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WHERE TO FIND THE BEST…sweet shop, fish and chips, hummus, kunafeh, ice cream, dal, cherry kebab, Middle Eastern eateries in London and Paris, coffeeshop, Japanese in the Gulf, kebabs, snack with a view, grilled bird, burger, restaurant in the Gulf, biscuits, olive oil in London, shwarma, koshari, butter-pepper-garlic crab, and ultimate food city with the help of Gulf Air
AND WITH THANKS TO TERENCE CARTER, FIONA CAULFIELD, LARA DUNSTON, ANISSA HELOU, DAVE REEDER, JULIA STUART, STEVE WATSON AND MEG ZIMBECK
BEST…SWEET SHOP IN THE UAE
CANDYLICIOUS, DUBAI
CANDYLICIOUS IS THE kind of sweet shop that kids who salivated throughout the film Charlie And The Chocolate Factory dream about: it has pillars embedded with sweets, a “tree” canopy dangling with lolli-pops, and a colossal pick’n’mix wall crammed with every conceivable kind of sugary confection, from gummy bears and chewy snakes to milk bottles and jawbreakers.
Recently opened in the Dubai Mall, it is claimed to be the world’s largest candy store, with some 10,000ft2 of space displaying over 3,000 products from around the globe. As well as chocolates from Prestat of London, Amatller of Barcelona and American gourmet producer Vosges Haut-Chocolat, there are also freshly baked brownies from Hot Blondies Bakery, a soda fountain offering American-style soft drinks and a Garrett popcorn shop. Sweet! Lara Dunston www.candyliciousshop.com
BEST…FISH AND CHIPS
ANATOLIA
A TURKISH RESTAURANT might not be the obvious choice for fish and chips, but once you’ve tried Bahrain’s Anatolia restaurant, nothing else compares. We’ve been going for two years, and the fish and chips are so good we’ve never bothered with anything else on the menu. A generous portion of succulent hammour (Bahrain’s de facto national fish) is grilled with tomato paste, turmeric powder, lemon juice, salt and pepper. It comes with a portion of excellent fries, salad and a basket of freshly baked plump Turkish bread, and the whole lot costs about the equivalent of US$10. Sit outside underneath the awning and enjoy the nursery – the kind stuffed with plants, not children. Julia Stuart Cypress Garden, Budaiya Road, Bahrain, tel +973 1769 0601
BEST…HUMMUS
HASHEM
IF THE FRAMED newspaper clippings of Abdullah and Rania mop-ping up their dishes with flatbread weren’t testimony enough that Hashem is Amman’s most celebrated hummus joint, the fact that this unpretentious laneway eatery is busy 24 hours a day should be. Besides the omnipresent chickpea dip, other house specialities include fuul, felafel and musabaha, a chunky hummus with citrus juice and a kick courtesy of poblano chillies. All are served with bowls of sliced tomato, sliced onion and fresh rocket. Lara Dunston and Terence Carter Off Al-Amir Mohammed Street, Downtown Amman
BEST…KUNAFEH
AMAL BOHSALI
AMAL BOHSALI does the best kunafeh ever. They still make it the way I remember eating it before the war when I lived in Beirut, with real hair pastry and not semolina, like at the well-known Abeille d’Or (the Lebanese chain that special-ises in kunafeh). Amal Bohsali also uses real akkawi cheese and, more importantly, real samna (ghee). My only quibble is that every now and then, their kakeh (the sesame galette that the kunafeh is served with) has vanilla in it, which is not the traditional taste. Anissa Helou Alfred Nobel Street, Hamra, Beirut, tel +961 1 354 400, www.abohsali.com.lb
BEST…ICE CREAM
BEKDACH, DAMASCUS
OF COURSE THERE are the souqs, the Umayyad Mosque and the view from Mount Qassioun, but the highlight of any visit to Damascus is always a stop-off at Bekdach. Trading in the Old City’s Souq Al-Hamidiyya since 1890, it is Syria’s oldest ice cream parlour. The product is still made on the premises, and watching the uniformed staff pounding the ice cream with their massive pestles and mortars is part of the fun of a visit. Made with mastic, this is ice cream with elasticity. It comes in just a handful of flavours, including rosewater and strawberry, and before it’s handed over to customers, each cone is dipped into a tub of chopped pistachios.
BEST…DAL
BUKHARA
SINCE OPENING OVER three decades ago, Bukhara has risen to become arguably the most famous Indian restaurant in the world. It has notched up a Time magazine cover and a clientele rivalling the Davos delegate list, including Bill Clinton, Bill Gates and Bono. The centrepiece of all the fame and glory remains the slow-cooked dal Bukhara, a rich, creamy black lentil dish that is the yardstick against which all other Indian restaurants should measure their worth. Bukhara also offers robust tandoori cuisine cooked in an open kitchen. Diners are presented with bibs and expected to eat with their hands. Fiona Caulfield ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel and Towers, Diplomatic Enclave, New Delhi, tel +91 (0)11 2611 2233, www.itcwelcomgroup.in
BEST…CHERRY KEBAB
ZAMOROD
THE CUISINE OF SYRIA rivals that of neighbouring Lebanon for excellence – unsurprisingly, as it’s the same cuisine! There are local twists, however, the most celebrated of which is kebab kraz, pungent lamb meatballs in a rich, fruity sauce reduced from fresh cherries. You can eat it in Damascus, notably at Al-Halabi at the Four Seasons, but for the best you need to head north to Aleppo and Zamorod restaurant, which opened earlier this year in the city’s trend-setting Armenian quarter. The dark, flavourful fruit that gives kebab kraz its glorious sweet/ sour taste grows in the region, and the dish just seems to taste that much better the closer to home it’s eaten. www.zmorod.com
BEST…MIDDLE EASTERN EATERY IN LONDON
AL-WAHA
EDGWARE ROAD MAY be the epicentre of Arab London, but you wouldn’t want to eat there. About a mile west though, just off Queensway, is Al-Waha, which advertises itself as a Lebanese restaurant, although it is actually Syrian owned and staffed. It’s a small place in an unprepossessing location and modest in appearance, but the food is superb: fresh-tasting and very refined. It is apparently actor Colin Firth’s (Bridget Jones’s Diary, Mamma Mia!) favourite London restaurant, while Lebanese food writer Anissa Helou believes it does possibly the best felafel in the world. www.alwaharestaurant.com
BEST…COFFEE SHOP
FISHAWY’S
200 YEARS OLD (reputedly) and now into its seventh generation of Fishawys, Cairo’s most famous coffeehouse has been serving the bitter black drink to customers since around the time Napoleon rode into town. Not as large as it once was, the interior is made more claustrophobic by being festooned with all manner of grime-encrusted brica-brac. The alley outside is set out with rickety chairs and unsteady tables that are crowded round the clock, serviced not just by waiters but also by an endless succession of street vendors selling everything from keyrings to Kleenex to paper cones of peanuts.Off Al-Hussein Square, Khan Al-Khalili, Cairo
BEST…JAPANESE IN THE GULF
KISAKU, DUBAI
FORGET THE BIG NAMES like Nobu, this small restaurant in an unfashionable hotel really delivers on what the Japanese food lover wants – freshness and great taste. When you’re the only Westerner in a Japanese restaurant, you know something good is happening, right? Dave Reeder Regent Palace Hotel, Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Road, Dubai
BEST…SNACK WITH A VIEW
LE PALM
THIS SMART CAFÉ’S sparse menu (just two sandwiches and two salads the last time we visited) is more than compensated for by the glorious view, which is reason alone to visit. Opened this year at Qalaat Al-Bahrain Site Museum, otherwise known as Bahrain Fort, the café’s enormous picture windows look out over the harbour where settlements were consistently located from 2200 BC to the 17th century AD. Watch water birds dipping their beaks into shimmering pools left by the retreating sea, which lies in turquoise stripes on the horizon. Otherwise, sink into one of the comfortable cane seats outside and admire the fort, a World Heritage site (along with the harbour), beautifully lit in the evening. Julia Stuart Qalaat Al-Bahrain Site Museum, Bahrain, tel +973 3979 5100
BEST…GRILLED BIRD
LEBNANIYET
FIG SEASON in Lebanon and Syria is welcome for the chance to gorge on wonderful fruit, but also for the opportunity to feast on the tiny little birds that feed on the figs. I’ve eaten them since I was a child and my uncles used to go out shooting up in the mountains where the fig orchards were. While they did the killing, I would go round the orchard looking for ripe figs to eat straight off the trees. Once back home I’d help my mother, grandmother and aunt pluck and gut the tiny bodies, still warm from having just been alive, while my uncles lit a charcoal fire. We would then wash and season the unfortunate but delicious birds before threading them onto metal skewers for grilling over the fire.
In season, the birds – warblers, I think – appear on Beirut restaurant menus. Halim in B’hamdum is a well-known culinary temple to these creatures, but a new place in downtown Beirut called Lebnaniyet (it used to be La Posta) does the birds to perfection. Everything about them is right: the size (not too big and not too small), the amount of fat (enough to make them really moist without being too greasy), and the fact that the chef keeps the heads on – they take them off now at Halim. Anissa Helou 287 Maarad Street, Hamra, Beirut
BEST…BURGER
SLIDER STATION, KUWAIT
THERE ARE MANY hamburger joints throughout the Gulf, a part of the world where franchise is king, but for a place with a highly individual take on the beef patty you need to head to Kuwait’s Slider Station. Forget supersizing, here the burgers are “mini”, and the emphais is very much on taste not bulk. Menu choices include the ultimate “classic” burger, which is prepared with Wagyu beef, mature English cheddar, caramelized onion, Dijon mustard and pickle, a Peking duck burger with spring onions and Hoisin sauce, and an ostrich club with ostrich steak, bacon, boiled egg, tomato and lettuce, served with black truffle Dijonaise. Sides include “American tapas” featuring white truffle shoestring fries with garlic and parsley. Buns come in optional shocking pink (dyed with beetroot juice) but most fun of all, orders are delivered to diners on a sushi-style conveyor belt.
Lara Dunston & Terence Carter www.sliderstation.com
BEST…RESTAURANT IN THE GULF
REFLETS PAR PIERRE GAGNAIRE
ALREADY ACCLAIMED as one of the top places in the world (No.100 on the “San Pellegrino World’s 100 Best Restaurants” list 2009), let alone the Middle East, this showcase for French genius Pierre Gagnaire is a must – provided your wallet can stand the damage. From its own private lift to the over-the-top interior, eating at Reflets is an experience, and the food is sublime. Chef Gagnaire is a frequent visitor to the restaurant, and tables for periods when he’s in town are booked out weeks in advance. Dave Reeder InterContinental Dubai Festival City, www.ichotelsgroup.com
BEST…BISCUITS
SEMIRAMIS
AS FAR AS I’M concerned, Semi-ramis’s Rose de Damas are the best sweets in the whole world, in particular their baraziq (tiny sesame biscuits), which are just as good now as I remember them being as a child, when my father used to treat us (Semiramis has been in business since the 1950s). The same company also does divine grape jelly and pistachio candy that comes wrapped in rose petals. Anissa Helou Noura-Abou Rommaneh, Damascus, tel +963 333 2449, www.semiramispastries.com
BEST…MIDDLE EASTERN EATERY IN PARIS
LIZA
IN THE HANDS of Liza Soughayar, traditional Lebanese fare has become chic and glamorous. Liza’s namesake restaurant is a destination for Parisian foodies who want to sample mezze in both its classical and contemporary forms. The sumac-fried foie d’agneau is exceptional, and you shouldn’t miss the spoonable five-spice lamb confit. For those who can’t decide, the grand mezze introduces six starters, two mains and an assortment of desserts for €42 (US$58). Meg Zimbeck 14 rue Banque, 2nd arrondissement, tel +33 (0)1 5535 0066, www.restaurantliza.com
BEST…OLIVE OIL IN LONDON
TURKISH EMBASSY ELECTRICAL SUPPLIES
THERE ARE PLENTY of places to buy olive oil in London, but there’s only one store where you’ll find bottles of top-quality product for sale alongside boxes of screws, reels of cable and cans of WD40. Mehmet Murat has had his electrical supplies shop in Clerkenwell, east London, since 1981, but when he inherited his family’s Cypriot olive grove in 2001 he decided to start importing the first 1,000 litres of oil from each press with the aim of selling it alongside the rest of his goods.
“It doesn’t seem strange to me,” he says from behind the counter of his small shop. “I mean, it’s unusual here, but it’s the traditional way of doing it in Cyprus. You might have a tailor in town who grows olives, so if he’s good you go and buy your oil from him. It just makes sense to do it that way.”
The oil is remarkably smooth – good enough to taste on its own without bread – and has a subtle, spicy aftertaste that makes it ideal for use in salads and dressings. In fact, the oil is now so popular that it rivals the electrical goods in terms of revenue generated, and Murat has invested in olive and citrus groves in Turkey that enable him to produce a wide range of oils, table olives, wild herbs and hand-made spices, all available from his electrical store. Steve Watson www.planetmem.com
BEST…SHWARMA
HAIFA CAFETERIA
THE OFFICIAL NAME is Osama Bin Zaid Street, but everyone knows the busy, short stretch in the restaurant district of Adliya as Shwarma Alley. There are about five shwarma cafés here, mixed in with a miscelaneous collection of carpet hawkers and other shops. Of them, my favourite is Haifa Cafeteria, which assembles orders in minutes as customers wait in their vehicles, having shouted their orders through a wound-down window. As well as regular-style sandwiches with the lamb or chicken mixed with salad and rolled up in a pitta, Haifa also does the heartier malgoum, which is a jumbo version adding chips and cheese, all wrapped up in a tyre-sized, heavy Indian flat bread. Julia Stuart Haifa Cafeteria, Osama Bin Zaid Street, Adliya, Bahrain, tel +973 1771 6691
BEST…KOSHARI
ABOU TAREK
IF YOU HAVE yet to encounter koshari, it’s a carbohydrate-fest of rice, brown lentils, macaroni and fried onions, heaped together in one big bowl and topped with a hot, spicy tomato sauce. As an Egyptian street food staple, it comes in a close third to fuul and taamiya (felafel). Every Cairene has a favourite koshari joint, and Abou Tarek is ours. On a corner site just off main Talaat Harb Street, the two-storey restaurant has been serving the dish since 1950 – time enough to get the mix just perfect. www.aboutarek.com
BEST…BUTTER- PEPPER-GARLIC CRAB
TRISHNA
INDIAN AND INTERNATIONAL celebrities and power brokers can be spotted alongside Mumbaiker foodies in this historic – some would even say dowdy – restaurant hidden in a side street in the art district of Kala Ghoda. The seafood is caught daily by the restaurant’s own trawler, and the big draw for many is the calorie-laden signature dish of butter-pepper-garlic crab. Only novices allow the staff to remove the shell; for genuine food lovers, the tussle to extract the succulent flesh from the huge crustacean is an essential part of the pleasure. Fiona Caulfield Sai Baba Marg, Kala Ghoda, Fort, Mumbai, tel +91 (0)22 2261 4991
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