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?

A-mews-ing Day!

After an extremely unpredictable winter and a humid March, this city finally showed some signs of spring today. My garden looked extra colorful in the morning and the calm, cloudy weather filled the air with a rainy sort of smell. That, by the way, has a name- “Petrichor” meaning the scent of rain. Pretty, isn’t it?

I reminisced my two years of college in London and though I moved back by choice, living there did have it’s own aura of pleasure. The old-school buildings, cozy restaurants, being able to walk anywhere, sigh!

A banging knock on my car window totally interrupted my thoughts by someone dressed up like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show who promised me a bunch of prayers for a couple of bucks! 

My father, cousin, her munchkin of a baby and I headed to the now famous “E Street” in Clifton to grab a good lunch after Friday prayers.

Mews… mews, mews, mews, mews, MEWS! It’s a pleasure returning to this thoughtfully set up restaurant. It gives the feel of walking into one of those little cafes set up in the insides of St Christopher’s Place behind Bond Street, London. 

Rumor has it, Feeha Jamshed is opening an outlet right next to it - can’t wait!

My 16-month-old niece seemed to be famous and a regular there as a server popped up right as we got seated with the menus and a board listing the specials of the day.  Little child even won us a complimentary, fresh bread basket!

My stomach, heart and brain had a nerve-wrenching debate over whether I should order their No Fuss Burger or the Korean Beef Bowl. I could live my life off burgers. Really, if I had to choose between lifelong love and burgers – it would be the latter (medium rare with extra cheese… just incase my fiancé decides to use this as an opportunity).

Since I’m being adventurous nowadays and having tried their top-class burger before, I opted for the beef bowl which arrived along with the others’ club sandwiches and hot & spicy flatbread.

The flatbread was so hot and fresh, so easy on the tummy. My cousin, previously a fan of a similar pizza at Xander’s said that she didn’t even go there since Mews blessed us with its existence. I loved the gigantic platter it was served on.

According to my father, a publicly acclaimed foodie, the cold cuts in the sandwich gave it more of a generic club sandwich taste than a signature Mews' standard one. I tried it too, and agreed that maybe it isn’t not the best one in town.

He has yet to eat a good club sandwich in this city – until now, his own tops our list.

I seem to be having a fantastic culinary week, and the spicy Korean bowl did not disturb my pattern. So full of flavors and a very authentic, oriental taste indeed – I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing with a perfect egg, sunny-side-up.

Paired with the mint lemonade (Sparkling Mint, I think) and the birthday milkshake our food was a pleasure on the taste buds.

Mews is the pandora’s box of goods in Karachi’s food scene. From the ambience, to the food, and contrary to popular belief – the service was pretty good too.

PS: Don’t be buzzkilled when you exit the London zone and instead of a tube station, you collide with an eager beaver valet guy arguing with a Sindhi security guard in Pashto! 

Aakhir, Karachi toh phir Karachi hai hee…..

Dear Pasta Lady.....

Home-based chefs, where have you been all my li(i-i-i-i)fe? No, seriously… Where were you?

We, “delhi walas”, have extremely stubborn taste buds and there’s no compromise when it comes to food, like being served ginger that is 1mm thicker than it’s supposed to be is no less than a sin. Oh, and we don’t believe other people’s reviews about food either because I mean, what do they know?

I have this extremely specific flavor for pastas stuck in my palate and even though Karachi is pretty good with Italian varieties, it lacks the knack of perfecting a Spaghetti Bolognese or Lasagna.

Unlike my usual self, today I decided to lift my egoistic, self imposed food standards and order from the most talked about “lasagna girl” in town. Yes, I jumped on the Maria Khan-Syed bandwagon.

 I was guilty of sending my car later than the time I had promised her, but she was sweet enough to give me heating instructions. I wasn’t too eager to taste the lasagna initially to be honest; I had bet it would be like the home/bakery mini “peezas” served at my first 11 birthdays!

My heart melted at the first look and okay fine, my mouth did water a bit (read: dog drool). I was able to cut a perfect square piece for myself without it slopping out of control and bit into my first, still doubtful, bite. Damn! This isn’t me being all Taylor Swift on food, but I think that piece of lasagna really was why I had waited all these years – totally writing a song about it. 

                               (For the first time, the actual thing was exactly as shown on the eatery's page)

The endless cheese oozed out from the layers every time I cut a bite out and every layer had a different flavorful story to tell. I’m not lying, this pasta lady really knows her way with the trickiest of flavors. I’m still staring at the leftovers wondering why my stomach won’t allow just ONE more bite. I’ve never appreciated minced chicken this much being a “gosht-khor”.  

These ladies are setting a trend - first Saniya’s Khao Suay and then this masterpiece of a lasagna by the Pasta Factory.

Splendid days beginneth.

Dat cheese tho.