Tuesday 31 July 2012

Lip Gloss - Bath and Body Works

Here is to all my girly girlfriends.

Check out this yummy minty lip gloss from Bath and Body Works.

Originally AED 35 but I got it on sale - 2 for AED 35.

Tuesday 24 July 2012

Chicken Curry Recipe

Last evening I tried out a chicken curry recipe which my aunt had given me when I got married. I tweaked it a bit.

1 medium chicken  (800 to 900 gms)
3 medium onions roughly sliced
1 medium onion finely sliced
1 tablespoon whole jeera
6 black pepper corns
5 cloves
1 two inch cinnamon stick
2 clove garlic
2 teaspoons chilli powder (or as per taste)
half teaspoon haldi powder
Small lball of tamarind (marble size) soaked in water
salt to taste
oil/ghee for seasoning

Method:

Clean and cut the chicken into medium pieces.

Roast the 3 roughly sliced onions in a frying pan with 1 teaspoon oil till the onions become pinkish and keep aside in a blender.  Dry roast the jeera (cumin), pepper corns, cinnamon and cloves and 1 clove of garlic. Then put the dry roasted spices and tamarind in the blender along with the onions, which were kept earlier, and a little water and grind to a fine paste (“masala”).  Take 3 tablespoons of oil/ghee in a saucepan and fry the finely sliced onion till golden brown.  Add the cut and washed chicken pieces and fry for a couple of minutes.  Add the ground masala and fry another two minutes.  Add water if necessary (depending on the gravy required). Lastly add some salt (I usually add around 1 small teaspoon). Boil a few roughly chopped potatoes separately (I boiled them in some left over ground masala so it adds a little flavour to the potatoes. Alternatively you can also boil them in a little chilli powder, haldi (turmeric) powder and a pinch of salt). Lastly, add the boiled potatoes to the cooked chicken curry.  Eat with pulao or rotis.  Bon Apetit!!!!!

Sunday 15 July 2012

Black Canyon (Dubai Festival City)


A few days ago my hubby and I celebrated our 6 month anniversary. To celebrate, we thought of catching a movie and dinner. Spiderman was on at 8.30 at Dubai Festival City so we decided to have dinner at the Black Canyon Restaurant before the movie.

Black Canyon serves basically Thai food. Here are my ratings on food, ambience etc…

Food ***** (We absolutely loved all the dishes we ordered)
Service ***** (The servers were very helpful in choosing the right dishes and ensured we were comfortable at all times)
Ambience *** (I didn’t find the place too clean)
Price *** (I think the food was worth its price as it was quite yummy but it wasn’t that cheap)

For starters we ordered a Tom Yum soup which we shared. For AED 15 they threw in some seafood (fish/squid) which otherwise came with just prawns and mushrooms. The good part was that the mushrooms were not the tinned ones which I really dislike.

For the maincourse we had a voucher from Gulf News which was buy one and get one free. My hubby ordered a salmon dish and I ordered stir-fried seafood and a plate of rice. What disappointed me was that none of the seafood had mussels in them L

For drinks we ordered a lemon mint frappe which was quite refreshing and a small bottle of water. Overall we paid approximately AED 170 (keeping in mind we got one maincourse free).

We didn’t order any dessert as Spiderman was waiting!

Anyone catch the new Spiderman? I thought Toby Maguire did some better acting.

Saturday 14 July 2012

Spa-tacular at Tulip Spa (Satwa, Dubai)

Has anyone tried the Spa deals at Cobone? My friend and I found an interesting one recently - diamond and crystal facial along with aromatherapy massage for AED 188 at Tulip Spa (above Baskin Robins in Satwa).

Unable to resist, we purchased the vouchers and booked our appointment. The day finally arrived and we reached the Spa at 8.50am. Our appointment was at 9, but we were kept waiting till about 9.20 or so since they had another customer. Apparently the cobone stuff is working out great for this Spa.

We started out with full body massage. After the 45 mins massage we went in for our facial which lasted for a good 90 mins or so. Both of us were really impressed with it. The whole process involves cleansing, exfoliating, steaming, blackhead removal and crystal dermabrasion ending with a face mask and diamond dermabrasion (I am not sure if I have all the terms right). The results were pretty good. My face was itching throughout the day though, so I suggest you do it on a weekend and don't step out!

The owner of the Spa was trying her best to get us to buy the "package" which involved 14 sittings of AED 285 each. Well you can do the math, but 14 sittings of this facial is really not something I can afford. She also offered to throw in 2 body scrubs and warts removal for free. It seemed pretty tempting..

Well this was definitely an experience and I wouldn't mind going for it again. I'll be keeping my eye on Cobone :)