Foodle

Weekend 15 comes and goes. I spent much of it catching up on those things that eluded me during the week.

Work things, by far. Family things. Italy things. Personal things. These two days that buttress the week like a bookend are a scramble. These were the highlights.

Greek wine is largely unknown to me and versus other wine producing countries often stocked in Dubai, they present good value. So I’m on the hunt. @avantisestate produces this Malagousia, a grape otherwise unknown to me. Rounded, aromatic, expressive—with plenty of stone fruit.

We continue to explore things my son will eat. The latest: pomegranate seeds. He’s a fan.

@neighbourhoodfoodhalls is a Motor City favourite that I’ve neglected as of late.

@alnaqakebab by @ajsavanh has a special menu on right now, so I took my laptop down to eat a few things while breaking the back of my inbox.

The Tahini Caesar Salad is deliciously light, 38 dhs (the before and after featured here). The Special Hat Yai Dubai Fried Chicken quarter leg delights with its glassy, crispy skin, garlic chips, crispy onions and a pineapple habanero so good, I ordered a second portion of it. Run full pelt this month.

I’m sad to see @big.oli.pasta left NFH. @funkcoolio takes its place, and offers pizza by the slice (smart). The spicy duck pizza will be loved by most, but I’m never a fan of that dynamite shrimp type sauce. 65 dhs for 10 inches.

A moment of zen outside, even if it is pushing 40 C.

Good luck all for the week ahead.

#itsliamcollens #wknd #weekend #greekwine #wheretoeat #week15 Less

Al Naqa Lao Kebab House opened in Neighbourhood Food Hall around June 2024. Tiffany and I went as she knew “AJ”, and I only ever heard of him. I trust Tiffany emphatically on matters of the stomach.

Al Naqa would not work in lesser hands. It teeters between worlds that are disparate and almost estranged from each other but with AJ as a thoughtful guide, he is able to stand back 35,000 ft to see the broader strokes that unite Laotian, Persian and wider Middle Eastern cuisine and then slide into the details that serve each other almost naturally, like they were always meant together, like fingers that find the grooves of a glove.

Al Naqa is a brave, but AJ has ability and humility is spades.

To be clear, this is street food. This is budget dining in a food hall I’ve once described as a gentrified abattoir. (It’s honesty great, go! I make it sound terrible but it’s easily one of my favourite places and I’m fortunate to live close to it.)

It is the kind of eating people want not only because it’s delicious, but it’s recognisable. It’s the kind of stuff I would cook myself if I had the time, and abilities.

It’s what Dubai’s Michelin Guide is missing—a publication so bent on fanning tourists towards Dubai’s next shiniest thing that it blithely overlooks what it needs.

We don’t need another mortgage-threatening opening. We need to celebrate the diaspora of those that make this city better than great; they make it delicious.

Al Naqa sits among them and, if Michelin won’t send you here, I will.

#itsliamcollens #alnaqalaokebabhouse #neighbourhoodfoodhall #michelinguidedubai #foodwriter #restaurantcritic #wheretoeatdubai @alnaqakebab @ajsavanh @itsliamcollens Less

8) Dark Chocolate Ganache – blackberry, mezcal, pasilla meringue 😍😘🥰
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#hungryglomad_washingtondc #foodgram #foodgrams #foodiegram #foodiegrams #foodpic #foodpics #foodaddict #foodaddicts #goodeats #seriouseats #forkyeah #igfoodie #igfoodies #igfoodporn #igfoodshare #instafood #eeeeats #lefooding #foodporn #buzzfeedfood #buzzfeedfoods #mexicanfood #mexicancuisine #foodphotography #foodieheaven #ganache #chocolateganache #meringue #darkchocolate Less

Still one of my all-time favorite lunches: the @eatwsk1 Yum Yum Rice Bowl with grilled chicken, mushrooms, Chinese broccoli and a poached egg. How long has it been since you first parked the truck at 5th and Nicollet, @samehwadi ? Fifteen years? Sixteen? Seventeen? Seems like last summer. And, a lifetime. #ricebowl #ricebowls #foodtruck #foodtrucks #lynlake #samehwadi #lunch #mpls #minneapolis. Less

My breakfast sandwich obsession continues, this time at the still-popular-after-all-these-years @gooddaycafemn. “Iggy’s Fried Egg Sandwich” has been on the menu since the place opened eighteen (!) years ago. That has to make it one of the first in the LBSU (Local Breakfast Sandwich Universe) to have captured my attention. I looked up my 2007 review of the restaurant in the @startribune (thanks, @newspaperscom), and I’m relieved to learn that I’d noted that this excellent sandwich “will permanently erase any Egg McMuffin thoughts.” That observation still rings true. It doesn’t appear that the formula has changed during the intervening 18 years; that’s pretty much the definition of a classic, right? All the components work together, really well: shaved ham, Cheddar, caramelized onions, two fried eggs handled with extreme care (slightly crisped whites, runny-as-all-get-out yolks) and lots of avocado, all layered between two pieces of lavishly buttered brioche that’s been toasted on the stove to a golden brown. Ok, there’s one misstep: the appearance of frustratingly flavorless, juiceless tomatoes. Even their weak-ish color seems off. Why bother? Another reason for admiration is the way-generous portion size, which falls firmly in the “feeds two” range, and full points for the similarly hefty pile of oven-roasted potatoes. Great price, too: $14.95. #breakfastsandwich #goodmorning #eggsandwich #breakfast #goldenvalley. Less

The headliner at the only-on-Wednesday @thebungalowclubmpls Burger Club is a total keeper. And then some. Next time I’m making it a double. #wednesdaydinner #burgernight #burger #burgers #cheeseburger #cheeseburgers #smashburger #smashburgers #thebungalowclubmpls #mpls #minneapolis. Less