Amused Bouche 06
Bite-sized if not biting commentary. In this issue: Italian renovations, cookbook celebrations, restaurant openings, supermarket collaborations and my increasingly middle-aged hobbies.
Ciao a tutti! I write from the small corner desk inside an Airbnb in Camagna Monferrato, a speck of a hilltop town in bucolic Italian splendour within a 10-minute drive of our currently uninhabitable house. About 500 people live here. It has just gone 5am, and I know that because the bells of Chiesa di Sant'Eusebio (Church of Saint Eusebio) are ringing away enthusiastically.
Since Amused Bouche 05, I have stomped around Dubai, London and now I am slumped againt the slopes of Monferrato.
Long-time readers will know that we are in Piemonte because we bought an ageing money pit that requires extensive renovations. Walls have moved. Floor boards exhumed to accommodate steel beams. The electricity supply is being doubled. Every visit reveals a fresh opportunity to spend money — or earn air miles, as I like to tell myself.
So far, we have driven to Turin in search of furniture, tiles, lighting and kitchen doors. We finally have Italian mobile numbers, meaning we can now receive one-time passwords while back in Dubai. I cannot tell you how both significant this is and how infuriatingly complicated it was to pay a light bill for a house I’ve never lived in.
Last Sunday, we wandered through Asti’s monthly antiques market haggling with a vendor over a set of antique factory drawings. I guess this is what becomes normal when you start building a second life abroad. Five out of six frames smashed in the car trunk when a stroller crashed on top of them. What is life?
Each day I console myself with agnolotti and enough Ruché to briefly forget the renovation budget.
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The Small Matter of a Book Launch.
Like a broken record, The Rise of Indian Food was officially published on 6 May and you too can order your copy through a fleet of links here. Some people are tagging me and/or Chef Himanshu on Instagram when they receive and open their copy. We still get a kick out of seeing people open this labour of love. I ended the series Translating Trèsind Studio to sync with the launch. It shares some behind-the-scenes moments, tensions and decisions in writing 60,000 words about “Studio’s” vision of progressive Indian dining.
The Drop that Dare Not Speak Its Name. Or Show Up on Instagram
Those of us in Dubai who talk about restaurants on Instagram et al — even in the most modest of critical terms because, you know — must now hold a social media license.
Licenses are currently free, but it does mean securing a police clearance certificate, registering your social media accounts with the National Media Council and staying within the parameters of what you can and, importantly, what you cannot talk about on social media. I could say a lot (feel free to guess) but what I cannot talk about on social media is wine.
Or can I?
I heard some influencers were charged/penalised 20,000 dirhams (about £4k or $6k) for talking about some of the alcohol packages at brunches or set menus. Yet, I also know people who work in the business of wine and alcohol and they continue unconstrained not only to talk it, but to promote it. You can promote your own business but you cannot mention hat of others? Hmm.
Needless to say I am baffled. If you can explain, let me know.
Inside Enoteca La Cantina, Asti.
Spinneys Chef’s Counter.
We’ve been tucking into Spinneys Chef’s Counter rotation. For those who do not know, Spinneys is a high-end supermarket in the UAE/Gulf (a bit like Waitrose or Whole Foods, for reference). Each week for the past few weeks, they partnered with a well-known and often homegrown chef in Dubai to bring a signature dish to Spinneys’ ready food counters.
Why does this matter beyond giving me another excuse to loiter near the hot food counter?
You may have heard of the ongoing slash ceasefire slash is there a ceasefire? which impacted the local restaurant businesses. A business with Spinney’s footprint puts cash into a restaurant’s registers and at a much needed time.
My favourites? 21 gram’s Balkan chocolate hazelnut baklava and Lila Molino’s slow-cooked beef cheek barbacoa. I missed some others; some other missed me. I’ve inadvertently become the DAMAC Ventura Mall’s resident auditor sending feedback to Spinney’s high command. Let’s just say I’m on it.
Lila Molino tacos that I made at home
Dear Dumpling, NFH.
Alicia Soo or “Sooey” opened Dear Dumpling inside Neighbourhood Food Hall which offers a concise menu of non-traditional tortellini-like dumplings, boiled or fried, inspired by her native Singapore. I recommend the boiled chicken prawn dumplings with their taut wrappers, generous filling and each spoonful sings of warming ginger and chilli, and festooned with cucumber matchsticks. Follow up with the fried shiitake and chinese olive vegetable dumplings. Since my last visit, noodles are now on the menu, which gives me another reason to return.
Friday Night Pickling.
We cannot get through our veg box fast enough, which means pickling to avoid wastage, because I cannot abide by food waste. I use this reliable recipe from the boys at Fallow, plus a few aromates and spices like garlic cloves, black pepper, coriander and fennel seeds. Cabbage, red onions, shallots and cucumbers in quart containers labelled in the fridge. You can almost hear me shouting “cousin” à la The Bear. Do you have any pickling recipes? If only there was a book…
Maisan15, Dubai.
Quietly, Maisan15 has become somewhere I return to with increasing frequency. I have an obsessive personality and their chocolate tahini cookies and granola are becoming pantry staples in my house. Helmed by Chef Rita Soueidan, Maisan15 is beloved Dubai restaurant-café, part greenhouse, part utilitarian Soviet bunker. Persevere. Order the chicken thigh musakhan stained amethyst with sumac and studded with warm toasted almonds. Come for bowls of crisp green falafel in tahini sauce and the kaleidoscope of Rami’s Breakfast lawned with za’atar and whipped mounds of harissa labneh. Pinch warm house bread — the size of scatter cushions — into mushbaha, a warm chickpea, tahini and yoghurt bowl laced with herb chilli and Palestinian EVOO. Tell Rita I said hi. Pick up some cookies for me while you’re there.
Richemont Masterbaker Collective, and Paus.
We should encourage forums for people to show success and failure. I attended an inaugural session of the Richemont Masterbaker Collective inside Paus. Richemont is a professional bakery and pastry school in Jumeirah Lakes Towers; a cousin of the Swiss Richemont Centre of Excellence. The Collective intends to be a forum for industry leaders to share their lessons and learnings unfiltered.
Nadia Parekh of Faim fame co-hosted the panel attended by Mohamed Orfali (Orfali Bros), Kathy Johnston (Mirzam Chocolate) and Tiffany Eslick (Spinneys), among others. I’m all for getting people in a room to share. I founded working groups, panels and roundtables for Dubai’s legal community. Paus I found to be a place where I am left asking, who bankrolled this? Also, can I interest you in a can of water by Porsche? Yes, that Porsche.
Jun’s, Downtown Dubai.
Twice in one week, I foraged through Jun’s menu for celebration dinners — one birthday, one team dinner. This speaks to Jun’s versatility and near universal appeal. Both groups spoke enthusiastically about the menu’s originality, the better-than-expected pricing, generous portion sizes and the right side of special decor. Chef Kelvin Cheung and Neha Anand captured something special. I wrote about Jun’s opening for FACT Dubai and Kelvin’s tasting menu — personal, and one of Dubai’s best tasting menus for those curious about degustations but put off by high prices and ponciness. What to eat? Butter lobster pani puri, tempura chaat, the lamb neck shawarma, the new Omani prawn vindaloo, the wagyu beef short rib and the smoked labneh carrots still hit the mark.
Shiogensui, JLT.
There’s a new ramen place in town, and it’s a quick hop from my office and just below my beloved Daikan, one of Dubai’s favourite ramen places, making Shiogensui’s location choice more a wink to market research than coincidence. Shiogensui is a beloved Japanese ramen chain originating from Osaka, renowned for its signature natural salt (shio) ramen. I ate here three times in its first week. A review is incoming, but three bowls (and some sides) in one week tells you something.
HANU hosts “City Social” and “Kraken”, Palm Jumeirah
Sanjay Varman, friend and Indian filter coffee aficionado, wrote enthusiastically about HANU’s weekend lunch menu. Hanu (한우), also “Hanwoo”, is a premium Korean beef highly prized as a culinary delicacy in South Korea for its rich marbling and tenderness. It’s a bit like wagyu, but I am told it is less fatty.
Table 222 was a one night, four-course and six hands menu between Chef Moon (HANU / Sushisamba), Chef Robin Hoefer (Kraken) and Chef Daniel Birk (City Social / ROW on 45) where Dan’s koji-cured scallop in miso, scallop roe XO and tantanmen sauce was one of the best dishes I’ve had this year. Robin’s cobia sashimi and Moon’s Hoenseong Hanwoo 1++, grilled lamb chop and banchan also stood out. No bad bites here. It is time to check out HANU and head back to ROW.
Links and Lists.
Read The London 100: a list of restaurants tied to loyalty, love and ritual, as recommended by you.
Read Dubai’s Ultimate Restaurant Guide for a handpicked list of the city’s restaurants.
Deep dive in neighbourhood like Jumeirah Lakes Towers and Dubai Hills, two Dubai dining hotspots IMO.
Discover Why Bread Is Not A Course.
Some of the World’s Greatest Dining Spaces.
Liam is a restaurant critic, food and travel writer based in the Middle East. He owns EatGoSee and contributes to other publications. Find Liam on Substack, Threads or Instagram.