Delphine: California in Dubai
Here’s a new taste from the American west coast
Dubai: A Californian concept bistro that opened in The H-Dubai earlier this year, Delphine Restaurant & Bar brings to town a refreshing new twist from the American west coast.
If you are ending your fast over one of their regional-themed iftars, you will also see how contemporary Arabesque blends with the chic and casual Hollywood. How one special cuisine every day of the week (Emirati on Sundays, Moroccan on Mondays, Syrian on Tuesdays, Turkish on Wednesdays, Egyptian on Thursdays, Lebanese on Fridays and Iranian on Saturdays) comes to life amidst trendy velvet furnishings and arty lighting and to the tunes of an oud.
I was down there on a Thursday, the day for some Egyptian indulgence and got a nice welcome with some of their traditional drinks – a kamar el den, a jallab, a tamerhindi and a karkadi made of hibiscus and salads including hummus, muttabel, tabouleh, fatoush, baba ganoush. Have it with their selection of warm breads and various kinds of oven manakish.
Hot mezzehs (from lamb sambousek to cheese rolls to spinach fatayer) in an Egyptian-themed iftar can’t be far away, but the best was their kibbeh – made of bulghur and minced beef. There’s a soup station as well with two large pots of lentil soup and a chicken vermicelli soup, but you could turn to their live cooking station that will rustle up chicken livers or beef sujuk in no time.
The main courses had an array of meat and fish dishes including dedicated stations for an Arabic charcoal grill and mixed seafood grill. For traditionalists though there’s also a mefalfel rice (or one by one rice as they call it) made of Freekeh, Egypt’s favourite cereal food meant to be eaten with chicken moloukhia, a green stew made essentially of jute leaves.
The best of it all lay in the dessert section replete with all the baklavas, date pudding, Umm Ali and a gorgeously rich chocolate cake.
