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Friday evening, Zabeel Park, Dubai. More than 2,000 visitors were at the park, tasting food from a buffet that hopes to be the world's biggest, having paid Dh45 a head.
Impresario Events, in association with Emirates Culinary Guild, had laid out 515 dishes, divided into categories of salads, starters, main courses vegetarian and non-vegetarian, and dessert. The earlier record is at 506 dishes.
These dishes were prepared by chefs from Dubai hotels such as Marco Polo, Metropolitan, Kempinski, Renaissance and Radisson.
Favourites
Indian dishes predominated. Among the starters, the prawn kebab was the hot favourite, while many guests were eating the exotic artichoke & bell pepper salad for the first time.
Main course favourites seemed to be the turkey butter masala and the bhindi anarkali (the humble okra treated differently). Incidentally, the salmon fillet with butter and basil disappeared super fast.
The desserts were dominated by popular Indian sweets such as gajjar ka halwa (a rich and creamy carrot puree), shahi tukda (fried bread and cream) and the rasmalai (cottage cheese dumplings in syrupy milk).
Laxmikanth, executive chef of Marco Polo Hotel, said: "I am thrilled to be part of such a world record attempt and my entire team of chefs enjoyed every bit of preparing for this memorable event."
Complaints
While everyone enjoyed the food, many visitors complained about the buffet being spread for just two hours (from 6-8pm). That was not enough, particularly with so many people trying to get at the food.
Bryan Furtado of Impresario, the organisers, said: "Dubai Municipality has clearly instructed the dishes can only be spread for two hours if they were not replenished, so we could not extend beyond 8pm."
But overall, the atmosphere was great, the aromas tempting and people smiling.
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