Brunch. The word is nearly synonymous with community. A brunch brings people together. It honors its guests with flavours and friendship. People gather around food to share and communicate - and some of life's most intimate moments are exchanged over a meal.
In the United Arab Emirates hotels know how to do brunch well. It's a Friday brunch – Friday is the first day of the weekend in the Arabian Peninsula. Gathering together for a fine food frenzy is an award for reaching the end of the work week and a beautiful way to celebrate the weekend, new arrivals, and departures of friends, colleagues, and neighbors – among other things.
This brunch, at Nahaam restaurant found in Jumeirah at Etihad Towers, is filled with extravagant and artful culinary displays – thoughtfully adorning every corner of the resort restaurant. Flavours and colours allure the eye as much as they tantalise the tastebuds and entice every patron's nose with fragrant and bold aromas. Sensational seafood, mounds of cheeses, grapes, nuts, endless roasts of lamb and fine cuts of Australian beef, turkey, chicken, shawarma, salads, fruits, breads, meander alongside sushi and pasta stations. And then, there is dessert: tarts and cakes of several kinds, fruit, pudding, macaroons, pie, truffles, chocolate fountains, kunafa, mouse, and pastries that reminisce of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean sweet shops, Paris patisseries, Swiss chocolatiers, and a children's candyland – all in one place. At the best brunches, like this one, everything is a beautiful food creations when it arrives back at the table with beverages of choice to compliment and adorn any tasty combination like a fine set of jewels.
Even in a food fantasy land, the one thing that dominates the edible delights is the people surrounding the table. Sometimes we share a holiday, or several holidays from our home countries. Other times we toast a change in the season, or life accomplishment, or the arrival or departure of friends. We exchange stories and information about life in the UAE and back at home. We become a family around that table.
There is something profoundly satisfying about sharing a meal. Eating together, breaking bread together, is one of the oldest and most fundamentally unifying of human experiences.
Barbara Coloroso
Loaded plates of delicacies and sweets, and glasses full – we toast to each other and celebrate everything that brings us together around the table.
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© 2016 Andrea Rip | The Earth Ink. All Rights Reserved Unless Specified.
*originally posted on 09 April 2018 at theearthink.blogspot.com.