Every Food That Brought Me Joy in the Emirates (Part 2)
Every Food That Brought Me Joy in the Emirates (Part 2)
Palestinian fatayer, karak chai, and an Indian-ish dune dinner.
Halo! Happy Monday and happy Ramadan to those who celebrate!
Earlier last month, me and my family went on a 10-day trip to the United Arab Emirates, or Emirates for short. As someone who came from Jakarta, my vocabulary for Middle Eastern cuisine wasn’t the best. So being able to expand that through this trip was definitely an eye-opening experience.
I decided to turn this piece into two parts because if not, you will be reading a giant story instead. So if you haven’t read the first part, you can read it here. And now, let’s hear what else I ate in the Emirates:
☕️ Karak chai, the superior form of milk tea.
🇵🇸 Taking myself on a solo date to Mama’esh and trying a Palestinian fatayer.
🏜 Lived my Dune fantasy, with an Indian-ish dinner on the side.
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Karak Chai is like Teh Tarik on crack.
In the previous part of this piece, I mentioned that I was hit by an extreme storm as soon as I arrived in Dubai — a storm that only happens 5 days a year. Luckily, we were able to wait in Dubai Mall until the storm kind of stopped so that we could return to the hotel with a Metro.
The storm never stopped completely that day, but at least, it turned into an awkward rain when we got out from the nearest Metro station from the hotel. It was that kind of rain where you would still get wet without an umbrella, but wearing one would just make you look weird as everyone folded their umbrella already. And just like that, peer pressure wins again. We folded our umbrella too and just went ahead.
Not gonna lie, it was a very chill and relaxing stroll to the hotel. It was my first time in the area too, so everything caught my attention. The sea-shell-shaped Metro stations, the Arabic store signs, and the fact that some of the bus stops here have literal ACs inside. Something you won’t need for the day’s 18 Celsius weather, but will definitely come in handy when it jumps back to the usual 38 Celcius.
Instead of ACs, the weather today calls for Karak Chai, something that I discovered just one block before we reached the hotel. From far away, it looked like a bunch of people were lining up to buy something, which in fact, is partially true, because they *are* buying Karak Chai, but they weren’t lining up. It’s just, freestyle.
People were swarming from left and right and in every direction in between, and whoever ordered first would be served first regardless of whether they were there first or not. It was my nightmare, but I’m intrigued.
“You need to try Karak. Let’s buy some to takeaway” said my big brother before I even asked why these people were just swarming around the stall. So I let him do the thing, and wait a couple steps behind the commotion to watch it being made. On a cold day like this, the sight of the steam coming from the poured hot tea is very inviting. It’s warm, it’s aromatic, it’s comforting. And not more than 2 minutes later, my brother appeared with two cups of Karak Chai.
“So, do people drink this, especially when it’s cold like today?” I asked him as we continued our walk to the hotel”. “No, not really. They drink it during hot days too”. “Like the iced version?”. “No, hot ones”. It didn’t sink into my head the first time hearing that, but then I remembered, that Indonesians also eat mie bakso (soup noodles with meatballs) for lunch. So I guess it wasn’t that weird.
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The second we reached our hotel room, the Karak Chai were at their perfect drinking temperature. Hot, but not boiling to the point that it could burn your tongue. There was a very thin and quickly dissipating aromatic whiff when I opened the cup lid, and a strong sweet, kind of syrupy smell to it. This turns out to also be the case with how it tastes. The first few sips, all I could taste was just condensed milk, but a few more sips would let the spices linger and stick to my tongue, eventually releasing its aroma, and filling my entire mouth.
The most obvious note was cracked cardamom — the fresh green ones. Then comes a hint of cinnamon, and a very late nudge of black pepper at the end. As someone who doesn’t really do sugary drinks, this was very sweet. But I feel like the sweetness is needed to balance off the spiciness, plus, they come in a very tiny cup, so let’s just say that they’re a treat. A one dirham treat that I would gladly take two to three times a day.
In Mama’esh, Palestine is just one bite away.
You may remember that my family are not the most adventurous when it comes to trying new food. When travelling outside of Indonesia, they tend to stick to what’s familiar. A lot of rice, a lot of noodles, and a lot of chicken in some sweet and savoury, vaguely Asian-ish seasoning. I kept this in mind when I was tasked to come up with some restaurant lists for us to visit. I put down many Thai restaurants, a few Chinese places, and even Indonesian warungs in case they needed that nasi goreng fix mid-trip.
But among those lists, I also put places I personally like to visit, such as a Palestinian restaurant called Mama’esh. “I wanna go to this Palestinian restaurant for dinner. Anyone up?” I asked my family after we got off the ferry from Sharjah. “I’m a bit tired”, said my Dad. “Hmm I’m not sure, what do they have?”, my Mom doubted.
It was the eighth day of our ten-day trip in the Emirates, and up until now, not a single restaurant on my list had been visited. Sure I was a little let down hearing the mixed signals from my family, but I understand. But also, I ain’t got any more days here, so I decided to go by myself and channel my main character's energy.
I arrived in Mama’esh fifteen minutes before Maghrib (sunset) — the time when people would break their fast during Ramadan. They were still preparing for their dinner service but were kind enough to let me sit on one of the many empty tables just outside of the main door. One of the staff gave me a menu right away, and since I had read the menu already on Zomato multiple times and decided on what to get, I just pretended to read the menu as if it was the first time and looked for new information. They sell olive oils in 1-litre jugs.
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Fatayer is some sort of a meat pie. I don’t want to call it pizza, but it really is a handy term to compare it with as it is a baked bread dough with meat, veggies, and usually cheese like feta or akkawi on top of it. Traditionally, meats such as beef kofta, lamb kofta, and chicken are used as the main protein, but luckily, Mamae’sh got one with oven-baked falafels which I ordered.
To be completely honest, I didn’t read the ‘oven-baked’ part of the dish name and the photo just looked like a leafy garden being put on top of the baked bread. So I assume, the falafel would just be placed awkwardly in its circular nuggetty form. But as soon as the fatayer arrived on the table, I realised that the falafel dough was actually spread into the surface of the bread dough, and baked together in the oven. That’s some crafty shit. I would never thought they could do that to a falafel.
The result was an even layer of crispy falafel which creates a contrast to the fluffy brown bread base. On top of that crispy goodness, there’s tomato, cucumber, pickled turnip & cucumber, green chilli, hummus, fresh mint leaves and sumac powder.
It was a party in my mouth in the best way possible. Aside from the falafel, the highlight has got to be the mint leaves, the size of my thumb, that lighten the fatty and creamy base of the fatayer. The sumac powder too, turns the acidity up a notch and ties every flavour together.
Complimenting the fatayer, the iced hibiscus tea was tart, floral, and tangy at the same time. Many would compare them to cranberry juice due to its colour and flavour profile, but I would say that it’s lighter in terms of the body. It would be perfect for me if they didn’t put sugar in it.
My Desert, My Dune, My Indian-ish Dinner
On our seventh day, we scraped our day trip plan to Hatta, a lake and a heritage village on the Hajar Mountain for a Red Dessert tour instead. While the Emirates are known for their unnecessarily big, outrageous buildings and mega shopping centres, they’re not really the best when it comes to public transportation. This means that a 100 kilometres one-way trip to Hatta would require us to do three hours of commuting using three different buses.
So we decided not to do it, and the night before, I quickly googled some Red Dessert tour packages, something we also planned to do but hadn’t found the right time to look into the details, let alone book anything.
The Red Dessert tour is one of the most sought-after tour packages, as it gives you that sand dunes experience that you would often associate the Middle East with, something that you won’t find in today’s Dubai.
Seeing the never-ending lists of tour providers, I didn’t even bother to compare and just went for the first one on the top. For 80 dirhams per person, you’d already get a whole set of dune attractions that somehow all involve driving and being on top of things, like jeep riding, camel riding, and sandboarding. Plus, you’d also be served a buffet dinner, get to watch several dance performances, and be driven from and to your hotel.
“Do you think this is a scam? A round trip bus ticket to Hatta also cost 80 dirhams, and this tour offered all of these?” I asked my big brother from across the living room, with disbelief, hoping that his three months of experience living in Dubai could give me an insight into whether the price makes sense.
“I don’t know. I know my friends paid 100 dirhams for a similar tour. So maybe not a scam?”. He shouted back from the other end of the living room.
I wasn’t convinced. But it’s past midnight already and I don’t want to let tomorrow be wasted just because we were late to book. So I just crossed my fingers, sent a text to the WhatsApp numbers on the site, and asked specifically for us to pay in cash after the tour.
We reached the dessert around 4 PM, and after trying all of the attractions around, we went back to the campsite where dinner would be served. We picked a dining table, which is commonly quite low here, almost like a coffee table, and sat down directly on the carpet with some seat pillow cushioning us. The sun sets at around 18:30, but the dinner will only be served until 7 PM. Luckily, since it’s Ramadan, we got to also experience an Iftar, which usually means eating light snacks or fruits to break a fast.
I went straight to drink the milk tea from the styrofoam cup, hoping that it would be Karak Chai even though from the looks of it, I knew that the tea would just be a normal black tea from the obvious tea bags hanging out of the cup. It was indeed just a regular milk tea, but the sugar both from the milk tea, the apples, watermelon, and dates on the side hit the spot, so I didn’t mind.
On another plate, there are three types of unidentified fried objects and some falafels. It was my first time seeing these fritters, and there were no staff around at that time. So there is only one way for us to find out what kind of food is being deep fried beneath the light, thin, and yellowish flour batter.
The small, droplet-like fritters turn out to be fried flour dough with a thin coating of simple syrup. They have a slight crunch exterior, and nothing but air was inside. The other fritters with a lighter yellow colour appeared to be fried mushrooms and sweet potatoes. It was just regular oyster mushroom and yellow sweet potato, but the batter was seasoned with salt and turmeric, making it more aromatic than your usual fritters.
Lastly, the crispy fried spinach became the table’s favourite. I didn’t know at that time that it would be called Palak Pakoda or spinach pakora — a popular street food in many parts of India that also comes in onion and cabbage versions. From what I noticed, the spinach is chopped together with mint and coriander leaves before frying, and the crispy batter is spicy spicy from the red chilli powder, garam masala, turmeric, and maybe some ginger too. They were the perfect starters before going into the actual dinner.
For dinner, the buffet offers both meat barbeque and vegetarian sections, which I appreciate so much. On my plate, I took some biryani rice, a white bean curry, garden salad with super fresh cucumber, tomato, olive oil dressing, and of course, hummus and some pita bread. Aside from the white bean curry, the meal tastes quite simple and clean. One could say that it’s rather bland, but I do think that it’s a needed break from the previous flavourful starters. Plus, it ticks all the boxes. Carbs. Greens. Proteins.
It was a hearty meal and I wouldn’t complain about anything other than the fact that all the lights were turned off when they started the performance. The dance was good. But I couldn’t see shits.
Anyway, that is it for Emirates eats! Have you tried any of these? Let me know in the comments below! 😉
Other contents that I made recently:
📖 Read last week’s guest post by Mangan on Indonesian breakfast: here.
🍞 Read an essay on Indonesia’s wheat dependency problem: here.
🙅♀️ Read my essay on learning how to like the foods we hate: here.
🥕 A video recipe of Vegan Carrot & Paprika Soup: here.
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