Update on June 3, 2012: Drove past this restaurant and it was all broken down. I'm so shocked and sad. The oven blazes no more.

I think I did a boo boo last night. I told my aunt and uncle that their teenage son had tipped me off about this awesome Lebanese fattayer shop in Karama. Really? He never told us about that…wonder when he went there…maybe after tuitions?

DOOPS. I shamelessly ran away before poor teenage cousin could return home. And I have this dreaded feeling that I won’t be privy to any other school boy favored hookie joints any time soon.

My cousin is a sheer genius – all hereditary I say, he and his brother (who’s rescued me in a previous post) have sheer inspired foodism coursing through their blood. Foodie prodigies...the kinds who understand why buffets are everything of nothing in particular, or why tasting pigeon is priority when it shows up on the menu. Or why the ability to sniff out this tiny pastry-pumping Lebanese bakery in Karama is such an important skill to have.

Bakery might be an overstatement. Someone may as well have nudged off a few bricks in the wall, shoved in whatever they could of an oven, and decided to slap on a sign squeaking out Danat al Khaleej. For the ambitious who’d rather dine in than take out, you have your choice of any one of…

I’m glad that it was just Chirag and me at the bakery that afternoon. I’ve never been good about snatching a chair out from someone else, or launching myself into a seat before a more vicious seat-getter could snag it. I was never that bulky kid pumping her fists in the air and waving the prize around after she’d brutally bumped the last pigtailed girlie off of musical chairs. Nope, that wasn’t me. So I’m glad it was just the two of us, with a chair to spare as the ‘table’ for our Styrofoam container of stuffed fatayers.

Styrofoam box of hot pastries = 32 toothed-smile.

The menu has a total of 34 fatayers, 9 pizzas, and 16 Mushaltat…the last of which sounded so dang intriguing but no make at this location. Or you can throw the menu to the dogs and demand your own combo of ingredients.

My goal was to get a mountain of the tiny 2.5 dirham small fatayers...but then, the baker sweetly upsized our pastries to a hefty medium, even though medium was not on the menu. It was either 2.5 dirhams for a small, or 4 dirhams for a large. But then, with my sexy Canon camera doing glamour shots of Danat's ovens and baked progeny, they couldn't but help pamper us with customized medium fattayers fresh out their fiery ovens.

Look at mah babies bake.

Whatever we ordered came stuffed in this freshly baked boat, crusty on the outside, warm and soft and AAAH I WANT TO BITE YOU ARRRRRRR-RAAAR-RAAAAAAR on the inside.

That shimmering fattayer up there was a winner – kraft cheese running all ooey gooey over sausages. Imagine if you slid a sunny side up egg inside...close your eyes and IMAGINE. Yeaaaaaaaah. Breakfast on steroids.

This next mushroom and cheese fattayer was designed by Chirag in a moment of hungry inspiration. It isn't on the menu, but after watching Chirag purr with satisfaction through mouthfuls of the pastry, I figure it really should be. (PS. If you’re wondering where the mushrooms are hiding in that vegetable garden, stop wondering. It was yummy, and yummy is blind.)

A mushy beans fattayer…which in Arabic, transliterates to foul fattayer. I’m not sure this one is making our styrofoam selection again…unless they throw in a couple of spices and make mushy beans more than just mushed beans…like super lemony cheesy mushy beans.

A chicken with mushroom fattayer, with strings of pulled chicken and veggies that I scarfed down with the same enthusiasm that I’d scarf down anything stuffed in warm fresh baked pastry. But had it been pumped up with some akkawi cheese and tomato sauce, this fattayer could have transformed from plainJanegood to trulymadlydeeplyaddictive.

Here’s the killer fatayer. A carby gondola of thick creamy lebneh and honey. Sail to mamma.

Chirag and I were like two fat stuffed toys by the end of lunch. I walked out with the tummy of a carb-loading marathon runner, and the limbs of a limp lazy slug…a slug that desperately needs its afternoon nap, but...but that can’t even drag its sluggish body over to the mattress…and so it plops down on the ground into a snoring lifeless sluggy pile…wobbling ever so slightly with every snore.

With 30 more fatayer options to try at Danat Al Khaleej, there are likely many more days of slugdom to follow for me. Mmm...30 more fattayers...that might be the only exciting thought that’d have me back up and moving...even running…

…back to the pastry counter for more.

Danat Al Khaleej Pastry
Opposite Bur Juman, Bur Dubai (take three consecutive rights, right after the Pizza Hut opposite Bur Juman, and then one left. You will land up on road 4b. Drive down, and Danat al Khaleej will be on your left, across the street from Bikanerwala.)
Phone: + 9714-396-4111 / 397-6300