Dubai - More impression and the Abu Dhabi F1 Race

We do have some rules, you cannot live without rules. One rule, as you may have read, is to travel on a Metro, Train, Tube, Underground, Sky train in every city you visit. The other rule is to go to the local markets in every city. By this I mean both the actual local market and the big Supermarkets. This is something that keeps us engrossed. So, in Dubai we ended up at two. One is the obligatory Gold Souk; well it is a local market. I mean this is Dubai, they deal in Gold. The other was a huge Carrefour.

I was amazed at the variety of fresh produce available at the Carrefour. You keep hearing, though I confess I have not heard this for some time, that all India’s best produce is exported. I am here to tell you that this is absolutely true. In the Carrefour, which in all fairness is a mid priced supermarket, there were so many varieties of a single item available that I was surprised. You had at least 5-10 types of Onion. Spanish white onions, Shallots, Spring Onions, Indian Red Onions, exotics like Vidalia and so many more. The red onions came from India. Really good quality. The Safed Mooli [Daikon Radish] also from India was the largest I have ever seen. A single piece would feed a family of 4 for 2-3 meals. It was huge. Also available was the humble Karela [Bitter Gourd] from India. Once again huge. Yes, I know the traditionalists among my readers will say all these big vegetables are tasteless; it’s the small ones that are really tasty. They will say it’s genetically modified, they will say it’s full of pesticide and fertilizer. Bollocks!! You simply don’t get the big stuff in India and secondly, it will be either too expensive or too big to make for a single meal. I say, let us see some of this really good stuff in our markets. The shop was an eye opener for me in as much as what really good vegetables India produces. Sad we don’t get them at home.

One reasonably funny story. While at Carrefour we were looking for dried limes. These are used extensively in Iranian cooking. A lime is totally dried in the sun and ends up looking like a black table tennis ball and weighs approximately the same. We bought a few. Then we saw a bag containing lemon powder. This turned out to be the same lime, powdered. The salesman a jolly Pakistani saw our enthusiasm and told us there was yet another product we should try, Lemon Salt, and gave us a quarter teaspoon each. In our customary enthusiasm we flung the `lemon salt’ into our mouth and almost died. It was pure Citric Acid, yeeeeach. Lesson learnt.

The people here in Dubai are just so friendly. A question to a taxi driver will reveal his entire life story. Taxi drivers we encountered were only from the sub-continent. A Pakistani who loved remixed Hindi film songs and another who we caught late one night, listening to the utterly mournful Jagjit Singh. One Pakistani was from the Afghanistan border area complaining how things were so bad at home that even shopping for vegetables could kill you if a bomb went off. One was Nepali and another a Keralite who drove coconut delivery trucks from Kerala to Vashi before coming to the `Gelf’. Each and every one a friendly soul. Shopkeepers, shop assistants, waiters and barmen all unfailingly polite and, most importantly, friendly. Last night our waitress was from Burma. A restaurant manager came up to us and spoke of his time at Holiday Inn in Juhu, Bombay. It’s just such a pleasure to speak with a fellow Asians here. Each and every one of them works very hard, each and every one of them has their family back home. I wonder why most Indians are crotchety, thieving bastards back home. Too much Maunmohan Singh and wholly incorrect role models, is what I think. No one who can instill values, discipline and fear.

The roads in Dubai are truly amazing. Broad, smooth and with fantastic signage. They seem to follow the American system on their highways. Makes sense, they drive on the right side of the road in left hand drive cars. The whole system is one of exits and the consequent over bridges. Awe inspiring. We have used the roads a lot. We travel well in excess of 100 kms everyday and feel absolutely no fatigue and have never encountered a Mumbai style traffic jam.

The F1 race was in Abu Dhabi some 120 kms away. We did that distance in just about an hour. And, what a circuit! Simply the best we have been to as far as a spectator is concerned. You access the parking lot which is barely 500 meters away from the highway. You get into a air-conditioned bus and go to your stand which is about 3-5 kms away. The stands themselves are really good. Super clean toilets, adequate food, great entertainment and totally festival atmosphere. Only down side was that the main grandstand, which is where we were sitting was bathed in sun till about 4 pm. This was tough going but we got our dose of Vitamin D as well as a healthy tan. I request that you have a look at the food offered in Noida and the food offered at Abu Dhabi. I draw no conclusions, please do so yourself. The race itself was fantastic, full of tragedy [Vettel’s disqualification after the Qualifying], triumph [Kimi the stoic’s victory], triumph over all odds [Vettels 3^rd place], grit [Alonso’s determined drive to 2^nd place], accidents [Nico & Narain], mixed emotions [Hamilton’s failure]. Great great fun and seeing the passion among the fans was lovely. One observation, the Russians have taken over the Gulf – both men and women. Soon street signs will be in Russian. I would say that 75% of Caucasians in Dubai are Russian. They are anyway all over London and now all over the Gulf. Good on them.

Fanvision. Indeispensible when watching a race. 

Beautiful sunset 

A blur. Its impossible to photograph an F1 car when its passing you. Only when approaching even then its a blur. 

Flattened by the heat

Last time for Michael at Abu Dhabi

Abu Dhabi food

Noida food

Dubai - Impressions, Shake Shack & Al Nafoorah

Friday is Dubai’s Sunday. This was a bit of a hiccup for us. All of Dubai shuts down and everybody and his brother end up at the mall. Traffic was light and while we were walking to the Metro station a taxi rolled to a stop next to us. It was very tempting, so we hopped in and were whisked to the Mall of the Emirates. Must tell you it is a good mall. Very upmarket, decent shops and not another Heera Panna if you know what I mean. The scale of the mall is stupendous. It is really large. The roads in Dubai are extremely good. The speeds that cars travel at are in excess of 100 kmph and that is the norm. I asked our taxi driver how much petrol costs in Dubai. He said it costs AED 1.5 for a litre which converts to Rs 23 per litre. I cannot imagine what our Indian economy would be if petrol cost 66% less. Not only are the roads top class but the cleanliness in next to Godliness. Dubai is really clean.  The buildings are all glass and chrome and come in all shapes and sizes. I took a few random photos of random buildings and you will realise how impressive the city is. And look how blue the sky is. We never have blue skies in India.

After a few minutes of walking through one of the interminable aisles in the mall we got fed up. No disrespect to the mall, as I wrote earlier, it was the excellent upmarket huge Mall of the Emirates, a really good mall. But, neither one of us is interested in shopping so off we went looking for a place to eat. Lo and behold in front of us was Shake Shack. Of all places, I see a Shake Shack in Dubai. A back story on Shake Shack. David Mayer the owner of the Union Square Hospitality Group in New York is a very successful restaurateur. His group owns now iconic restaurants the Union Square Cafe, Gramercy Tavern, Blue Smoke, Jazz Standard and the now shut Tabla. With deep research and excellent restaurant skills, his group has established diverse themed restaurants. Blue Smoke was a Barbeque restaurant, Tabla modern Indian, Gramercy Tavern, American and several more. Then in 2004 he started a `roadside’ burger and hotdog stand in Madison Park. It served just burgers, hotdogs and milkshakes. The restaurant became a roaring success. His first Shake Shack outside USA was in Dubai, and here we were completely unaware of its existence. That did lunch. A Burger and a Hotdog, French Fries with Cheese and a Peanut Butter & Vanilla milk shake. Unfortunately no photos. Camera missing. The food was good. The burgers and hot dog far better than anything I have eaten in a non fine dining restaurant by a mile. All the food was seasoned very aggressively, almost to excess. A very pleasant surprise and a good meal.

Dinner was to be at Al Nafoorah a Lebanese Restaurant with one location at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers yet another upscale mall with hotel and restaurants. This building is owned by the all powerful Jumeirah Group. Al Nafoorah is supposed to be a favourite of the Ruler of Dubai so it was bound to be good. Plus, my buddy from Bombay who set up and enabled this Dubai visit swore by it. In this location the Jumeirah Group have managed to open the first and only branch of Ivy – the iconic London restaurant. We made a reservation and asked to be seated open air. The weather is quite nice in the evenings. It’s somewhat cool but since it’s very dry you feel cooler. Great atmosphere in the open air section. The smell of flavoured `Shisha’ wafted thru the air lending an even more exotic and decadent feel to the place. A singer singing Arabic songs over pre-recorded music provided great ambience. Our close friend and fellow F1 fan was with us. He shall remain unnamed.

The large menu contained a huge number of cold Mezze, hot Mezze and Salads. Just too much to choose from. Finally we settled on 3 which seemed a fair selection with each one of us choosing one, in the finest democratic principles. Mr. Unnamed wanted a Lamb Makanek, This is a lamb sausage that is grilled and dressed with lemon juice. Delicious little morsels. HRH the Queen wanted to have what was described as Home Made Cheese with Salad. This was slices of cheese that had a rubbery the texture that indicates very tightly squeezed protein. The cheese squeaks under your teeth. My choice was the classic Muhammara which is a puree of Walnuts, roasted Red Bell Pepper and some hot chilli. All the starters were really nice.

Lamb Makanek

Home Made Cheese

Muhammara

Flat bread

Puffy Bread

To continue the democratic principles we each ordered our main courses. Mr. Unnamed ordered a Beef Shawarma, HRH the Queen a Grilled Hammour [a local fish] with couscous and I got myself a Kebap KheshKhash. The waiter said that we should have a salad to accompany our meal so we got the famous Fattoush.

The Beef Shawarma was requested open. It had lovely crisp charred nuggets of Beef mixed with softer Beef all smoky and delicious. All textures of meat on one plate.

Beef Shawarma

The Grilled Hammour came with a Sesame Sauce, Tahini basically. The Fish was well cooked and the Sauce complemented the Fish. Unusual to have Sesame with fish, but it was very good.  

Grilled Hammour with some Couscous

The Kebap KheshKhash is a variation, in my view, of the Kebap Yougutlu I had the previous night. A minced meat kebab with a tomato sauce. No Yogurt here. Very nice.

Kebap KheshKhash

The Salad was, well, a salad. Fresh, green, crisp lettuce, well dressed and the fried Pita adding texture.

Fattoush

It was a good evening. The food, the atmosphere and the conversation all good. There had to be a bit of a sting in the tail of course. When we asked for the bill it turned up with the portion indicating Service Charge folded up. I did not see that they had added service charge. Also we had fallen for an old trick, we were hit for a bottle of water. Lastly when I paid the bill, the change was not returned. I had to ask for it. This I thought was a bit rich! To add insult to injury, I left a tip. Anyway it was a pleasant evening. I do hope people will stop nickel and dimeing all the time. It does get a bit tiresome. Can’t let ones guard down ever I guess. 

Dubai Day 1

Dubai, and the journey there. First impressions, all biased and full of prejudice, made without complete knowledge, understanding or cultural and social sensitivity.

A preface. I was last in Dubai some 18 to 20 years ago. Since then it’s changed, grown and become a bigger influence on our lives as Indians. Not only does virtually all of Kerala work in Dubai or the `Gelf’ but so many others. Every one of us knows or has someone personally who works in or has a business connection with Dubai. HRH the Queen of Kutch has never been here. We are here to watch the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi this coming weekend. This whole journey is one of discovery for us, a change from the norm, a big change from the norm.

First up, we are not flying British Airways but Emirates. That was shocking enough. Check in at Mumbai airport was a bit of an eye opener, quite wild and staff who are obviously driven mad, stark raving mad by Indians. Everything is a bit out of control and shouting is the norm, almost. The airport was chaotic as at the same time as our flight we had 3 to 4 other flights also going to other parts of the `Gelf’. You can imagine the passenger profile and the deranged behaviour at the security counters. You may want to know what I mean by `wild’. Well have you been to particularly a Mainland China branch on a Saturday or Sunday evening and seen the slightly mad atmosphere? Children running around, waiters barely keeping control? That is what I mean by wild.

The Emirates lounge was a relief, and I must say with all honesty a very good lounge with some rather good breakfast on offer in a buffet. Nothing out of the ordinary but just very well made, good quality, attractive food, scrambled eggs, hash brown potato, sausages, cereals and the bog standard Sambar Upma Idly. The flight was good and the onboard entertainment system was astounding. Not only was the variety of the entertainment on offer huge but the efficiency of the system was excellent to say the least. The icing on the cake as far as we were concerned was the staggering efficiency of getting our car to take us from the airport to our residence. A sign indicating where the facility was available, the welcome and telling them my surname was the only communication. Probably 10 words in all, and we were in the car, on our way. No talking, no shouting, no gesticulating, no deep breathing no feeling of getting ripped off. Amazing. If only we could achieve this anywhere in any service at any price point in India. Mind you it’s the same Indians in Dubai behind and in from of the counter as you would have in India. Sigh!

Soon we were on our way, without a word being exchanged with our driver [he had the details of our address] in a fast car on a shockingly wide road known as the Sheik Zayed Road. This was a 12 lane highway running as straight as an arrow all the way from the Airport to the port of Jebel Ali. Quite impressive.

Very nice airport, very few people in the airport, actually very few people anywhere except in the shopping malls. Being a Thursday, public transport in Dubai is free, that is you pay nothing. We do have a sort of unwritten policy, which is that if there is a subway/train in any city we must use it. Yes, we have been on the Delhi Metro, and we travel by train in Mumbai many times a week, we have 1^st class passes! Anyway, before I digress, the Dubai Metro is what we got onto. Brilliant. Brand new trains, brand new stations and everything neat and clean. And, the trains have no, I repeat, no drivers. I have only one word. Sigh!!!

We did do a quick reccee of a mall before we got tired and got back. We do have a booking made for a visit to the top of Burj Khalifa the world’s tallest building, we do want to go to the famous underwater aquarium and zoo as they call it, we do plan to visit the iconic Palm and we will be flying on the famous A 380. So the theme of this visit would be best described as man-made marvels.

Dinner was to be at a Turkish Restaurant. One branch is located on The Walk which is on the Jumeirah Beach Road. This is a long promenade that runs along the beach. Now, the beach is cordoned off, probably awaiting a new development. The promenade is quite nice and has a good European feel to it. Unfortunately there are just too many neon hoardings to really make it pretty. I believe that none of the restaurants on the Walk are licensed, i.e. no booze. To drink you have to go into a bar in one of the 5 star hotels that also run along the Walk. So we did. We went to an Irish Bar in the Sofitel. Talk about artificiality. A French hotel in the Gulf with an Irish Bar. What amazes me is how cold the beers are. Really cold. No excuses folks, Dubai is hotter than India so refrigeration is as big a problem. Does no once care? Do punters know no better? Sigh!!

After a couple of reasonably priced i.e. AED 40 or INR 600 for a 500 ml beer in a 5 star hotel we were ready for dinner. Kosebasi is the name of the Turkish Restaurant. The Turkish are good at grilling meat and fish. Their kebabs are really their signature dishes. The Mezze offered are by and large generic across the whole Middle East. You will get Humus, Aubergine roasted, Vine leaves stuffed, Labneh, Baba Ganoush in some form or the other in Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, sometimes in Greece and throughout the Gulf.

To start we ordered `Enginar’. This is a cold salad made with heart of Artichoke, Peas, Potato and Carrot and is dressed with a simple Olive Oil and Lemon dressing. This was tangy and refreshing.   Along with this we ordered a mix of the traditional Turkish `Pizza’ called `Pide’ or `Lahmacun’. We got 6 cocktail sized Pide, [two apiece] one had minced meat smeared on top, one had a cheese and the third, a rather disappointing spinach stuffed bread. The spinach Pide was sort or enlivened by the juice from the complementary pickles.

The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Road

Enginar

Pickles

Mix Pide

For our main course HRH the Queen of Kutch wanted to have the `Yogurtlu Kebap’. This is minced lamb grilled, much like a Seekh Kebab served with a Tomato sauce and Yogurt. This was quite nice. I ordered a `Saslik Kebap’ this was marinated Beef sliced grilled with Onion. The quality of the meat was excellent, as the cliché goes, melt in the mouth. Both dishes were quickly demolished.

Yogurtlu Kebap

Saslik Kebap

To wash all this down, since there was no alcohol we had another Turkish speciality `Ayran’. This is a cross between a Lassi and Chaas. We have had several glasses in Turkey during previous visits. An Ayran is truly delicious. While it’s the same ingredients as Chaas its texture and flavour are slightly different. I had a plain while HRH the Queen had a Mint flavoured.

All in all a decent meal at a decent price in a decent location. Worth going.