody can find something that they like.

We ordered the Thai Calamari and as good as it tasted, the dish was such a pleasure to look at. It was presented with a fine texture and I loved the aftertaste.

Thai Calamari

 From the two curries, Green Chicken Curry and Red Beef Curry, the red one was a bit of a disappointment with not much flavor to offer at all but the green curry made up for it. The ingredients were so well blended together and the taste of coconut mixed spices was a real treat, especially with the delightful sticky rice to complement it. Remarkable.

Red Beef Curry

Green Chicken Curry

 The stir-fry chili prawns were delicious as always and lived up to the reputation of being in the top 5 of “what to order” at Busaba Eathai – this was the only dish we ordered second rounds of!

Stir-fry chili prawns

 My absolute favorite was the Pad Kwetio. The dish looked fantastic and was extraordinarily aromatic and the wide noodles were cooked to perfection, flavored with oriental, tangy spices. The plate was wiped clean as soon as it arrived which is why I was unable to take picture of that divine looking dish. Highly recommended.

We also ordered the Char-grilled Chicken with spicy cucumber salad and sticky rice but it was a complete miss. The chicken was quite dry and bland in flavor and didn't really do justice to the rest of the variety there. Nevertheless, the sauce it was served with was great.

Char-grilled Chicken

Even though it wasn’t required, we didn’t find it courteous to simply ignore the dessert especially when they had Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut!! The only typical Thai item there lived up to its mark and left us extremely satisfied with our meal.

Thumbs up for the very attentive staff there and the great service we got.

Mango with sticky rice and coconut

Dubai possibly has everything you could ask for from the west and if it doesn’t, it’s probably on its way.

Dubai Diaries : Day 1 - A taste of the Arabian sea

Spring just got a whole lot better when my dad suggested a spontaneous trip to our second home – Dubai. I didn’t inherit wanderlust from my family and usually just appreciate travel with a motive, but after 4 topsy-turvy months a break was much due.

Emirates decided to serve us black lamb cubes with a dodgy looking curry (contrary to the exotic descriptions in their menu) during our flight from Karachi to Dubai but hey, I’m not complaining because at least now I know why those vomit bags are necessary. Brrr.

Dubai never fails to amuse me. It’s the only brown-dominated city with high-rise buildings, high ways, Tim Horton’s, legit metros and the largest mall in the world – to say the least.

We hit the infamous Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) for a pleasant evening out on our first day. More commonly known as “The Walk”, this strip gives home to diverse eateries spread out in abundance. The entire layout is quite pleasing actually – the glitzy view of the beach, pavements covered with the hustle bustle of all restaurant customers and a few unique, high end shops that are not found at the malls.

We fleet through the entire road till our growling stomachs were driven to Aprons & Hammers – our choice for the evening.

I’m not too big on seafood, except shrimps, but my Dubai-settled uncle convinced me that I had no idea what I was on about until I ate there. We were too hangry (hungry + angry, incase you missed my genius, unoriginal collaboration of words in the blog name) to argue and settled for the claws I would have had to struggle with.The concise menu made it easy for us to weigh our options and the very courteous server suggested the right amounts for our party of six!

The complimentary breadbasket was so fresh that we attacked the poor thing like biryani served at a Valima (I couldn’t even take a picture of the whole thing as served)… and we had to sheepishly ask for another one after a stretched seven minutes.

We were given our own aprons, allowing us to be as messy as we wanted and the server showed us disposable plastic gloves that we could use.  The Shrimp Cocktail was the first to arrive as a starter, and I honestly don’t have another clichéd word other than DELICIOUS.

The portion of shrimps was quite generous and unlike many other places, the dish was as simple as shrimps served with sauce so one could cover the shrimp as desired. It wasn’t layered with too many greens, nor were they pre-mixed in their in-house creation of the cocktail sauce. The Shrimp Cocktail was pretty much perfect.

Prawn Cocktail

Up next were our lavish platters and buckets. We ordered a Grilled Lobster Platter with Pepper Cream Sauce, a Mussels Bucket with Lemon Butter Sauce, and a Shrimp Bucket with and Olive Oil mix of Garlic and Lemon.

The shell-covered shrimps were rather flavorsome, and the sauces were well blended to the insides of the little guys. I especially enjoyed the mild hit of garlic that was felt at the end of every shrimp. These fellas topped my list.

Grilled Shrimps Bucket

Though not a fan of the creature, I tried the Lobsters and was relatively surprised that I enjoyed it!! The sauce actually was brilliant – a very zestful combination of flavors and the creamy texture really hit the nail. Again, I personally am not too keen on eating lobsters and hence wasn’t too comfortable struggling to dig out its meat from the shell, however, the others at the table guzzled down the entire platter. Special mention of the sauce again, I kept dunking my fingers in to have more.

Grilled Lobster Bucket

Mussels

It was my first time with Mussels and my feelings switched from disgust to devour. My dad forced me to spoon out just one to taste, and see below a portion of my plate to gauge how that story ended! They were divine. Period.

Trick:

1. Break the upper shell from where it joins the one which carries the meat
2. Scoop the mussel meat with the empty shell as a spoon
3. Drink the leftover sauce from the shell directly
4. Cry out of happiness.

After our Desi appetites had been fulfilled, we were given a bowl of lukewarm water with lemon & mint to wash our hands with. I felt royal.

For dessert we opted for the Cheesecake 101 with Strawberry Sauce and the Sensational Chocolate Fondant.

The cheesecake was nothing to write home about but the chocolate fondant was as sensational as its name suggested, still not the best one I’ve had though.

Aprons & Hammers was an enjoyable experience and I definitely don’t mind going there again. Even though it’s a little steep on the pocket, I’d say the servings make up for it.

I’m proud of myself. First, walking The Walk and then the Mussels.

#highlifeDubai?