Hey folks,

Happy Friday!

Day six of our holiday began with a late start, having had missed breakfast at the hotel (again!) we decided to take a stroll up to BurJuman mall, to work up an appetite and find somewhere exciting for lunch. We struck gold at The Noodle House. Great ambiance, great food, great service! I’m really inspired to try and make some of these at home now that I’m back, so keep your eyes peeled in the upcoming weeks!

Our waitress was very friendly, attentive, informative and gave us lots of recommendations whilst handing over an order pad, which reminded me a little of the process at Speedy Noodle in East Ham.

  

We opted for a set of mocktails. The pink one below was my raspberry lemonade, zingy with the raspberry notes shining through, (both in terms of the colour and flavour!) Only downside was that the lemon seeds hadn’t been strained and kept finding their way into my mouth! Beside this, is stood Mr Man’s mint and lemon cooler which was really delicious, minty, refreshing with a subtle lemon undertone. We shared a plate of vegetable pot stickers, which arrived promptly, doused in soy sauce. These were perfection! Really can’t fault them! Slightly crisped, browned dumplings, encasing a perfectly cooked medley of vegetables. Dipped one of these in the sweet and sour sauce provided to switch it up, increeeEDIBLE. (Lame, I know!)

    

For mains, I fancied sweet and sour chicken, however, upon arrival it was slightly too sweet for my taste buds, but easily balanced out with a splash of soy sauce. Few too many shallots, but on the plus side the pineapple was a great addition (a piece or two wasn’t cored properly so that let it down a little.) I ordered some egg fried rice to go with it – very moreish, even though I’m not that big on rice!

Mr Man went for the Bakmi Goreng, what a sight for sore eyes! Generously laden with chicken, crisp prawns and perfectly cooked yaki udon noodles. All tousled in a delicious, slightly sweet sauce with a hint of spice.

Too full to move after that, we skipped dessert and continued with our walk. A while later we found ourselves heading back to the hotel in need of a nap. I grabbed some icecream from the local shop. No regrets here, in fact, it was considerably better than the gelato from the previous day. Delish!

In the evening we hopped in a cab to Global Village. This place is slightly cheesy and inauthentic, but I think it’s very cool! Basically has siphoned off areas for an array of different countries, within which there are small stalls, each one unique – selling things from art, to food, to healthcare and beauty products and beyond!

First, my favourite, Africa. (Yes, I know, Africa isn’t a country, but that’s how it’s defined here):

The atmosphere in this pavilion was definitely the best, the traditional music blasting through the speakers (great beats, found myself rocking along!), the array of random woodwork up for grabs, and some amaaazing artwork.

Mr Man felt right at home and picked up some red sweet things that he’s had before (slightly sweet red coating, white middle and seed in the centre). Neither of us have found out what they’re called but here’s a little piccy:

We proceeded over to the China area, whilst this had been well decorated, the stuff being sold was, on the whole bit tacky and held no traditionalism in my opinion – e.g. selling jeans and iphone cases.

We proceeded to make our way round the various areas. Some of the better pictures, (of which not many are very good thanks to bad lighting…):

 

^Some serious attention to detail in that last picture…

One of my other favourites was Turkey! Predictable much?! No, but really, did not expect to see proper Turkish Delight and teas up for sale. Sampled the former, wasn’t as fresh as I’d hoped, and the latter was a little pricey, plus I still had a fair amount left over after my last trip to Istanbul.

     

Myself and Mr Man did however, share a kunefe, from one of these stands and it was pretty good, of course, it didn’t really contest the one we had in Istanbul, but it was still very enjoyable… 

We purchased a few bits and bobs and one of the things I want to recommend is the honey being sold at the Yemeni stalls. It’s incredible, but I warn you, they are experts at ripping people off! First I suggest making your way into the centre / back of the pavillion as the first few stalls get serious footfall and are less likely to want to haggle. They’ll start by giving you sample after sample, even a well trained tongue will be left confused! Don’t be shy to ask for some water! I’m one that can’t take excess sweetness, and so we tactically shared a spoon rather than having one each. Finally, they will do their best to lure you in and give you stories about why the other retailers honey is lacking in quality or whatever, I don’t buy it. Trust your nose and your sense of taste. It’ll obviously vary in it’s subtleties as a lot of it depends on what the bees feed on which varies from location to location.

Anyway, we went straight to the back, the last stall in the row on the left and were served by the same guy we saw on our trip a few years back. We wasted no time and asked for the mountainside honey, which is one of the better, expensive ones, sampled that alongside a few others that piqued our interests. Our guy said I seemed familiar and he remembered my face, and after having a long chat with him, we managed to reduce the price considerably, and walk away with a kilo of mountain honey with a freebie tub (with medicinal properties – planning to use that on honey lemon teas!) to go alongside.

One other thing to note is that there are also live shows on, but we arrived too late, and only really caught the end of an Chinese acrobatics show. Next time, I’d check in advance and make sure I’d arrive accordingly.

With the place closing at 12am/1am (depending on the day of the week), it’s a great way to spend your evening. We left as it was closing and hopped in a cab back to the hotel ready to cover a whole lot more ground on day 7!

– Kay