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Cooking is a challenge to some, and a pleasure to others. But whatever your take on spending time in the kitchen, there's something most of us can't deny: We love to eat!
And the scent of cooking is something that always draws a crowd, as it is doing at Times Square Centre, where the first week of Dubai Summer Surprises Food Surprises is taking place.
The chefs have started off with a challenging task: making vegetarian food fun and exciting.
Talents
With live cooking demonstrations, workshops and hilarious competitions, the students of the Centre for Culinary Arts in Dubai, under the leadership of their instructor, chef Pooja Khanna, enchanted the crowds with their cooking talents.
First up were the roaming band of zany chefs and their chickens, who led a raucous following around the new mall.
In the food court, chef Khanna cooked up Thai veggie dishes, including stir-fried noodles and a red curry. The biggest hit of the day, however, were the banana spring rolls, which were quickly wolfed down by the crowd.
Safety
Elsewhere, students of the Culinary Centre, like Madhar Poudel from Nepal, who's been studying catering for two months, showed off their knife skills with a demonstration in vegetable chopping. With a large array of knives to hand, Poudel described each one's use and gave some tips on keeping them in perfectly sharp condition.
The students also had an important message about food safety, explaining how using several chopping boards avoids contamination between raw and cooked food.
Proving that it's never too early to have fun with food was Zeeshan Shaikh, 5, who led the biscuit-tower competition with an incredible 28 crackers piled up. Although there were a few tense moments when it threatened to topple, to the crowd's audible relief it remained upright, making Zeeshan's creation the day's winning dish.
Chef Khanna's banana spring rolls
- Use small spring roll pastry squares, which you can find in the supermarket freezer. Filo pastry will also work.
- Cut a banana into sticks 1cm thick and 5cm long.
- Lay a piece of banana diagonally on a square of pastry.
- Sprinkle a teaspoon of soft brown sugar or demarara sugar on top.
- Tuck in the ends of the pastry and roll up into a spring roll shape. Use a beaten egg (or rice flour mixed with water) to seal the edges.
- Deep fry a few rolls at a time until golden. Serve hot.
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