Breakfast in Dubai

OK, I was determined to find an authentic breakfast to start my day here in Dubai. I asked some of the locals, but most of them were puzzled by what I meant by a local breakfast. When I asked what they liked to eat for breakfast, one lady told me, "cereal" (ha ha). I had heard that maybe Lebanese breakfasts could be attained here, but there weren't any Lebanese places nearby that I could patronize so early in the morning. Some other guys recommended an "Indian Muglai Chinese" place. Such a identity-crisis-type restaurant sounded like a place that I would avoid at all costs, but they assured me that they served "Arabic" food there too (plus, nothing else was really open that early in the morning), so I walked over there. But it turned out to be all Indian food in the morning, which of course I can get in Singapore, so I got up and left. It seemed that the only thing that people could recommend was a "Western" breakfast, which I didn't come all the way to Dubai for. But needing food, I capitulated and just plopped myself in the lobby of the Le Meridien Dubai hotel where I was meeting someone soon anyway.

Then - little did I know (nor did the concierges at the hotel, apparently) - that there was an "Oriental Express" breakfast set offered in the Gourmandises cafe in the hotel lobby featuring "Mezzeh and cheese: hummus, moutabhel, labneh with mint, haloumi & feta cheese, tomato, cucumber, olives served with Arabic bread" and Turkish coffee. This was great - mezzeh are basically small dishes - almost like Spanish tapas. The hummus was one of the most savory that I've had, the moutabhel was sour and goat cheese-like, while the labneh was my favorite, with taste that almost reminded me of smoked cheese, but lighter and sour. Yum. The Turkish coffee had a mildly sweet and spicy twist to it - all in a tiny little espresso-like cup. It obviously wasn't my first choice to go into a nice hotel to eat a set meal, but in mind of my struggles to find a "local breakfast" here, I'm glad I did. It was refreshing to be able to finally find this, and I never would have thought to have had to go to a hotel lobby. And yes, this beats the pants off that Samar place back in Singapore.

I found out later though that there really isn't anything like breakfast out here in Dubai since people usually wake up at around 10-11 AM. And even more interesting is the fact that the only real "local" dish here is fish and rice (and maybe a little curry). Dubai was traditionally more of a seafood town, but today most people eat other Middle Eastern food, namely Lebanese, Iranian, and Syrian food. Now I finally understand why I could not really find any breakfast today. Hummus is more of a foreign thing for Dubai to begin with.

Interestingly, I passed by a McDonald's with this sign for a McArabia meal, featuring a grilled kofta sandwich. It's cool to see all the localization that McDonald's does around the world (it reminds me of that ad I saw for McDonald's Israel featuring a McShwarma). I didn't go into the McDonald's to actually try this, but it almost retroactively seemed like a good idea for a second when I couldn't find local food this morning.