Without pregnancy cravings, the Dubai chocolate bar wouldn’t have been born

SPOTLIGHT / Dessert storm

The Dubai chocolate bar has a pistachio, tahini and kataifi (shredded filo pastry) filling. Credit: Getty Images

Who doesn’t love a pregnancy-craving success story? When Dubai-based Sarah Hamouda was with child in 2021, she had an idea: to create something that combined two of the things she was hankering for – chocolate and the traditional Arabic dessert known as knafeh.

In 2022, after toiling away on the recipe in her living room, Hamouda and husband Yezen Alani released Can’t Get Knafeh of It, a crunchy and creamy, orange-and-green spotted chocolate bar with a pistachio, tahini and kataifi (shredded filo pastry) filling. It didn’t shake the world until an influencer posted an ASMR-style video of her eating it on TikTok – and then the couple’s company, FIX Dessert Chocolatier, received some 30,000 orders.

Dubbed Dubai chocolate, the bar became a sensation. In 2024, food app Deliveroo reported that it was the top item ordered worldwide; in the first three months of 2025, Dubai Duty Free sold 1.2 million bars.

Naturally enough, big and small makers jumped on the bandwagon. Adam Smith of Sweet As in Melbourne encouraged local suppliers to develop a version. “Soon after, we added to the range with imports and now suppliers around the world are offering blocks with flavours such as Nutella,” he says. “Dubai chocolate has been the bestseller in our four stores and online every day of the week for the past six months.”

Hamouda and Alani naturally aren’t thrilled by the copycats, but the FIX brand is booming (as is their love of a pun). Baklawa 2 the Future or Catch Me If Pecan, anyone? Deborah Cooke

READ / Sexless in the city

Murata’s new novel is set in a dystopian society ruled by rigid norms around reproduction and relationships.

We fell in love with Sayaka Murata’s Convenience Store Woman – the story of Keiko Furukura, a woman in her late 30s who has worked at the same Tokyo store for 18 years – when it was published in English in 2018. In her new novel, Vanishing World (Granta, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori; $30), Murata continues to push boundaries – cultural, narrative and those of her readers. Set in a dystopian Japan where all children are conceived via artificial insemination and sex between married couples is taboo, the story follows Amane as she navigates a society ruled by rigid norms around reproduction and relationships. Fair warning: this novel isn’t for the faint-hearted. It’s strange, and not as immediately approachable as Convenience Store Woman. But the weirdness serves a purpose – forcing us to question the legitimacy of social structures, and why some vanish while others remain. Melanie Kembrey

WEAR / Slide show

FitFlop’s shearing slides: serious comfort thanks to cutting-edge biomechanics.

My first thought on beholding a freshly unboxed pair of Gen-FF Buckle 2 Bar shearling leather slides ($220) was, “Cute, but how do you wear them?” (Answer: with a wide pant, ideally, and possibly a tonal ankle sock.) My second, a few seconds after placing my tired trotters inside them, was, “If every shoe had a shearling foot-bed, no one would ever wear anything else.” And so it has come to pass; off-duty, I’m now wearing them with everything. These newcomers feel every bit as magical as they look, and it’s not just about the shearling: designed by FitFlop, in consultation with Calgary’s Human Performance Lab, their raison d’être is to bestow serious comfort by way of cutting-edge biomechanics. This is probably why they have a little bit of a wedge, too, because wedges make everything comfier. All of which is to say, a slide in midwinter? Hell, yes. In Chocolate Brown or Stone Beige. Sharon Bradley

LISTEN / Teen dream

A former pageant contestant turned journalist follows seven American high-schoolers as they compete for a $US40,000 scholarship.

When she was a teenager, Shima Oliaee was a contestant in America’s Junior Miss pageant. Renamed Distinguished Young Women, it’s an annual competition held in Mobile, Alabama, where 50 high-school girls – the best and brightest from each US state – compete to win a $US40,000 ($62,000) scholarship. Two decades later, Oliaee, who’s now a journalist, returns as a judge. Her podcast, The Competition, is both a fly-on-the-wall look at the intense pressure-cooker nature of the two-week competition – which includes scholastics, fitness, talent and public speaking – and a reflective journey for Oliaee as she looks at who she was then and who she is now. With Roe v Wade being overturned mid-competition, it also trains a spotlight on what it means to be a young woman in America today. Barry Divola

SHOP / Snap chat

The Polaroid Flip: an instant film camera with serious technical chops.

The Polaroid Flip is a retro-cool, instant film camera packed with sharp smarts and serious style (polaroid.com; $399). Under the flippable lid? Four automatic lenses, sonar autofocus (yep, it uses sound waves to measure the distance between camera and subject) and Polaroid’s brightest flash yet. It even lets you know when your shot’s overexposed. Pair it with the app for double exposures, timers and manual controls – or just point, shoot and let the magic happen. Compatible with i-Type and 600 film and USB-C-rechargeable, the Flip is built for capturing real life in bold, beautifully imperfect prints. Frances Mocnik

WATCH / Friends in high places

And Just Like That … returns for its third series on May 30.

Some watch the Sex and the City sequel And Just Like That … for the fashion, the friendship and the fellas, but what you should really be keeping an eye on is the real estate. While Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker, below with Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon) and co will always have my heart, season three promises a big change: Carrie is no longer a West Village girl. Yep, she’s swapped her one-bed, brownstone apartment with its magical closet for a $US5 million ($7.7 million), four-bed townhouse in Gramercy Park in the heart of Manhattan – a 30-odd-minute walk away (longer in Louboutins). Timing is everything. New York Magazine has lamented the takeover of Carrie’s old, once-Bohemian enclave by “West Village girls”, who dress the same, only drink three cocktails a night and spend their time working out. There goes the neighbourhood and there goes our girl – forever ahead of the curve. On Max from May 30. Louise Rugendyke

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