Iftar review: Ramadan Nights
The yearly Ramadan Nights pop-up is now being delivered
Since the Ramadan Nights by Dish iftar launched back in 2016, I have been every single year. Dish is a renowned catering and events company and during Ramadan, they come up with an innovative and unique menu.
Their usual pop-up iftar concept usually takes place in Warehouse Four in Al Quoz and is set up as a Moroccan-inspired space with rugs, poufs to sit on and string lights hanging across the ceiling.
This year, due the current situation making a physical Ramadan Nights unlikely, the team at Dish are offering to bring their fusion menu to your home. I couldn’t break my favourite Ramadan foodie tradition so I ordered iftar for four people to my home.
When you order, you can choose to have it delivered right before iftar, already prepped and heated, or at around 2pm with detailed instructions on how to heat everything. I opted for the 2pm option.
The food arrives with a menu of exactly what is on the table. I made my family go through each dish systematically, so we can taste everything, which you might be surprised to learn is something pretty difficult to do during Ramadan, since you usually get full very quickly once you start eating. Our fasting stomachs usually can’t handle that much food during iftar, that’s why some people eat more food for suhoor than they do for iftar.
So, this year’s threecourse, 10-dish fusion menu offered a selection of starters, both hot and cold, main courses and desserts, including premium dates and Moroccan olives to start, followed by an insanely delicious lentil soup with roasted tomatoes and a sprinkle of saffron. The soup is incredibly filling, so don’t overdo it else you might not be able to try a little bit of everything.
Appetisers include roast beetroot hummus with pumpkin and nigella seeds served with Arabic and toasted flat breads. Then there’s the sumacmarinated chicken, wrapped in kunafa with a mango chili relish, which was one of my favourite dishes. We also dug into a unique cardamom and vanilla poached salmon made with compressed cucumber, baby fennel and cured lemon.
The main was their signature slow-braised shoulder of lamb cooked
in Middle Eastern spices, served with scented pilaf and confit garlic yoghurt. The lamb has been on their menu every year without fail and it deserves that top spot on
because of how melt-inyour-mouth good it is.
On the side, we enjoyed some chargrilled asparagus, broccolini and green beans topped with feta, almonds and an unusual combination of scorched cauliflower with beetroot falafel.
Their vegan options include a roast baby zucchini stuffed with peppers, smoked paprika and vegan feta.
For dessert, I tapped into the little chef in me to plate the pistachio milk cake, passion fruit mahalabia, mandarin sorbet, walnut and pistachio crumble with tahini tuille in the most restaurant worthy way possible.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Especially now with salary cuts and job losses, it might be difficult to justify spending Dh200 per person on an iftar. This one is worth it honestly. It feels different than home food and it’s got a touch of fancy, that you really can’t achieve with a your normal kitchen equipment. Between you and me, it will last you a few days. After I ordered the iftar, I was eating leftovers up to three days later.