Dubai

International Gulfood Show 2012

The Gulfood show provided me the opportunity to travel to Dubai. I was asked to be one of the speakers for the Food Leaders Summit. I couldn't believe I was in the line-up of speakers including Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi (UAE Minister of Foreign Trade), Sanjeev Chadha (president of PepsiCo Middle East & Africa), and many others. It was a great learning experience about entrepeneurs, different cultures' products, imports and exports, and more.

One of the presentations I really enjoyed was given by the president of PepsiCo in the Middle East & Africa. PepsiCo owns Lays potato chip company which I think I remember him saying is one of the largest snack food companies in the world. The slide from his presentation shows a popular potato chip in Thailand. Their nori seaweed flavored potato chip represents 30% of Lay's sales worldwide. I can't imagine the flavor of this chip. He also discussed the marketing behind the different country's flavored potato chips for example Russia's mushroom and cream potato chip. He explained of how some German's memories include foraging for mushrooms and taking them to make the traditional mushrooms and cream sauce. The Lay's company knows what it is doing when it comes to marketing. 

After the Gulfood show, my mom and I were able to explore Dubai.

From shopping at the Gold Souk for scarves, tuniks, shoes, and more to....

riding a wooden boat on the Dubai creek. This was a very relaxing experience and not an image I associated with Dubai. I thought of the big city and then the desert. How wrong was I.

The Dubai creek is home to many ships that import and export goods from the docks.

Everything from produce, dry goods, beverages, and more are imported into Dubai.

 Speaking of food, while in Dubai I was able to sample different cuisines including Turkish, Arabic, Indian, and Lebanese. One thing that defines each cuisine is their "bread." This picture is of bread from a Turkish restaurant. I love the Indian naan!
Hummus was very popular across the board in all the cuisines. At my mom and my hotel, hummus was offered for breakfast. Something else that was very popular was fruit juices and I loved it! Instead of the typical orange juice for breakfast, our hotel offered fresh pineapple juice along with orange and apple juice. The juices also extended beyond breakfast. On about every menu, I could choose from watermelon, strawberry, pineapple, pomegranate, lemonade, and more.  Since alcohol is not allowed, restaurants offer mocktails. I remember a really good mocktail I had consisting of grapefruit juice, lime, strawberry, and grenadine. I can taste the sweet, tangy, and sour flavors jumping off my taste buds just thinking about it.

http://youtu.be/Hp35w1rai8E Click on the link to view one of my videos from my trip.
Dubai was such an exciting experience and I have so much more to share including videos from my trip. Stay tuned!