Whet your appetite for Taste of Abu Dhabi
▶ Finger food and bite-sized nibbles aside, Taste of Abu Dhabi has expanded its restaurant repertoire to include creamy curries and fine French fare,
Abu Dhabi and Dubai host a variety of outdoor food festivals every year, which are typically dominated by food trucks or quick-serve stalls, bench or grass seating, and an air of casual camaraderie. Finger foods and other easy-to-eat bites make up the majority of the culinary offerings, as visitors eat and pay as they go from vendor to vendor. Escargot and curried shrimp, then, are not your typical food-fest fare. Yet, they feature on the menu at this year’s Taste of Abu Dhabi, which starts on Thursday.
The three-day event also includes live entertainment headlined by Ali Campbell and Astro from UB40. The British pop band and four-time Grammy Award nominees will kick-start the festival on Thursday with classics including Food For Thought and I Can’t
Help Falling in Love With You, as well as chartbusters from their latest album
For the Many. On Friday, Boyzlife duo Keith Duffy and Brian McFadden will perform hits from Westlife and Boyzone, including No Matter What, I Love The Way You Love
Me and Baby Can I Hold You.
Other bands and local artists performing include 4TheMusic, Yeah Yeah Nah and DJ Sheps.
New additions for this year are a food-tasting pavilion, which will offer locally produced honey, olives, cheeses and breads in a bid to draw attention to the fresh produce cultivated and available in the UAE. Emirati cuisine, too, is set to be as well-represented as its international culinary counterparts this year. Taste of Abu Dhabi will have a dedicated section for local chefs to showcase their dishes via cooking demonstrations and food tastings. Visitors can learn more about Emirati culture, try traditional coffee and shop handmade crafts. Finally, the Beverage Theatre will conduct mixology masterclasses – a first for the festival.
The event also provides the opportunity to meet a bevy of famous chefs, who will host cooking classes, demonstrations or competitions. On the cards this year are: French celebrity chef and cookbook author Jean-Christophe Novelli, who has four Michelin stars to his name; Australia-born UK chef John Torode, who is the judge and co-host of BBC One’s MasterChef, Celebrity MasterChef and Junior MasterChef, as well as the presenter of A Cook Abroad and The A to Z of TV Cooking; Moroccan cookbook author and food stylist Assia Othman, who hosts the TV show Matbakh
Assia; Indian celebrity chef Kunal Kapur who runs the show at Abu Dhabi restaurant Namak; Lebanese pastry chef Karim Bourgi, who manages La Maison du Chocolat and the Hermes Paris Cafe in Dubai; “Cake Boy” Eric Lanlard, who returns to the event to host his popular cake masterclasses in the Big Baking Tent; and children’s food expert and nutritionist Annabel Karmel, who will demonstrate her signature family dishes.
The highlight, of course, is the chow you can try for yourself, and Taste of Abu Dhabi has mini-menus from 10 restaurants this year. Of these, Namak by Kunal Kapur offers some of the most elaborate dishes, all for Dh21 – which is but a fraction of their usual price. Appetisers include chicken tikka tacos with a “tomato rub, apricot chutney and tingmo bread” (for the uninitiated, that’s steamed Tibetan bread that momos are typically made of); and bunny bhaji, which is a combination of Mumbai’s pav bhaji and South Africa’s bunny chow, stuffed into soft buns with a cheesy crust.
Mains include three curries: prawns with fresh coconut milk and curry leaves; slowcooked lamb in a cashew gravy; and paneer makhni in tomato curry – each served with rice and a salad. “True lovers of Indian food cannot do without their curry-roti or curry-rice combo, hence the decision to include these as our main course,” says chef Kapur. “People also tend to spend several hours at Taste of Abu Dhabi, so it’s nice to have more substantial options and comfort food. The starters and desserts, on the other hand, are more for the grab-and-go crowd,” he adds. Dessert is an exotic srikhand, served with cinnamon-flavoured yoghurt, crispy pastry and apple gel.
An elaborate selection is also to be found at La Brasserie’s stall. The French restaurant, located at the Venetian Village in Abu Dhabi, will present such delicacies as snails cooked in garlic butter, crispy goat’s cheese pastilla with dates and nuts, lobster ravioli with lobster bisque and seared cod fillet with herb mashed potato brandade in cockle sauce. These are priced from Dh20 to Dh30.
If all this sounds a little too rich for your liking, there are dozens of other dishes to munch on the move. Wings are a food-fest favourite, and Taste of Abu Dhabi has traditional barbecue-smoked chicken wings from Butcher & Still (Dh20). Fries are another firm fixture, and here you have our favourite kind – truffle fries with Parmesan (Dh15) – also from Butcher & Still, while Todd English’s Olives will serve its sweet potato bravas, with crumbled feta and avocado cream (Dh20).
Of course, the whole point of Taste of Abu Dhabi is to sample a variety of cuisines (and make your way back for favourite seconds). From the Far East, there will be Cantonese duck rolls, chicken and shrimp sui mai, and wok-fried chicken noodles from Dai Pai Dong, for Dh30 each, as well as Thai dishes from Desert Lotus, including chicken satay with peanut sauce (Dh20) and pad Thai noodles (Dh35).
Get your Middle Eastern food fix from the Sambusek stall, which will serve its popular hummus tahini and chicken shawarma, plus shish taouk, kofta kebab and arayess, all priced between Dh15 and Dh30. Over at Amerigos, classic guacamole, tacos, nachos and other Mexican bites await for Dh20 a pop.
Pizzas and burgers are other go-tos, and the options at Taste of Abu Dhabi range from a duck fat beef burger and Chicago-style hot dog (for Dh30 each), to pepperoni and margherita pizza slices from Dino’s Bistro Italiano (for Dh20 each). Todd English’s Olives, meanwhile, will serve its cheesy Bronx Bomber flatbread, with beef pepperoni and caramelised onions, for Dh20.
While it all sounds delicious, especially at those prices, one unfortunate oversight seems to be the vegetarian options, which don’t go far beyond cheese, bread and potatoes. Dai Pai Dong’s “boiled mixed vegetables” does not sound appetising as a main, and there are only so many nachos and fries a person can eat.
One option is to jump straight from starters to the handful of desserts on offer – with a stopover for paneer makhni at Namak, perhaps. La Brasserie has a sticky toffee date pudding with salted caramel sauce; both Dino’s and Amerigos offer tiramisu, with the latter also serving churros with warm chocolate sauce; while Butcher & Still does a cherry pie with vanilla ice cream. These all cost Dh15. Bon appetit!
This year, the three-day food festival will host a food-tasting pavilion that will put the spotlight on produce from the UAE