‘Circle of Care’ diabetes awareness initiative comes to Etisalat Beach Canteen on Wed 2 March

Visitors to Dubai Food Festival’s central hub celebrate leap year by enjoying unique food and arts

Promoting the theme of healthy living, the Etisalat Beach Canteen, the central hub of Dubai Food Festival 2016, has invited AstraZeneca to showcase its Diabetes awareness initiative ‘Circle of Care’. Taking place on Wednesday 2 March - the programme aims to highlight how diabetes can be controlled or prevented and will feature a diabetes friendly dish prepared by the Queen of the Arabian kitchen, Chef Manal Al Alem. Chef Manal will be participating in the event from 12noon to 3pm.

An exciting ticketed event, a partnership between the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM) and Dubai's School of Culinary and Finishing Arts (SCAFA) will be held at the Etisalat Beach Canteen today, offering visitors the opportunity to dine with the MasterChef New Zealand and India winners.

Earlier, on Monday,  29 February the Etisalat Beach Canteen created an innovative concept called ‘Taking the Leap’ to celebrate the leap year, which comes around oncein four years.  People visiting Dubai Food Festival’s culinary hub could feel the sizzling community vibes as they tasted unusual food concepts that the vendors created to mark the occasion. Others painted away at the ‘We Love Art’ community event, took part in the yoga event on the beach or listened to live music from home-grown musical talents.

Barsalata created ‘The Frog’ by turning the inside of a huge watermelon into a fruit salad paradise. The WOFL, a Norwegian waffle concept, created ‘Gummy Killer’ filled with gummy bears and loaded with crushed brown sugar to satisfy the sweet tooth. Mantoushe created ‘Falafel Guac’ made of avocado, falafel and herbs.

Fatto In Casa (meaning ‘homemade’ in Italian) did a live cooking demonstration embracing the ‘Take a Leap’ theme.  The Founder, Alice Scuratti, explained to the audience that they would be demonstrating how to make a cocoa tagliatelle from an unusual combination of cocoa, flour and eggs. The Co-founder and Head Chef Amanda Roselli made the dough from scratch and also prepared the sauce out of gorgonzola cheese and mascarpone. Food connoisseurs asked questions about dough-making while they tried the cocoa tagliatelle. 

People also took the leap by participating in ‘We Love Art’, a fun painting community event that was brought alive at the Etisalat Beach Canteen by Founder Denise Schmitz.  Using her artistic skills, she taught people how to paint. She said: “People in Dubai are hungry for art in a communal setting – somewhere where they can not only learn to paint, but also have time to socialise with one another. This is what we achieved at the Etisalat Beach Canteen today. The best part is that we also supply all the canvasses and the art brushes so that those who are new to painting do not need to feel intimidated when trying to paint for the first time. We are looking forward to holding our picnic concept at the Etisalat Beach Canteen on 11 March.”

Etisalat Beach Canteen at the Kite Beach is the culinary hub and the main ticket booking platform for all major events of DFF 2016, which is organised by the Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment (DFRE), an agency of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM). The Etisalat Beach Canteen is open from 12pm – 10pm on weekdays and from 10am – 10pm during the weekends.

DFF 2016, which commenced on 25 March, runs until 12 March under the theme ‘Celebrate Taste’.