Say Marhaba to the Marhabani
Last Friday was one of those dreary Fridays when the weather is so bad that you can’t think of anything fun to do, except for..well..eat? So the Fabulous Trio that is my wonderful husband, his brother, and myself put on our fat jeans and got in the car in search of some tasty morsels of yum. After cruising down the streets of Jumeirah for a good twenty minutes we decided it was a Gulf-food kind of day and pranced right into the Marhabani for some Majlis-style eatin’.
I cannot stress enough how much I love this place. I mean, you’ve got authentic Arabian Gulf food, the seating arrangement is a breath of fresh air from the rigid and uncomfortable seats in other places, and the food is not only well priced for the portions, but also FRIGGIN’ good! (yes, the capitalization was necessary.)
We ordered 2 portions of lamb Mandi with this fresh tomato salsa they put on the side and some yogurt and cucumber salad. Oh me oh my, it was so good. It is the fact that each individual grain of rice glistens, the lamb is so tender it falls off the bone, and the fresh tomato salsa that make this meal a complete and utter winner as far as I’m concerned. We ate until our heart’s content and had a middle eastern dessert called Kanafa that was absolutely gorgeous. From the taste of it, it was made with some kind of rough semolina stuffed with warm elastic white cheese, pistachios, and soaked in a rose-water infused syrup—oh, happy days! After eating our brains out we just hung out a bit in our own cubicle/tent like majlis thingy with all the privacy in the world to just lay back and set our newly-formed bellies free by opening the first button of our fat jeans. Freedom. Yes.
After we were done I was truly happy to pay (or let my husband pay) whatever number they threw at us. After having had mandi portions enough for three, with salad, drinks, dessert, and all that good stuff, the bill was a whopping..wait for it…200 AED (for those unsure, yes, that was indeed sarcasm), I knew this place was going to see a lot more of me in the future.