00:00Mmm, it's good when chefs eat their own food and they start making like yum noises.
00:17I'm chef Sahar Al Awadhi and I'm taking you to some of my favorite spots in Dubai.
00:21This is where the chefs eat.
00:31We're at Sangeeta Vegetarian Restaurant in Karama, one of the old school restaurants in Dubai and one of my favorite
00:38breakfast places that serves South Indian food.
00:41I can't wait for you to see what we're going to try.
00:45Hi, good morning. Actually, I know what I want to order.
00:49I think what I love about this restaurant is the fact that it's in a neighborhood that feels very authentic
00:56to me.
00:56It feels like old Dubai. It feels very nostalgic. It's always been consistently delicious.
01:02The service is amazing.
01:03Karama and Bur Dubai has probably the largest amount of diversity in terms of what kind of food is offered
01:12in Dubai.
01:13And I think it all comes down to the fact that like the creek was where historically people used to
01:18come through into Dubai.
01:20A lot of traders, a lot of merchants used to be here.
01:23And so probably they set up shop. They wanted to have their own home food.
01:27They brought that to Dubai and we were lucky enough to experience it just living here.
01:31This is my Everest, my Mount Everest.
01:33This is the ghee dosa that I ordered.
01:36It's ground rice and lentils that's been fermented.
01:39So it has a slight sour taste to it as well.
01:41And they make it paper thin on like a tawa, which is like a stainless steel hand.
01:46And then it comes with all the sides.
01:48So you have your three different kinds of chutneys, your green chutney, your red and your white.
01:54And homemade masala sambar.
02:02Yum. And all of their chutneys and sambars are made in house.
02:06So I think the dish that I would recommend everyone to try when they come here is the meduvada.
02:11And I think I'm not the only one that agrees that Sangeeta probably has the best meduvada in Dubai or
02:17in the UAE.
02:18It's a savory donut, has some spices in there.
02:21Sluffy on the inside.
02:23It has this crisp on the outside.
02:25It's almost like you're crisping rice.
02:28It comes with the same sides, but obviously the vehicle for the chutneys makes a difference.
02:35One of my personal favorites.
02:38I don't know if you can hear it, but there's like a very soft crunch.
02:43Vada is just like beautiful.
02:47I like to do this.
02:51That's perfect.
02:52You know, it's good when your fingers are sparkling with ghee.
02:56So I like to end the meal with Madras coffee, which is a South Indian filter coffee.
03:02They add milk here.
03:03They froth it beautifully.
03:04And they always bring it in these dabaras, which is a two-piece set that comes like this.
03:10One, two, go.
03:14So you kind of just go back in here.
03:17This helps cool it down so you can drink it.
03:20Look at this froth.
03:21Michelin couldn't do this.
03:28We're at our next spot called Maisan 15.
03:31The menu is curated by Chef Rita, who takes a lot of influence from flavors of the region, whether it's
03:37Khaliji or Emirati or Shami.
03:41There are a couple of things that I love about this place.
03:44The location of it.
03:45It's in the middle of like a residential area.
03:48You kind of don't expect it.
03:50But when you come here, you're kind of blown away by a couple of things.
03:54The food by Chef Rita, which is so comforting.
03:57It's so soulful.
03:59It's owned by a prominent Emirati artist called Rami Farooq.
04:02He has a very eclectic taste in art, but also he loves to add a lot of influence from the
04:09UAE, from the Arab world into everything that he does.
04:12So there are a lot of like beautiful things about the space that all come together and they make this
04:18like really unique space that is Maisan 15.
04:27This is the Wagyu melt.
04:29They're simple ingredients put together perfectly.
04:32Wagyu patty, two kinds of cheese, sourdough bread, a little bit of secret sauce and pickled jalapenos on the side.
04:43Oh, perfect.
04:45So the crunch from the sourdough bread that's toasted makes all the difference.
04:49So you have different textures, different layers of flavors.
04:53You have some spice, beautiful Wagyu beef.
04:56It's just super balanced.
05:02Whenever someone asks me like, what should we try?
05:05Yeah.
05:05I'll tell them, please have the dips.
05:08Yeah.
05:08Yeah.
05:09Because I feel this.
05:10It's the gateway dish.
05:12Totally.
05:12Yeah.
05:12The first dip.
05:13The green one is baba ghanoush with miso paste topped with Persian pistachio, almond dukkah, Palestinian olive oil and pomegranate.
05:23We have the hummus.
05:25Okay.
05:25With zaluk.
05:26Mm-hmm.
05:27And it's got smoked shatta.
05:29Mm-hmm.
05:30Topped with rasul hanout.
05:32Mm-hmm.
05:33And roasted hazelnuts.
05:35And of course, we make all our spice mixes in-house.
05:37Then we have the muhammara lebni.
05:39Mm-hmm.
05:40And that's got roasted cauliflower, pomegranate molasses, cumin.
05:44Yeah.
05:45And toasted almonds.
05:46What are you starting with?
05:47I would have probably started with hummus like you.
05:50Yeah.
05:53Mm-hmm.
05:54Mm-hmm.
05:54So good.
05:55It's good when chefs eat their own food and they start making like yum noises.
06:00That's so true by this.
06:01You're a Dubai kid, but you're originally Lebanese.
06:04Yes.
06:04And so like this is the perfect intro to Chef Rita and Maisan.
06:08Do they intentionally kind of represent the Lebanese flag?
06:12Or was it like unintentional?
06:15Unintentional.
06:16Did you just figure this out now?
06:20All right, Chef.
06:21I love okra, but tell me more.
06:23Okay.
06:24Okra fries on top of mint lebni.
06:28Okay.
06:28And it's got summa and Kashmiri chili salt.
06:32Okay.
06:33And the cashews on top are roasted in urfa chili.
06:37Nice.
06:37And it's got a tamarind, ginger, and coriander drizzle.
06:44The mint makes it super fresh, like it just brings it all in together.
06:48And the vine leaves are filled with halloumi.
06:52Okay.
06:53Barberries, high nuts, shiitake mushrooms, and rice.
06:58And they're cooked with the shiitake mushroom liquid with cherry tomatoes and some Aleppo chili.
07:06Nice.
07:07And they're cooked with greek yogurt.
07:08Lots of umami.
07:14Yum.
07:14So good.
07:15I got you the churros because I know you love them.
07:18They're served with caramel chocolate.
07:20Nice.
07:21Are you not gonna have some?
07:22Am I gonna eat all of them alone?
07:24I'll try one.
07:29I'll try one.
07:30Mmm.
07:31Mmm.
07:37So as a chef and as an Emirati, there is no way I was gonna let you go without showing
07:44you what real, authentic, delicious Emirati food is.
07:48And when I'm not eating Emirati food at home, there's only one other place that I'm eating it.
07:53And that's garbu.
07:54Garbu in the Emirati dialect means welcome to my humble abode.
07:57Or it also literally means to come closer.
08:00And it's a way for us to invite people into our homes and to invite people to our tables.
08:06And it really shows the generosity and the open hospitality that's embedded in the Emirati culture.
08:12And probably one of my favorite things is the plates that you see in front of you.
08:18They were hand sketched by her highness, Shaykh Latifah bint Maktoum.
08:21They were turned into plates and they're meant to tell stories of different cultural aspects and heritage folk that are
08:29rooted in Emirati culture.
08:33So this is the date salad. It's the signature salad at garbu.
08:36The whole idea is to center the entire salad around the dates and then everything comes in and complements it.
08:43So you have pickled carrots, you have hoached pears, you have lentils, you have cauliflower, you have pomegranate, you have
08:50some crispy kale.
08:51So there's a lot of textures.
08:57One of my favorite things at garbu is the khubs.
09:00It has like an aged cheese flavor from the Comte.
09:04It has sourness and earthiness from the Zata.
09:07Look at those bubbles right out of the wood fire oven.
09:12I think there's a version of macaroni in probably every country in the world where they've taken some sort of
09:19like macaroni or pasta and they've added their own flavors to it.
09:22The way that we make it in the Emirates is we make a really thick paste that has a lot
09:29of spices.
09:30I feel like this dish, because you find it in almost every household around the world, is the perfect example
09:37of food being a universal language.
09:44So this is for the people who want to try multiple Emirati dishes and have FOMO people like me.
09:50I'm going to start with the chicken Marguga and normally you would make a stew with Emirati spices and that's
10:00normally turmeric, coriander seeds, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, salt, mix of things.
10:10And every household has their own different bizarre mix that they mix.
10:17And I love to eat it with the house made achar or pickles.
10:24Next, the garbu signature mechbous.
10:28So mechbous, again, it's a stew that you make with different spices.
10:33You can make it with chicken or lamb, slow cooked.
10:36And then you add in your rice and your rice cooks in your stew.
10:41Personally, the perfect bite for me is with a little bit of kachomber salad, which is tomato, onion, cucumber, a
10:54little bit of yogurt and a little bit of the pickle.
10:59And that's your perfect mechbous bite.
11:05So you can come and sit outside here in the Mejlis.
11:07There's a fire going.
11:09There's plenty of seating outside during the winter season.
11:11You can come here, have a tea, a coffee, a hot chocolate, a karak, which is what I'm going to
11:18have.
11:18It's a hot tea drink that's made with milk and different spices.
11:22Thank you so much.
11:25And this Asida bite is the perfect last bite.
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