Chasing treats at the
From breakfast to Billy Ocean, our guide to all the action at the two-week long festival
When the dust has settled at the end of the Dubai Food Festival, we can guarantee you’ll be left wanting more. Now in its third year, the 2017 event began yesterday and runs until March 11 at various venues all over the city.
While most wallets should certainly accommodate any requests placed on them over the 17-day-long event, stomachs are an entirely different matter. You may succeed in pushing yourself away from the table through sheer force of will, but you’re unlikely to be able to taste every morsel you’ve got your beady eye on. To say there’s a lot on offer is an understatement: you’ll be able to find everything from Emirati classics to hipster street fare, Michelin-starred chefs and home-grown whiz kids, luxury treats, beachside barbecues and even cooking lessons to keep you going all year!
With a cunning plan and some clever moves, you could have plenty to savour in the weeks ahead. Here’s our list of the most Instagram-worthy highlights.
BEACH BLAST
1 You like to be beside the seaside? Simply head on over to the Etisalat Beach Canteen (EBC), guaranteed fun for the entire family at pocketfriendly prices. Four times the size of last year, and at a new location on the beach just behind Sunset Mall, it’s got pop-up restaurants, cooking and table-setting tuitions, farmers’ markets, sports, kids’ activities and an arty chill-out zone. It’s also the main box office for all ticketed events. Visitdubai. com 2 Bang in the middle of the EBC is the Al Islami Kitchen. An interactive stage featuring events with international celebrity chefs such as Heinz Beck and Jason Atherton, as
well as the true Queen of the Arabian Kitchen, Manal Al Alalem and Emirati hotshot Chef Bader, it’s also got plenty of contests, workshops and whathaveyous. We’re going to YouTuber Chef Bella Pearson’s how-to make a brilliant bento box that’ll be the envy of your lunchmates at 11.30am next weekend (March 3 and 4). Alislamikitchen.com
TELLY TUMMIES
3 Mall rats might prefer to head over to the oddly named Darnival, running today and tomorrow at Dubai Festival City. Regional TV foodies from a host of stations will show off special recipes and answer questions. Darnival.com
RESTAURANT REBATES
4 From today to March 4, 15 of the city’s poshest restaurants are rolling out three-course limitededition set menus for Dh199 per head. Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen, Atul Kochhar’s Rang Mahal, Pier Chic (Atlantic trout), Gaucho, Okku, The Rib Room and Namu at the Westin Dubai are all on the list. Book fast, because some restaurants are already sold out. Roundmenu.com/ dubai-restaurant-week 5 Two celebrity chefs will personally pose for selfies with diners this week. Tomorrow, Peruvian supernova Jaime Pesaque will serve up Lomo Saltado and his famous Tres Leches vanilla cake at Mayta in The Capital Club at DIFC. Sheffield lad Jason Atherton will press the flesh at his Marina Social venue on Sunday. Roundmenu.com/ dubai-restaurant-week
SINGULAR SENSATIONS
6 Even if grape’s your passion, you’ll probably learn something new from