Beans! Falafel and ‘Free-From Food’ Travel
Happy weekend! 🙂 Those of you who have had half term this week, I hope you enjoyed it to the full (like we did)! 🙂
If you read my last post you will have seen that we are travelling… but where are we?! Here are some clues…
- The buildings here have a lot of glass…
- They come in all shapes and sizes
- If you’re not used to buildings like this, you’ll be snapping photos all day!
- There is a lot of water in this city and it’s an important gateway for transport.
- Don’t be fooled into thinking this is an old style trolley tram – this city has a hydrogen-powered, zero-emission street trolley tram!
- Pink elephants? I just thought they were too cute not to share!
Let’s have a look at what ‘Free-From’ food is available here? For a start there’s fruits – mostly melons, apples, oranges, grapes, avocado, mango, pineapple, limes and plums from what we’ve seen. Vegetables don’t tend to feature too much as main meals, but salads are available in most places and the people are friendly enough to provide something different to what’s on the menu!
Falafel! Yes… this is fast becoming a vegan favourite and it is widely available here – just ask! As with most things here it doesn’t appear to be over processed, generally just chickpeas and herbs! 🙂 Almost always served with houmous and usually bread – but ask if you can switch the bread for salad if you’re gluten free.
- This portion was supposed to contain 10 falafels! Even I’m not that greedy!!!
- Salad and very smooth houmous drizzled with olive oil.
Beans! I love beans, lentils, chickpeas and suchlike but not usually for breakfast – okay we do quite often have chickpeas for breakfast actually (these less the veg)! In our hotel there are these same beans everyday! Not British baked beans no! (although they did have those this morning)! but beans which are quite literally just beans! Well so it seems!
- Beans for breakfast (yes I know it looks more like a lunch plate)!
Any ideas yet where we are? Have a look at this… BIG fun!
- Desert! I LOVE the desert!!!
- Oh yes!!! Those big diesel guzzling landcruisers tear through the desert dunes ferociously! Skidding, sliding, FAST!!!
So now you have it… shiny tall random buildings, fruits, falafel, houmous and beans…where are we?!? 😀
Abu Dhabi! 😉
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Ooo you two! 😀 Who have you been chatting to! 😛 Yes, we were in Abu Dhabi yesterday but Dubai the rest of the week! It’s HOT! and salad for breakfast…
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Salad is always tasty! Haha! You’ll have to thank Mr. Tom Cruise for that one! 😉 Stunning skylines and scenery, hot weather and fantastic foods; it sounds like you’ve had a wonderful time! 😀
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Lol at Tom Cruise! 😛
We had a lovely time thank you 🙂 I was so happy to find food I could actually eat! 🙂 Is it somewhere you’d like to go?
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Haha! That dude has been everywhere! :p That’s great to hear. It’s always a plus to find healthy and free from foods. Do you know what they put in their falafels? 🙂 Yes, but not without a bucket of sunscreen, hat, sunglasses and a recommended eating guide! 😉
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I checked the falafels and eventually (in a combination of pidgin English, Arabic and Turkish)! discovered that they are actually just chickpeas with garlic, coriander, parsley, sesame (or tahini) and salt. That’s it! No breadcrumbs or flour, just chickpeas and herbs! Delicious! So simple yet so tasty! 🙂 Are you going to make some?
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Labels can be nightmares! That’s great! We wish more foods would opt for alternative processing; not all items need wheat flour, milk powder or lactose. We made some the other week, but they will definitely be back on the menu plan soon enough. You should make some and recreate some of your holiday magic! 🙂
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I don’t tend to buy things with labels as I make most things using single ingredients 🙂 When I said I checked the falafels I meant with a person… or two or three! 😛 😀 It’s incredible how difficult it was to find a native speaker in Dubai!!! I’m sure we’ll make some again soon… hubby has a tendency to think they must be deep-fried though!!! but at least its one vegan food he’ll happily munch on! Were the ones you made just with chickpeas and herbs?
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Yeah, so do we, but everyone deserves a night off once and a while. 🙂 We can only imagine! You’ll have to start a foreign food guide for free from foods. Bake some with a little oil sprayed on top and see if he notices the difference! 😀 No, we used a couple spoons of rice flour, but if you were to use more tahini, than you probably wouldn’t need it!
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You’re making me hungry now! I’m supposed to be catching up on paperwork! Kitchen is calling…
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haha! Maybe just take a 10 minute break. 🙂
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don’t tempt me! so much to do!
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It seems you had a lot of fun, you deserve it. Love the photos! 🙂
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Thank you Milica… hubby took loads on the camera and we’ve just had a look and they’re very good… I’ll try to post some 🙂 Oh yes… Lots of fun indeed! Thank you 🙂
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I see that you had fun traveling! Thanks for sharing it with us! 🙂 Cool photos too! 🙂
Lovely tasty foods too!
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Yummy food! HOT travels! Maybe next time somewhere more local… like over to you! 😛 x
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Belgium? yes, yes! xxx
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Don’t tempt me… x
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