Kiki & Lala

“Nahm Nahm” is Arabic for “nourishment” – NOT!
It’s Mikel-ese which when loosely translated means “that looks good – I want to eat it NOW”.

I love Middle Eastern cuisine and was hoping to get my fill of the real authentic stuff on my trip to Dubai. In summary, the food was okaaaay… Not horrible but nothing that would make me forget my name – and nothing that we haven’t been able to make at home.

Do remember however, that I was on a tour so the meals we had were very tourist-y and had a tendency to look the same wherever we went.

These are the appetizers we got served while checking into the hotel. The golden-colored pastry things were stuffed with spinach and the falafel looking things were like falafels stuffed with meat. Not bad.

Egg, mushroom and some kind of terrine. Quite satisfying after a nine hour flight and feeling hungry at 1am local time.

Here are my pickings from the dhow evening cruise buffet.

Clockwise from the bread is tabouleh (refreshing), hummus (okaaay – I think what we make at home has more kick), assorted vegetables (okaaay) and buttered chicken (fabulous though it’s Indian not Arabic).

This was my plate from the buffet at the desert barbecue. (Told you they look the same).
Actually, this meal was hardly blog-worthy. On the sticks are chicken and lamb, then to fill you up – tons of garbanzos, greens, some weird pasta that seemed to have no country of origin and hummus.

Probably the most authentic of all my local meals was the one we had the food court of Emirates Mall.

Here’s the shawarma – which really wasn’t all the different from what we get in Manila, tabouleh which was nice, tangy and light, fries and tons of caffeinated soda to keep us awake for the rest of the afternoon.

But that’s not all…
The guy gave us sheets of warm pita and a cutely presented bowl of hummus – with a little “well” dug into the center and a puddle of EVOO and a couple of chick peas.

But again, that’s not all…

When you peak under the layers of pita…

… think Middle Eastern paella with tons of roasted turkey meat. Sadly, that was not as good as it looked. My lunch was all about the tabouleh and hummus.

Any good Middle Eastern places in your neck of the woods?