Gourmet Live Blog

Location: Dubai

What’s your favorite recipe from your blog
We love all our recipes for different reasons, but the one that holds the most sentimental value to both of us is our Jamaican Oxtail Stew. It’s Lij’s favorite homemade dish and when I cooked it for him the first time, it was love at first bite. Whenever I cook it at home, he falls in love all over again.

If you had to blog about one ingredient every day, what would it be?
I would say eggs. We have quite a few egg dishes because eggs are the perfect food in terms of macronutrient balance. On top of that, they are cheap and easily accessible and can be used in both sweet and savory applications for breakfast, lunch and dinner and for all courses. No kitchen, either at home or professional, is complete without the incredible, edible egg.

Is there a food you used to hate, but now you love?
Raw meat and fish. We are from a culture that cooks food until it’s dead and then cooks it some more! Most tropical and hotter culinary cultures tend to cook food for much longer than medium rare, largely because cooking thoroughly helps to destroy bacteria that flourish in the heat. Now we both delight in sushi, carpaccio and tartar and even enjoy a perfectly grilled medium rare steak.

What’s your favorite restaurant and what do you order there?
In Dubai, the top restaurants are not stand-alone, they are located in the hotels. This is largely a product of licensing laws and it makes the Dubai culinary landscape a little different from everywhere else in that regard. We have dined in many restaurants but both agree that at Lij’s current restaurant, Al Muntaha, Michelin Star German Chef Alexander Panek creates a palate-pleasing ethereal journey with his Degustation menu. The restaurant is located in Dubai’s iconic Burj Al Arab hotel. For comfort food, it is the Rib Room at the Emirates Towers Hotel, which serves the best Wagyu Ribeye, Truffle Mashed Potatoes and Mac & Cheese in Dubai.