Dubai chocolate desserts hit state fairs as a hot-ticket item

In the next Texas State Fair, the Stephen El Gidi confectioner will offer his own Dubai chocolate inspiration dessert – a rich Belgian chocolate base and a spread to spread like a sweet lasagna on the cheese cake in a cup.

It is definitely a gap compared to typical corn dogs and daddy’s beard.

From the west coast to average America, dessert creators in state fairs peddled their own Dubai chocolate confectionery, a milk chocolate shell filled with creamy pistachio, Tahini and crisp Kataifi, a pastry from the Middle East.

The offers inspire you with the Dubai Chocolate Original, a bar created in 2021 by Sarah Hamouda, the founder of Fix dessert Chocolatier, an online confectionery store in Dubai.

The bar quickly became viral, with influencers praising its loving, crunchy and Hamouda goodness saying that it sold 100 bars per minute. Now, the desserts inspired by Dubai chocolate have struck the masses and appear in a handful of state fairs for the first time this year.

The Minnesota state fair will offer a cup of Dubai chocolate strawberries at the end of August. The Wisconsin has just presented its version of the Dubai chocolate bar. And the County Fair of Orange in southern California began a Dubai chocolate brownie last month. In May, the Los Angeles County Fair also sold a cup of Dubai chocolate strawberries.

El Gidi, who has drunk cheese cakes based in a suburb of Dallas, is from Libya and moved to the United States in 2021 in the hope of becoming a business owner. He said he was aiming to sell between 15,000 and 20,000 cups this year at the State Fair.

“I became an entrepreneur because of my father, who is also a business owner. He inspired me to be my own boss,” El Gidi told NBC News.

Stores like Trader Joe’s, Costco and even commercial kiosks presented their own chocolate bars for prices of around $ 3.99 and more. There is even a Dubai chocolate pistachio shake in Shake Shack locations with pistachio ice cream with kataifi and a dark chocolate shell for $ 11.04.

Currently, the inhabitants of Dubai can order the Hamouda bar, which she calls “cannot obtain it”, in her online store or through a delivery service. It costs a little more than $ 18 per bar. In addition, chocolate enthusiasts can find the bar of the right -wing franchise store at Dubai International Airport in Terminal 3.

In May, sales of products in the Dubai Duty Free confectionery category reached $ 20.2 million, up 81% thanks in part to Dubai Chocolate, according to a press release from the company.

The versions of Dubai Chocolate people in the United States are more a replication of the flavor profile than the real thing, explains Kristie Hang, a food journalist based in the San Gabriel Valley in southern California.

These products are more respectful of wallets, selling about $ 15 in grocery stores, and they are made using standard ingredients such as milk chocolate, strawberries and nuts.

True Dubai Chocolate, known as Hang, is an artisanal dessert that is made in small lots.

“Pistachios are imported from Turkey and chocolate is a special chocolate with edible gold,” she said.

There is a luxury element and know-how for authentic Dubai chocolate, hanging, noting that making strawberries covered with Dubai chocolate would only have the most beautiful and perfectly formed strawberries soaked in high quality Belgian or black chocolate, associated with kataiFi bits and peony cream with ultimately ground pistachios.

“It is definitely a mass fashion at this stage, but it is far from what Dubai chocolate of origin was intended, which was an exclusive luxury article. Now, it is marketed as a very generic thing that anyone can obtain,” said Hang.

Texas -based food reviewer Zain Mohammed said he was not a fan of the Dubai chocolate trend. Mohammed, who was born in Chicago, grew up in Saudi Arabia and now examines restaurants in Houston, said that he thought that the proliferation of dessert is accompanied by culture and the important role that food plays with family.

“There is more in Dubai than Dubai chocolate. I grew up in Saudi Arabia, and Arab culture is very focused on the family and Arab hospitality is very unequaled. ”

He said he was also worried that people benefit from the trend without appreciating culture. “I believe that there is a cultural credit due to the fact that so many people do – they cling to the trend and then advertise it like theirs.”

Bianca Tamondong, a student who tried Dubai Brownie’s dessert of the mother’s Bakeshoppe stand at the Foire OC, said that she was thinking that it was a winning combo. “I have already tried so many other Dubai chocolate desserts, such as the real chocolate bar, variations in ice cream and strawberries coated with Dubai chocolate. Ten dollars honestly seemed to be such a flight because many other Dubai chocolate desserts cost $ 15. ”

“The pistachios have perfectly balanced the sweetness of brownie,” she said.

Confectionery confectioner Dominic Palmieri sells a cup of chocolate strawberries from Dubai to the OC fair.

“He has all the components of Dubai chocolate. However, we put chocolate on strawberries, and there is a silky cream chocolate that does not harden,” said Palmieri.

It took more than three months to obtain enough pistachio cream for the fairs in which he participated due to a shortage of pistachio and a high demand for pistachio cream. It projects obstacles to around 2,000 gallons of pistachio cream and more than 10,000 pounds of raw chocolate this year.

It was rare for anyone to find Dubai chocolate in 2024. “You had to find it in specialized chocolators, sweet shops or different places that were dessert,” explains Palmieri.

Now it’s everywhere, he said.

“When you go to the fair, you will go your corn dog, your turkey leg, your funnel cake and you will get your chocolate strawberry cup of the Dubai. It quickly becomes a favorite of fans,” said Palmieri.