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Where To Find Authentic Local Cuisines In Dubai

At 40 years young, Dubai is already home to a multicultural melee, and unlike other global cities where one native dish reigns supreme, Dubai’s signature cuisine is as varied as the globe. To find these traditional tastes, steer clear of the newer developments of Dubai Marina and Downtown Dubai and instead, head to the city’s older backstreets to uncover some delicious and inexpensive local eats.

Levant

Levant cuisine has become synonymous with Arabic restaurants across the city, but Zaroob offers a fresh, fast food-style take on the usual sharwamas, grills and flatbreads. The live cooking stations and open kitchens produce sights and smells reminiscent of a Middle Eastern street market, and the name of the restaurant actually translates as “small alley”.

Taiwanese

The Taiwanese national drink is not strictly a food and not strictly on the street, but it is worth a mention simply because it is so delicious. For the uninitiated, bubble tea is a blend of cold tea and milk or fruit juices, with added tapioca pearls (the bubbles).

Pakistani

Dubai is not short of a Pakistani restaurant or 10. But there is only one that every expat can name: Ravi’s (Satwa Street, Satwa; 971-4-331-5353). Despite its near infamous status as being one of the only “authentic” places that everyone loves to “discover”, its popularity never wavers because the food is always top notch. And despite its enduring popularity, no matter what you order at Ravi’s, the price is rock bottom.

Chinese

Head over the creek to the original old town, Deira, and the best place is China Sea (Al Maktoum Street; 971-4-295-9816). This family-run restaurant’s decor lies somewhere between a Communist canteen celebrating Chinese New Year and a 1960s garden party with wicker furniture. Menus come with pictures, and all the enormously-portioned dishes are wheeled at high speed to the tables on metal trolleys. Some dishes are even prepared table-side, so if you like the look of someone else’s dinner, be prepared to point and ask.

North Korean

Pyongyang Okryu-gwan (Al Maktoum Street, Deira; 971-4-298-1589) flies the flag for North Korea’s excellent chow, though, having never been allowed into North Korea, few can attest to whether it is representative of the rest of the nation. Barbeque meat at your table, devour kimchi like there is no tomorrow and try not to be too disappointed by the unremarkable decor.

Where else in Dubai can you find authentic cuisine? Share your ideas with us!

Source: BBC Travel

Image: My Hotels In Dubai

Best Asian Cities for Street Food Trip

The food is one of the most enjoyable things about the Asian continent. But do you know where to find its best street dishes?

Taipei. It has streets that teem with vendors serving savory noodle soups, dumplings and steamed buns. In the evening, night markets open all over the city selling a plethora of clothes and household goods, but their real draw is the food. The street foods of Taipei might not be strictly native to Taiwan, but they just seem to taste better there.

Fukuoka , on the northern shore of Kyushu, Japan, has more than 150 open air food stands, called yatai. Yatai resemble miniature restaurants, except that most fold up shop every night and disappear until the next day. Yatai open around dusk and offer diners the opportunity to drink sake and shochu with locals and sample Fukuoka’s specialties.

Singapore. Regulated out of existence years ago, street food vendors moved into government-sanctioned “hawker centers” where they still sell the same street dishes. While this may undermine the cuisine’s credibility as street food, it offers those with delicate stomachs the opportunity to partake — strict safety and hygiene regulations make Singapore’s hawker food some of the safest “street food” around. Hawker centers offer a blend of inexpensive Malaysian, Indian and Chinese cuisines, which combine to offer a uniquely Singaporean eating experience.

Manila. Most vendors here are mobile and can be found walking up and down Manila’s busy streets, crying out their specialties. It all makes for a delicious, if fattening, affair. Whenever possible, foods are deep-fried, which makes them that much more mouth-watering and, as a bonus, kills germs. Cold drinks and sweet desserts are also popular snacks in Manila’s tropical heat.

Phnom Penh. Depending on what time it is, you’ll find scores of different types of street cuisine being sold by roving vendors or at stationary street stalls that cook on small charcoal grills. The local markets are also a good source of Khmer snacks, particularly Central, Kandal and Orussei, as well as the streets around the city’s many schools and universities. Breakfast time and early evenings are particularly busy, as hungry students flood the streets, looking for fried noodles, Cambodian sandwiches and sweet treats.

Source: CNN

Image: Design Verb

Where To Find Authentic Local Cuisines In Dubai

Best Asian Cities for Street Food Trip

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