"You have no idea how much food was thrown off the high chair," says Oz, as Ozlem Erbas Soydaner is known to her friends and clients, with a laugh. The Turkish-German mum of two is explaining, via an animated Zoom call, how she tested the first round of menu items for Sprout, the ready-to-eat venture that delivers meals in glass jars to homes and schools across Dubai, which she co-founded with fellow mumpreneur Katerina Papatryfon.
“Luna spat out such a lot,” says Erbas Soydaner, 41, as she describes her younger daughter’s early trysts with tahini. Finally, her daughter took her first mouthful when she mixed the Middle Eastern sesame staple with dates, and the resulting paste is now a regular item on the Sprout menu.
Ready-to-eat meals
Sprout claims it is revolutionising food through nutrition science with nutrient-dense and plant-based meals produced from whole foods and aimed at toddlers and older children.
Sprout germinated into a business last spring, after Erbas Soydaner, a biochemist by education and a serious hobby chef, gave a talk on the benefits of unprocessed and unrefined foods at her daughter’s school. When she received several requests to launch a meal delivery service, she teamed up with Papatryfon, a marketing technologist and data analyst, to build and launch the company.
The pair seeded the venture with $20,000 of their own money dripped in gradually over several months until they were ready to apply for business funding. Last November, Savour Ventures, a food business accelerator in Kuwait, invested $100,000 in cash and in-kind services, allowing Sprout to launch in March.
Despite the coronavirus-related restrictions that ensued after its launch, Sprout has a reach of more than 100 customers, 70 per cent of whom are repeat clients. Customers order weekly or monthly meal boxes online, and vacuum-sealed meals are delivered every Sunday. In August, Sprout was one of 22 new small businesses offered retail space in Spinneys, and Papatryfon and Erbas Soydaner hope to take their product across the UAE and further into the region later this year.
Healthy food for children
Sprout's meals are built around the Daily Dozen, an evidence-based nutrition framework created by Dr Michael Greger, the American physician behind the bestselling book How Not to Die, and its sequel How Not to Diet. Erbas Soydaner explains how it works.
“For example, alliums such as onion and garlic lose much of their anti-cancer properties when exposed to heat right after chopping. Still, it can retain this property throughout cooking when allowed to rest for 15 minutes after chopping. So, in all recipes that call for the allium family, we follow this critical control point, and the chopped veggies are given ample resting time before heat exposure. Everything is founded in science, nothing is left to chance or a result of random doing.”
If I can get my kids to sit down to have cauliflower and sweet potato for one meal, I don't feel guilty about whatever else they've eaten outside the home
The menu features quirkily named dishes designed for the UAE’s cosmopolitan resident mix. Yani Biryani, a child-friendly take on the subcontinental classic, mixes vegetables with brown jasmine rice, quinoa and aromatic spices, while Easy Peasy Bolognesy, which is served with wholegrain fusilli, uses lentils, veggies and mushrooms to replicate the classic flavours of ragu.
Parents will also find ways to introduce picky eaters to healthier meals: Sprout’s Mac Ain’t Cheese uses wholegrain pasta, cauliflower, white beans, cashew nuts, tahini and miso paste. Similarly, the baked Nuggs & Mash is composed almost entirely of cauliflower and sprouted white beans. Erbas Soydaner promises the mushrooms and soybeans she adds in create a flavour akin to chicken, while sourdough breadcrumbs round out the flavour profile.
Papatryfon’s own picky-eating daughter Louiza, 6, approves of every one of these dishes, and they are among the most popular items on Sprout’s menu.
Childhood obesity on the rise
As mothers themselves, Papatryfon and Erbas Soydaner are hoping to promote optimal child development and prevent the onset of chronic disease. In the process, they’re also re-educating parents, busting one Big Food myth at a time. For instance, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation says 76 per cent of the world gets most of its daily protein from plant sources. “Obesity is a gateway into many other diseases later in life. Most of the time, that’s food-driven, and it starts in childhood,” Erbas Soydaner says, recounting how her older daughter Solina’s nursery teacher reported that children often bring lunchboxes filled with Oreo cookies, crackers and fried snacks – even as Solina happily tucks into whole foods out of habit. “It’s a disaster. So that’s where we want to contribute positively to a paradigm shift in how and what children eat, starting with the UAE.”
The World Obesity Federation ranks the UAE among the world’s top 20 countries for childhood obesity over the next decade, with data suggesting that more than 40 per cent of schoolchildren carry unhealthy amounts of extra weight – Emiratis and expatriates alike.
As the company’s chief marketing officer, Papatryfon, 42, a Greek-American with two children, says she often finds herself fielding questions about nutrition: confusion around protein and cow’s milk are common, and she’s often told about unsubstantiated online articles and even doctors’ recommendations.
“I first found the whole plant-based way of eating intimidating, too,” she admits. “So I get where parents are coming from. But if I can get my kids to have cauliflower and sweet potato for one meal a day, I don’t feel guilty about whatever else they’ve eaten outside the home – whether it’s chicken nuggets or whatever. If you can do just one jar a day of something wholesome, naturally unprocessed and loaded with veggies and legumes, why on earth would you not?"
With research showing that it can take up to 15 exposures to the same food before a child accepts it, Sprout also includes a free jar of any food that a child refuses to eat with a customer’s next order. “This way, a parent has a chance to re-expose their child to the same food without feeling they have lost a battle. We have had several parents doing this, and it has been a great success with their children,” Papatryfon says. That, and a clean highchair.
Company%C2%A0profile
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Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Details
Kabir Singh
Produced by: Cinestaan Studios, T-Series
Directed by: Sandeep Reddy Vanga
Starring: Shahid Kapoor, Kiara Advani, Suresh Oberoi, Soham Majumdar, Arjun Pahwa
Rating: 2.5/5
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
BUNDESLIGA FIXTURES
Friday (all kick-offs UAE time)
Hertha Berlin v Union Berlin (10.30pm)
Saturday
Freiburg v Werder Bremen (5.30pm)
Paderborn v Hoffenheim (5.30pm)
Wolfsburg v Borussia Dortmund (5.30pm)
Borussia Monchengladbach v Bayer Leverkusen (5.30pm)
Bayern Munich v Eintracht Frankfurt (5.30pm)
Sunday
Schalke v Augsburg (3.30pm)
Mainz v RB Leipzig (5.30pm)
Cologne v Fortuna Dusseldorf (8pm)
The biog
Name: Abeer Al Bah
Born: 1972
Husband: Emirati lawyer Salem Bin Sahoo, since 1992
Children: Soud, born 1993, lawyer; Obaid, born 1994, deceased; four other boys and one girl, three months old
Education: BA in Elementary Education, worked for five years in a Dubai school
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Korean Film Festival 2019 line-up
Innocent Witness, June 26 at 7pm
On Your Wedding Day, June 27 at 7pm
The Great Battle, June 27 at 9pm
The Witch: Part 1. The Subversion, June 28 at 4pm
Romang, June 28 at 6pm
Mal Mo E: The Secret Mission, June 28 at 8pm
Underdog, June 29 at 2pm
Nearby Sky, June 29 at 4pm
A Resistance, June 29 at 6pm
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
ESSENTIALS
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.
The hotels
Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.
The tours
A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Scores
Oman 109-3 in 18.4 overs (Aqib Ilyas 45 not out, Aamir Kaleem 27) beat UAE 108-9 in 20 overs (Usman 27, Mustafa 24, Fayyaz 3-16, Bilal 3-23)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 4.0-litre, twin-turbocharged V8
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Power: 630bhp
Torque: 900Nm
Price: Dh810,000
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Know your cyber adversaries
Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.
Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.
Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.
Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.
Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.
Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.
Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.
Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.
Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.
Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.
Dengue%20fever%20symptoms
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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United States
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China
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3.
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UAE
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4.
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Japan
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5
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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New schools in Dubai
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner AF Nashrah, Tadhg O’Shea (jockey), Ernst Oertel (trainer)
5.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m
Winner Mutaqadim, Riccardo Iacopini, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami.
6pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Jose Santiago, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner AF Almomayaz, Sandro Paiva, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner Dalil Al Carrere, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash.
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Lahmoom, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8pm Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner Jayide Al Boraq, Bernardo Pinheiro, Khalifa Al Neyadi.
Kibsons%20Cares
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Expert input
If you had all the money in the world, what’s the one sneaker you would buy or create?
“There are a few shoes that have ‘grail’ status for me. But the one I have always wanted is the Nike x Patta x Parra Air Max 1 - Cherrywood. To get a pair in my size brand new is would cost me between Dh8,000 and Dh 10,000.” Jack Brett
“If I had all the money, I would approach Nike and ask them to do my own Air Force 1, that’s one of my dreams.” Yaseen Benchouche
“There’s nothing out there yet that I’d pay an insane amount for, but I’d love to create my own shoe with Tinker Hatfield and Jordan.” Joshua Cox
“I think I’d buy a defunct footwear brand; I’d like the challenge of reinterpreting a brand’s history and changing options.” Kris Balerite
“I’d stir up a creative collaboration with designers Martin Margiela of the mixed patchwork sneakers, and Yohji Yamamoto.” Hussain Moloobhoy
“If I had all the money in the world, I’d live somewhere where I’d never have to wear shoes again.” Raj Malhotra
