#2 Sake’ On Tour | Mango Tree, Souk Al Bahar, Dubai

Dear Friends,

In case you happen to be in Tokyo around the beginning of November – there are two things you should consider. One is to be grateful that you are visiting one of the most exiting cities in the world and second one is to pass by the Joy of Sake, one of the largest sake tasting events.

It is on the 6^th of November from 6pm to 9pm – have a look at the link below:

http://www.joyofsake.com/tokyo.html

For the 2^nd Sake’-On-Tour I have visited Mango Tree at Souk Al Bahar, Downtown Dubai. 

When I arrived in the UAE 5 years back, the whole space was a dusty and massive construction area with the ambition to be the new centre of Dubai. That determination is now a reality with the Burj Khalifa as the tallest tower in the World, many 5 star Hotels, Residential, prime office space, Mall and much more – with thousands of people that colonize every corner of it, day and night.

Downtown Dubai

The Souk al Bahar is part of Downtown area and it offers an Arabesque décor that combines past and future seamlessly. Mango Tree Restaurant is nestled on the upper floor of the Souk and opened its door just over 3 years ago. The Bangkok native concept calls for modern Thai food, using ingredients that are rooted to its traditions.

Souk Al Bahar

Vishal Gopya is running the floor and welcomed me and my guest to Mango Tree. Vishal has a long experience in F&B in Dubai and previously also involved with the 1^st class in-flight operation at Eithad Airways. Head Chef Paul Kennedy shares similarly a long experience in Dubai and at Mango Tree since 2 years – with responsibilities across the venues in Dubai, Doha and soon-to-be Abu Dhabi.

My guest for the night is Domenico Iannone, F&B Director at the newly opened Jumeirah Creekside Hotel. Domenico is also not new to Dubai. He was F&B Manager at the opening of Address Dubai Mall Hotel and now returned to Dubai after the opening of Raffles Hotel in Seychelles.

At our table we have the-usually-good selection of sake, that included Chobei Daiginjo from Ozeki (Hyogo), Ama No To Junmai from Asami (Akita), Isake Classic Junmai  from Tatsuuma-Honke (Hyogo) – and Choya Umeshu to wrap it up.

We started with Chobei Dai-ginjo, well chilled and paired with the prawn and Papaya salad. This Dai-Ginjo is pleasant and clean, as well as a refreshing aperitif and from here started with few questions to Domenico. Looking at his past experience, naturally came to my mind to get some insight on which are the main challenges when you work as F&B for the opening of a 5 star Hotel in the Region. Not surprisingly, finding the right staff is one of the major headache – have them to join the property in time for a proper induction and training is still a top priority to ensure a smooth opening, as much as we can use such word for an opening. This is the tricky part of any opening where you actually are not ready for it and you’ll never be, until you fix a date and go for it.

Mango Tree main entrance

The Chobei Dai-Ginjo is now feeling the weight of the Spicy prawn salad and confirm the difficulty to do pairing with spicy Thai food. At this point we also had the Tom Yum Soup to give another stir into the hot and spicy texture. Here we opened the Ama No To Junmai and got into a more traditional and complex set of flavours. This Junmai has an amazing texture and when at room temperature it is rounded and silky on the palate. It also did well with the soup, matching the creamy and warm texture of the Tom Yum. 

This dish always appear on the ranking of the top 10 dishes worldwide, based on preferences, so I thought would be good to share a link with the recipe to make the version with prawn at home.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1916646/tom-yum-hot-and-sour-soup-with-prawns

I have visited Jumeirah Creekside just after the opening, few months back, and found the Hotel very different from any other Jumeirah property. The décor is very modern, urban and artistic – with a very refreshing approach to managing the space. Also the F&B choice and concepts are quite refreshing and they are all open to know demonstrate that they can stand to expectation. My personal highlight is the All-Glass room at Blue flame restaurant for consumer’s cooking classes.

Two strangers enjoying the evening.

Back to dinner, we then moved to a fish and a meat main courses to confirm that Ama No To was still able to compliment the cuisine's spicy texture. Finished off with mixed sorbet and discovered that both Isake and Choya had an appeal to the dishes, the former praised the fruitiness of the dessert and the latter the freshness.

On the way out, Domenico suggested we do the next “Sake’ On Tour” at Nomad Restaurant, Jumeirah Creekside Hotel – so if it wasn’t just the euphoria of Sake’, we shall see you there.

Big thank you to the Mango Tree team for allowing another enjoyable evening of Sake’ and chats.

See you next Time,

Giorgio Vallesi
#sakemood