The incongruity of converting an arid land into a favourable place for international-in-origin food manufacturers is the kind of business miracle that comes easy to the UAE.
It takes a pinch of salt though, to wake up to the fact that expatriates now expect some of their favourite foods to be delivered to their doorsteps — within minutes of being made a few miles away. With a variety of truly international foods — artisanal and organic, ranging from cheese and cookies to chocolates — being created across the country, it seems like Christmas before its time.
Traditional goodies
Daniel Hutmacher, who calls himself Managing Swiss Chocolatier, is a professional Swiss pastry chef turned entrepreneur who turns out delectable artisanal goods under the brand name Chocolat in Ras Al Khaimah. Since 2009, the ‘only Swiss chocolatier in the Middle East’ has been hand-producing preservative-free designer Swiss chocolates and confectionery, with more than 250 varieties and variations. “During Christmas, we expect the most popular items to be our new range of seasonal Swiss chocolates: Candle Man, Uncle Santa mini Gianduja chocolate, Chocolate Christmas trees in a picture or decorated with Smarties, the Santa chocolate bar, and chocolate bars decorated with festive marzipan figures,” says Hutmacher.
This season, he also plans to delight Swiss expatriates in the country with traditional festive cookies such as Magenbrot, Cinnamon Stars, Mailanderli, Brunsli, short bread and almond sticks. The products are available at Milk & Honey, Pascal Tepper and La Bonne Vie outlets, and at its home base of Atelier Chocolat in Ras Al Khaimah.
In another corner of Ras Al Khaimah, organic vegetable company Greenheart Organic is now making fresh cheese. The company’s principal cheese products are Palestinian-style fresh Nablusi goat cheese, a jar of which costs Dh32, and fresh ricotta, which sells for Dh15 for 250 grams. Besides supplying wholesale to N_K_D Pizza, founder Elena Kinane is keen to sell her artisanal cheeses directly to consumers, and its first store in Dubai’s Al Barsha area is imminent.
At Italian Dairy Products in Sharjah, Italian cheese makers Leo Condemi, Silvia Angelotti and Pietro Rampino started operations in 2011 by using local milk to produce classic Italian cheeses — a variety of mozzarella, burrata, scamorza and ricotta. General Manager Maria Luisa Panzica, says production begins within minutes of fresh milk being delivered to the plant, which uses 7,000 litres of milk each week to produce cheese thrice a week.
Delightful desserts
While fresh Nabulsi cheese makes an important ingredient in several Levantine dishes, almost no meal in the Arab world is considered complete without a sweet ending. Professional Arab sweet makers are not known for holding back the sugar and honey, and one of its best-known ambassadors, AlBaba Sweets is no exception.
Most of its traditional sweets and desserts — baklava, mammoul and kunufa are particularly popular — are sold in one-kilogram boxes for Dh75 each, at stores in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. For Lebanese expatriates, Dubai’s Wafi Gourmet is undoubtedly the principal point to buy fresh mezes and kebabs to enliven the festive table.
Popular flavours
Entrepreneurs engaged in delighting expatriates with a taste of home in the UAE are sparing no efforts to add rusticity, authenticity and originality to their businesses. At Golositalia in Jumeirah Lakes Towers, everything is genuinely Sicilian — the owner and chefs, their exotic range of handmade gelatos, and the ever-changing array of pastries. Suzanne McDonald, the Scottish owner of Toffee Princess, uses a four-generation-old recipe to make Scottish Tablet. The handmade luxury tablet-style fudge is crumbly, melts in the mouth, and is available for sale on her website and through fairs and markets in Dubai. Besides popular flavours such as fiery ginger, lemon meringue, sea salt and red velvet, McDonald has just introduced a new seasonal flavour called Festive Spice. Packed with fruit, nuts and spices, this is like Christmas cake without the cake, explains the passionate Scot.
Further afield in tiny Ajman lies Forey & Galland, an old French marque revived here in the UAE by Isabelle Jaouen and Vincent Moret. Luxurious traditional chocolates and macaroons in both classic flavours and new tastes inspired by the region are on offer at their outlets in Dubai Mall, Abu Dhabi Mall and Dubai Festival City.
Available at the dining and retail firm of Baker and Spice is a variety of traditional and artisanal breads that should please the pickiest customers — connoisseurs in particular — including baguettes, miche, farmhouse, pain de mie and pain de campagne. Italians looking for classic Milanese olive sticks, Germans searching for rich dark rye, and Londoners hankering for potato and rosemary sourdough will also do well at the store.
Another popular destination for Europeans to stock up on their native breads is at the outlets of More Café, across Dubai, where the classic Italian herb ciabatta and German Blackforest rye seem to fly off the shelves. For Italian gourmands who hanker for the tastes of home, More also stocks handmade pasta, ravioli, and gnocchi, and accompanying fresh sauces.
Fresh foods
However, there is much more at More this Christmas. Kathleen Hoare, Marketing Executive, says: “All our home-made festive goodies are baked fresh in Dubai and will be available at all More Café outlets from December 8. They can also be ordered online.” Seasonal offerings include German stollen for Dh51, English mince pies at Dh53 for a pack of six, and the universally popular Gingerbread men and gingerbread Santa, for Dh11 and Dh9 respectively.
LilyBakes calls itself a “small home-based cooking company” and addresses the English expatriate community in the UAE. “We specialise in homemade chutneys, jams, curds, savoury bites, sweets, cakes and puddings — all with a hint of an English Tea Party,” says the website. For the festive season, customers can order Christmas biscuits, peppermint angels, gingerbread loaves, puddings, mince pies or fresh fruit mincemeat online, with prices ranging between Dh10 and Dh130.
Indians in the UAE have long had recourse to freshly made or baked goods from all parts of their country through caterers, home cooks, speciality stores and dedicated sections in hypermarkets. Keralites can now enjoy a traditional Christmas breakfast of fresh appams or pathiris, without any of the stress and toil associated with making them, thanks to Sharjah-based MSR which supplies its fresh products to most hypermarkets in the UAE.
If Scandinavians will miss fresh salmon on their Christmas tables this year, it is not long before they too can rejoice with a local label. Abu Dhabi firm Asmak is firming up plans to use technology honed in Scandinavia to set up the Middle East’s first onshore fish farm. The firm says that within six to eight months, residents will be able to eat salmon grown in the UAE.
Locally smoked salmon has already been available in Dubai for several years now. Svein Rekve’s Norwegian Salmon Smokehouse retails such delights as dill and garlic gravlax, as well as juniper-smoked salmon.
