We were pretty pleased with the Taste of Dubai festival last year, so we're more than happy to recommend this year's edition to you. It will be held from 17 to 20 March 2010 at Dubai Media City. The lay out will be pretty much the same as last year: local restaurants have the opportunity to present small dishes, and there are a number of special events, such as wine tastings and cooking master classes by renowned chefs. For more information and booking of tickets: look here.Another promising event takes place in Abu Dhabi. From 5 to 19 February the city is the scene of Gourmet Abu Dhabi; two weeks full of culinary delight. The organisers of Gourmet Abu Dhabi did a great job in putting together a tantalising programme. Several michelin-starred chefs are flown in, with 3-starred Alain Passard and Régis Marcon as showstoppers. You can choose to follow masterclasses by the chefs or attend one of the dinners. Some of those are accompanied by wine tastings of prestigious domains, such as Egon Müller, Pio Cesare and Paul Jaboulet Ainé. Their winemakers will be there as well. If you ever needed an excuse to visit Abu Dhabi, this is it. More information can be found here.
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Just a quick word on the 'Taste of Dubai' event. We visited the first night, and it looked like the organisational staff still needed to grow into the event a bit. The ticket collection was chaotic to say the least. It wasn't crowded on this night, which was good in a way, because it meant that all restaurants were easily accessible without long queues, but it can't be denied that there would have been more atmosphere if the crowd had been bigger.
ReplyDeleteAlthough there were plenty restaurants to choose from, there were far less stands than last year. The tent in which these were assembled was half empty. Where last year it was possible to find some interesting products, like rare olive oils or good balsamic vinegars, it was mainly Waitrose and Marks & Spencer this time. Apparently, crisis has also hit the Taste of Dubai.
Our favourite restaurant: Indego. Truly amazing haute cuisine versions of classic Indian food. Our least favourite: Rhodes Twenty10. Appaling quality, a sorry attempt of Mr/ Rhodes to cash in even more on his name.
All in all, an enjoyable evening, and we'll be there again next year.