hello everybody and hi from a beautiful Dubai well okay I am not quite in Dubai yet but I'm
right next door to Dubai in the emirate of Sharjah so why am I here well there is a
big Sharjah International Book Fair that's happening and they have invited me to come
and do some cooking demos out of my cookbook how exciting is that right so we're staying at
this beautiful hotel with our very own private white sandy beach so I want to do some vlogging
so bring you along with me so I can share some of this very exciting experiences we will be
eating in Dubai as well later on in this trip so this is gonna be fun before I had to actually go
to work I got to enjoy some Middle Eastern Sun and sand the ocean on the other hand was kind
of murky looking so we decided to stick with the chlorinated swimming pool I wanted to show
you this check out this coconut first of all I have never seen a coconut that is orange before
and okay they cut it and put little wings that is just so cute and the interesting part about
this is that there's no coconut meat inside like I can take my straw and scrape it around
and nothing no meat it's still just as refreshing a little bit of tartness it does taste like the
Thai coconut water but it's slightly different I can't really put my finger on how it's different
isn't that cool so I ran into a bunch of masseuse working at the hotel and guess what guys they are
viewers of hot Thai kitchen you know they're subscribers and so I expect very good massage
so I am having my first lunch at the hotel and there is a restaurant at the hotel that just has
buffet breakfast lunch and dinner that we can go to like all day every day which is amazing
and they it's a pretty international food but they do have a heavy middle-eastern focus on
their food which I love so let me show you what I have got today for lunch I've got an array of
middle-eastern dip this one is something I've never had it's muhammara which is a red pepper
dip with walnuts there's the smoothest hummus I have ever seen some baba ghanoush which also looks
way creamier than the baba ghanoush I make some fattoush salad with some crispy breads and beet
salad which I'm really looking forward to so this is yogurt with olive oil and zatar mixed into it
so I'm really intrigued so I'm really excited about this this red pepper dip I suppose they
have a bread of some sort to dip it in but I'm just gonna have it straight up for now
that is really good oh it's so intense so well-seasoned everything here super well-seasoned
a little spicy a little tart wow that is delicious I want that on everything time to go to the Book
Fair on our way there I was really struck by the city's unique architecture Shar Joe was named the
Islamic culture capital in 2014 and it's got hundreds of beautiful mosques which you can
see just about everywhere you go so the Sharjah International Book Fair like many things in this
part of the world was shockingly massive I have never seen a Book Fair of this scale and since
I got some time before my demo let's go see what they've got to offer check this out not
just a cupcake cookbook a cupcake shaped cupcake cookbook which also comes with the accompanying
salads cookbooks shaped like a lettuce so we are at this really cool section where it's sort of
like a museum of ancient books I mean got books here from the 1500s and the one behind me is the
very first edition of the most famous book on an ad human anatomy and it is selling for nine
hundred and fifty thousand euros but I'm thinking two thousand years from now there's gonna be one
of these museums with the book hot side kitchen knotted it's gonna be awesome it's gonna be like
remember when books were made of paper alright time to get to work here the support team was
incredible and made it so fun and smooth I even had an Arabic translator I also got to meet
several fans who came out to see me it was truly a memorable experience so thank you to everyone
involved so we are on day two in Sharjah so I have another cooking demo this evening but during the
day the Book Fair people have organized tours around the city for us so we are first stopping
at the Noor mosque which is apparently the most famous one in Sharjah has over 600 Maus according
to my little cliff note here so I'm very excited to see apparently the architecture is going to be
beautiful so we are about to enter the and we have to first put on these robes I'm very excited about
ready to go the mosque was absolutely breathtaking as you can see here but
my favorite part was how educational this actually was we got a quick but fascinating
Islam 101 from our lovely guide one of the men got to try a traditional Arab headdress
which he was very excited about and I got to try on a burka which is a type of face
covering for women that's no longer commonly worn today and as for our refreshment it was
literally a food moment I will never forget so we've got some coffee Arabic coffee and dates
as refreshment and I've just got a tiny little bit here it's a very light color but it's also
a little bit opaque like it's not clear like the Western style coffee smells so good and
so aromatic I had to ask her whether there was any spices in it because it almost smells like
cardamom but she said no oh there is nothing so there are spices in it okay ginger and cardamom
and they've got some dates here oh my god this is the softest most luscious juicy dates I've
ever had this is the perfect combination because this is so sweet but it's not too sweet and it
hits sort of with the warmth from the coffee it just kind of melts the remaining date that's in
your mouth and washes it down this is amazing that was an absolutely incredible experience
when you walk into the mosque you feel the sense of calm and peace and the mosque is so
big so you feel super small we're getting back on the bus now to go to our next destination so
I am now at the souk the central soup which is basically a market but it's mostly jewelry on
one side and clothing on the other but when I say jewelry I'm talking about gold like so much
gold like gold curtains that you're supposed to drape over your chest it's so absolutely
impressive it's really interesting I just heard the prayer that was sort of blasted
out in there PA system and they pray five times a day so wherever you are whatever you're doing
you can stop and pray it's so cool and that was just the beginning in the next video I'm going
hunting for dates now that the mosque got me all hooked on them and I'll visit a meat
and fish market unlike any I have ever seen of course Dubai is coming up too as always
check out the description box below for all the links you need and I'll see you next time bye