Dubai Advantures...Day 2

Foul Name, Fine Flavors

I start my Middle East adventures with a local breakfast stew Foul Modammes. Be put off by the name and you'll be missing out on a good thing: A slow cooked mix of fava beans, olive oil, lemon and various spices, finished with whimsical swirls of yogurt, and a hearty stew is born.

See this as the Egyptian version of baked beans, with added heat from the cayenne and chili powder, and a deeper, more earthy flavor from cumin and cinnamon, this fortifying dish will set you up for the day far longer than beans on toast can.

Monster Muffins

First day of work concluded with bowling night, which meant dinner had to be sorted at the lanes as well. Granted, the bowling alley is not a place you would expect to find decent food at, but I was surprised to learn that the in-house cafe was run by a reputed restaurant chain, whose name I do not recall, but the logo in the above picture should set the detectives in you in the right direction. On with the food, shall we?

The picture may not tell the big picture, pun intended, but take my word for it, these muffins are monstrous, each the size of my open palm. I was tempted to challenge myself, but as Mama would say, never eat anything bigger than your face, and being in the company of colleagues you're meeting for the first time lends weight to her words, so I begrudgingly left these muffins alone.

Mile High Blackforest

I turn away from the super up-sized muffins only to walk into a counter of super-upper up-sized cakes on display, well you can't blame a girl for trying.

Here in Dubai, the land of towering skyscrapers and soon to be world's tallest building the Burj Dubai, the national obsession with height seems to have now spread to their cakes. You've seen 3 tier cakes before, well take 2 said cakes, stake them one atop the other, and to ensure your neighbour doesn't outdo you in the same manner, you crown the tower with tall pipings of cream, then top that with a coffee bean each, and you have a sure winner.

In the same spirit of Mama's good advice to never eat anything taller than you, I left these chocolate structure alone as well. Oh what fun we would have had.

Pub Grub at the Lanes

Cue to my dinner, a more manageable portion of grilled catfish and a side of salad. For a desert land Dubai brings in some of the best and freshest catch money can buy, and here in a bowling alley no less, my catfish was flaky fresh, lightly grilled, seasoned simply and finished with a squeeze of lemon. This is not your sub standard bowling alley grub, this was good.

Service Apartment

Welcome to my humble abode, my own little service apartment! It may be no 2 storey presidential suite, but it has a great kitchen unit at the back with a built in oven, and on the bar counter a Nespresso coffee machine (very sexy). All the appliances a girl could ask for.

Arabian Sheets

Nights, folks, until the morrow.