Welcome to DoinDubai’s guide to Food Shopping in the Emirate.

I haven’t included a list of all the large branded supermarkets as I’m sure you’ll come across these yourself, but I have included the more unusual places you may want to get to know so you can buy authentic Oriental or Indian ingredients for your cooking, often at better prices too.
I’ve included Japanese, Korean, Indian and Chinese supermarkets. If you own an ethnic grocery store and you think our readers should know what you have to offer, then get in touch via the contact form in the footer section of the site.

June 20, 2020 by monica 16 Comments

KOREAN SUPERMARKET IN DUBAI

UPDATE JUNE 2020

I visited the new location of the much larger Korean supermarket in Dubai, then called 1004 Mart, now known as 1004 Gourmet. New location, new products, new cafe. DEFINITELY WORTH A VISIT. Read on to find out why.

Korean Supermarket in Dubai

1004 Gourmet is an unusual name for a Korean supermarket but then I learnt from the owner/manager Chan that number 1004 translates to Chunsa in Korean but also means Angels which is what they originally wanted to call the shop, so 1004 stayed. The Al Barsha branch was located at number 1004 on the street!

NEW Location of Korean Supermarket in Dubai

Now located in Dubai’s Onyx Tower near The Greens area, park at the P2 level for easiest access to this first floor Korean supermarket in Dubai.

Back in 2011 when I wrote this post..

Prices are sensible, the range of products is impressive and the shop is airy and pleasant to walk around. But above all of this the manager/owner Mr Chan speaks perfect English (albeit with an American accent) He is a great source of information regarding all the products, so I ended up buying a Korean version of light soya sauce (large bottle for Dhs 9.00), some fresh baby bok choi for Dhs 7.00 and frozen white fish fillets (Pollock) for Dhs 30.00.

KOREAN SUPERMARKET IN DUBAI DOINDUBAI SAUCE BOTTTLES SRIRACHA — EASY TO USE SAUCES

I also tried a new kind of wheat noodle and a version of what looks like the Thai vegetable Morning Glory, a sort of fresh green water spinach to sautee with oyster sauce and garlic, but it was the Korean version not the Thai version, again I was assured by Mr Chan it would work just as well. It certainly looked incredibly fresh, and I overhead Chan informing an oriental customer that he received deliveries of vegetables every week from Japan and Korea.

I also bought some Japanese marinading sauce for chicken which I’m guessing is similar to Teriyaki sauce but again, nothing was labeled in English, but Chan helped me out. Dubai.

Visiting in June 2020 what's changed?

Well no sign of Mr Chan the owner, but still some friendly and knowledgable shop assistants who speak good English. The shop is light and airy, very spacious, clean and has a much wider range of Korean, Chinese, Japanese and Thai grocery items. I was sort of in Heaven!

I bought a selection of products that included red and white miso, mirn, rice vinegar, dumpling wrappers and some fresh items too. I also picked up my lunch from the little cafe at the back, called Kafe Bloom.

Food for good skin too

They also have a very good Korean skin care boutique at the back near the cafe and there were also some clothes on sale too. I confess, I bought a dress, on 50% sale.

Click the picture for an easy miso chicken recipe here

Quick Question..

Where do you go to buy your oriental groceries in Dubai or wherever you live? Please leave me a comment in the comment section below. This REALLY HELPS THE BLOG!

November 23, 2016 by monica Leave a Comment

Where to find KOREAN FOOD IN DUBAI

Did you know Korean food in Dubai and the world over is on the rise?

Korean food can be healthy, convenient to cook and now really easy to find in Dubai. Apparently Waitrose in the UK has seen a 42 % increase in sales of the distilled grain spirit, SOJU!

There are even 3 Korean restaurants in Chennai! It seems Kimchi is cool…

We tried some Korean food at new branch of a well established Korean restaurant in Dubai’s International City. Not my usual stomping ground at all, but I was intrigued by idea of learning about authentic, Korean cooking methods.

Yes we had to cook our food this time, and I’m glad I did. Join me, I guarantee you’ll love KFood Middle East, more substantial than KPop!

Learning about Korean food in Dubai via a cooking class

I’ve recently eaten at Namu, the Japanese/Korean restaurant at the W hotel in Dubai and loved it!

But I didn’t think I’d also like the fresh, tasty dishes we made at Manna Land in International city almost as much! We were part of a cooking class that involved us making 2 authentic Korean dishes at our work stations.

We were instructed via an interpretor by the hugely experienced Korean Grande Dame of cuisine in Dubai Mrs An. The cooking class was organized by aT Center Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs.

I liked the simple, fresh ingredients we used for our Bibimbap, a mixed Korean rice. I don’t eat beef, which seems to be a popular Korean choice, but the you can substitute chicken very easily too.

The cooking utensils are very practical as well as functional, so the stoneware lined rice bowl, not only stores the finished dish, it keeps it gorgeously warm too!

I’ve never seen a frying pan that was raised in the middle before, but again, it’s designed to cook the meat on top, then that gat simmer away in a more gentle broth at the sides.

I’m definitely going to try recreating my bibimbap rice bowl at home, another post on that at a later date. We were given some of the ingredients to take home and try.

Where to find Korean food in Dubai

There are a number of restaurants you can try Korean food at here in Dubai, we’ve reviewed some of them here:

Namu

Sobhan

Koreana but you might like to try Shogun in Sheikh Zayed road.

Find Korean ingredients for cooking your KFood at the locations in the pdf here

Korean Stores in Dubai

Try some KFood yourself this week end at the beach in JBR where there’s a Korean Food Fete happening.

Maybe I’ll see you down there!

Thank you Monica.

November 22, 2015 by monica Leave a Comment

EDIBLE CHRISTMAS GIFTS BE FIRST TO FIND OUT

Dubai’s Top 10 Edible Christmas Gifts

A SPECIAL EDITION of Food News with me this week chatting to Mark Lloyd, Stef Burgon and Zahra Soar, We’ll be munching our way through Dubai’s Top 10 Edible Christmas Gifts. We’ve done the research so you don’t have to. We have found edible Christmas gifts for all the family, some at pocket-money prices others that may need you to take out a small loan! Be the first to find out what to buy this Christmas in Dubai.

Favourite Edible Christmas Gifts Dubai Skyline Yule Log from Bateel

Love the look of this alternative chocolate log from Bateel they’ve managed a perfect blend of Christmas and Dubai with the traditional chocolate log by adding in a very intricate and detailed chocolate Dubai skyline on the front! Made with an extraordinarily sophisticated cutting machine from France that actually uses high pressure water to cut!
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More information in a special edition on Factory Food in Dubai and I hope even an extra radio slot as well! This cake would cost you Dhs 90 and will be available a week before Christmas so I would reserve one if I were you. We actually saw the prototypes the morning we visited and as well as a chocolate log there is an alternative red and white one too. Looks like a swiss roll but it couldn’t be further away from a swiss roll in terms of filling, we’re talking chestnut cream with vanilla pods and fresh raspberry puree type ingredients if I know anything about Jean-Luc Vila the Chef in Charge and Director of Operations at Bateel.

Edible Christmas Gifts Money No Object 100 year old Balsamic Vinegar from Bateel

This particular vinegar is sourced from Italy and produced exclusively for Bateel. There are 2 types, one 30 years old, the other is 100 years old! It’s shelved in a dark, vaultish like area of the Bateel factory in DIP and it comes in more of a perfume type bottle, similar to a perfume spray tall box and a smaller more intense shorter box, white boxes studded with real Swarovski crystals at a mere Dhs 1100 or stunning Dhs 4,500! And you may ask why Bateel supplies this type of product? Well it’s because sometimes they get asked for hampers worth Dhs 10,000 and how do you do that? B for Bling from Bateel! Bateel is known as a luxurious Gastronomy hub, and that’s why they have concessions in places like Harrods food halls in Knightsbridge in London.

If you want to give a slightly cheaper version of salad dressing then buy the boxed sets of date infused balsamic vinegar and olive oil for I think around Dhs 110 or so in a boxed set with a golden bow.

We have lots of Edible Christmas Gifts from Bateel to give away every day of the 12 Days of Christmas so watch out for our 12 Days of a DoinDubai Christmas competition coming later this week.

Edible Christmas Gifts Christmasy Tea from a new home grown company Avantcha

A real Christmasy blend of Japanese tea, but without any tea leaves that I could discern! I LOVED the smell of the chocolate, orange and masala variety from their Winter tea collection. This tea comes in a silver tin with it’s own set of tea filter tea bags! So you take a little or a lot of tea, place in your personal teabag, seal by folding over into a small sachet and then add boiling water and inhale that Christmasy smell. I had dried orange peel, oriental spices and cocoa cores in mine! A very good idea to make some of this if you’re trying to sell your house! Other varieties included Orange Winter Apple and Avantcha Noel. You can buy them from Hamptons Cafe or online at avantcha.com

The tea pricing goes like this one- 50g tin AED 54 and two 50g tins AED 98 and three 50g tins AED 133 and you can buy the self-filling tea bags separately but each tin does come with it’s own pack of tea bags. They are available from their online store avantcha.com, AED 30 for 64 bags.

Edible Christmas Gifts Mid price range Truffle Olive Oil from Eataly

I liked the mid range special truffle olive oil from Eataly which is an Italian emporium that sells very well presented and packaged food items from panettonne cakes to truffle oil from specialist suppliers from all over Italy. In fact they are opening new stores in Italy itself, London and Moscow! I thought their small but not miniature sized bottle of TartufLanghe White Truffle oil at around Dhs 100 was a good present for anyone who loves cooking or doesn’t! It’s that special bottle of olive oil that you could use with pasta, over risotto, salads or even over cheese. TartufLanghe comes from Alba in Italy and this oil has thin slivers of the white truffle in it!

Edible Christmas Gifts Pocket Money priced packet of Porcini Mushroom Risotto rice

Also at Eataly is the Porcini Mushroom Risotto at a more pocket money price of Dhs 35, a great edible gift for kids to buy for their mum or dad, then they could use the expensive olive oil to add to the rice and then have a cup of hot Christmasy Chocolate, masala, orange tea while it’s cooking (in a Recke Multi cooker we have to give away here!) and then finish the meal with a slice of special Dubai Christmas yule log from Bateel! Eataly also has some great hampers as well that you can fill yourself. I loved this cup and saucer idea! You can only read the message printed on the saucer in the reflection of the stainless steel cup!

and again we have some prizes to give away from Eataly as well in our 12 Days of Christmas competition including a packet of that Porcini mushroom risotto!

Edible Christmas Gifts The Chef’s special pick of all the Galleries Lafayette Merchandise was a jar of Balqees Raw Honey

This comes from Yemen and has to be very authentic as we’ve tried lots of this at Global Village, where you get his and hers honey. Here’s what Chef Russell who is Culinary Director of Galleries Lafayette Gourmet had to say about it

Priced at around Dhs 169 a jar depending on the variety you choose, maybe you dip a teaspoon of it into your Avantcha tea or have some with some Panetonne from Eataly or Bateel!

Edible Christmas Gifts Edible Silver Leaf great Foodie’s gift from Galleries Lafayette Gourmet

Price is Dhs 364 for a jar of leaves of super fine edible silver that you have to pick up using special tweezers and carefully layer on to your deserts or cakes. It looks like a small jar of very expensive face cream and would make a great present as I haven’t seen this anywhere else! Comes to Dubai via Florence!

So 3 places, any Bateel, Eataly in Dubai Mall on the ground floor and Lafayette Gourmet on the 3rd floor! Lots of prizes to be won on the blog, so save yourself some money on Christmas presents ! And for my last slot in 2 weeks time, we’ll be looking at my choice of Christmas and New Year meals in Dubai, anyone fancy a Zuma Christmas? We’ll be chatting about these gifts on Tuesday 24th November from 3 to 4 in the afternoon on The Ticket Dubai Eye 103.8 and I’ll add the podcast to this post once it’s been broadcast. Do let me know in a comment if this post has helped you make your Christmas shopping list and let me know if you have any questions, I’ll try and help.

Thanks Monica

PODCASTS HERE

PODCAST 9

We’re talking Dubai Chocolate Yule log and Balsamics

PODCAST 10

We’re talking Christmas Teas and Eataly Oils, Risottos and Upmarket Honey that’s not Manuka!

PODCAST 11

We’re talking Edible Silver and then a new Peruvian restaurant Inka. The post for Inka is here!

and in case you wanted to listen to the end of that broadcast then here is the last podcast.

PODCAST 12 We’re talking about Pantry Cafe and Double Mutton Masala Biriyani in Meena Bazaar.

December 29, 2014 by monica 16 Comments

ECLAIRS IN DUBAI

What’s special about the Eclairs DoinDubai tried?

The eclairs are ALL hand made by a French pastry chef Imane who trained in Paris and is now working full time at the Eclair boutique in Dubai. Flavours include Matcha green tea eclairs, grown up chocolate with gold leaf, raspberry and coffee too. There are 15 flavours in all. All the chocolate used is by Valrhona in Lyons – France. So you now have Gourmet elcairs in Dubai ! I tried the chocolate with gold leaf with a small espresso. I can say it was the most sophisticated but accessible chocolate dessert cake I have ever tasted! You wouldn’t need more than one of these mini gourmet eclairs.

Look inside the Eclair kitchen with DoinDubai

Where can I buy these Eclairs?

From the Eclair La Petite Duchesse, a tiny outlet (at the moment) in Cluster Y in Jumeirah Lake Towers, look for the Zoom supermarket, walk down the circular stairs and the Eclair shop is opposite the pizza place! There is parking available on the ground floor. Although there are a couple of small tables outside, this outlet is really designed as a take away place and ideally you should order before hand if you need large quantities. Tel 04 427 9901 It’s in the Lake Shore Tower development.

How much are the Eclairs?

There are 2 sizes of Eclairs at the moment, a mini and a full size. The minis I think are perfect 2 to 3 bite morsels and should be enough for most people! Prices at Dhs 8.50 for the minis so that’s UK sterling 1.50 or US dollars 2.30 and Dhs 19 for a full sized long eclair. What do you think of the prices? Bear in mind that good quality maccarons (an equivalent dessert that are very popular in Dubai now) cost around Dhs 10 to Dhs 12 each.

Want to try some Eclairs for FREE?

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. THE LUCKY WINNERS ARE JACKSON D ‘SOUZA AND INSIYA. WE WILL RUN THIS COMPETITION AGAIN SOON!

Eclair has kindly offered DoinDubai 2 boxes of 12 mini eclairs each to be delivered FREE to not one but TWO LUCKY SUBSCRIBERS! So all ‘Subscribers’ have to do is tell me in a comment box either at the end of the post or in facebook the answer to this question.

What type of pastry is used to make Eclairs?
Check on the video if you’re not sure

Subscribe and enter this competition – simply add your email address below.

Winners will be announced on the 11th of January and they will get their eclairs the next day!

We will choose our winners using the Random Number Generator and announce the winner on Facebook and the site.

Still to be Given Away !

A luxurious Lunch at the Waldorf Astoria Ras Al Khaimah and a manicure much nearer home at a local salon near Motor City. So STAY SUBSCRIBED to win !

Thank You and here’s wishing you a safe and prosperous 2015….