What better way to start a Chinese meal than with a cup of piping hot tea? Well, it could be served to you from a teapot with a long, needle-thin spout, by a dexterous waiter who wields his apparatus around his head like a sword, and manages to spill not a drop while doing so.
Tea was traditionally served in this manner in China at wartime, when the emperor wanted to discuss tactics with his generals, without anyone (not even his attendants) being able to get close enough to overhear. At The Noble House, this practice simply provides a sense of occasion and raises a smile.
This sleek, smart Chinese restaurant is done out in traditional red and black and offers fantastic views of Sheikh Zayed Road. The menu features a number of refined contemporary dishes, with a few nods to the classics and liberal use of luxury ingredients.
We began with two plates of dim sum; the first of which, chicken siew mai dumplings with foie gras, was pretty standard. The dumplings were fresh, but the taste and texture of the foie gras were all but lost in the minced chicken filling: you had to really seek the flavour out to identify it. The Tobiko potato dumplings, on the other hand, exceeded expectations. Thin, golden strands of fried potato encased balls of fluffy mash, which hid a sprinkling of black truffle in the centre. Like I said, this is a luxury ingredient kind of place.
The standout dish of the evening came courtesy of a shared starter: crispy Schezuan Wagyu beef fillet. Strips of meat were served on a pile of mint and curry leaves, which had been fried and scattered with dried chilli. This base provided an interesting contrast of textures and flavours (refreshing and spicy) and made the tongue tingle pleasantly, but, quite rightly, it is the beef that deserves all the praise. The pieces of meat had a salty, crunchy exterior, but they must have been cooked for mere seconds because the inside was perfectly tender, rare and, as the cliché always applied to Wagyu goes, melt in the mouth. In a word: delicious.
A main course of soft-shell crab with chilli sauce and shimeji mushrooms was interesting and well executed, but not exemplary. Soft-shell crab is quite a strange ingredient to eat, being both crunchy (crab shell) and soft (crabmeat) but here I enjoyed it. The sticky chilli and garlic sauce was full of flavour, yet it cleverly managed not to overpower the pleasantly mellow crab.
My friend's main course featured slivers of nicely cooked, roasted duck that was served simply (perhaps too simply) with a clear, syrupy sweet, perfumed plum sauce. There was nothing at all wrong with this dish, it just lacked a certain wow factor.
Chinese cooking is not known for its desserts and for this reason we almost didn't want to order them. Coconut ice with glutinous black rice was served amid billowing clouds of dry ice and although it was refreshing and light, the taste certainly didn't justify the hype of the presentation. What tiramisu was doing on the menu I don't know, and why it was served in deconstructed form is even more baffling. What I can tell you is that when it arrived, the block of coffee parfait in the middle of the plate was rock solid. It was so hard that I had to wait several minutes before setting about it with a spoon. When I did, the texture confused me. The parfait didn't melt in the mouth as it should (suggesting a heavy hand with the gelatin) and it tasted ever so slightly old; as if it had been hanging around in the freezer for a while. And perhaps it had - who goes to a Chinese restaurant and orders an Italian dessert, after all? The thing is, though, if it's on the menu it should be treated with as much care and attention as every other dish, and this clearly had not.
The Noble House has a reputation for being expensive and is often labelled as only a special-occasion destination. I think that for high-end Chinese cooking, the pricing is really rather reasonable and for this reason I'd recommend a visit; try the Wagyu beef, just don't worry about dessert.
A meal for two at The Noble House, Raffles Dubai, costs Dh545 not including service. To book call 043149888. All meals are paid for by The National and reviews are conducted incognito.
Company profile
Company name: Suraasa
Started: 2018
Founders: Rishabh Khanna, Ankit Khanna and Sahil Makker
Based: India, UAE and the UK
Industry: EdTech
Initial investment: More than $200,000 in seed funding
MATCH INFO
Qalandars 112-4 (10 ovs)
Banton 53 no
Northern Warriors 46 all out (9 ovs)
Kumara 3-10, Garton 3-10, Jordan 2-2, Prasanna 2-7
Qalandars win by six wickets
Score
Third Test, Day 2
New Zealand 274
Pakistan 139-3 (61 ov)
Pakistan trail by 135 runs with 7 wickets remaining in the innings
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
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NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
Company%20Profile
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
The Specs
Engine 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 582bhp (542bhp in GTS model)
Torque: 730Nm
Price: Dh649,000 (Dh549,000 for GTS)
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Mia Man’s tips for fermentation
- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut
- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.
- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.
- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Poacher
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Akeed
Based: Muscat
Launch year: 2018
Number of employees: 40
Sector: Online food delivery
Funding: Raised $3.2m since inception
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
