Eating Around the World - Without Leaving Abu Dhabi

I've never posted about cocktails and rarely about pastries.  And this post is not from Abu Dhabi.   Passion fruit cake at Luxe Grand Baie Mauritius was exceptional.  I think it was spiked with a little local rum. Tiny pieces of nuts made for interesting texture contrasts.   Their welcome cocktail was made with local sugar juice, local white rum, vanilla, cinnamon, pineapple and passion fruit.  Also outstanding.   The Executive Pastry Chef, Marie Meunier, is a genius. She used to work at George V and Plaza Athenee in Paris.  In the video below, she talks about bigarade , a Mauritian fruit that she uses in one of her pastry creations and largely ignored by the natives.  She has 25 pastry chefs working for her 😮

Pappu Paya restaurant actually specializes in trotters.   We weren't quite in the mood for animal feet.  So we ordered garlic butter naan, Afghani chicken and Chicken Rana.  It's now our fave Indian. Also tried their jaljeera , a somewhat salty drink made with cumin.  Now Marita's favorite. They have a large screen TV that show Bollywood movies.  Indian waiters are always surprised that we know the actors and actresses.