Mushrif Park

The long Eid holidays provided a good opportunity to explore places I'd not been to before.

Mushrif Park is a huge facility spread across 5.25 square kilometres located on the eastern outskirts of the city. Go across the Emirates Road on the Khawaneej Road heading towards Mirdiff. Look for directions about 4 kilometres ahead and turn right to get into the park facility.

Mushrif Park was created in the late 70's and was later refurbished in 1989 into its present layout. This park is a bit different from other parks in Dubai as it combines neatly manicured lawns and flower beds with the natural desert feel and foliage.

The large size of the park gives you the feeling of space and quiet. Even though it attracts as many visitors as the other popular parks in Dubai, Mushrif Park always looks peaceful and without the clutter seen in other parks during holidays.

The other unique feature of this park is the vast areas left intact with their natural desert like feel.

Coordinates: 25°13′10″N 55°27′02″E

Eid Mubarak

Dubai Photo Story wishes its Muslim readers EID MUBARAK on the occasion of Eid Al Adha

Eid al-Adha is a religious festival celebrated by Muslims worldwide in commemoration of the willingness of Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. The devil tempted Ibrahim to spare his son and go against the will of God. However, Ibrahim did as God wanted and as Ibrahim was about to sacrifice his son, God intervened and instead provided a lamb as the sacrifice.

In commemoration on Eid Al Adha, Muslims sacrifice a lamb (or a goat) as a remembrance of this act by Ibrahim.

The Art of making a Mushaltat

An overcast sky and light drizzles make an ideal time to dig your teeth into a Mushaltat. It was more by accident that design than we ended up stopping by at a pastry shop which infact makes 'customised' mushaltats to suit your craving for the day.

As the owner of the shop explained to me, mushaltat is originally an Egyptian snack but is very popular in Dubai. Its like a cross between the pizza and paratha, a flat bread made of refined wheat and stuffed with your choice of stuffing including cheese, sausage, chicken, za'atar or honey.





The refined wheat flour is first kneaded and rolled out into thin cakes. The skilled baker that wakes this flour cake in thin air to stretch it into a very thin sheet (see image above) which forms the base for the mushaltat. This act is performed like he is almost in a trance!.



It is then laid out across the table and is now ready for the fillings. We opted for the simple 'Kraft' cheese with a topping of honey. The paper thin sheet is that folded into a small square shape and ready to hit the oven. The owner swears by his decades old brick oven and stays clear of the new modern electronic ovens. The mushaltat is baked for about 5 minutes after which it got a fair helping of honey sprinkled over it.

So the next time you feel the urge for a quick snack, head out to the local bakery or pastry shop and try out the Mushaltat.