From desert fires to madfoon feasts: A young man’s ode to Al Ain's beauty

Abu Dhabi: There is a particular hour in Al Ain, somewhere after the last light has drained from the dunes and before the cold has fully settled, when the desert along Airport Road becomes a kind of living room without walls. A fire is lit. Someone unfolds a rug. And Rashed, who has never been formally trained in anything but is quietly the most important man in the friendgroup, begins to make karak.

“I have tried karak from different places but honestly, nothing beats his.” 21-year-old Yousef Hussein Abuirtaimeh said.

He is not entirely sure why. Perhaps it is the way Rashed handles the tea, the spice, the patient simmer. Perhaps it is simply the setting: the winter chill on the back of the neck, the warmth of the glass in both hands, the friends who have known each other long enough that conversation needs no destination.

They talk about university. They talk about life. They talk, often, about nothing at all, laughing for hours at the most random things. Nobody checks the time. Some nights, they stay until Fajr.

This is Yousef’s Al Ain, and it is not the one you will find on a postcard.

Born here, belonging here

Yousef is Jordanian by nationality and proud of it. But he was born in Al Ain and raised in Al Ain, and he has spent every one of his 21 years here. He has no story about first impressions, no memory of arriving. “I did not move here from another city, instead, I have years of memories connected to different parts of it.” he said.

That is a rare thing to be able to say about a place: that you did not discover it so much as grow up inside it. He has watched Al Ain change, and in a way, he has changed alongside it, from a child dragged happily through parks and malls by his family to a digital marketing student at Abu Dhabi University with a head full of ideas about business and entrepreneurship.

Ask him to describe his city in three words and he does not hesitate. Peaceful, beautiful, unforgettable.

Peaceful, for a calm that persists even when life gets busy. Beautiful, for the palms and greenery, the mountains and the desert, all sitting together in a landscape that gives the city its character. And unforgettable, for reasons that are harder to put into words. “For a visitor, these might simply be three words describing a destination. For me, they describe the place where my story began.” he said.

A map drawn from memory

Ask Yousef where he feels most at home and he cannot give a single answer, because his Al Ain is not one place. It is several, each holding a different season of his life.

There is Jebel Hafeet and Green Mubazzarah, where the mountains and the cool green quiet call to the part of him that simply loves being outdoors. There are days, when he does not need an activity at all. He just wants the view, the air, and a break from routine.

There is Al Ain Mall, the first mall he remembers visiting as a child. It is not an obvious choice for a love letter to a city, and he knows it. But he walked its corridors as a small boy, and he still feels a flicker of nostalgia every time he steps inside.

And there is the desert, which belongs to his friends.

“Some remind me of childhood, some help me relax, and others remind me of the friendships I’ve built over the years. Together they make a map that no guidebook could draw." he said.

The meal worth sitting down for

If Yousef could eat only one meal in Al Ain for the rest of his life, he would choose madfoon, the slow-cooked Arabian dish of tender meat and spiced rice. He is quick to say that he could eat it again and again without tiring of it.

His place is Al Yahar Al Hadeeth, near Al Jahili Park. It is not a meal he rushes. He prefers to sit, share it with friends, and let a simple lunch turn into a long conversation. “For me, going out for food isn’t only about eating. It’s also about spending time together.” he said.

When a friend visits Al Ain for the first time, this is where he takes them, not because it is famous, but because it is his. “I prefer recommending places that I personally enjoy, rather than choosing somewhere just because it is popular.”

Ashrej and V60

Yousef’s neighborhood is Asharej, close to his university and woven into the rhythm of his student days. It is also, he admits, a paradise for a man with a serious coffee habit.

He orders a V60, always. He does not have a favorite café, because the pleasure is in the searching. He will walk into somewhere new purely out of curiosity about the beans, the origin, the way a single brewing method can taste entirely different from one cup to the next.

He has watched Asharej transform since childhood: more restaurants, more cafés, more places to meet, and a livelier feel in the evenings. The same is happening around Al Ain Zoo, where even the parking areas have become small gathering places with coffee stands.

What strikes him is how modest the change feels. “These developments are not only about major buildings or large projects. Sometimes the changes that affect everyday life are smaller, like having a new café to visit or a different place to meet friends.” he said.

And through it all, the city has kept its gentleness.

The park where the ideas

Tucked near his university is a place Yousef does not call a secret, though it feels like one: Al Aqabiyah Park. Visitors chasing Al Ain’s headline attractions rarely mention it, and he likes it that way.

He goes there to walk. A student of marketing with a restless interest in entrepreneurship, he carries a steady stream of projects and half-formed ideas in his head. Sitting still does not untangle them, but walking does. “Going for a walk helps me organize those thoughts better than sitting in one place,” he said.

His advice for anyone who wants to visit is wonderfully short. Come in the cooler months. Bring comfortable shoes, some water, and a little free time. “Sometimes the best places are the ones where you can enjoy doing something simple.”

Peaceful is not boring

If there is one thing Yousef wishes outsiders understood, it is this: a quiet city is not a dull one.

“I don’t think peaceful should be confused with boring,” he said. Al Ain has natural beauty, good food, a growing café culture, and no shortage of ways to spend time with the people you love. What it offers, above all, is balance: room to pursue your education and your ambitions without feeling that you must always be surrounded by the loudest, busiest version of life.

His own happiest moments have been small ones. Friends around a fire. A place that quietly takes him back to childhood. A new café and a good V60.

“Al Ain is not a city that needs to be loud to be enjoyable,” he said. “Its charm is in its atmosphere, its people, and the experiences you create.”

One day, done his way

If a friend came to Al Ain for just one day, Yousef knows exactly how it would go.

Morning would belong to the mountains and the green, to Jebel Hafeet and Green Mubazzarah, the landscape that introduces the city best. Lunch would be madfoon at Al Yahar Al Hadeeth. In the afternoon he would take them to Al Ain Mall, an unlikely stop on any itinerary but an essential one to him, then through the cafés of Asharej or around the zoo for a V60.

And if the weather allowed, evening would end where his own best evenings do: in the desert, around a fire, with the cold arriving on schedule.

“And if my friend Rashed was there to make his karak,” he said, “I would definitely want my visitor to try it.”

Where the story began

Yousef is realistic about the future. He has ambitions, and he knows life may carry him to other cities and other chapters. But he is certain of one thing.

“Wherever I go, Al Ain will always be the city where everything started for me.”

It is a fitting thing to say about a place that asks so little of you and gives so much back: a city of palms and mountains, of simple meals and long conversations, of a fire in the dark and a glass of something warm. For Yousef, Al Ain was never a destination.

“It is where I grew up, where I made some of my best memories, and where so much of my story began.”