Pop star Billie Eilish has made a vegan version of the viral Dubai Chocolate. Billie Eilish / TikTok
Pop star Billie Eilish has made a vegan version of the viral Dubai Chocolate. Billie Eilish / TikTok
Pop star Billie Eilish has made a vegan version of the viral Dubai Chocolate. Billie Eilish / TikTok
Pop star Billie Eilish has made a vegan version of the viral Dubai Chocolate. Billie Eilish / TikTok

Billie Eilish makes vegan version of viral Dubai chocolate


Saeed Saeed
  • English
  • Arabic

Billie Eilish has made her own spin on the popular Dubai chocolate, posting a TikTok video of her vegan version of the viral sweet.

The clip, posted on Saturday, runs for just more than a minute and a half. She begins by toasting dokme tel kadayıf (fine pastry strands used in Arabic and Turkish sweets such as kunafa and baklava) in a pan until the strands turn golden. They're mixed with pistachio spread to form a thick paste, then layered with melted vegan chocolate in a mould and left to set in the fridge.

When she pulls it out, Eilish laughs. "I didn't nail the side," she says, pointing at an edge where the chocolate hasn't sealed. Even so, the bar appears to holds its shape and more importantly, it looks like she nailed the dense green filling that made Dubai chocolate a sensation.

The pop star posted a tutorial on TikTok. Billie Eilish / TikTok
The pop star posted a tutorial on TikTok. Billie Eilish / TikTok

Eilish joins a growing list of celebrities drawn to the treat. Brooklyn Beckham posted his own home tutorial earlier this year, while Stranger Things star Millie Bobby Brown and her husband Jake Bongiovi (son of rocker Jon Bon Jovi) filmed themselves tasting it with Bongiovi declaring he'd "take all five of these home" and eat them "all tonight".

Irish TikTok star Miriam Mullins, with more than two million followers, also drew views with her version.

The celebrity attention reflects how far Sarah Hamouda's invention has travelled since she first created the bars in Dubai in 2021. What started as a pregnancy craving has become a global phenomenon that's reached kitchens from Los Angeles to London.

Eilish is then seen devouring her own creation. Billie Eilish / TikTok
Eilish is then seen devouring her own creation. Billie Eilish / TikTok

The trend has gone commercial too, with The National reporting how UK supermarkets such as Marks & Spencer and Waitrose now stock Dubai-style bars, with Waitrose at one point rationing sales. Independent retailers followed such as Lebanese chocolatier Maison Samadi created its own pistachio and kunafa bar, part of a heritage collection and praised by model and television presenter Leomie Anderson as the "elite" version.

Eilish's vegan spin is simply the latest remix in in a UAE story that keeps growing.

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WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?

1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull

2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight

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4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own

5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed

Andor
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The National selections:

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10 tips for entry-level job seekers
  • Have an up-to-date, professional LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have a LinkedIn account, set one up today. Avoid poor-quality profile pictures with distracting backgrounds. Include a professional summary and begin to grow your network.
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Mar 13: Newcastle(H)

Mar 16: Lille(A)

Mar 19: Middlesbrough(A)

Apr 2: Brentford(H)

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

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“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

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THE SPECS

Touareg Highline

Engine: 3.0-litre, V6

Transmission: 8-speed automatic

Power: 340hp

Torque: 450Nm

Price: Dh239,312

World ranking (at month’s end)
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Year-end rank since turning pro
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6.30pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 Group 1 (PA) Dh119,373 (Dirt) 1,600m

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9.50pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,600m

9.25pm Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (T) 1,000m

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'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse Of Madness' 

   

 

Director: Sam Raimi

 

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Michael Stuhlbarg and Rachel McAdams

 

Rating: 3/5

 
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How to wear a kandura

Dos

  • Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion 
  • Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
  • Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work 
  • Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts 

  • Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal 
  • Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying
Zakat definitions

Zakat: an Arabic word meaning ‘to cleanse’ or ‘purification’.

Nisab: the minimum amount that a Muslim must have before being obliged to pay zakat. Traditionally, the nisab threshold was 87.48 grams of gold, or 612.36 grams of silver. The monetary value of the nisab therefore varies by current prices and currencies.

Zakat Al Mal: the ‘cleansing’ of wealth, as one of the five pillars of Islam; a spiritual duty for all Muslims meeting the ‘nisab’ wealth criteria in a lunar year, to pay 2.5 per cent of their wealth in alms to the deserving and needy.

Zakat Al Fitr: a donation to charity given during Ramadan, before Eid Al Fitr, in the form of food. Every adult Muslim who possesses food in excess of the needs of themselves and their family must pay two qadahs (an old measure just over 2 kilograms) of flour, wheat, barley or rice from each person in a household, as a minimum.

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Updated: August 24, 2025, 12:31 PM