My Uninvited Opinion. Orilla is an opulent 27th-floor Mediterranean restaurant brings music and much-needed joie de vivre to Jumeirah Village Triangle, but not everything keeps pace. There’s still a lot to love, especially if you’re in this part of town.
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Posts by Liam Collens
Same puss. Same.
Quite a flirty-in-the-eyes little toast
Chicken Lasooni kebabs in brilliant golden-yellow. Lasooni means garlicky and in there lies the hint. Fork tender, chicken breasts often marinated in thick hung yoghurt, garlic, cashew nut and green chilli. There’s a crumb of fresh garlic too. Brave date food.
📍 City of Joy, Karama, Dubai
Why does this feel like a scene in Final Destination?
I’ll chalk this up as a success.
Love!
Word.
Sun’s out, fun’s out. It is still barbecue weather here, which is astonishing and not to be wasted.
Dinner last night. A board of grilled vegetables, halloumi, ayvar and hummus that we needed to use up in the house and a bottle of Serbian wine that we’ve never tried before; turns out it is the local variety of Gewürztraminer.
Choose one.
I’m looking forward to another evening at Jun's Dubai with Chef Kelvin Cheung’s special brand of whimsy. Here’s the last piece I wrote about, well, precisely that.
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Hungary has chosen Europe.
Europe has always chosen Hungary.
A country reclaims its European path.
The Union grows stronger.
Insomniac?
oink oink
What’s in Aracena?
I just have this feeling that Orban is going to stick around.
DINNER AT HOME. Orecchiette with portobellos, porcini and brown sauce. Don’t knock it.
We recorded an extra special Chef JKP Podcast episode today with host James Knigh Paccheco. Me, Himanshu Saini and the muscle behind it all, Courtney Brandt.
Reminder! THE RISE OF TRESIND STUDIO is on pre-order, out 6 May. Some exclusive copies are already in readers’ hands.
FOOD IS MEMORIES ♥️
Sizzling chicken Sisig with a raw yolk in the middle.
No one has accused her of thinking before.
Chicken chicharron is genius. Sheets of chicken skin are removed from breasts used for chicken inasal, a grilled, marinated Filipino dish. The skins are reserved like treats, fried then served hot and crisp with a side of sharp sawsawan, an amber dipping sauce of vinegar, soy, calamansi and more.
I recently revisited Lowe, a restaurant whose isolation is both a tailwind and headwind. It would be easy to frame Lowe through its sustainability credentials, but that misses the point. What matters is that the food is consistently, insistently delicious.
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Oof the age on this Riesling makes it far more interesting. Off dry, sharp acid but with this green apple, hay and nutty, slightly oxidised note. It’s not an expensive Riesling but I might buy some of it just to keep for a few years and break out at the right time. Cheers! 🥂
Shish barak loosely translates as “skewer dumpling”, a traditional dish shaped by hand in homes across the Levant. These small, tortellini-like parcels are filled with lamb or beef, then gently simmered in a garlic-laced yoghurt.
Wait, people have visual allergies? This is a thing?
There are flashier places to eat in Dubai. There are shinier openings and rooms with more lascivious PR. But Neighbourhood Food Hall makes a quieter, more useful case for itself: eat nearby, support homegrown operators, and do it without traversing the city.
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Cheers! I have an oloroso too. We seem to get the sweeter varieties here more than the Manzanillas or Finos.
Thoughts @sevillatapas.bsky.social ? These are new to me.
Just the sheer horror of what Lebanon is going through. People deprived of the dignity of final goodbyes. Mass graves spray painted with numbers. Human lives reduced to practicality.
People had names. Friends. Souls and memories.