A First Taste of Uzbek Cuisine @ Gulnaz Restaurant & Cafe

Happy 2012 everyone!

It’s a new year and although I hardly ever make new year resolutions these days (because they’ve been the same year after year so why bother?), I do have one for 2012 and that is to clear out all some of my draft posts.

I often come up with all these great ideas for a blog post and then a few days later, the ideas fizzle out and either don’t seem so great anymore or I stare and stare at a draft post until I give up on it for lack of creativity or interest. Does that happen to you?

So all these draft posts have been nagging at me and I hate being nagged at – I mean, who likes being nagged? It’s such an awful sounding word too.

And as I often do when I’m being n-a-g-g-e-d at, I procrastinate. So 2012 resolution: Stop procrastinating. Stop feigning writer’s block. Stop over-analyzing each post so much. JUST WRITE.

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Some of the drafts I’d like to clear out are posts from my girls’ dinner club. As mentioned in my July 2008 post about “Eating Out for Under 100 Dirhams,” my girl friends and I meet bimonthly to sample restaurants around town. It’s not only an opportunity to discover new (and old) Dubai dining options, but it’s also a time for us to catch up on each other’s lives.

Since the start of this eating adventure back in March 2008, we’ve visited over 80 restaurants. Now, no way am I going to write up 80 retrospective restaurant reviews where 90% of the time I can’t even remember what I ordered or took any pictures BUT I will try to write about some of the highlights and try to be more diligent about posting future eats.

Let’s start with a restaurant called Gulnaz Restaurant & Cafe located in Dubai Marina by Jumeirah Beach Residences.

We had a very small dinner party of three when we visited a few months ago which was a shame as there were so many things on the menu that we’d never had before and were we a larger group – we could have tried them all (insert diabolical laugh)!

But, that didn’t stop us from ordering as much as we could yet stay within our 100 dirham (US $27) per person budget and stuff ourselves silly in the process.

Gulnaz serves Uzbek, Kazakh, Russian and Korean dishes. Oh yes, there was definitely Korean in there like kimchi, morkovcha (korean carrot salad), and kuksi (korean cold soup with rice noodles and beef). I was intrigued so I asked our friendly waiter the reason behind the Korean dishes and he told us that they have lots of Koreans in Uzbekistan. Interesting.

It was mid-November so it was nice enough to sit outside but as the restaurant is located on the main road, we decided not to breathe in polluted car fumes and opted instead to sit inside at one of raised, cushiony booths with privacy curtains – I’m sure there is a proper term for this but I can’t remember it right now. Each table even had a call button to summon the wait staff – something I’ve only seen in Korean restaurants until now.

The Gulnaz menu says “artistically painted walls and plush interiors provides a warm and relaxing ambience. Come and enjoy best of plov, beshbarmak, pre-ordered meals in Qazan pots or bread and samsa from tandir, all prepared in traditional firewood way.”

Is it just me or all those exotic words (well, exotic to me, anyway) make it seem like there was going to be gooood food ahead?

The restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived early in the evening but we were warmly greeted by the staff and our waiter was extremely friendly, very patient, and quite helpful in explaining the variety of dishes to us. I did have to suppress a few giggles every time he used the words “very tasty.”

As we looked through the menu we passed on some of the well-known dishes like borst and chicken Kiev and opted instead for the unfamiliar.

Besides water, we ordered Urik Sharbat which, maybe it’s just me, made me think of sherbert and non-alcoholic punch and thus baby showers but is actually a drink made from dried apricots. And that’s what it tasted like too – sweet, syrupy, apricot juice.

STARTERS

For starters we ordered Tandir Samsa (20 dhs) which was described as a “delicious samsa stuffed with lamb, baked in Tandir oven with firewood.” The accompanying dipping sauce was made with some combination of tomatoes, herbs like dill and coriander, and garlic.

The samsa had a firm crust, and I wish we had ordered more because it was certainly “very tasty.”

Next we had Blinchick (20 dhs) which were “Russian pancakes with beef and mushrooms.” The waiter asked if we wanted ours to be stuffed with beef or mushrooms, and we all agreed, “both!”

I would describe this as similar to a crepe and the filling was just lovely as the mushrooms weren’t there as background singers to be ignored but really took center stage along with the beef. Our taste buds were singing happily and we were excitedly anticipating the next dishes that were in store for us.

Next we ordered the Olivie (28 dhs) because it was hard not to when it’s described as “famous.” It was a “famous Russian salad, composed of diced potatoes, vegetables and meat, all bound in mayonnaise.”

Another simple yet well-prepared dish that was full of flavor (gotta love mayonnaise) and I loved the tang from the diced pickles. Kind of reminded me of a German potato salad (except without the ham which would have made it even better!).

I have to say that I really wanted to order Kimchi after seeing it on the menu. I mean, I was seriously craving it and surprised I haven’t bought any from the supermarket yet. Maybe I’ll make my own. I did wonder if the Gulnaz kimchi would be authentic or Uzbek-fusion…

SOUP

We decided to try out one of the soups and ordered Pelmeni (28 dhs) described as “Russian, homemade dumplings filled with beef in a clear soup.” If I hadn’t known that the filling was beef, I would have thought that it was lamb as both the dumplings and the soup seemed to be overpowering with lamb flavor. Probably my least favorite dish of the night.

Having said that though, I did enjoy it better the next day as leftovers. Perhaps the flavors mellowed?

MAINS

This Plov “Bayram” (54 dhs), “pride of Uzbek cuisine…made of rice, yellow carrots and lamb cooked in Qazan pot using firewood.”

Yellow carrots? I’ve never had yellow carrots, I don’t think, and tonight wasn’t going to be yellow carrot night either unless yellow carrots turn orange when cooked.

Similar to biryani, this wasn’t a bit hit for me. I didn’t find the flavors interesting and despised the chick peas (but that’s just me, I hate chick peas).

Now the most-awesome-dish-of-the-night award goes to Qovurma Lagman (34 dhs) which is “fried homemade noodles with tomato sauce and ground meat.” Something this good deserves the initials, OMG.

Now with a Chinese background, I was probably biased towards this dish from the start. I would describe it as a spicy noodle stir-fry with, dare I say “very tasty” sauce, which the home-made noodles perfectly soaked up. As I am typing this, I think that I am going to have to order some for take-out…like right now.

Moving on from thoughts of googling a recipe for the Qovurma Lagman which according to Google search results call also be spelled Kavurma Lagman…

Our final dish of the evenig was Manti (44 dhs) which were four “delicious large dumplings with meat / pumpkin.”

I enjoyed the first couple of bites but then something become too much for me – wasn’t sure if it was cumin or coriander powder – but I gave some to Wee Scotch the next day for lunch and he didn’t seemed bothered at all. He’s such a good eater.

BREAD

We ordered Lepeshka (10dhs) which is “freshly baked Uzbek bread from tandir oven.” Um, I don’t remember any specifics on this but sometimes to me, bread is…well, just bread.

I hope I haven’t offended any bread afficionados out there with my last statement! And if anyone is still reading at this point then let me ask you this:

Have you ever gotten a little carried away at a foreign restaurant where everything seems so new and exotic and you flag down the waiter to determine the contents of the pretty bowl of spice that has been sitting on your table the whole night, only to be feel like a doofus when he says, “That is black pepper, and that is white pepper.” Doh!

Our final order of the night was Uzbek Green Tea in a Tea Pot (15 dhs). Our nice waiter got into food styling mode and purposely placed the teacups like so:

Have you noticed that all the crockery is very distinctive and floral and I forgot to ask the waiter if they were imported from and made in Uzbekistan. I must remember to ask next time…

Having sat comfortably crossed-leg for most of dinner, I was so stuffed I could have just laid down on the soft cushions and gone to bed. Maybe no one would notice if we drew the curtains around our table?

Well, since there were so many things on the menu that I’d love to try and since I haven’t had lunch yet and since Wee Scotch is just about to wake up from his afternoon nap, I think today would be the perfect opportunity for the two of us to take a walk down the road and order some kimchi and Qovurma Lagman for lunch, and whatever else I think my husband, Scotch, would want for dinner tonight 😉 .

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Post-Lunch Update a Few Hours Later: Wee Scotch and I ended up at Gulnaz for a late lunch today as soon as the above was posted. Halfway there I realized I had forgotten my camera but my iPhone cam saved the day.

I decided to sit outside on the terrace so that my son could run around while we waited for the food to arrive but instantly regretted it as there was a faint odor of garbage coming from a garbage skip across the street and upwind from us – nothing the restaurant could do anything about, I guess. But I decided to brave that and hold my breath instead of sitting indoors and cooping up a hyper-active 2-year old.

Since the last time I was at the restaurant, there were already some changes in the menu. The menu itself was now a proper faux-leather bound one instead of a stapled booklet with prices written on stickers.

Disappointingly, the one dish I was craving was also completely changed. Now described as “handmade noodles, stir-fried with tomato paste and beef, sprinkled fresh herbs and egg omelet” the Qovurma (Fried) Lagman was no longer moist, spicy, nor “very tasty”.

Overall, the dish was very dry, noodles included, and the egg omelet didn’t do anything for the dish except add a bit of visual appeal. The beef even had an odd aftertaste. I much preferred the version I had the first time around.

I also ordered Arabic chicken wings (I love wings!) and was not disappointed – they were crispy on the outside yet moist on the inside, and simply flavored to allow the flavors of the chicken shine. There was no accompanying sauce, which was okay with me as the wings were so good, just a simple garnish of sliced tomato, cucumber and lemon.

I had to order the kimchi as I was curious to see how it would taste at an Uzbek restaurant. I was severely disappointed here as well. The kimchi was so over-salted that I couldn’t taste anything else. I do have a sensitivity to salt so I had the waiter wrap it up for me and I had Scotch taste it when he came home form work. Now my husband has an affinity to salt and likes to put extra salt on his food but even he found the Gulnaz kimchi too salty.

Such a shame about the food on the second visit but restaurant quality in Dubai is often hit or miss so no big surprise here. I would still go back though to try the un-tried things on the menu.

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Gulnaz Restaurant and Cafe, +971 (04) 453 4887 for reservations and delivery; located in Dubai Marina on Al Sufouh Road on the ground floor of The Point building across the street from JBR – Amwaj sector; Facebook Page.