A recipe for fun

It was all about the food at Uptown Mirdiff at the weekend as the Dubai Food Festival drew to a tasty close. More than 800 people turned out to enjoy dishes from a variety of brunch menus courtesy of more than 12 participating outlets.

The Dubai Food Festival (DFF), a signature event of the Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) attracted almost 10,000 people in just nine days.

The event saw food-related record-breaking attempts, including challenges to make the largest Manakish and egg holds, as well as professional demonstrations from world-class chefs and master classes in the kitchen.

Stalls selling organic products and staff offering information and nutritional advice were also featured.

Pleased

Mother-of-two Tricia Martin-Jones, 42, said the festival has been a real eye-opener and she was pleased things were finally taking place in Mirdiff.

She added: "I live here and it has been so nice to see the place surrounded by people laughing and having a good time. I have visited almost every day and the atmosphere has been wonderful."

After brunch, which attracted people of all ages and ran from 12 noon to 4pm, the stage entertainment began with a cooking demonstration with a chef from Marco Polo Hotel.

Live statues wandered the main square at Uptown Mirdiff, giving the youngsters something to talk about while their parents browsed the many stalls and shops.

On Saturday, the gourmet tasting classes were extremely popular and were followed by a lively cooking demonstration with chef Abdullah Yousuf.

Organisers are "thrilled" at how popular the festival has been and say they have been very pleased to be so heavily featured as part of the DSF 2008 celebrations.

Chopsticks

They were record-breakers last year and this year wasn't going to be any different! Last year, staff at the Marco Polo Hotel set a new world record along with four other hotels by serving the world's longest food buffet at Zabeel Park.

More than 150 staff from the five hotels chosen by the DSF committee served 515 dishes at the buffet. The world record was previously held by Las Vegas Hilton, which served a 510-item buffet in celebration of Alka Seltzer's 75th anniversary.

So it's no surprise that after rising to the challenge in 2007 they were going to plan something special for 2008.

This year the team shocked everyone at DFF by appearing with what they hope will be the world's longest pair of chopsticks.

China's Shenyang province currently holds the world record with a set measuring 20ft long by 7.83ins wide. The Marco Polo Hotel chopsticks aim to beat the record with their 22ft long pair.

Sunil Marya, Vice President and General Manager, said: "The encouragement we received from people was fantastic. We have made the chopsticks that will surely beat China's record — now we just have to wait and see."

Food lovers were also able to sample dishes from the hotel's three signature restaurants — the Chinese restaurant Chopstix, authentic Indian fine dining restaurant The Bombay and the Chikka Grill Café and Restaurant, which was the only Filipino food outlet to take part in the DSF food event.

Record-breaking business

Following the success of the Record Breaking Festival during DSF 2007, it seems the emirate has got the bug and hasn't stopped trying to break records ever since.

Attempts include the largest pillow fight, water fight and game of chess, the biggest bed, tallest inflatable and fattest wallet.

But organisers at both DSF and DFF were not going to stop there.

The weekend saw three more attempts with the largest chopsticks, highest number of grains of rice eaten in three minutes with chopsticks and the largest number of portions of string hoppers made in one cooking session.

And success tasted sweet.

It was always going to be a fiddly experience but participants attempting the food-related record-breaking challenge were clearly having fun.

The crowd cheered as an official adjudicator from Guinness World Records announced that Dubai had broken the record for the most number of rice grains consumed in three minutes using only a pair of chopsticks.

Mohammad Al Khorr from Pakistan managed to eat 91 rice grains, one by one in the three-minute time slot beating the current World Record of 79.

Curry Leaf, a Sri Lankan cuisine speciality restaurant, was also on the road to making it into the record books as it attempted to make the largest number of portions of string hoppers in one go. The results of this attempt are yet to be announced.

Carnivals of the world unite

A mixture of cultures from around the world came together together for Dubai Carnivals as part of DSF 2008.

Numerous international performers put on a marvellous display involving costume, settings, and music at Uptown Mirdiff, Global Village and Creek Park.

More info

For more information and pictures from the Dubai Food Festival visit www.dff.ae
For information about DSF visit www.mydsf.ae