The Food Byte: Dum Dum Donutterie Opens Shop In Dubai, UAE

I love doughnuts. You don't get it. I was born with a sweet tooth, and I'm not afraid to use it. Doughnuts have been a childhood favorite. I can't remember the number of times I had the notorious chocolate glazed doughnut for lunch at school. Can a doughnut be notorious? In my books, yes. They were fried, had oodles and oodles of sugar and chocolate but still tasted so good! I bet they taste the same to date but I'm not touching them.

Desserts have seen a new light of the day- we've got fancy cupcakes, cake pops, cronuts, truffles and even ice-cream sandwiches which don't resemble anything like the traditional ones we're familiar with. Nobody's complaining. While I love macarons, doughnuts will have a special place in my heart. I mean, even Homer Simpson couldn't shut his gob when it came to the sugary fried dough with a hole.

In my opinion, the best desserts come from the Queen's country, the UK. I might be biased here but I haven't tasted a Creme Brulee so good as I did when back in London. The melt-in-your mouth, cooked to perfection custard dessert is pure perfection. And being a tea person, I'm quite picky when it comes to the kind I drink. Fortnum and Mason is my favorite tea place in the world, period. And where does it originate from? Yep, you got that right. And there's something new that we have in Dubai- the famous Dum Dum Donutterie!

If you aren't aware of Dum Dum, they are all about doughnuts. Baked doughnuts. Read it again- baked doughnuts. That means you can eat away without having the guilt cloud hovering around you- the baked goodies contain about 8g of fat as opposed to the fried doughnuts that come with 18g or so of fat.

In London, they stock at Harrods, Boxpark in Shoreditch, and a few other places. In Dubai, the quaint little doughnut store is located in Jumeirah (use Google Maps). The doughnuts are baked fresh everyday and taste exactly like the ones in the home country! I find that incredibly satisfying. Believe it or not, Dum Dum is the place where I had my first cronut.

Dum Dum is an amalgamation of the "D" from doughnut and "um" from yum; they have a tendency to sell out real quick, though! No exaggeration here, but two of my friends hopped and skipped their way to Dum Dum after they saw my Instagram, SnapChat and Whatsapp images only to be turned away because the store sold out. They were disappointed but went back over the weekend and gobbled on what I recommended.

I'm going to start with the must-try. You can't go to Dum Dum and not have this. Even if you are full and your stomach's about to explode, take this particular one as a takeaway. I'm glorifying Dum Dum's iconic Zebra (featured above)- the cronut that features layers of melt in your mouth pastry filled with chocolate buttercream and topped with ganache. Because it is freshly baked, the gastronomic experience is comparable to none.

The best part is that the Zebra embodies the exact taste of the cronut in London. Not much of a difference really. And I stress on this because a lot of foodie venues tend to change their offering slightly when in a different country. The Zebra will set you back by AED 22 but it is worth every penny.

You cannot leave Dum Dum without trying the Creme Brulee. It is truly a doughnut in its own league- from the crispy caramel coating to the vanilla buttercream, it is one delicious doughnut that feels like candy.

I find the crunchy caramel coating to be quite innovative. The Yum Yum is another cronut that is baked to perfection- thin layers of pastry brushed with all things sweet and topped a drizzle of milk and white chocolate.

And what's a place that doesnt have something localized for the UAE? Known as Dum Dum Dubai, Paul Hurley, the founder of the store explained the fact that he tried to capture the essence of the Arab culture within this cronut.

The Dum Dum Dubai is a combination of subtle karak tea flavored cream, a brush of rose water across the airy layers of croissant dough garnished with pistachio crumbs. It is beyond delightful! This cronut is right up there after the Zebra for me. It is quite unique in taste as well.

Other Dum Dum's of note are the Cinnadum (move over, Cinnabon) and the PBJ, Peanut Butter Jam.

The store also specializes in giant donuts that pretty much pass off as celebration cakes (hello, new birthday cake!).

I uber love the fact that more English innovations are arriving to Dubai and along with that, are bringing in the same high quality of food and service that we expect.