Store Review - Gourmet Station Dubai

We told you about Gourmet Station in Dubai some time ago. We finally managed to visit the store last week.

According to the website of Gourmet Station we could expect deli heaven. The best olive oils, quality foie gras, a wide array of meat and fish and a stunning collection of only the best cheeses.

Can we say we were just the slightest bit disappointed?

Let's, in all fairness, start with the positive notes. The store looks beautiful, and it is great to see so many quality products lined up. From the olive oil of Nuñez de Prado to the chocolates of Valhrona, everything made our mouth water. There's a good selection of tea and coffee as well.

Now where it goes wrong.

The Gourmet Station website says the following:

"...walk right in to over a 100 cheeses that our artisinal cheesemongers have for you"

Ahem, over 100 cheeses? There were five or six. At most. They were good, we have to agree, but it is hardly what you call a serious selection.

"At the cold cuts counter is a delectable range of smoked sausages."

We would have loved some good sausages. They're among the things we miss the most here. But unfortunately, they were not there. None.

"The meat counter at the Gourmet Station is a veritable meat 'fest' with the choicest of fresh meat displayed for the discerning shopper."

Apart from a notification that wagyu burgers could be ordered from the freezer, there was no fresh meat. Not that we would call meat from the freezer 'fresh'... So much for the meat 'fest'.

"For our customers who demand quality and good sourcing, Gourmet Station has an enviable choice of fish from around the globe (...) Fresh octopus, squids, rock lobsters, mussels, cockles, cray fish, scallops, tiger prawns, and a good selection of oysters also crowd our fresh fish counter."

Sounds great. But again, it wasn't there.

What is the matter here? Does Gourmet Station has so little customers that keeping fresh stock is no longer possible? Whas everything sold out by coincidence? Or is it a classic situation of revving up expectations, without being able to live up to them? We are inclined to think it is the latter.

So, the market for a good deli store is still open. Next time we're in the area we will try this place in Abu Dhabi. They promise us the best cheese room in the Middle East. Let's see if it's true.

A Moroccan olive oil: Desert Miracle

A while back, we wrote about the difficulty of finding good olive oil in Muscat (see here). You can imagine it brought a smile to our face when we saw a new offering at our local Al Fair. An extra virgin olive oil from Morocco, called Desert Miracle (3.950 OMR for 500ml). It is produced by Atlas Olive Oils, a company that is situated at the foot of, you guessed it, the Atlas mountain range. The company is serious about quality and produces only extra virgin oils. Desert Miracle has a maximum acidity level of 0.2%. Such quality-mindedness is rare and deserves to be praised. This is what the company has to say about it themselves:

At Atlas Olive Oils we guarantee and commit ourselves to produce only extra virgin grade and never a combination of extra virgin olive oil with virgin oil or refined oil. We refuse to produce for outside parties bringing low quality olives to our crushing mill. We are highly concerned about achieving the highest quality standards: we prefer to produce smaller quantities of high end prestigious olive oils rather than large quantities of medium and cheap olive oils (lampante, refined, or only virgin). In this context, our usually maximum acidity is 0.2° level. We use the cold-press method and add no chemicals and almost no heat assistance.

We test our extra virgin olive oil using the Olive Oil Council accredited methods which allow us to select and retain only the highest rated olive oils coming from our own groves. Integrity is the key to our success and only by strictly respecting what is written on the bottle’s label can we keep up with our centenary tradition and authoritativeness that built our reputation. These are the secrets of an ultra-premium extra virgin olive oil that cannot be substituted.

We admit that we never tasted a (good) olive oil from Morocco before, so were excited to see how it was. We were pleasantly surprised. While oils from southern countries can be heavy and cloying, this has a beautiful light golden colour and it smells of fresh cut grass and green apples. To taste it is soft and rich, nutty and slightly peppery. A very good olive oil. If you're looking for a really fresh oil, it may be better to look for something Italian or French, but we do like this fuller style as well. Lovely with some bread and sea salt, but also great to use as dressing for salads or to enhance the taste of your dish.

Our experience is that good products don't last long on the shelves in Muscat. So you'd better hurry to Al Fair and stock up.

Gourmet in Dubai

An interesting article in Time Out Dubai this week, featuring a list of gourmet delis in the city. The newly opened Gourmet Station in the Oasis Centre is a definite must to check out. This food market offers a variety of fresh food and fine products, such as balsamic vinegars, and the famous Spanish olive oils of Núñez de Prado. It appears they don't do any mail orders or home delivery outside of Dubai, so we just have to plan another Dubai visit...

And seeing that this is a project of the Landmark group (who also own Centrepoint, E-Max and others), it might just show up in Muscat in due time. We can always hope, can't we?

The Olive Oil Problem

It seems so simple. You grow olives, press them, and there you have it: olive oil. Utterly delicious in its simplicity.

But there are some complicating factors. First of all: not all olive oil is equal. There is cold pressed oil, warm pressed oil or refined oil, there's extra virgin or regular, and don't forget all kinds of fantasy names, such as 'mild', 'light', 'wok' etc. On the one hand, olive oil is an honest, agricultural product, but on the other hand it is big business, led by multinationals who do their best to market their products as 'authentic' and 'rural'.

The consequences are confusing. Do you really believe your Italian olive oil is made from olives that were grown in Italy? Think again. They are most likely from Spain. Well, then Spanish olive oil must definitely be made from Spanish olives, right? Wrong. Tunesia or Algeria probably. It's all about marketing and commercial interest. And all this is only mildly bad if you consider that there's massive fraud going on with the quality labels.

The key in the production of olive oil is managing the acidity level. The lower the better. Oils with an acidity level below 0,8% are allowed to be called extra virgin. These oils are made from the first, cold pressing of the olive oil, which gives the highest quality. After this pressing, it is possible to get more oil out of the olive by heating the pulp. This gives oil in various quality levels, varying from decent cooking oil, to oil so acidic it is not fit for human consumption.

There are many honest producers, who make very good extra virgin oils, and sell them as such. But there are also plenty companies who aim to make a bit more money, and they have a tendency of blending regular olive oil with extra virgin, in order to have a larger volume with an acidity level (just) under 0,8%. And there are even companies who refine the poorest qualities and sell them as regular olive oil (either blended or on its own). And the difficulty is that it is almost impossible for you, as consumer, to know whether you buy an authentic product or a fake.

There are some helpful guidelines though:

• Look for a seal of origin (such as the Italian DOP label). If the oil has such a label, you can be sure that the product is tested and approved by the local authorities, and is from the region is says to be.
• See if you can find the acidity level on the label. For instance, if an olive oil has 0,2-0,4% acidity you can be sure it's authentic
• Avoid the 'big boys', such as Pons, Bertolli and all buyers' own brands (BOB) unless they have a very clear seal of origin.
• Taste the difference. Once you've found an authentic, good quality extra virgin oil, compare it to one of the big brand fakes. You'll taste the difference immediately, and it won't be difficult to understand why we're making such a fuss out of this.
  

It must be said that the choice of extra virgin olive oils isn't big in Oman, but you can find a couple if you try. Here are some recommendations:

• Al Fair used to carry a Waitrose BOB called A drizzle of Umbria that was of decent quality. Nice and grassy, although slightly bland. The price was a huge drawback though, as it was around 11 OMR for a small bottle. They recently replaced this brand with a new Waitrose BOB, which is slightly cheaper. We haven't tried it yet.
• Organic House sells a Tuscan extra virgin oil, made by Lucini. It is organic (of course) and costs 8.800 OMR for 500ml. We weren't really enthusiastic about the taste, as it was mainly bitter and hot, but this could have something to do with the fact that it was a 2007 bottling. A fresher bottle may be better.
• Not available in Oman (as far as we know), but by far the best olive oils we found in the area, are those of Goccia di Sole, a co-operative from Puglia (Italy) that produces a very good range of extra virgin oils, both organic and non-organic. Although the organic oil is very good as well, our favourite is the non-organic Goccia di Sole DOP Terra di Bari. A truly classy olive oil, grassy and nutty, with a refreshing, slightly bitter bite. We bought this in Dubai, where the producer has a stand close to the entrance of Ikea. Or have a look at the website of the distributor, they may do mail orders. If we're not mistaken, the price was around 6 OMR for a 500ml bottle (but that could just as well been a 750ml bottle).

If you buy any of these, remember: olive oil quickly goes bad due to heat or light. So always store unopened bottles in a dark and cool place.