So my recent expedition to Dubai was one of a few rare times, and was only made possible by a good friend who offered to drive. We live just a couple of hours away from this world-famous city, and yet we are very much tourists when we go there. This time on the sightseeing agenda was the Burj Khalifa and Dubai Mall - both rocking world records and both unexplored territories thus far.
The trip was made thankfully with friends who knew Dubai well - a fellow foodie included - and thus turned into quite a gastronomically exciting adventure.
So as not to turn this series into a meal-by-meal narrative I shall focus on two highlights of the trip - Red Mango Frozen Yoghurt and Johnny Carino's Italian - both located @ Festival City.
Red mango doesn't benefit from having the best location - it's pretty hard to find actually, but effort is most certainly rewarded. Typical ice-cream parlour ambience with red seats and tables ( I heard somewhere that the colour red makes you hungry) and staff that's only too ready and willing to give you free samples makes for a good first impression. The yoghurts come in a fairly limited number of flavours - the ones I recall are chocolate (really bad - and this is coming from a chocolate-or-nothing flavour person!), pomegranate (unexpected - but pretty good nonetheless), citrus (too tangy, but nice if you like tang), berry (i don't recall which kind, just that I didn't like it) and finally the one that caught my fancy - the original.
I absolutely love yoghurt and can find a way to turn it into an accompaniment to most foods, sweet or savoury - so the original flavour with its luxuriously smooth, light, creamy - almost airy texture and slightly sweet tint just hit the spot. Having tasted the fruit flavours got me craving fruit though and I was delighted to find that my host allowed me a choice of four toppings on my yoghurt - I chose strawberry, blueberry, kiwifruit and mango - and I fell in love at first bite!
Getting fresh fruit on unflavoured yoghurt sure beat the flavoured yoghurts by a mile! And although I'm sure chocolate bits or cookie on yoghurt is appealing to some, I found the fruits lent a freshness and intensity of taste to the yoghurt that complimented it beautifully and left me happy, satisfied and totally guilt-free! Who could complain against natural, fat-free yoghurt and fresh fruits?
An immensely satisfying dessert - but ironically we went there as a tide-over before lunch, which left me worried that, come lunch-time I would suffer from a lack of appetite (a foodie's worst nightmare!)
I needn't have worried at all, for within a few hours I was absolutely starving (makes me wonder if it had anything to do with the supposedly good-for-your-digestive-system 'probiotics' that the yoghurt claims to contain...)
Which brings me to our lunch @ Johnny Carino's - more to follow on this one in part II of the 'Food Quest in Dubai' series so stay tuned!
Location: Festival City Dubai, Festival Marina Pavilion, Level 1
The picture of my frozen yoghurt came out blurry, so here's something unrelated taken @ Wafi Gourmet - I could spend all day in that store.....sigh! :)
Till next time folks!
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