Dubai Blog

I absolutely love hotpot, and since Little Lamb opened at JBR I have been a regular, so I consider myself a bit of a Little Lamb hot pot veteran. I therefore thought I would share this mini guide to hotpot and Little Lamb, so those of you, who have not yet tried it, have a starting point, when going there for the first time.

Little Lamb does not take reservations, so on weekends you might have to queue up to get a table. If you want to avoid waiting time, try to go early on weekdays (before 6pm). Though even when there is a line, it tends to move quickly, and I do not recall that I have ever waited more than 20 minutes.

The soup

You can choose among different kinds of broth to cook the ingredients in. If in doubt, I recommend the 50-50 hot pot, with one half of spicy soup and one half of mild soup. The spicy soup is very spicy, but also the most popular and the more expensive of the two kinds.

The staff hands you a tablet, so you can browse the menu and place your order. If you are not sure about what to order, I suggest that you get one of the set menus. The set menus include soup, vegetables and different kinds of meat and seafood. The cheapest one is around 100AED (depending on the type of soup you choose) and there is plenty of food for 2 people.

Scallion Pancake

The scallion pancake tastes like Korean pajeon (a kind of thick savory pancake with spring onions). Good as a starter or a snack while you are cooking the other ingredients. Nice dipped in a mix of sesame oil and soy sauce from the sauce buffet.

Fried Spring Rolls

Crispy and delicious and also good with soy sauce or the sweet-and-sour sauce from the sauce buffet. So tasty I suspect they might be homemade.

Mongolian thick noodles

Broad noodles with a slightly chewy texture. They need a little more cooking time than the regular noodles and taste a bit like Japanese udon. Really delicious dipped in sesame sauce.

Cola

If you order a large cola, you get a giant 2-liter bottle, but because the food is so spicy and salty, it is usually not a problem to empty the bottle during the meal. If you want to try something else than cola, I can recommend a can of the sweet Chinese herbal tea, which I always forget the name of (a red can with yellow letters).

Regarding meat

Of the cheaper meat cuts, the lamb meat is the best and juiciest.

All the other things

I also like the fresh bean curd, which is the skin that forms on top of heated soy milk. It has a fun, slightly spongy texture, and does not taste of much, but it is fun to eat. The fish balls and meatballs are rather boring, and I am pretty sure they are of the ready-made kind that originates from a bag in the freezer. I eat them because they are included in the set menu, but they are not something I would order separately. The fried rice is also nice, but very filling, so unless you are there with a bunch of friends, skip that one and focus on the hot pot items.

Speaking of sauce

After cooking your hot pot ingredients, you dip the food in sauce and eat it, and it is the sauces at Little Lamb that really add the silver lining. This is what makes hot pot so delicious.

The sauce buffet is at the back of the restaurant, so after placing your order, this is where you go to mix your own sauce according to your preferences. If you are not familiar with the sauces and condiments, you can try this mixture that I always make:

Sesame sauce (should fill up most of the small sauce bowl)

Oyster sauce (approx. 1 tsp)

Black bean sauce (1/2 tsp)

Chili oil (1/4 tsp), be careful, it is very spicy

Garlic oil (½ tsp)

Sprinkle with coriander on top and mix everything together. Tastes divine!

Little Lamb (Xiao Wei Yang) is featured in my guide to Chinese restaurants in Dubai >>

I have previously written another guide to Little Lamb (Xiao Wei Yang), which you can read here >>

I’ve always been an early riser, but during the pandemic, it’s been even more pronounced, probably because there haven’t been a lot of late dinners and nights out to keep me awake.

I usually wake up at 5am, have breakfast while checking email before heading to the driving range to hit a bucket or two. Then back again just in time to catch the sunrise from the metro, -one of the perks of getting up early.

There’s something special about a city about to wake up, and for Dubai, the hour just after sunrise feels almost magical. The skyscrapers are wrapped in pastel pink shades on a backdrop of shimmering gold, and everything moves a little slower, as if someone hit the city’s snooze button to stay just another 5 minutes in that mellow, half-asleep state of mind. That’s my favorite time of the day. Good morning from Dubai:)

Earlier this month, I found a new bubble tea shop, Otea, at the Dubai Internet City metro station. While I was waiting for my tea, I talked to a lady from the staff and she told me that she was from Hong Kong, and that the owner was also from Hong Kong. Otea only recently opened, and in addition to bubble tea, you can also buy different kinds of sandwiches, pastries and egg waffles.

Since my first visit, I have ordered home delivery several times from Otea. The bubble tea is very nice, and has the perfect tapioca pearls, which are neither too soft nor too hard, but with a texture similar to that of gummy bears.

I like the brown sugar boba (Tiger Syrup Boba in the menu) the best, but there are many different flavors to choose among, and many options to customize your drink with add-ons such as cheese and different kinds of jelly. I like that Otea lets you decide how sweet you want your boba, because I usually find the standard level of sweetness at most places too sweet.

The cookies and the coconut buns taste homemade and get even better after heating them for a couple of minutes in the oven. The egg waffles are also nice and sweet and slightly chewy, just like egg waffles should be. They taste the best straight from the waffle maker, so that is one of the items I would recommend you get it you visit the shop.

My guide to bubble tea in Dubai Marina >>

Otea is located at the ground level at exit 1 at Dubai Internet City Metro Station. The cafe offers home delivery on Talabat for the Dubai Marina area.

Before covid-19 I did most of my exercise on the treadmill at the gym in our building, but after covid-19 my workout habits have changed drastically. Nowadays I prefer exercising at home in front of the tv. I have signed up for Yoga Barn Online, so I have access to a seemingly never-ending supply of yoga and meditation classes from beautiful Yoga Barn in Ubud, Bali. I usually do Yin yoga or yoga Nidra right before bedtime, but sometimes I also take a yoga break during the day to get away from the computer screen for a while and clear my thoughts.

When I feel like getting my heart rate up, I look around YouTube for dance workouts. I have never been a good dancer (that’s actually an understatement. I seriously suck), because I don’t have any rhythm in my body. As a matter of fact, I have avoided dance classes because I didn’t want to distract other people with my weird out-of-sync moves. Though in front of the TV, I’m only distracting myself, so I can really let loose and do my ugly dance:) I really like the Popsugar dance videos with Keaira, but the dance workouts with Pamela Reif are also good and very easy to follow.

In the morning I play golf, and I try to go and practice every weekday. I get up at 5am and have a nice long breakfast while going through my inbox and planning the day ahead. At 6am I am off to the driving range, which is almost empty at this time of the day. Hitting balls while watching the sun rise is such a soothing experience, and to me it is the perfect way to start the day.

Wonder where the Koreans in Dubai get their hair done? I was too, because all my Korean friends down here have amazing hair, and it turned out they all go to the same hair salon, Miyoshi, inside Golden Tulip in Tecom.

Miyoshi is a Korean-style beauty salon, and most of the staff are Korean. When making your booking, you can choose which hair stylist you want. Shinae recommended Mario, so I went on to book my haircut with him.

Mario is Korean (Mario is just his English name), and he has previously worked in Australia and China, so he speaks English well. I told him that I wanted the new kind of layer cut that all the Koreans have, and I showed him a photo of Shinae, to make sure we were on the same page. We decided to go for mid-length layers and a tapered cut to add some lightness and vibrance to my hair.  If I was happy with that style, he explained, we could go even further down that path the next time.

It all took about 45 minutes including complimentary hair wash. Hair wash is included at most hairdressers in Dubai, but that is unfortunately not always the case anymore in Denmark, so I want to make it clear to my Danish readers that the 100AED I paid for the hair cut was including wash, which makes it super cheap compared to haircuts in Denmark.

The haircut is very low maintenance, which is important to me, because if I need to spend too much time in the morning, blow drying and setting my hair, I will end up just wearing it in a ponytail. The cut has a natural volume and lightness to it so I can just roll out of bed, brush my hair and add a little setting spray, and I’m good to go.

Update 1: A friend had her haircut with another stylist, Julie, and she was also very happy with the result.

Update 2: One Korean friend doesn’t go to Miyoshi, but to a place in Oud Metha called Korean Beauty Salon. They are supposed to be very good too, and their perms are cheaper than at Miyoshi, so if you are in that area and want a Korean-style haircut, maybe that salon is worth checking out.

Miyoshi, Golden Tulip Media Hotel (not to be confused with Golden Tulip Hotel in Al Barsha), Barsha Heights, Tecom, Dubai. Tel: 04 448 9898

Projeto Açaí is my new breakfast favorite in Dubai Marina. In addition to really good açaí bowls, they also have tapiocas (Brazilian style crepes), which I love (thanks to Ana), and which I have not seen anywhere else in Dubai. Though one thing I did not love, was how long it took until the food arrived, when ordering home delivery from Projeto Açaí. Though it’s always worth the wait, because the quality is consistently good, and the food looks delicious and tastes great. I usually order the set menu which includes a small açaí bowl, a tapioca and a fresh juice for 75AED, and then I eat the açaí bowl for breakfast and the tapioca for lunch.

Projeto Açaí is just across the street, so one day I got curious and decided to go and see if they were just as slow when dining in, at the café. They were. And the long line of Deliveroo (food delivery service) guys outside the café provided the explanation. Projeto Açai is just a very popular place for breakfast and lunch, so be prepared to wait for 30-40 minutes for your food to arrive (the average wait when I order breakfast or lunch), or try ordering outside peak times.

When we dined at the cafe, we had the usual menu, along with a serving of tapioca pancakes with berries and homemade peanut butter. The pancakes were amazing. Slightly bouncy and moist, without that doughy core, that traditional pancakes often have. Definitely something I would order again.

Here is what I usually order online:

Vegan Tapioca with a filling of hummus and guacamole. Though all their fillings are delicious and have a hint of freshly chopped, very hot chili.

Açaí bowl with strawberries, granola and homemade peanut butter (the homemade peanut butter is amazing)

Fresh pineapple juice or cappuccino. The coffee is really good, so it is always a difficult choice whether I should have the cappuccino or the fresh juice.

The poke bowls are also nice, and they are so large, you don’t need anything else for dinner.

Projeto Açaí, Al Hubob Street, Dubai Marina

I have previously ordered home delivery from Little Erth by Nabz&G, and it has always been really good, so the other day, when I was in JLT to pick up some business cards, I decided to go and check out their physical location. It was such a cozy place!

Most of the plant-based restaurants in Dubai have roots in the Indian cuisine, but the menu at Little Erth is primarily international. You will find many of the plant-based it-dishes-right-now on the menu, along with a bunch of original creations and a juice menu that immediately made me think of Yoga Barn in Ubud.

Here is what I ordered and my thoughts about the food:

Vegan Mac & Cheese: A hearty dish with a nice creamy texture. Though it was lacking cheese flavor (I’ve heard from vegan friend Waz, that you can add nutritional yeast to accomplish that, maybe that would be worth a try?), and I also did not like the coconut notes in the flavor.

Spring wraps: Papaya wraps with a filling of cashew cream and guacamole. Amazingly delicious and one of Little Erth’s signature dishes. A must-try, if you go.

Vegan cheese: I did not intend to order this dish, but due to a misunderstanding when I placed my order, this was what I first got, instead of mac & cheese. The waiter apologized and said she would send it back to the kitchen, but it looked so delicious, that I decided to keep it, and get it to go. The cheese is made from tofu and cashew and the flavor and texture is similar to cottage cheese. The serving is rather big, and I think it would be a little too much for one person as a starter, but perfect to share (or to take home and snack on). Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo, but it was delicious.

Little Erth by Nabz&G, Shop 34, Building J2, Cluster J, JLT Dubai

If you are walking from the Marina, Little Erth is to the right, around the corner from Wokyo.

Considering Meatless Mondays? In Dubai, the great selection of Indian vegetarian restaurants makes it really easy for those of us wanting to cut down on meat, and the other day, I found out that one of the best, Saarangaa Bhojan Shala, is just a few minutes’ walk from where I live. I have seen the restaurant pop up many times on GoogleMaps, but from the outside, it does not look of much, so it took a while, before I finally ventured inside.

The first thing I noticed was how clean it was. The staff were all wearing gloves and masks, and every other table was blocked so diners weren’t seated too close to each other. We also had our temperature checked and our hand sanitized before we were shown to our table. Not a requirement, but an appreciated gesture these days.

There are so many different dishes to choose among, so if you don’t know what you are after, it can be a bit overwhelming. Don’t be afraid to ask the staff for advice, they are very helpful and managed to steer us away from the probably-too-spicy-for-you dishes.

The mango lassi (yogurt drink) I ordered was served with a small platter of fresh fruit, and tasted delicious.

I am usually not very fond of Indian-Chinese fusion food, but the Paneer Manchurian is outstanding. You can choose to have it with or without gravy (take the one with gravy), and spicy or non-spicy (I chose non-spicy). We also had thali (different kinds of small dishes and pickles) and a lunch set.

Some of you asked me on Instagram why there are so many Indian vegetarian restaurants in Dubai? The short answer is that there are so many expats from India in Dubai. Many people in India are vegetarians for religious reasons, so the refined array of amazingly delicious vegetarian food is an integrated part of Indian cuisine.

Update: I ordered home delivery from Saarangaa Bhojan Shala today, and it was just as good as what we had in the restaurant. I ordered directly from their website, and even though the user interface might not be the most visually pleasing, it worked fine, and the food arrived quickly.

Saarangaa Bhojan Shala, Marina Pearl Building GF, Dubai Marina

Last week, I was invited to come by McGettigan’s in JLT to try some of the items on their new menu. McGettigan’s is an international chain of Irish pubs, and they have several branches in Dubai. They are mostly known for cheap beer and a friendly, laid-back atmosphere, refreshingly different from the typical glitter-and-glam that dominates the nightlife scene in Dubai.

Yesterday, I was in Satwa to look for a good tailor, and since you cannot visit Satwa without visiting the Pakistani restaurant Ravi, I sat down for Pakistani lunch before I started my tailor hunt.

In Dubai, we are a group of Korean adoptees and ”real” Koreans who meet now and then to eat Korean food, and before I went back to Denmark, we managed to squeeze in a Korean dinner at Pia’s place.

When Dubai started opening up after the lockdown, we started looking for staycations and ended up booking a night at Fairmont at The Palm. It was nice l to get away from the monotone mass that has been everyday life for the last couple of months, and our timing was just right as the hotel beach clubs were allowed to open again that weekend.