All posts tagged: food

Shamsuddin – Iranian food in Satwa

Published by

Originally by I’m Not a Fiend Aahh, meat. Sometimes I love the stuff. Sometimes I go weeks feeling completely ambivalent about it. Sometimes I read depressing articles and the thought of meat consumption makes me feel sick. Sometimes I eat Iranian food and remember just how beautiful meat really is. How could I ever have thought otherwise?? Those Persians know how to treat meat right. You haven’t experienced tender meat till you’ve had a good Iranian kebab. So I was excited to spot Shamsuddin on Satwa Road recently. It’s pretty bare bones, but that’s just the way I like it. Basic furniture. Tissue boxes. TV on the news channel. Two guys running the whole place. The guy working the grill must have been someone’s son, a baby-faced meat apprentice. Shamsuddin don’t even have a menu. Just decide if you want mutton or chicken, minced or pieces. Simple as that. The rest will come to you. In the face of such choices, we ordered a plate of everything. A housemade laban, heavy on the fresh mint, kept …

The Troyka Bar is Backstage Dubai

Published by

Seventies ‘teatime’ and TV was fun – Getting dressed up in pyjamas to see the spectacle of a large mahogany box (TV) wheeled out. The TV set was the thing that made it exciting. Because seventies TV programmes were not. They were usually made up of  bad actors, wearing various shades of brown  and trying not to wobble the stage set when they closed a door. But the massive mahogany TV can make the long winter nights something to savour. If the picture goes wobbly – just bang it in the right place to get a good picture, which feels like ‘The Fonz’ Fonzerelli in ‘Happy Days’. Because, If the content is a little ‘tongue in cheek’ and it doesn’t run as smoothly as you’d hope… They are some of the reasons for enjoying it. So let us introduce you to the mahogany clad Ascot Hotel in Bur Dubai. With its faux-period facade, and an interior filled with regency fittings that hark back to a time of kitsch grandeur  – It is the seventies sitcom of …

Singapore Deli, Karama

Published by

I visited Singapore with my family when I was 11 years old as a stopover on the way to Australia. The thing is, I remember nothing from that trip. I can barely remember last week. My brain is worryingly sponge-adjacent these days. So despite having actually been to the country, I’m still pretty clueless when it comes to the food from Singapore. [Originally published on I’m Not a Fiend] The weather over here in Dubai these days is bang on. The kind of balmy evening temperature you’re lucky to get for one evening a year in England, but for opposite reasons. Here it’s usually too hot, but right now, sitting out on the streets is a pleasure. As the cars drive by, chatter from two supremely relaxed elderly Singaporean dudes drifts past you, along with their cigarette smoke. Nothing on the menu at Singapore Deli was familiar to me, and that made me very happy. To try a new cuisine is to ride a bike for the first time, or learning a new language; the …

A local iftar in Dubai’s Marina

Published by

There’s a place across the marina that for the last couple of months Fat Nancy’s been watching from afar, like a scene of Hitchcock’s Rear Window. It’s tucked away from the the marina drag, it’s always packed  so she went to check it out. On arrival, which was early and we were starving, we were shown to one of the corner tables with sofas. Spying big, wooden backgammon boards stacked on the counter and row of shisha … a nod confirmed we would be there for a while. We tried to order food from the waiter, he didn’t speak much English – the split screen TV with six different views of the crowded Tahrir square confirmed this was an authentic Egyptian hang out – he handed us over to the owner with our questions. The owner couldn’t have been more charming and picked out the menu’s best offerings for us: green apple juice, the El Kamar mixed grill cooked to perfection, the fattah moza, the fitir, the lentil soup followed by a medium sweet, Turkish …

Artifact Coffee, a new offering from Baltimore

Published by

Located in Baltimore, Maryland are the people at ‘Artifact Coffee’.  A collaboration between restauranteur Spike Gjerde (of Woodberry Kitchen) and Coffee Guru, Allie Caran, Fat Nancy was aware their coffee programme would be serious – but the menu offerings at Artifact are also pleasing to the eye and tastebuds. Artifact are brewing with coffee courtesy of the now famous roasters, Intelligensia… And don’t take Fat Nancy’s word for it, Allie caran hosts coffee tastings (coffee cupping) every Friday. Check out a flavour of what they do each friday, with this video… http://freshcups.tumblr.com/post/29629580325