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!
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
