Welcome To Our Table UAE – For bloggers, by bloggers!

Classy Wine, Exotic Food and Great Company of Dubai Based bloggers made an ordinary Friday afternoon into an extraordinary one!

Whether you are a wine newbie or an experienced taster, wine tasting events are an entertaining way to learn more about wines. It was a good opportunity for me to try out new wines and interact with people from the blogger community!

Our Table UAE Concept

This beautiful concept of “Our Table UAE” is to bring good wine, food, and like-minded people together in a home setting. This concept was established much earlier in Australia and now it’s been rolled out in Dubai. Ms. Monika Kapila (famously known as doindubai) hosted this event and invited all the bloggers.

Guests were greeted and given the first taste of a few wines for the afternoon by Alex, our designated Sommelier from Jacob’s Creek. The wine is supplied by Jacob’s Creek who developed the Our Table concept.

About Jacob’s Creek

In 1847, along the banks of Jacob’s Creek, Johann Gramp planted his first vineyard. His vision was to create great tasting wines that reflect the true character of the grapes and the land. To this day, they live and breathe this vision by producing wines that showcase how each grape variety expresses itself when shaped by the soil and the sun of Australia. And now, Jacob’s Creek wine is well-knowing all across the world.

Blogger Chef – Annika Pannikar

Ms. Annika Pannikar, a young blogger chef did a fabulous job by cooking a very special meal for us and she challenged Jacob’s Creek to come up with some suitable wines to match her eclectic courses! Instead of going for a catering company, Ms. Monika Kapila decided to go with a blogger chef who prepared a scrumptious meal for us. So, for bloggers, by bloggers!

Wine Tasting

Mr. Alex, a designated Sommelier from Jacob’s Creek told us a lot about wines.
There’s more to wine tasting than drinking. Remember these 4 easy steps –
1) Look – One needs to check the colour and clarity. Be more precise than red and white – what kind of red is it? Purple, Ruby, Maroon or even Brown? Is it watery or dark, cloudy or clear?
2) Swirl – When you swirl, the more droplets of wine that cling to the inside of the glass indicate a higher alcohol content. Take this opportunity to have a quick sniff of your wine to form a first impression.
3) Smell – Now bring the glass up to your nose for a second impression and take in the aroma.
4) Sip – Finally, it’s time to taste. Sip, don’t gulp and let it roll around your mouth.

Paired Wine For The Day

Sparkling Chardonnay Pinot Noir, Reserve Adelaide Hills Chardonnay, Classic Pinot Grigio and Le Petit Rosé.

My personal favourite wine was Jacob’s Creek Le Petit Rosé, it was dry and crisp. In case you are a wine newbie, I will quickly tell you what does dry and crisp mean in wine language.
Dry: In wine speak, dry is the opposite of sweet. You can classify the wine you’re tasting as either dry, off-dry (in other words, somewhat sweet or semisweet), or sweet.
Crisp: A wine with refreshing acidity. Acidity is more of a taste factor in white wines than in red. White wines with a high amount of acidity feel crisp.
Words such as Oaky, fruity, dry, tannic are all Wine descriptors and are common terms that you can use to describe a particular wine.

Food

For starters we had –
Chicken Seekh Fatteh – It was deliciously prepared seekh kebabs served on a Pita bread with flavoured yoghurt and coriander sauce.
Spicy Potato Cutlet – This was a killer dish which was served on a bed of tri-coloured quinoa tabbouleh with a lemon herb vinaigrette.
Lamb Seekh Kebabs – It was with pine nuts and sumac drizzled with a mint and walnut pesto dressing.
Crispy Prawns – Then comes the Kunafa style crispy prawns served with blueberry hummus.

Main course

There were a variety of options served on a banana leaf.

What caught my attention was the fact that even a simple dish like, Persian style Pulav which had the fragrant saffron basmati rice had really nice detailing like lightly touched nuts and dried blueberries.

For me, Palak paneer stole the show, those cumin spiced curry studded with fresh cottage cheese does magic to your taste buds. Twice smoked yoghurt-marinated lamb chops spiced with garam masala was really good in taste. Also, one interesting combination was the pumpkin and fenugreek chokha and a spicy yoghurt based south Indian curry.
All this, with really good assorted bread to go with it.

Dessert

The best part of the Friday afternoon was a Pistachio 3 ways dessert, pistachio mousse topped with rasmalai and a hint of saffron and raspberry!

Florette.ae

A special mention to Florette.ae which added charm to this lovely Friday afternoon with these amazing flowers.

A Special Thanks To –

I would specially thank Our Table UAE & Monica Kapila for organizing such a splendid event.
It was a fun interactive session with the bloggers and how they started their blogging journey. I actually learned a lot from their experiences and got to know a lot more about the blogging community.