The Best Greek Restaurant in Dubai....

... goes to Elia (in my opinion)!!  I had the best greek food here - everything was made fresh and you'll find traditional dishes as well as dishes that have been modernized.  While I was in Dubai, I visited the restaurant twice; the first time we ordered their dolmades (cabbage rolls), and a spinach salad for starters and for the main course I took the Leg of Lamb (Stifado style) with onions and grated potato.

Then for dessert we ordered their (HUGE) plate of Loukoumades (small doughnut-like balls covered in honey and walnuts) - this was amazing and my favourite part of the meal!  Unfortunately, I didn't take a photo myself because the loukoumades were attacked and disappeared very quickly :S  Here is a photo from the web (our portion was bigger than the one in the photo!):



This photo of Elia is courtesy of TripAdvisor

The second time, I ordered the same starters, a tomato salad for my main, and their chocolate fondant dessert... great quality food again!


This photo of Elia is courtesy of TripAdvisor

For more photos, check out this page (make sure to scroll through the photo gallery on the right):  http://dubaimajestic.com/dubai_press_EN/93/Elia%E2%80%99s_Greek_signature_dishes_impress_at_Taste_of_Dubai_2009..htm

You can find Elia Restaurant in the Majestic Hotel; they are only open for dinner.  You can find more information on their facebook page as well - https://www.facebook.com/EliaDubai?fref=ts

It's been a while + my new Yonanas Maker!

Hello!  It's been a while since I've posted anything on my blog... I'm very sorry about that!  I got a new job, and everything's been pretty busy so I haven't had much time!   Once I get settled and into a routine, I'm sure I'll be able to update more often! 

Also, my mum surprised me by ordering a Yonanas Frozen- Dessert Maker for me! :D  I've been using it a lot, since it's a much healthier alternative to regular ice cream or frozen yoghurt.   It's basically a dessert machine which allows you to make ice cream entirely out of frozen bananas or other frozen fruit! 

 The machine itself is very noisy, but the result is yummy!  (You have to eat it almost immediately, or freeze it because it will melt quickly).  The ice cream can either be eaten alone, or made into a waffle sandwich, or topped with more fresh fruits... the Yonanas maker also comes with a recipe booklet with many interesting flavour combinations like chocolate and banana, pineapple - mango- coconut, peanut butter etc.  

Here is the website if you'd like to learn more about it:  http://www.yonanas.com/



Tomorrow morning, I will probably be making some blueberry pancakes so stay tuned for that...  

Boat tour on the Creek

This was one of my favourite outings in Dubai; we went to 'Al Boom Tourist Village' which offers banquet halls, cruises, catering and has its own restaurant.  We decided to book a private boat/dhow (a traditional arabic sailing vessel) for a one hour tour of the Dubai Creek... it was so nice and relaxing, although very windy!

Interior of Al Boom Tourist Village

Interior of Al Boom Tourist Village

New Year's Celebrations

For New Year's, we decided to celebrate outside the house so we made a reservation at Ember restaurant in the Address Hotel (it's close to Dubai Mall, so it took us forever to get there because of traffic - since the fireworks display from Burj Khalifa was close by!).  It was a set 5 course menu of fine-dining dishes, and each course was sooo delicious!  I'll include a snapshot of the menu, which shows different options for each course.

We were first greeted at the front desk by the manager of the restaurant, and shown to our table...

Champagne and fresh oysters upon arrival! :D  The oysters were so fresh, and the champagne was actually Prosecco (an italian white sparkling wine), which I think is my favourite type now! 

The restaurant interior:

Entertainment during dinner

Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures of the individual dishes (I think I was too excited to start eating them lol), but this is the palette cleanser we had in between the starter and main course.  It was served in a bowl of ice(!) which was illuminated from below by a light which changed colour ever few seconds ...very cool! 

Orange, Champagne and Rosemary Sorbet

At midnight, we watched the Burj Khalifa fireworks on a big screen.... Here's a video of the 2012 fireworks from youtube below:

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas, and enjoyed their New Year's celebrations!!  I hope 2012 will be a good year for everybody!  As you may have noticed, I have not had the chance to update the blog since I've been away on holiday... but once I'm back, I'll start posting regularly again in around a week. :)  Meanwhile, I'll leave you with a few select pictures from our trip and I'll be sharing lots more soon!

Toronto Christmas Market

Today, we spent the afternoon at Lowe's Christmas Market at the Distillery District in Toronto!  It's basically a street market with stalls selling traditional european products (local and handcrafted) as well as specialty beer, bakery treats, and a variety of food (including traditional oktoberfest sausages, hot chocolate, pretzels, baked goods, french canadian poutine, etc).  There was also a big Christmas tree set up next to a stage with carollers singing every hour.

At first, we strolled through the market and looked around (it wasn't as big as I hoped it would be, so in that respect, I was a little disappointed), then listened to a few songs the carollers were singing.  We were verry hungry as it was lunch time, and couldn't find a proper restaurant (which served something other than paninis, pasta or grills which seemed to be all there was there), so we ended up getting some Poutine from one of the stalls; it was sooo good!  After that, we visited one of the stalls selling european baked goods, where we sampled some fruit cake :)  At the end of our visit, we stopped by the Balzac café and drank some yummy hot chocolate!

As promised, here are the photos of the traditional european style market and decorations around the distillery district.  Also, you can check out a few videos of the christmas market here, which I will be uploading on my youtube page.

The Christmas Market is open from Dec 2nd - Dec 18... for more info about the market and the Toronto Distillery District: http://www.torontochristmasmarket.com/  and http://www.thedistillerydistrict.com/

More pics to come of Balzac's Café and the Christmas Cake we bought :)