Food Talk.

Branding itself as a little piece of Tunisia in the heart of Dubai, Le Carthage presents culturally inspired cuisine. It is on the border of Satwa and Jumeirah 1, which could well pass for the UAE's heart, although sadly this particular location has no soul. Up the escalator and hidden in an obscure corner of the even more obscure Al Ghazal Mall, this is not an establishment that many are likely to chance upon. Shame, as the food is really rather good and to my knowledge it's the only Tunisian themed restaurant in town. As far as North African cuisine goes, there's Tagine at the One and Only Royal Mirage and Marrakech at the Shangri-La, but as their names imply, these are Moroccan and there's an entire country in between Tunisia and Morocco. In appearance Le Carthage is a combination of a French patisserie and East African inspired teahouse. Beautifully ornate sweets and biscuits beam up at you from the glass counter near the door and more people appear to pop in to buy kilogrammes of these delicate petit fours, than they do to actually pull up a seat to eat. We were uncertain if they actually serve food, but the vast menu reveals that the kitchen is very much in business. Tunisians are a laid back bunch who pride themselves on their traditional slow cooked dishes. But had our hosts at Le Carthage been any more laid back, they would have been horizontal. This is not the ideal place for a brisk, business lunch; instead opt for a leisurely evening experience or a lazy and drawn out Saturday afternoon lunch with friends or family. We'd already polished off one bread basket by the time our starters arrived. The crisp fresh rolls were accompanied by three dainty bowls of shredded radish with lemon, a devilishly hot harissa in olive oil, sweet strips of onions dotted with raisins and some tangy black olives that smacked of hot dry summers and the Mediterranean sea. Thankfully, when it eventually materialised, the Hannibal Kanya, my partner's starter, bore no resemblance to the Doctor Lecter character from the film 'Silence of the Lambs'. The only victims of skinning were the tomatoes in the aubergine salad; an interesting and more solid take on the Lebanese dip mouttabel. And, to her relief, not one of the four Tunisian tapas styled dishes left a bitter taste in the mouth; the braised carrots were, in fact, as sweet and soft as a sleeping baby and the chopped cucumber and tomato salad provided a juicy accompaniment for the small inviting sausages of spicy minced lamb. My tagine of the day starter injected the meal with an element of surprise. Our waiter had described is as being 'very nice, with some cheese and eggs'. Which indeed it was, but it was not a tagine as I know it. There was no cone-shaped clay pot covered a simmering stew, instead a school bus yellow mound of fluffy omelette the size of an ostrich egg surrounded by a garland of lemon slices was proudly presented. It was as thick as Rapunzel's plaits and, feeling it tip my cholesterol to a dangerous level, I gave up. We could have done with a little break in between courses - a siesta would have been nice - but the staff had stirred themselves from their nonchalant pace and I was swiftly presented with my mosli. A Tunisian speciality, this time I got the clay hood, which was lifted to reveal a hefty hunk of slow-cooked lamb in a rich salty brown gravy. Two potatoes stood to attention on either side, while the generously portioned and full flavoured meat slid off the jutting leg bone virtually before my utensils had made contact with it. My partner's dish, entitled 'fell a la Tunisienne' was not as generous in the meat department, but there was no shortage of chilli infused, polo mint shaped pasta with a dense tomato sauce. To put it bluntly, this is heavy stuff. If you're intending to go and lose yourself in the desert for a few days, be sure to get yourself to Le Carthage first - you may even last the five to seven days that a camel can go without eating. With groaning stomachs, we had to take our dessert away in a big box. The immaculate bonbons could have been designed by high end Swiss watchmaker; such is the intricate attention to the detail and precision in colour of each individual desert. At dhs120 for half a kilo, they're not cheap, but time and personalised care comes at a price.

2007 Al Sidra Media LLC

Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company