Out and About in Dubai

Al Mahara = The Oyster. I meant for this to be a restaurant review but it has turned into more of a ramble on the ordeal we had of even getting to the place! Oh well. Please read on if you will.

Last week I was finally able to secure a reservation for Al Mahara at the Burj Al Arab. This is the restaurant that has the huge fish tank in the middle:
 

 

The reservations were for last night (Tuesday) and as DB and I drove towards the Burj – I decided not to valet. In NY, valet parking is very rare and always expensive and ’till this day, I still have a hard time valeting my car.

So I had this bright idea that we would self-park! I do it at every other hotel in Dubai, why not here? As we drove into the car park in our little Toyota Yaris rental, we passed an amazing array of very, very, expensive (some quite colorful) cars including the hotel’s fleet of white Rolls Royces, and finally squeaked our way into a parking spot (I say squeak b/c you can always hear me coming from a mile away as our little Yaris has got an engine squeaking problem).

It soon became obvious that no one self-parks their car at the Burj because there was no direct way out of the car park and into the hotel lobby. We had to walk up 4 flights of stairs, through room service, almost getting lost in the kitchen until someone in a chef uniform lead us out, then more back-of-house (where they had pictures of staff at various team-building events), only to emerge behind the reception area! What a laugh it was. I bet all the staff that we passed by thought we were nuts.

By this time, we were 15 minutes late for our 7pm reservation. Oh well. I was more concerned about how we would find our way back through the back-of-house maze and to our parking spot. Needless to say, I will never be self-parking at the Burj ever again when valeting is free (plus tip).

We checked in at the hostess table but they couldn’t find our reservations. We were a bit late but surely they couldn’t have given our table away already? The nice hostess asked for my confirmation number and luckily I still had it on my phone. I punched up the conf # and said, “Here it is, # blah-blah-blah for April 23rd at 7pm. It is Tuesday, right?” At that point, both DB and the hostess looked at me as if it were Monday. “It is Tuesday today, right?” I repeated.

Ok, so it was Tuesday but it was also April 22nd, not the 23rd. Ach! Long story short, I did make the original reservation for Wednesday, but then I called to say that we couldn’t do Wednesday, could we have Tuesday instead? I was told that I could change it to Tuesday, but it would have to be at 7pm and not 7:30pm as originally scheduled. I said no problem. So it seems that the time was changed, but not the date. (Why does this stuff always happen to me?)

I was prepared at that point to be sent home but maybe the nice hostess sensed that I had already paid my penance through the car-park/back-of-house journey and allowed us to stay and dine as long as we vacated our table by 9pm. Whew!

How was the dinner? Well, before I get to that, I thought there was supposed to be some kind of submarine ride to get you down to the dining room. Turns out, this “submarine ride” was just something called The Elevator. For the life of me, I can’t remember seeing anything other than elevator walls. Or maybe I was too busy people-watching the 10 tourists that were in the elevator with me. Well, I missed it all. I know, I suck at noticing these things.

Dinner? It was amazing! And it was also not. I had a pre-starter of 4 oysters (one with pineapple, one with Thai fish sauce, one with sesame carrot sauce, and one au natural) which at first seemed like odd combinations but was quite scrumptious. I loved them all! Especially the one in the Thai fish sauce. So thumbs up here.

DB had a starter of scallops with veal cheeks with an amazing sauce. Also thumbs up. My starter was a lobster bisque with seafood ravioli. The ravioli was very tasty and the lobster bisque was properly balanced and also tasty but not amazing. No thumbs down but no thumbs up either.

For our mains, I ordered the lobster thermidor (way over-salted for me!) and DB had the Kobe beef with pan-seared foie gras. I wasn’t very impressed with my dish but DB’s was freaking amazing. Especially the sauce! With every bite, I found myself whispering, “Holy mother of God.” And I’m not even religious! Two thumbs up!

So for two starters (and the pre-starter that I snuck in), two entrees, two glasses of wine, one gin and tonic, two cups of tea, and no desserts, the total bill came to 2300 dhs ($625). Yikes. It could have been a bank breaker for us. But we have a modest food allowance so the tab was manageable in the end.

The service? It was just fine. Not quite 5-star (nor self-proclaimed 7-star) but the waiters were friendly, unobtrusive and efficient. Oh, and there was a really nice harpist throughout the evening.

I’m sorry that I don’t have any photos of the food. Blogging faux pas, I know. I wanted to take some but DB asked me not to embarrass him by whipping out my camera. Not that I ever listen but I thought I’d let him have his way, you know, just this once. I did sneak in a shot of the fish tank (which I couldn’t take my eyes off!) from the vantage point of our dining table:
 

 

From what I could see, there was a leopard and a black-tip shark, moral eel, triggers, huge grouper, angelfish, butterflyfish, and much more.

And we did find our way back behind the reception area, through the staff photo gallery and room service, and finally down the 4 flights into the bowels of the car-park. Just a few confused stares from the staff along the way.

Tags: food, restaurant | 2 comments »

A friend ordered a strawberry smoothie the other day and it was served in a cup with a domed lid. Nothing special, right? That’s how Starbuck’s frappuccino’s are served. But then I saw the straw and it was one of those large diameter straws. The ones that are used with bubble tea so that the tapioca pearls can’t be sucked up. That’s when it hit me again. The darned bubble tea craving.

I have no idea if I will be able to find this concoction in Dubai. But I do have one lead. A very vague lead: Karama. However, that is like saying: “Somewhere downtown,” or, “By the Mosque.”

It took me 3 attempts over a 2 month period, driving and walking around in circles, before I was able to find the Korean supermarket which was also located in Karama. And same effort to find the Thai supermarket. Also located in Karama. Neither were easy to find because they were on side streets and everyone in Dubai gives directions like this: turn right at the post office, left at the house with the yellow awning, second right after the speed bump, straight at the roundabout, u-turn at the mosque, second right. It’s no wonder there’s no postal delivery system to homes and businesses in Dubai! Street signs? What street signs?

Anyway, so I’ve been told that there may be a bubble tea place in Karama. (I am bolding this area because I cannot say Karama without narrowing my eyes and without a low growl coming from the back of my throat due to flashbacks of driving in circles.) But, I’m always up for a little adventure and exploring. So what I think I’ll do is systematically weave in and out of streets until I find this place. Worse that can happen is I discover tons of other cool little shops and markets. I heard there’s a fish market down there – maybe I’ll pick up some fresh seafood for dinner. And now that I know where the Korean market is – I’ll stop by for some kimchi and Korean ramen.

Wish me luck!

Tags: bubble tea, driving, food | 34 comments »

One of the things that I would like to accomplish during my stint in Dubai is to learn how to cook Indian cuisine as well as Emirati, Moroccan, Lebanese, Egyptian, Iranian, etc.

I was able to do the same thing in Puerto Rico during my first expat assignment and take advantage of the local produce, flavorings, and seasonings to make such dishes as Asopao de Pollo (the national soup), baking up maduros (ripe plantains), and learning how to make a certain restaurant’s famous pique (hot sauce). Too bad I was never able to like tostones or mofongos.

Walking around the spice souk or even the spice aisles in Carrefour and Lulu’s, I am always inspired by all the variety of spice offerings that are available. It would be a great shame to not learn a few dishes or two while I am here and make use of all the available spices and local produce.

Of course, I can’t cook the foods if I don’t know what they taste like! So part of the fun will also be visiting restaurants that serve Indian and Middle Eastern cuisine to taste and smell the different dishes and hopefully even replicate some of them at home.

Mm…Can’t wait!

Tags: food | no comments »

Yesterday, DB forwarded me the following statement from our internet service provider (du) regarding the start of censorship:

“It is our constant endeavour to maintain the perfect balance between ensuring that all our customers’ requirements are met, and that we comply with all the guidelines of the TRA, including those on internet content filtering.

The World Wide Web offers us great opportunities to get and share information and to communicate. However, it is imperative that when making use of this technology for its enormous benefits, we respect the moral, social and cultural values of the United Arab Emirates.

du will be blocking all content that is not in line with these values, effective from 14 April 2008. Due to the nature of the content filtering process, some harmless sites may also inadvertently be blocked. We request our customers’ assistance in informing us when a site that they consider harmless has been blocked, by writing to safesurf@du.ae so we can look into the matter.

du counts on the understanding, support and encouragement of each of our valued customers as we continue to further strengthen our portfolio of products and services, and with all the systems that will fall into place in the process.”

Previously, du customers (me) were able to access many sites that were blocked by the other UAE internet provider (Etisalat). Sites like s k y p e. Which is still working by the way.

Websites that contain pornography, hatred, child abuse, alcohol, gambling or terrorism are blocked using filtering software that recognizes the subject material and blocks the sites from being viewed. For more on this story, click here.

So if I were to access let’s say the p l a y g i r l website, this is what I would see:

My question is – why do they bother? Well, I know why, but It’s not like we can’t use a p r o x y to access these sites.

Tags: government | 1 comment »

Woo-hoo!

After nearly 6 months of eating on the sofa or floor, we’ve finally picked out a dining table and it was delivered to our apartment this past weekend:

Now I can scratch off item #3 from my list of apartment needs.

I am most excited about this piece of furniture – more than anything in our apartment that we have gotten. Not only because I love to eat and I think about food all the time (like I have been dreaming all morning about my lunch of leftover pork chops to be reincarnated as a pork sandwich on a baguette with mayo, whole-grain mustard, lettuce, and tomato) but this table means that we can FINALLY have friends over for dinner…if we had friends that is…(joke).

We lived in a small studio in New York so our apartment was never visitor friendly and our dining table was also the computer table, work table, catch-all table and it only sat 2 (on a good day).

Now we can actually have FOUR friends over and it doesn’t matter that we don’t have table service for 6 and so everything from plates and silverware to cups and glasses will be mismatched. All that matters is the company…oh, and the alcohol.

Tags: apartment | 2 comments »

I have a small balcony where I have been trying to grow some herbs. Currently I have sweet basil, thyme, rosemary, garlic chives, spearmint, parsley, cilantro, and sage.
 

 

The mint, rosemary, and thyme I bought from the Dubai Garden Center. The mint and thyme are thriving but the rosemary looks a little sad.

Everything else I grew from seed and it took several attempts as the seedlings would sprout and then die. It wasn’t until I started giving them plant food (a product called Phostrogen as can’t seem to find Miracle Gro) that the little plants started to grow.

The sage and garlic chives are doing pretty well. The basil is growing but it looks like the leaves are being attacked by aphids or something as there are tiny red bugs on the underside of the leaf and white spots on the top:
 

 

My parsley isn’t doing very well either. It looks like the cilantro in the photo below but droopy and faded green. The cilantro I just started from seed again as the last batch failed to grow past one leaf. Keeping my fingers crossed that they’ll make it this time. Still in the one-leaf stage though:
 

 

So it seems that I’m not much of a green thumb these days. Here’s hoping that all the plantlings do survive and that I can use them for cooking soon.

Tags: gardening | 6 comments »

I just found out that this blog I quite enjoy reading, called Stuff White People Like, has been picked up for a $300,000 book deal by Random House. Not bad for a blog that started up only 4 months ago in January. NYTimes article is here.

The postings, which satires topics in pop culture, are quite hilarious to read.

Tags: random | no comments »