Ali Salem Ebdowa stands in the doorway which leads into one of the dining areas of his new restaurant, Mezlai, which is located on the bottom floor of the Emirates Palace.
Ali Salem Ebdowa stands in the doorway which leads into one of the dining areas of his new restaurant, Mezlai, which is located on the bottom floor of the Emirates Palace.
Ali Salem Ebdowa stands in the doorway which leads into one of the dining areas of his new restaurant, Mezlai, which is located on the bottom floor of the Emirates Palace.
Ali Salem Ebdowa stands in the doorway which leads into one of the dining areas of his new restaurant, Mezlai, which is located on the bottom floor of the Emirates Palace.

TV chef wants to introduce Emirati cuisine to a global audience


  • English
  • Arabic

ABU DHABI // Ali Salem Edbowa liked almost everything about Slovakia except the food and its seemingly unending succession of stodgy stews and cabbage. So he did what many young travellers do when fed up and far from home - he called his mother. "I said I feel bad from fast food and fried food," he said. His mother gave him some recipes.

"I started to cook and I felt something in me. I see it when I cook, I'm happy. So what do I do? I cook and cook and cook." His love affair with food grew so much that on his return to the Emirates he bought a restaurant. But he did not tell his friends that in addition to being the owner, he also worked in the kitchen. Now aged 38, Mr Edbowa is a successful chef. He has had three cooking shows on television and the most recent, Rams al Suhoor, ran during Ramadan last year.

In 2007, he was named best Arabic chef by the Emirates International Salon Culinaire. Now he is convinced the time is ripe for Emirati cuisine to take its place on the world stage. "There is no restaurant serving local Emirati cuisine and no one knows about the local food," he said. Mr Edbowa has just taken up his post as the executive chef at Mezlai, a new restaurant in the Emirates Palace hotel, which opened in late June and bills itself as Emirati-owned and -operated.

The chef has big ambitions for the venue and Emirati food. "I want to put this kitchen on a par with all the kitchens in the world," he said. "This is the first local kitchen, no one knows about our food and we have so many things to do with the food, to play with it. We can mix European, Arab, Emirati food to create new food. "I hope in the future I shall have 100 Emirati restaurants throughout the world."

Mr Edbowa says there are around eight commonly known Emirati meals. However, the menu will offer 20 to 30 traditional dishes, as well as some 80 "fusion" options that put a cosmopolitan spin on local staples. Wheat remains an important ingredient in many Emirati dishes. For thousands of years it has been used to make gruel or ground into flour for bread and baked over coals or in the hot sand. The better-known dishes include harees, which is made from ground wheat and meat and cooked over low heat for 12 hours until the texture becomes creamy. It is usually served in a deep dish at weddings and during Ramadan.

Other choices include madrooba chicken, a mix of onion, garlic, coriander, dill, tomato, spinach and wheat served over cooked chicken, or hammour majboos, in which the fish is cooked with onions, dried lime, turmeric, cardamom and nutmeg and served over spiced rice. Some of the items on the menu are more surprising, such as camel steak slow-roasted in sea salt, cardamom and the natural jus of herbs and saffron sauce, deep-fried fish eggs and shark veloute, a soup with garlic, saffron and cream.

"Shark is a traditional food, the fusion is the soup," he said. "We call it disheet, it comes like a powder and we put it in the rice. We can do just two types, I think, a gravy or a stew." For some dishes, Mr Edbowa uses a blend of spices that he has created and refuses to disclose, on others, a herb that he found growing on the side of the road outside Emirates Palace. "I bring it here to roast with the lamb and fish," he said. "It's from the road, this one, called shekss, grows everywhere, but no one knows about it."

Many of the staff have an impeccable pedigree in Emirati cooking, having cut their culinary teeth in the kitchen at Sheikh Zayed's palace. Mohd Rafik was Sheikh Zayed's personal bread maker for 16 years, learning to make the 15 types of bread that will be offered by Mezlai. They include three of the most common types of rgag, an unleavened bread that has layers of egg, cheese or zaatar. Thottahil Noordan has also made the jump. "I went directly from Sheikh Zayed's palace to here," he said. "It's a great challenge, it's difficult, I get to create Emirati food, but we always have new dishes and new challenges."

While some have previous experience working with Emirati cuisine, Mr Edbowa says the chance to gain expertise in a relatively obscure form of cooking is a big selling point for staff. "You won't get this experience anywhere else. Believe me, there are many kitchens and many hotels, but there is no local food," he said. "I've worked in Emirates Tower, I've worked in Burj al Arab and in so many hotels, but I don't find myself. I'm local but I work in French cuisine - this is not mine. I work in Italian or Oriental or Lebanese, it's Arabic but not mine. "When I work here, it's my home." mdetrie@thenational.ae

While Mezlai offers a daily iftar, a post-Ramadan night out for two could include: Cold mezze Calamari with cinnamon and green beans Kasif salad, hand-tossed lettuce with vegetables, white vinegar and dried Buiah fish Hot mezze Sardines, foie gras and gulf scallops, pan-fried with olive oil and honey Harees, crushed wheat boiled with lamb Main Courses Slow roasted shoulder of UAE raised lamb 'Medfoun' with herbs, hand blended spices, and natural jus Threed - Braised chicken or lamb with baby marrow, potatoes, tomato peppers and rgag bread Whole roasted baby lamb Dessert Aseeda Rosewater cooked with saffron, sugar, cardamom and butter Sago pearls simmered with sugar, saffron and cardamom

Our Time Has Come
Alyssa Ayres, Oxford University Press

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

MATCH INFO

RB Leipzig 2 (Klostermann 24', Schick 68')

Hertha Berlin 2 (Grujic 9', Piatek 82' pen)

Man of the match Matheus Cunha (Hertha Berlin

The biog

Profession: Senior sports presenter and producer

Marital status: Single

Favourite book: Al Nabi by Jibran Khalil Jibran

Favourite food: Italian and Lebanese food

Favourite football player: Cristiano Ronaldo

Languages: Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and some Spanish

Website: www.liliane-tannoury.com

RESULTS

Bantamweight: Jalal Al Daaja (JOR) beat Hamza Bougamza (MAR)

Catchweight 67kg: Mohamed El Mesbahi (MAR) beat Fouad Mesdari (ALG)

Lightweight: Abdullah Mohammed Ali (UAE) beat Abdelhak Amhidra (MAR)

Catchweight 73kg: Mosatafa Ibrahim Radi (PAL) beat Yazid Chouchane (ALG)

Middleweight: Yousri Belgaroui (TUN) beat Badreddine Diani (MAR)

Catchweight 78KG: Rashed Dawood (UAE) beat Adnan Bushashy (ALG)

Middleweight: Sallah-Eddine Dekhissi (MAR) beat Abdel Enam (EGY)

Catchweight 65kg: Yanis Ghemmouri (ALG) beat Rachid Hazoume (MAR)

Lightweight: Mohammed Yahya (UAE) beat Azouz Anwar (EGY)

Catchweight 79kg: Souhil Tahiri (ALG) beat Omar Hussein (PAL)

Middleweight: Tarek Suleiman (SYR) beat Laid Zerhouni (ALG)

SPEC%20SHEET%3A%20APPLE%20M3%20MACBOOK%20AIR%20(13%22)
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ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

THE SIXTH SENSE

Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment

Director: M. Night Shyamalan

Rating: 5/5

While you're here
SCORES IN BRIEF

New Zealand 153 and 56 for 1 in 22.4 overs at close
Pakistan 227
(Babar 62, Asad 43, Boult 4-54, De Grandhomme 2-30, Patel 2-64)

Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
  • Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
  • Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The five pillars of Islam

1. Fasting 

2. Prayer 

3. Hajj 

4. Shahada 

5. Zakat 

Other acts on the Jazz Garden bill

Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples.
Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts.
Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.

Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
The%20Kitchen
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F1 The Movie

Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem

Director: Joseph Kosinski

Rating: 4/5

In-demand jobs and monthly salaries
  • Technology expert in robotics and automation: Dh20,000 to Dh40,000 
  • Energy engineer: Dh25,000 to Dh30,000 
  • Production engineer: Dh30,000 to Dh40,000 
  • Data-driven supply chain management professional: Dh30,000 to Dh50,000 
  • HR leader: Dh40,000 to Dh60,000 
  • Engineering leader: Dh30,000 to Dh55,000 
  • Project manager: Dh55,000 to Dh65,000 
  • Senior reservoir engineer: Dh40,000 to Dh55,000 
  • Senior drilling engineer: Dh38,000 to Dh46,000 
  • Senior process engineer: Dh28,000 to Dh38,000 
  • Senior maintenance engineer: Dh22,000 to Dh34,000 
  • Field engineer: Dh6,500 to Dh7,500
  • Field supervisor: Dh9,000 to Dh12,000
  • Field operator: Dh5,000 to Dh7,000