Luqaimat @ Freej, Al-Barsha Mall

luqaimat is a traditional emirati dessert; delicious fried dough, crispy on the outside, and soft and fluffy on the inside. i absolute LOVE it! everytime i go to global village (which opens only few months yearly during winter) i will definitely look for that small kiosk with bedouin ladies sitting cross-legged on the floor, a hot wok of oil in front of her frying yummy luqaimat. one big-size of luqaimat, please! with silky sweet date syrup on top!

i love luqaimat so much!

 

 

upon suggestion from a dubai friend, i found out that there’s a shop in the food court of al-barsha mall called ‘freej’ or ‘fereej’ serving traditional emirati dishes, including my beloved luqaimat! pretty excited to get that information as 1) i don’t need to wait for winter to get a huge plate of luqaimat from the global village, and 2) it’s SO much nearer to my place than going all the way out to global village!

 

 

the menu is pretty extensive – with grills such as tikka and shish tawooq, and of course all sorts of rice dishes like briyani, mandi, madhbi and sorts. their appetizers are also very arab – halloumi (a kind of cheese), sambousk (macam karipap kita, filled with meat, spices or cheese!), baba ghannouj (a dip made from eggplant), labneh (rich, thick yoghurt), moutable and hummus. 

 

 

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my boys LOVE luqaimat as much as i do!

 

 

 

verdict : the luqaimat from the global village is SO MUCH BETTER because not only does it look more appealing in terms of color and consistency in size, it’s also fried perfectly – global village luqaimat is just right – thin crisp on the outside, and delicious fluffiness on the inside. however at freej, you can see from the pictures that it’s obviously over-fried which made it too crispy and oily. you can also see that it comes in various sizes; which should be fine but not as presentable as the ones fried by those wonderful makcik bedouin at global village.

freej at al-barsha mall maybe closer to home, but i know now that luqaimat at global village is worth the wait, and the trip! but hey, if you wanna try out the rest of the arabic dishes in their menu, head on to the food court, level 1, al barsha mall, barsha 2.