Food for Thought

Roast rules

I look forward to Ramadan every year. For me it's one of the best parts about living in Dubai. I love the social/ cultural part of it- lovely family meals, drinking copious amounts of Moroccan tea and playing cards into the early hours. The one issue I have is the amount of food that goes to waste. I can't help but feel that the extravagant Iftars hosted by five star hotels around the city are fueled by greed when Ramadan is actually about giving. Ofcourse food waste  happens all year round but it seems especially wrong for it to be happening now. Food is piled high and thrown away at a time when we're supposed to be thinking of those in need.

Get your roast on

Tom & Serge is an example of a restaurant that's put a bit more thought into their Iftar offering. Granted, it isn't traditional fare and you do have to queue (gasp) but I really enjoyed their Ramadan Nights Rule the Roast concept. Who doesn't love a roast dinner? The standouts for me were the beef with a generous dollop of the spicy mojo and the roasted pumpkin. I also heard good things about the lamb. The price point is reasonable at AED 80 for a regular plate or AED 95 for a larger tray and the portions are generous but not over the top. The communal tables and the aforementioned queuing force you to interact with strangers. This can be good thing. I sat opposite a Norwegian surfer who claims to have caught the best wave of his life in Oman  a couple of weeks ago. Socialising aside, my favourite part of the Tom & Serge experience is that they give you a little take away box so you can take any leftovers home. It's a small gesture but an important one.




I watched a documentary a couple of years ago called Dive about people who forage for food in dumpsters. These people are desperate or hungry. They have homes and jobs and families but they choose to source their food from what supermarkets throw away. Granted, it's a bit of an extreme lifestyle choice but it's all perfectly good, mostly still packaged food that would have otherwise gone to waste.

We  partake in a culture of excess where taking and consuming more than we need is the norm. I'm not saying that people should forgo supermarkets or that you should go out and become  Freegans but we could all commit to producing less waste, to taking only what we need and being more conscious with our choices. According to sustainability experts WRAP UK,  60 per cent of all household food waste could be eaten and  FoodCycle estimates that at least 400,000 tons of usable surplus food could be saved from supermarkets each year.These are UK figures. I shudder to think what they are in the UAE.

Food for Thought