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TOM & SERG – NEW CAFE NEAR ACE

EATING:

Tom & Serg – New Cafe near ACE – Dubaians love a new café, so breakfast on Sunday at Tom and Serg’s had to be done; a great place for taking visiting relatives as well. Easy to find, just around the corner from Ace hardware, but easy to miss as the signage is so subtle on the glass windows ! Huge, cavernous café with 2 floors and exposed brickwork, very New York feel with smiley, happy waiting staff wearing smart denim aprons ! I hope their good cheer lasts longer than the festive season…

coffee tom and serfg

The big deal here apparently is the temperature of the milk for your warm drinks. No scalding hot coffee and no skimmed milk either, just perfect coffee heated to the optimum temperature for fabulous “mouth feel” according to Serj. My coffee was fine, but I did need to drink it immediately or it would have been cold. My yoghurt pot on the other hand was truly delectable. It came in a simple but novel spring topped glass jar packed with thick set fully fat milk yoghurt and plump pistachios with nectar like apricot puree and delicate shavings of coconut on top. I tipped it out into a bowl to really mix it up, but that was as it should be. It was definitely the right temperature. The kids loved their chicken and salad wraps and not a peep out of the scrambled egg husband.

So go to Tom and Serg now before it gets too busy.

I asked them for a Beach Box to take away, sublime fodder for a waterside picnic. Here’s what Tom had to say about the present menu..Ola..

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ggdk96F6Eb4&w=420&h=315]

 

Click here for what you NEED TO KNOW about getting to Tom and Serj and do show some love for this post by letting your friends know using your social buttons… THANKS for sharing and subscribing, great discounts on the way and best books for 2014 coming up… Fancy another café like this but to take stuff away then try Market and Platters near the Marina.

Tom and Serg Café is open everyday from 8 am till 4pm at the moment so no coffee with dinner…yet.

It’s just around the corner from Ace hardware on Sheikh Zayed Road, there is some parking right in front or on the large area of waste ground opposite. It gets quite busy at the week ends. It may remind you a bit of Jones the Grocer. Do tell them that you came based on Monica’s review from DoinDubai.

Thanks, LET ME KNOW IF YOUR COFFEE WAS TOO HOT, TOO COLD OR JUST RIGHT…

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MIYAKO – JAPANESE AT THE HYATT REGENCY

New Japanese eateries are popping up all over Dubai these days but sometimes the old is gold adage is a good one as far as food is concerned. Lunch last Thursday at the Miyako in Dubai’s Hyatt Regency, one of Dubai’s oldest hotels, was well worth the long journey.

Image ofMiyako Sushi Restaurant at the Hyatt Regency Dubai

Originally the hotel was at the centre of where it was all happening and indeed Miyako means Centre of the City, but Dubai grew and grew so now coming out to Deira is an adventure in itself. Why not try a new way of getting there and catch the metro, get the green line and get off at the Palm Deira  (don’t try and find this yet!) and walk across the road for a modern take on yesteryear glamour.

We had lunch in a private teppanyaki room but there was a nice buzz in the main dining area. There is nothing ostentatious about this restaurant, in fact I ‘d say it had more of a cozy feel without ever making diners feel cramped.  The superiority of the head sushi chef was immediately reassuring and made a distinct contrast to the equally talented but alternative teppanyaki chef. We ordered extensively from both classic Japanese and Teppanyaki cuisines and I found no fault with either. For connoisseurs who like their tuna that extra bit fatty they’ll be happy to find Oh Toro sushi served here but I really liked the California rolls too. It’s unusual to find sushi ginger without its characteristic pink colouring but there is nothing artificial about Miyako’s offerrings .

You can customize your protein at the teppanyaki grill and opt to have your fresh fish, succulent prawns or chicken and beef with or without mirin wine marinade but do try the house style soya, lime and butter sauces. It was refreshing to learn the hotel is big on organic food and takes an active stand on using sustainable ingredients, it’s part of their new Food Philosophy programme and has inspired the head chef of the hotel to cultivate a real live allotment in the extensive grounds. DoinDubai will report on that when it’s in full bloom !

But in the meantime if you like your sushi fresh and your teppanyaki spicy then head to Miyako and if you’re not driving indulge in one of the nine varieties of sake or special shochu wine made from potato but apparently quite potent. Happy Eating ! Monica.

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ORGANIC DUBAI : Getting back DOWN TO EARTH

Organic seems to be springing up everywhere in Dubai now, but often the organic tag comes with higher prices that we don’t want to pay for everyday foods, welcome then to Down to Earth, a new organic grocery shop that doesn’t specialize in selling a range of fresh produce on a regular basis but instead provides a variety of versatile and essential store cupboard ingredients all of them organic, many of them from India but not exclusively so and an own label range that’s extremely sensibly priced. What did DoinDubai buy?

Brown RIce

Down to Earth’s own label Brown Rice at Dhs 24.00 for a 2  kilo bag, we don’t eat white rice any more as we love the extra fibre and nuttier taste of brown rice. (takes a bit longer to cook though so remember to soak first)

Ragi flour (high fibre millet based flour for making rotis or vegetable pancakes, thanks Chandrika for recommending this) Dhs 4.00 a bag.

Delicious apricot and ginger chutney Dhs 10 for a small jar, gorgeous as a relish but wonderfully clever with small pieces of feta on tiny crackers with drinks.

Apricot and Ginger

A packet of Australian Chia seeds the new wonderfood : a bit more expensive, but easy to disguise in cereals and salads for husbands and kids alike.

And some Indian Rusk biscuits made with desi ghee and not butter, crunchy and not too sweet, again very reasonably priced and perfect with a cup of cardamom tea in the afternoon.

I’ve seen Nairn’ s oatcakes closer to home but I managed to buy some Nairn’s gluten free porridge oats from Down to Earth.

This was just an indication of the selection of items on sale at the store. So do yourself some good and in so doing benefit some of  the  70, 000 Indian farmers who are part of the Morarka Organic foundation (established in Rajasthan in 1994) that started the Down to Earth brand. The foundation’s aim has been to create wealth for local communities by supporting sustainable initiatives at the grass roots level.

DoinDubai doesn’t do babies anymore but if we did again we’d recommend the baby food on offer at Down to Earth such as the rice and lentil pureed risotto or the carrot kichdi.

New Superfood for all the family

Do call before you go as they may be moving premises and at the moment offer a wonderful delivery service (yes including to the Arabian Ranches !) if you spend a meager Dhs 100 ! Time to make the change to organic I think…Please mention DoinDubai if you visit and let me know what you bought.

Click here for what you NEED TO KNOW about getting back Down to Earth

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and I think this sounds really good, Gordon Ramsey’s runner up in 2010..

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GREEN DUBAI THE CHANGE INITIATIVE

The Change Initiative is a big fat Green Emporium on Sheikh Zayed road filled with environmentally friendly products that range from sofas to sketch pads, all of which are just a bit different and reassuringly good for the planet. It’s a great example of Green Dubai.  I sampled breakfast with a friend recently and was pleasantly surprised with the fresh crumpets that came with lemon curd butter and homemade jam and really liked the almond and apricot muesli bowl. The sensibly designed accoustics of the Change Initiative meant we didn’t have to shout to hear ourselves unlike some more popular cafes nearby.

A tour of the mega store took us at least an hour as I was fascinated with all the products, I loved many of them but the Boogie Board  Boogie Board LCD Writing Tablet really stood out as the perfect game for long car journeys without the annoying pinging of the you know what.

I also loved the Bokashi system of kitchen waste management that is extremely popular in the UK. Read about it here :
Bokashi Twin Composter Kit It seems really simple to use and is on my New Years Resolution list of things to do.

Go to the Change Initiative and tell me what your favourite product was, has it inspired you to create a beautiful piece of art from scrap, the Steve Jobs collage was made from left over A/C waste from the apartments that were demolished on the current site. Would you be tempted to have the concertina sofa in your playroom that seats 20 but folds to the size of a baby chair when not in use ?

Please like and share on Facebook and for those of you who cannot get to the Change Initiative or want to compare prices, I’ve popped in a couple of  links  from Amazon for a couple of my favourite products. A  big THANK YOU to anyone who’s bought anything via my links from Amazon, I get a small voucher from them at some point.  Have a Green Christmas and Sustainable New Year, Monica www.doindubai.com

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