Anthony Rahayel does not hand out easy praise. As the voice behind NoGarlicNoOnions, he has tasted more of this region's food than almost anyone. So when he sat down with us to try our paletas and hear where they came from, we paid attention.
Here is the whole story, in his words and ours.
The summer of 2024 was a hot one, and our kitchen sits right by the pool. Our girls, Luna and Bella, were in and out of the water all day, and they kept asking for something cold.
So Amer, their dad, started freezing a homemade Lebanese lemonade in a single silicone mould. Then he began blending fresh fruit into it. Real mango, real strawberry, nothing from a packet.
One evening Luna took a bite, then another, and looked up. "Dad, why don't we sell these?" Bella agreed at once, we could sell them to the whole compound.
It was a small moment. It lit something we have not been able to put down since.
Amer did not come from the ice cream world. He spent years in the corporate one, at Apple, and at Mars before that, on the side of the business that makes things at scale.
So once Luna's dare took hold, he thought like a maker. He looked for a way to make more than one paleta at a time, found a popsicle machine company called Finamac, and reached out.
As it happened, Finamac were about to bring that exact line of machines to Dubai for a few days. What could have taken months arrived in a week. We took it as a sign.
Today those machines run out of a boutique kitchen in Al Barsha South, alongside blast freezers, fresh vanilla pods, and a lot of late nights. What you see is what you get. Every paleta is made here, by hand, in small batches.
There was one rule from the start. Dima, Amer's wife, keeps a close eye on how much sugar the kids have, so a paleta they could enjoy every day could not lean on it.
That sent us down a long road. We tried honey and agave, then found allulose, a natural sweetener that comes from fruits like figs and raisins and barely registers on your blood sugar.
Getting it right took six months and eighteen recipes, rebuilt from scratch, with around twelve thousand paletas handed out for honest feedback. The fruit stayed. The refined sugar did not.
The result is a dessert that tastes like one, with no spike to follow. Friends who watch their sugar closely tell us they can finally reach for something sweet without a second thought.
We know we are not the only popsicle in Dubai, and we are not trying to be. We would rather make one thing well and let it speak for itself.
Our hope is simple. One day you see a plain orange wrapper with a small logo, no photos and no claims, and you already know it is a LA PALETA.
That is the whole idea. A treat we made for our own kids, made the same way for yours.
The best review is your own. Explore our flavors and find the one Luna would reach for first.
Shop all paletas, read more about how we started, or find us around Dubai.
LA PALETA was started by Amer El Masri, a Dubai dad who began making paletas for his daughters, Luna and Bella, with real fruit and no refined sugar. Luna's line, "Dad, why don't we sell these," became the whole brand.
Allulose is a natural sweetener found in fruits like figs and raisins. It tastes like sugar but has close to zero calories and barely affects blood sugar, so our paletas taste like dessert without the spike. You can read more on our FAQ page.
Every paleta is made by hand in small batches in our boutique kitchen in Al Barsha South, Dubai, with real fruit and fresh ingredients.
Our paletas have no refined sugar and are sweetened with allulose, which has a very low effect on blood sugar. Many customers who watch their sugar enjoy them, though we always suggest checking with your doctor about your own needs.
A paleta is a handcrafted frozen fruit bar with Mexican roots, real fruit, not flavored ice. What sets one apart, and where to find ours in Dubai.
Anthony Rahayel of NoGarlicNoOnions sums up LA PALETA in under a minute. Real fruit, no refined sugar, made in Dubai.