Given that previous discussion about how difficult it was to get local food around here, one thing that I was insistent on getting when I was here was camel meat. It didn't matter if it were roasted camel in the desert or maybe this camel burger thing that I had read about online, but I had to get it. My local colleague suggested this place, which despite what the name suggests, was actually in touristy Bastakiya (House 51 near Al Mussallah Roundabout, 386-2040). It wasn't very encouraging that a bus unloaded a huge group of tourists here shortly after I arrived, but I didn't care. I wanted to eat camel!
And so I did, in burger form. And how let down I was. I assumed that it might have some kind of a gamey-taste like lamb, but it had hardly any taste at all. Indeed, I would argue that there was even less taste than beef in this thing, and the only flavor that I got out of this was due to the cheese that they put on top of it (BTW, all of the tourists were being handed burgers as well). I saw some kind of a camel kebab/rice platter on the menu; I wonder if that would have tasted differently. Or maybe next time I should just find a better establishment to get this from next time I'm in Dubai. At least I tried it.
There is a nice Himalayan restaurant in Culver City (Los Angeles) called Tara's that has Yak Chili on the menu. It's quite good, but be prepared for the something that is more like a stir-fry than anything you ever saw labeled as chili before. They are also well known for their Nepalese take on chicken dumplings.
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