I don't recall having influential people making a mark into my gastronomic journey... at least not in real life. I do recall scenes from movies, however, that made me so bloody angry because of scenes that made me so darn hungry. So hungry that pushed me to kitchen insanity.

I never realized I have set my compass into finding recipes that will help me re-create the feelings that the character had under those scrumptious circumstances, until now.

In this day and age where female celebrities are walking zeros or prolly negative numbers if even possible... I'm sure someone out there is looking for an eat-woman (sounds like an appropriate equivalent to stunt-double). I can be just THE person they need. I will save their thighs from ever increasing in size. I will keep them as anorexic as possible. HIRE ME!

This scene drove me crazy for years... going berserk on every recipe I can find in the internet. I finally found THE recipe that will top all the recipes I've ever tried in my life. All those boxes that will never ever deliver on the taste factor will forever be forgotten.

Enjoy these scene that made me so darn hungry ...

Tribute Recipe: Pancake Heaven

Telephone: +9714 3080000
Radisson Royal Hotel, Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai, UAE

Last year I joined so many competitions and won quite a handful of freebies. Yeah, whatever! I'm a sucker for competitions.

One of the many generous gifts I got was an overnight stay at Radisson Royal Hotel Dubai (formerly JAL Hotel Dubai) and a lunch for two at Indo Thai Restaurant.

The overnight stay experience was of course fanta-bulous. We had breakfast in bed, went for a little tour of the hotel, didn't really go swimming because of the weather, plus, pool wasn't appealing as it's next to an unfinished building, construction workers going woot woot? no thank you very much. Swimming pool aside, we had a great time.

The dining experience was equally memorable. It's a shame that when we went for lunch, it was just us and another couple who were there. The server said, they're pretty pack in the evening, hmmm. It's a real shame that the hotel location is along the strip of hotels and of equally amazing restaurants. Diners have gazillions to choose from if you ask me.

Let's just say, it's human nature to choose convenience next to the quality and taste of food. The hotel is not located in a straighforward area of the hotel strip. You have to weave your way around to access it, so yeah, when we went there, even with the promotions happening, it's a bit desserted, however exquisite the food was.

The worst thing is... these diners don't know what they're missing!

The restaurant setting is modern asian which I love. We can see orchid's, bamboos and just warmth Asian hospitality in its décor.

For appetizers we ordered Vietnamese Beef Salad and Chicken Pandan Leaves. Delectable is the word. The salad has fresh mint, vermicelli noodles and julienne veggies cooked to perfection. It also came with skewered beef which has a good flavour of dark soya sauce and lemon grass. Chicken was marinated and wrapped in pandan leaves, maybe steamed, maybe baked, I didn't care much for the method of cooking because however it was cooked, it was moorish. We loved every bit of it!

For the main course, J went for the obvious, Red Curry Beef Cheek while I went for the chef-y sounding dish, Cod Fish & Pak Choy Cambodian Pot-Au-Feu. Sometimes being adventurous pays for a fantastic discovery, sometimes, it's better to be safe. This time around, J won. His Beef was to-die for! The meat was so tender, it practically pulls away and it melts in your mouth while the curry sauce gives it a bit of kick. It was served with steamed rice which for us is just a cherry on top. I wouldn't mind eating all of it by myself. J is obviously more generous than I am, so he shared his dish with me.

As for my chef-y sounding dish? it was,,, non-committed eeeeh. It says in the menu that it's pan-fried cod fish served in beef consommé scented with lemongrass and garnished with pak-choy. It didn't impress me. I didn't feel any character from the dish. The consommé smells better than it taste. It was salty and I can't really taste much of the beef essense there... more like buillon-y type. The fish lost it's flavour because the consommé overpowered it. In short, I won't be ordering you again my fishy friend.

Dessert? It once again redeemed itself. J ordered Banana Passion Caramel Custard, banana and passion fruit in a caramel custard with fresh pomelo... once again, safe. It was yum. As for me and my food quest, I ordered something I have eaten separately but never together in Coconut, Sago and Lychee Cake. Let's just say, thank goodness I took the risk. Even J was a little envious.

It was a steamed cake, made of sago pearl, lychee and coconut flavour sort of cream custard served with pandan leaf ice cream. Every spoonful was exciting and I wish it never ended. That's how yummy-licious it was.

This meal happened almost a year ago and I can still taste the dishes in my mouth. Believe me, that's a good thing. Hope to dine back with our kids in tow!
 

My whole family loves to eat, in, out, it doesn't matter... love it even more when it's a gift and that's exactly what we got... a seafood and Japanese buffet dinner for two!

We love, love, love it.

Our booking was initially at 7PM but we had to move it to 8PM due to time constraint and distance... even arrived 30 minutes late... so we're really bad... we're thinking we're probably going to be turned away for being late... in my head I thought... oh well... darn but what can one do?

A little embarrassed, we informed the reception that we have a booking and we'd prefer to sit outside since the weather was amazing. We only waited a little over three minutes and we were showed to our table.

On our way to our table, we're amazed by the spread of food. It was exciting, I was salivating way before we started digging into our plates.

It's always been a habit to literally survey the stations before diving in. When the attack plot was finalized... I went straight to the salad bar... there's so much to choose from but I zoom into, open mussels, cocktail shrimp, calamari salad, smoked salmon and capers, crabmeat sampler and edamame. They're all to-die for. I am definitely going to re-hash the calamari salad just because it's too good to ever forget!

Hubby's first prey were unsuspicious shrimp tempura... OMG, the batter was scrumptuously light and shrimps felt and tasted super fresh. Hubby fell in love so much that he went back to the station and took every single tempura on the serving plate.... no kidding. It's alright, serving plates are replenished all the time... it's like the robbery didn't happen at all. We helped him finish his loot though. Sorry, we are unashamed. We love food that much!

His next stop was the BBQ station. He chose his next preys from the fresh station, choosing mussels and prawns for BBQ was a really good choice. There were chicken and beef but seriously? It's like going to an Italian restaurant and ordering hamburger... it's just not right to be unfaithful to seafood night.

We started at 8 and finished at 11 PM. Never happened in the history when we actually stayed until closing. We didn't mean to. We did joke about it thinking that's absurd and we had so much fun munching and stuffing our face that we didn't realize the time.

How will we ever notice the time when there's a free flowing house alcoholic beverages? It's really amazing.

The dessert station is so mesmerizing that I feel a little upset with myself for not reserving a bigger space. What a shame!

Definitely will be coming back! With or without promotion... Yum-my!

Without Cobone voucher, AED 170, drinks not included, AED 240 with unlimited house alcohol drinks and water.

http://www.sheratondubaicreek.com/en/creekside
Phone: +971-4-2281111