Christophe Gavois admits that it is "a little weird to be talking about salt right now. So much has been said about salt not being good for us." Oh well. Most of us love it anyway. I personally can't imagine life without it, which is why I'm sitting at a table with Gavois, the executive sous chef for Il Paradiso, the seafood restaurant at the Sheraton Abu Dhabi Hotel and Resort, eating salt. But not just any salt. Gavois sprinkles a few coarse crystals on to a plate. This is diamond salt from Kashmir, the heart of the Himalayas, and comes with flecks of wild Greek herbs: thyme, basil, savory, rosemary, oregano and marjoram. "Goes really well with meat and fish both," says Gavois.
There is also black lava salt from Hawaii infused with ashes and charcoal. "Interesting in a salad; gives you a bit of crunch," explains the chef, before holding up a jar of pink crystals. "This one comes from Bolivia, where there's a huge salt pan in the mountains. The water reflects the sky. That's how it got its name, miroir." The taste and smell of each salt is different, I discover, as I tuck into the small plate of baby veggies Gavois has sprinkled with his favourite, a salt from the Welsh Isle of Anglesey that's been smoked over oak ashes. What all these salts share is their origin: the sea.
Sea salt - unlike table salt, which is mined - comes directly from a living ocean or sea. Harvested by channelling water into clay trays where the brine evaporates naturally with the sun and wind, sea salt is less refined than table salt. Both, of course, have been with us for ever. The salt mines of Hallstatt, Austria, date back 7,000 years, while salt marshes are known to have existed in Roman times.
Is one healthier? Sea salt proponents insist that it is purer and that it contains 80 different minerals the human body requires. But sea salt also lacks high concentrations of iodine - routinely added to table salt - which is essential for good health. (Some sea salts are now iodised.) When it comes to taste, though, many chefs appreciate how sea salt - from fleur de sel to Celtic salt - enhances the flavour and finish of food. "I find it's more delicate," explains Gavois, adding that he only came under its charms a few years ago when working in a restaurant in the English county of Hampshire.
Impressed by the success of Hawaiian sea salts in North America, he and his colleagues tried adding hibiscus flowers to sea salt crystals. "When we first began, we asked ourselves: 'Are customers going to like it or not? Will they think we're crazy?'" Judging by the recent rage in gourmet salts, not a bit. Gavois and his boss, the executive chef Fabien Martinez, began offering flavoured salts on Il Paradiso's menu a few months ago. They're right on each table, in fact, five tiny mounds of crystals in a porcelain tray. "We leave it up to our guests to add them to their food," says Gavois. "The slight smoky flavour goes so well with potato, doesn't it?" he asks, as I polish off my veg. Yes, as the salt with Greek herbs goes brilliantly with the pan-seared scallops Gavois serves next. But the sweetest surprise is dessert: a tiny wafer of dark chocolate studded with a few grains of smoky salt. Who would have thought?
Baby vegetables - asparagus, carrots, new potatoes - sprinkled after cooking with sea salt make a great side-dish for meat or fish. "The beauty of this is you don't need to do anything complicated," says Gavois. "It's your everyday cooking with a little something extra." He advises adding the salt only when serving, as a finishing touch. "With heat, the salt melts. It's gone!" Serves 4.
Ingredients 750g baby new potatoes, unpeeled Pinch fine sea salt 150g baby carrots, sliced in half 125g baby asparagus, bottoms trimmed 35g butter Sea salt (smoky, herbed, your choice)* Method Fill a large pot with water, add a pinch of fine sea salt and bring up to boil. Wash and quarter the potatoes. When the water boils, drop in the potatoes. Cook for 10 minutes, checking with a fork after eight minutes. (Do not overcook; the potatoes should still be firm.) While the potatoes are boiling, steam the carrots for roughly five minutes. Set them aside. Change the water in the steamer and flash-steam the asparagus for about two minutes. Drain the potatoes. Melt the butter in a large frying pan. Add the potatoes, coating them with the butter, then gently add the carrots and asparagus, just heating through. Sprinkle with sea salt.
A quick shop around Abu Dhabi turned up sea salts at Spinney's (Waitrose's plain Anglesey salt and sea salt with seaweed) and at Abela's (Hawaii Kai brand: black sea salt with charcoal, green with bamboo and red with clay). The Sheraton will soon be selling Terre Exotique sea salts in its lobby gift shop.
Thank You for Banking with Us
Director: Laila Abbas
Starring: Yasmine Al Massri, Clara Khoury, Kamel El Basha, Ashraf Barhoum
Rating: 4/5
Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
FFP EXPLAINED
What is Financial Fair Play?
Introduced in 2011 by Uefa, European football’s governing body, it demands that clubs live within their means. Chiefly, spend within their income and not make substantial losses.
What the rules dictate?
The second phase of its implementation limits losses to €30 million (Dh136m) over three seasons. Extra expenditure is permitted for investment in sustainable areas (youth academies, stadium development, etc). Money provided by owners is not viewed as income. Revenue from “related parties” to those owners is assessed by Uefa's “financial control body” to be sure it is a fair value, or in line with market prices.
What are the penalties?
There are a number of punishments, including fines, a loss of prize money or having to reduce squad size for European competition – as happened to PSG in 2014. There is even the threat of a competition ban, which could in theory lead to PSG’s suspension from the Uefa Champions League.
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
WEST ASIA RUGBY 2017/18 SEASON ROLL OF HONOUR
Western Clubs Champions League
Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Runners up: Bahrain
Dubai Rugby Sevens
Winners: Dubai Exiles
Runners up: Jebel Ali Dragons
West Asia Premiership
Winners: Jebel Ali Dragons
Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
UAE Premiership Cup
Winners: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Runners up: Dubai Exiles
UAE Premiership
Winners: Dubai Exiles
Runners up: Abu Dhabi Harlequins
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
Developer: Treyarch, Raven Software
Publisher: Activision
Console: PlayStation 4 & 5, Windows, Xbox One & Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
More from UAE Human Development Report:
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
Company%20profile
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
MATCH DETAILS
Chelsea 4
Jorginho (4 pen, 71 pen), Azpilicueta (63), James (74)
Ajax 4
Abraham (2 og), Promes (20). Kepa (35 og), van de Beek (55)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
MATCH INFO
Al Jazira 3 (O Abdulrahman 43', Kenno 82', Mabkhout 90 4')
Al Ain 1 (Laba 39')
Red cards: Bandar Al Ahbabi (Al Ain)
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APPLE IPAD MINI (A17 PRO)
Display: 21cm Liquid Retina Display, 2266 x 1488, 326ppi, 500 nits
Chip: Apple A17 Pro, 6-core CPU, 5-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
Storage: 128/256/512GB
Main camera: 12MP wide, f/1.8, digital zoom up to 5x, Smart HDR 4
Front camera: 12MP ultra-wide, f/2.4, Smart HDR 4, full-HD @ 25/30/60fps
Biometrics: Touch ID, Face ID
Colours: Blue, purple, space grey, starlight
In the box: iPad mini, USB-C cable, 20W USB-C power adapter
Price: From Dh2,099
Dark Souls: Remastered
Developer: From Software (remaster by QLOC)
Publisher: Namco Bandai
Price: Dh199
Other must-tries
Tomato and walnut salad
A lesson in simple, seasonal eating. Wedges of tomato, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, coriander or parsley leaves, and perhaps some fresh dill are drizzled with a crushed walnut and garlic dressing. Do consider yourself warned: if you eat this salad in Georgia during the summer months, the tomatoes will be so ripe and flavourful that every tomato you eat from that day forth will taste lacklustre in comparison.
Badrijani nigvzit
A delicious vegetarian snack or starter. It consists of thinly sliced, fried then cooled aubergine smothered with a thick and creamy walnut sauce and folded or rolled. Take note, even though it seems like you should be able to pick these morsels up with your hands, they’re not as durable as they look. A knife and fork is the way to go.
Pkhali
This healthy little dish (a nice antidote to the khachapuri) is usually made with steamed then chopped cabbage, spinach, beetroot or green beans, combined with walnuts, garlic and herbs to make a vegetable pâté or paste. The mix is then often formed into rounds, chilled in the fridge and topped with pomegranate seeds before being served.
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh