Visiting the Temple and Cheap Indian Lunch

Because today is the death-day anniversary of my grandfather (dada-ji in Hindi), we went to the temple to make an offering and receive a blessing of some sort. I don't get really into it because 1) I'm not very religious and 2) I remember very little of my dada-ji, aside from one strangely clear memory of eating kitchari (a sort of Indian comfort food made with yellow lentils) for lunch at his house in India. Anyways, I agreed to go along with Mommy and Daddy because I didn't have any big plans for the day. After finding an open temple in Bur Dubai (think dirty, crowded, with narrow alleys and vendor stalls, yet still lively and exciting), going through the ordeal of walking around the dirty streets barefoot (you cannot wear shoes when entering a temple) before finding the actual temple entrance, and finally making our offering and receiving blessing and parshad (including yummy suji halwa), we decided to grab lunch at one of the many cheap Indian restaurants in the area.

We headed for Karachi Darbar, a North Indian/Pakistani, Muslim-run restaurant with vegetarian and non-veg food. I wanted to avoid eating lots of unhealthy oily food, so I was a bit reluctant, but the food turned out to be pretty healthy and delicious, and I didn't overeat! The three of us shared a stack of tandoori rotis (wonderfully puffy, soft, and HUGE- about 1 foot in diameter!), some kind of vegetable kofta, daal fry, and a paneer dish. Unfortunately I have no photos because our current camera is outdated and chunky, but fear not! After some research and shopping, I'll have a shiny new camera by the end of vacation.

Rainy Day Breakfast

This morning I woke to my second full day of vacation...to be greeted by RAIN. Now, rain isn't very common in Dubai, so I welcome a nice exciting change of weather. Any change from the usual (BORING!) sunny blue Dubai skies reminds me in the slightest way of Boston and New England, which is good because I miss Boston! I know it's strange to actually ENJOY crummy rainy weather when in Boston I'd be complaining about it, but things change when you move to the other side of the world.Like I said, it was raining, and rain always makes me think warm, cozy, comforting food like soup and hot chocolate. I wasn't exactly eager to have soup at 9 in the morning, so I decided on oatmeal, especially because the bunch of bananas sitting in the fruit bowl were at that perfect ripe-but-not-too-mushy-yet-still-sweet-and-tasty stage. Topped with a drizzle of honey to add a bit more sweetness, my oatmeal (nuked to exactly how I like it: moist but not the least bit gummy) was ready to be devoured.

Thursday Waitrose Visits and Bruschetta

Every Thursday afternoon, after getting picked up from school by Tilana (the driver...it still feels weird to say that I have a driver), we pick up Mommy after her daily gym workout and go to Waitrose! Waitrose is kind of serving as my Trader Joe's and Idylwilde Farms (my favorite grocery stores in Mass) substitute in Dubai, so I always get excited to go. We returned one particular Thursday with a bunch of on-the-vine tomatoes from Holland, goat cheese (I had been wanting to get some ever since I had a lovely bagel breakfast served with salmon, poached eggs, goat cheese, and veggies at Circle in Dubai Media City), onions in balsamic vinegar, soft fresh white farmers' bread that makes heavenly toast, and our usual rustic olive bread loaf. Inspiration struck when I was thinking about what to have for dinner, as I suddenly remembered a pizza we had at Jumeirah Beach Residence with tomato, rosemary, and globs of goat cheese. The pizza was decent, compared to the otherwise not-so-great dinner experience (bad service, crowded, trying too hard to be authentic... and failing). As an added bonus, we had just bought a rosemary plant from a family on the Palm that was moving, and I was excited to try rosemary in EVERYTHING. And so dinner was born... (I gave it a nice fancy-sounding name)

Balsamic Tomato Bruschetta with Goat Cheese and Rosemary

Ingredients

• 2 tomatoes, thinly sliced (about 1/2 cm thick) & sprinkled with salt
  
• 4 pickled onions in balsamic vinegar, sliced into thin wedges (Waitrose)
• balsamic vinegar to taste
• sea salt & pepper to taste
• 4 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 2 tbsp rosemary, chopped
• 4 slices farmhouse bread (Waitrose)
• 2 oz/28 g soft goat cheese (Soignon un-ripened, 4 peppers), crumbled
• extra-virgin olive oil to taste (optional)

Preheat oven to about 325 F/160 C.

Wrap garlic cloves in foil and place in oven.

Arrange tomatoes in single layer on baking sheet, top with balsamic onions. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, 1 tbsp rosemary, drizzle with balsamic vinegar.

Broil onion-tomatoes (leave oven on & garlic in) about 10 min, until slightly wrinkled and bubbling.

Meanwhile, toast bread until crunchy and golden. Remove onion-tomatoes & garlic from oven, peel garlic cloves (should be squishy), squash with knife and finely chop. Top toast with tomatoes, onions, garlic, remaining rosemary, goat cheese, salt & pepper if desired, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. If you want the goat cheese a bit more melted, throw it back in the oven for 2 minutes.

Variations: use mini bread rounds, crostini, or pizza dough as base