Changing Lanes

Situated in Garhoud, Shahista is perhaps the only Afghani restaurant I've seen that aims to serve the upscale crowd with an opulent décor and a pricy menu. Being yet another restaurant SJ had shot in; it was in our ‘Must try’ list.

Bill
1 Tabbouleh                : AED20
1 Loqma Kebab            : AED50
1 Zarishk Pallaw            : AED40
1 Orange Juice             : AED20
1 Steam Milk                : AED10
1 Ice cream scoop        : AED20
                              --------------------
Total                            AED160

Disclaimer: This blog is not turning into a food blog cause if it was, I'd blog about every new thing I ate. I'm just blogging about food I've enjoyed eating outside and would recommend to others.

Bill

1 Lebanese Style Eggs (w/o potatoes)     : AED33
1 Spanish Omelette (w/o potatoes)         : AED29
1 Belgian Waffle with Maple syrup            : AED16
1 Red Fruit Tea                                     : AED12.50
1 Hot Chocolate (Double)                       : AED 17
                                                        --------------------
Total                                                   AED 107.50


With a frame of mind of having some sandwiches for breakfast, me and SJ entered Dubai Mall. We ended up having some eggs.

Being the lazy combo we've been lately, we decided to try PQ aka 'Le Pain Quotiden' as it was right next to the parking entrance to where our cars were parked. The restaurants decent decor helped sway our decision to eat there.

SJ ordered the Red Fruit Tea (pictured above) and the Spanish Omelette (pictured left). The tea was nothing special in my opinion even though SJ gulped it all exclaiming that it felt like drinking blood (not because of the taste but the colour obviously). The Omelette was ridiculously luscious with a divine mixture of olives, mushrooms, onions, tomatoes and capsicum. Even though SJ claims to have the ability to make a better version of it, I doubt she could have bettered this.

I ordered Hot chocolate and the Lebanese style eggs (pictured right). The hot chocolate was simple and nice, just the way I like it. The eggs on the other hand was nothing as I expected ( I should have read the description carefully). Curiosity was the reason behind my order and honestly I was a little disappointed even though there was nothing wrong with the taste. The mint leaves was a nice touch but those beef sausages (tiny ones) were too salty and tasted a little odd.

To top off the meal with some dessert, we ordered the Belgian waffle with maple syrup as recommended by SN on twitter. The maple syrup was a little extra sweet and the waffle could have been crispier but when put together, it was just perfect. If we had any space in our tummy, we'd have ordered more but we couldn't so we plan to go back for more.

Winter is still busy being somewhere else which means Dubai is still hot and hazy. This inevitably forces me and SJ to shoot cityscapes early in the morning to get decent results. Early morning means breakfast which unfortunately isn't well catered to in Dubai especially on Friday mornings. Our choices are pretty limited to Ravi, Karachi darbar or something similar. Not the healthiest of choices but worth an indulge once in a while. And then SJ swooped in and recommended Urban Tadka. Situated in Karama(location map), it serves the best vada pav I've had in the UAE or the middle east by a far shot. I've ordered it every single time I've been there i.e. I've yet to taste anything else on their menu. Best part is, it's value for money which puts this on our highly recommended list (at least for their vada pav for now). I even dragged Sagaris there though they were unfortunately closed then. Oddly they've stopped serving vada pao for breakfast recently but we still managed to order 4 as SJ can be quite persuasive.

I usually don’t blog about food as much as I should or could. I’m not a foodie nor claim to be one (cause everyone else in Dubai seems to be one nowadays); I’m just someone who is quite picky about what goes in his mouth; a little too picky as some people close to me would know. Basically if it smells or looks bad, I don’t care if it’s the most delicious thing in the world, I won’t eat it. On the contrary, if something looks too good, I’m usually not too keen on eating it either. Also if it has a name I do not understand, I skip it (even though it’s my lack of understanding of different cuisines at fault). My only claim to fame (or annoyance for the people around) is my different or weird taste buds that usually disagree with everyone else around. To put it all together, I’m not very adventurous when it comes to food; I prefer sticking with food I like instead of having something that I possibly might not like.

It all comes down to the fact that I’m quite hard to please; being the pessimist I am. This with my certain pungent to be a little too honest (read: harsh) about everything and anything that exists makes a bad combination for the people who try to cook for me. I am usually hardest on the people closest to me; one reason my mom calls me her biggest critic as I’m able to pickle out the smallest of mistakes or changes she might have made in the recipe.

My past inability to have spicy food has always been an obstacle for me to enjoy certain kind of dishes but with some practice, this is being triumphed over. I’ve also become a bit of a risk taker in the sense that lately I’ve been eating out a lot due to certain circumstances (read: SJ). With her assured urge to keep trying out unusual restaurants, I’ve eaten food at places I’ve never heard of. I’ve eaten some of the most delicious sandwiches to some very bad pasta courtesy her brilliant decision skills and my (sometimes bitter) stand to avoid wasting any food. My taste buds are certainly enjoying this rollercoaster ride even though my stomach seems to hate the front row seat.

A change in my food habits and possibly becoming a part of the foodie clan (*shudders*) are certain possibilities in the recipe. Time to mix and match the spices….

This is what the restaurant bill looked like after a quick (read 20mins) lunch at Tiffin bites.

1 Karahi Chicken Tiffin  :  AED 38
1 Chana Masala Tiffin    :  AED 32
2 Mango Lassi              :  AED 36
1 Butter Naan             :  AED 12
                                 ---------------
Total                            AED 118

We were in the mood for some Indian food as SJ is trying to stay off non-veg food for a week and we needed it to be quick cause we were getting late for the GulfPhotoPlus photo walk briefing. So we headed into Tiffin Bites at Jumeirah Beach Residence.

SJ had done some photography work at Tiffin bites for the magazine she works for and I had covered their annual group shot/award ceremony a month or so back so we were kinda keen on tasting what they had to offer. Annoyingly for me, I think the manager (called Pavan I think) recognised SJ but not me. Anyway we ordered the Tiffins cause according to the waitress, it would take just 7 minutes to prepare though the food was served in a mere 5 minutes.

The food serving looked small initially but as we dug in, it seemed quite large. I ordered mine to be mild spicy due to my new found love for spicy food which I balanced with a very thick mango lassi. The butter naan was just perfect.

Anyway coming to the reason for this post, the waitress got the bill that I was trying to pay with an AED100 note and some cash from SJ's bottom less purse while SJ was busy flashing her credit card wondering if they accepted plastic money. While we were still busy contemplating how to pay, the manager rushed in and took the bill from me insisting that the meal be on the house. Then ensued a smiling slightly embarrassing conversation where we kept insisting that he let us pay for the meal but the manager didn't budge and said he'd let us pay the next time we visited even though he did somewhere in the middle mention that our next meal would be free as well. We plan to go there again, pay for the food and tip them heavily as well...

A shot of the ceiling lights at Bombay Dining on Riqqa road as I waited for the food to come. As the 10th could have been the last day before Ramadan, parents decided to go out for lunch. Anyway...