Restaurant review: Saladicious

I went for dinner with two of my very good friends last week to Saladicious and amazingly forgot my camera! Did that at Noodle House Madinat Jumeirah too (blogpost coming up shortly!) Here is my review of the place plus some photographs from the website.

http://www.saladicious.com/index.html

Name Saladicious

Address Jumeirah Beach Road, behind The One near the Grand Jumeirah Mosque
Phone number 800-72523 (SALAD)

Reservations no

Specialties The salad! And the amazing pumpkin and brie cheese ravioli.. it has crispy sweet walnuts mixed in that makes it HEAVEN. And the drinks.. I highly recommend the Primavera. Also, the lovely selection of dips they bring with the hot bread. I love the olive one.
Special Gimmicks little gnome stools for you to keep your handbags on.

Ambience Low lighting, good quiet location, nice setting

Favourite table On the terrace!

Cuisine Mixed. Salad, Italian, Mexican, Spanish...

Attire Casual

Prices Moderate. Starters at around AED30-40, main courses range from AED50-100 depending on what it is.

Who went with me Shamma and Dana

Occasion Unwinding dinner/girly get-together

What I ordered Pumpkin and brie cheese ravioli

What others had Temptation salad and a Caesar salad.

Total bill with tip AED210

Usual crowd People living around the neighborhood. Mostly expats.

Rating:
bread entree 10/10

waiting area nonexistent

entertainment 5/10.. a TV

appetizers 7/10

dessert 10/10 MUST TRY THE CHOCOLATE FONDANT!

atmosphere 10/10

cleanliness 10/10

portion size 9/10 very good

servers 10/10

salad 10/10

service 10/10

crowd 9/10

parking 8/10
Overall 9/10

Restaurant review: Shakespeare & Co

Name Shakespeare & Co.

Address Safa Centre, Jumeirah
Phone number 04-3941121

Hours 7AM-1AM

Reservations no

Specialties The decor. Beautiful furniture, walls, and flooring. They recently changed the furniture and now it has more lace and in my opinion has changed from a more French country style to Regency English style.
Special Gimmicks playroom for children and an outdoor's section that stays air conditioned throughout the year.

Ambience Amazing because of the low lighting and comfortable couches.

Favourite table The couch hidden inside the alcove near the children's playroom.

Cuisine Mixed. A combination of Lebanese, Italian, French, and a little bit of Asian.

Attire Casual

Prices Moderate. Starters at around AED30-40, main courses range from AED50-100 depending on what it is.

Who went with me Shamma

Occasion Breakfast

What I ordered Chocolate Viennoise and caramel and almond crepe

What others had Turkey and cheese sandwich and a cafe latte.

Total bill with tip AED110

Usual crowd People living around the neighborhood. During the mornings, moms who drop their children off to school. Evenings, shisha people.

Rating:
bread entree 8/10

waiting area nonexistent

entertainment 5/10

appetizers 8/10

dessert 10/10

atmosphere 10/10

cleanliness 10/10

soup 8/10. amazing tomato soup

portion size 9/10

servers 10/10

bathrooms 8/10 (one unisex bathroom)

salad 7/10

service 10/10

crowd 7/10

parking 10/10
Overall 8.5/10

Supermarket Series: 1 > Spinneys

So I got this idea a while back to visit the many different supermarkets in Dubai and pick out what I liked best or what I thought would work really well in certain types of foods. First up is Spinney's.. only because it's closest to where I live!

Here's a small selection of what I like from Spinney's..

These are dried berries and cherries with raisins. It is made from authentic dried fruit and one packet contains 170g. Manufactured by Forest Feast. Great for muesli, fruit cakes, or even a healthy yoghurt snack!

Plum tomatoes! Also known as Roma tomatoes, this is the perfect type of tomato to use for making sauces. The texture of the interior makes processing these tomatoes just right. Here is one recipe from the Food Network that uses plum tomatoes for a sauce: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ciao-america-with-mario-batali/fresh-plum-tomato-sauce-recipe/index.html

Dr. Oetker's lemon and orange sugar slices! Great for decorating cupcakes with or even just munching on. These are suitable for vegetarians, too.

The carton in the background is Cawston Press's original fruit apple and ginger juice (1% ginger extract). 10 whole apples are pressed into every carton - according to the bottle! - and this becomes one of your five a day servings of fruit and vegetables! A 100ml serving contains 44 calories. Once you open the carton, be sure to refrigerate it and use it within five days!

The other bottle is Waitrose Sparkling Lemonade with Lemon Juice. There are no artificial flavourings and one serving of 250ml contains 115 calories. Refrigerate once open and consume within three days. The ingredients are carbonated water, sugar, lemon juice from concentrate, citric acid, flavouring, acidity regulator- sodium citrates, preservatives - sodium benzoate and potassium sorbate.

Enjoy! =)

Thai Cooking Class at ICCA!

When I was participating at BakeFestDXB (http://spontaneous-euphoria.blogspot.com/2010/09/bake-fest-dxb.html), I met the girl behindhttp://www.foodonymph.com/ who told me that she and a few other food bloggers meet every month to try something new in the world of food! I was so excited to join the group and yesterday we took a Thai cooking class at the International Center for Culinary Arts in Hana Center. It was a lot of fun, I got to meet other food bloggers out there, and it was a very exciting- and delicious-process throughout. We were in pairs of two and my partner was Anja. She has a lovely blog that you can check out here: http://anjasfood4thought.blogspot.com/

I can't seem to find the links for all the other blogs!

Here are some pictures from last night as well as the menu.

Menu:

Starter:

shrimpcakes on lemongrass skewers

raw papaya salad with cashews and dressing

vegetable noodles

thai red curry fish with jasmine rice

beef stirfry

pandan leaves and coconut caramel pudding (soo moist, amazing texture, lovely!!!)

Ingredients for the papaya salad dressing.

Cherry tomatoes for the papaya salad. I had no idea cherry tomatoes were used in Thai cooking. I thought it was just a Mediterranean thing.

The delicious papaya salad.

Our noodles- done!

Crispy beef stirfry done! Have I mentioned before how much I love stirfrying?

Thai red curry fish done!

The dessert!

My amazing job at cutting and chopping! I am horrible at this! It was a big challenge for me to get this right!

Mouth Watering Macaroons Cooking Class at L'Atelier Des Chefs Dubai

So ever since I saw an ad in TimeOut Dubai about L'Atelier Des Chefs Dubai, I've been wanting to take a cooking class there.

L'Atelier Des Chefs Dubai is located in Le Meredien near Dubai International Airport. The kitchen is a very airy and bright place that overlooks the garden and courtyard. They have an amazing variety of classes and what's best is that their classes are one off and run from half an hour to a few hours. More info can be found on their website: http://www.atelierdeschefsdubai.com/

The macaroons class is what instantly took to my fancy as I love EATING macaroons and the planned recipes looked scrumptious. I also made macaroons once and although it tasted good, the shape and texture weren't really great. I learnt some very interesting tips at the class when it comes to making macaroons themselves and also when it comes to making sauces and fillings. Everything is very clean and organized at the kitchen everyone gets a sufficient chance at contributing to final dish.

I can't wait to make these macaroons myself now after taking the class!

Here is a picture!