Eggless in Dubai: a sweet tooth’s guide

Let's settle something first.

Asking for an eggless cake is not being difficult. It is not "a special dietary requirement". For a huge number of Indian families it's simply what cake is. The birthday cake of your childhood, the one from the neighbourhood bakery with the too-pink roses? Eggless. Always was.

The good news is that Dubai understands this better than almost any city outside India. The even better news is that it's not just cake.

Why Dubai is easy mode

So much of Dubai's food scene has been built by people from India that "eggless" needs no explanation here. Say it to a bakery in most of Europe and you'll get a confused pause. Say it in Dubai and you'll get "which flavour?"

You'll often find you can order in Hindi, too. Nobody will blink.

Still, a few things are worth knowing before you point at something pretty in a glass case.

Start in Karama and Bur Dubai

If you have a sweet tooth and one free evening, go to Karama or the lanes around Meena Bazaar in Bur Dubai.

This is where the mithai shops are. Proper ones, with trays of kaju katli, warm jalebi, and that one uncle behind the counter who will make you taste three things before you've said a word. Traditional mithai is made with milk, sugar, ghee and nuts, so most of it is eggless by nature. Ask anyway. It takes two seconds and they're used to the question.

Go after dinner, when the streets are busy and the jalebi is coming out fresh. It feels a bit like a festival night back home.

You can browse them here: sweets and desserts in Dubai.

Ordering an eggless cake

For a birthday or anniversary cake, a little planning goes a long way.

• Order a day ahead if you want a particular design or flavour. Many bakeries keep a few eggless cakes ready, but the choice is smaller.
• Say "eggless" when you order and again when you collect. Not because anyone is careless, but because busy counters make honest mistakes.
• Ask about the decoration too. The sponge may be eggless while the macarons on top are not.

And here's the one that catches people out.

The gelatin question

Eggless does not mean vegetarian.

Mousse cakes, cheesecakes, panna cotta, marshmallows and a lot of glossy fruit glazes are set with gelatin, which comes from animals. In Dubai it's halal, but it's still not vegetarian.

So if a dessert wobbles, shines, or stands up straighter than cream should be able to, ask: "Is there gelatin in this?" Plenty of places use agar or other plant-based setting agents and will happily tell you. You just have to ask the second question, not only the first.

Don't skip the Arabic sweets

It would be a shame to come all this way and only eat what you can get in Mumbai.

Kunafa is the one to try: soft cheese under crisp, golden shreds of pastry, soaked in syrup and served warm. Baklava is layers of thin pastry and nuts. Luqaimat are small fried dumplings drizzled with date syrup, and dangerously easy to keep eating.

These are usually made without egg, but recipes differ from shop to shop, so check. If you need it in Arabic, "bidoon bayd" means "without egg". Most places will understand you in English.

And dates. Buy the good dates. Stuffed with almonds, dipped in chocolate, or plain. They travel well, and they solve the problem of what to take home for everyone.

A small honest note

On VegYatra, an Eggless tag means we have a clear reason to say so. Likely eggless means it's a pure veg sweet shop where that's normally the case, but nobody has confirmed it yet.

That's where you come in. If you buy a cake somewhere and it was properly eggless, open the place on VegYatra and confirm it. It takes ten seconds, and some parent planning a birthday in a city they don't know will be very glad you did.

The short version

Dubai is one of the easiest places in the world to find eggless sweets. Go to Karama for mithai, order cakes a day ahead, ask about gelatin as well as egg, and leave room for kunafa.

Then bring back dates for the family. They'll forgive you for not bringing the kunafa. Probably.