So, they finally managed to complete the Burj Dubai and get the thing open. Congratulations to Emaar and Dubai on a stunning achievement - and a truly mind-blowing fireworks display - search for it on YouTube if you haven't seen it.
You've got to love Dubai's police chief, Dahi Khalfan Tamim. I always found him very entertaining when I lived in Dubai. And now there's this:
Nothing says springtime in the city quite like a weekend spent lazing and grazing in the sun, and Taste of Dubai always brings ample opportunity for both. The festival is known for gathering a host of top name chefs and high-end restaurants around the table, and 2019 is no different. Between them, the brigade of top chefs will be hosting a series of masterclasses, demonstrations, tastings and competitions across the weekend, while a host of bars, live music stages and entertainment options will ensure even the most kitchen-calamitous attendees can find a home on the site.
But which are this year’s must-not-miss events? Here’s our pick of the 2019 programme…
Whether you’re a fan of The Great British Bake Off, or you just enjoy a good cake (and frankly, who doesn’t?), this new-for-2019 tent is one you really won’t want to miss.
Hosted by Master Pâtissier Eric Lanlard and a brigade of Dubai’s finest bakers, pastry chefs and international sweet-tooths, the series of specially-tailored masterclasses on offer here promise to have you icing your own spectacular creations in no time at all. From cakes to cookies and macarons to marzipan models of your favourite Hollywood stars (maybe), if you’ve ever fancied your hand at creating dazzlingly decadent desserts, this is the place for you.
Whether you fancy yourself as the masterchef in your household, or you just want to settle a score with your other half, this is the place for competitive cooks to get their hands dirty. A jam-packed schedule of cookery classes will be on offer across the full three days here, but it’s the cooking challenges we’ll be signing up in advance for – the best home cooks can expect to win actual prizes as well as bragging rights for months to come…
A series of the city’s top chefs will spend time on the podium here across the weekend, offering up a host of top tips and techniques for anyone looking to up their own entertaining game. With everyone from local food-scene stalwarts Nick and Scott and Tarek Ibrahim through to Japanese celeb-chef Masaharu Morimoto, acclaimed international restaurateur David Myers and South African kitchen personality and TV-star Jenny Morris appearing at the pass, you’re bound to pick up a few tricks of the trade. Arrive early enough to grab a front row pew and you might even get to sample their creations yourself.
ALSO READ: Your ultimate guide to the Dubai Food Festival 2019
MasterChef Australia’s Matt Preston will be jetting in to Taste of Dubai on Saturday March 9 to host a special MasterChef, the TV Experience ‘Mystery Box Challenge’ where amateur cooks will get a chance to get their dishes judged by Matt himself.
While we’ll never tire of eating, sometimes you need to get up and move a little before you can start in on plate of food number ten, which is where the ever-popular entertainment stage comes into play. Headlining the opening night of the Taste of Dubai will be British pop icon and ex Spandau Ballet performer, Tony Hadley. The former lead singer will perform classic hits including True, Gold and Only When You Leave. Other performances will see you doing the Ballet Boogie along to Italian swing band Mark Zitti and The Coltelli Brothers, lounge to the jazz-soul sounds of South-London songstress Sam Tring, or party into the evening with DJ Sheps, a dancefloor veteran who has shared a bill with everyone from Boy George to Brandon Block.
While there may be far more to the programme than mere plates of food, with 20 of the city’s top restaurants taking up residence, sampling some signature dishes is a pretty good place to start, particularly given many will be priced from just Dhs15. Expect everything from Nobu’s signature sushi and sashimi to Seville’s authentically Spanish paella, Bread Street Kitchen’s British classics and the Blacksmith’s smokehouse meats to name but a few. Our advice? Arrive hungry
Dubai Media City Amphitheatre, Dubai Media City, Dubai, Thur 4pm to midnight, Fri noon to midnight, Sat noon to 11pm, March 7 to 9, Dhs95. Tel: (04) 3148222. tasteofdubaifestival.com
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The post Your ultimate guide to Taste of Dubai 2019 appeared first on What's On Dubai.
The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority, DEWA, has launched a new service that will enable customers to collect security deposits and credit refunds from Western Union agents in the UAE and around the world. [Wired by: DubaiCityGuide.com - A Cyber Gear Company]
The name Vineet Bhatia needs little introduction, but indulge us for the next 50 words. Having opened in excess of 25 – highly celebrated, multi-award-winning – restaurants across three continents, he’s one of the world’s most decorated culinary legends, famous for bringing the cuisine of the subcontinent bang up to date, with spectacularly successful results.
Now the Indian native has opened his second restaurant in Dubai (his first is the What’s On Award-winning Indigo at Grosvenor House Hotel) – Indya by Vineet at Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa.
The colour–splashed dining area is balanced by the rattan chairs and stone-bricked walls, with The Omnipresent Ganesha, the deity icon from Vineet’s birth town of Mumbai, serving as a glorious focal point for the main dining room.
The eclectic menu comprises more than 70 unique dishes designed for sharing, with many serving as nods to Vineet’s past. For example, there’s Daulat Aunty’s Mutton Dhansak, Aunty Braganza’s prawn stew and Monty’s egg fried rice. The menu itself is divided into seven concise categories, each with their own very competitive price bracket: From the
chaat trolley (all Dhs55); From the earth (veggie; Dhs55 each); From the land (meat; Dhs65 each), From the sea (fish; Dhs75 each), plus rice, breads and raitas. So far, so great.
We start at the chaat trolley with some puri and dahi chaat, the delicate pastry cups filled with chickpea curry, chaat masala, chopped raw onions and other delicious spices. Indya’s versions are wonderfully colourful with purple and charcoal puffs. These have to go in your month all in one, regardless of whether that’s your thing or not. It’s a whoosh of crunch, chilli and sweetness.
From the list of small plates comes a delightful tandoori cauliflower roast, lathered in tahini sauce – a surprise hit at the table. Who knew a once-bland root veg could be so flavourful?
Bigger dishes are just as playful. A Jenga-style tower of lightly battered paneer koliwada tastes sweetly traditional and Indian despite looking anything but, while the Southern Indian buttermilk fried chicken – wonderfully labelled as KFC (Keralan Fried Chicken) – demands to be taken seriously. Here come crispy coated bits of bird, served with a tangy sweet sauce.
The playfulness extends to the innovative cocktails list – one arrives with a chai-flavoured iced lolly, while another actually infuses oud into the mix. It’s all very merry, innovative, and, above all, incredibly delicious fare – but with Vineet at the helm, should we really be surprised?
Le Royal Meridien Beach Resort & Spa, Dubai Marina, daily 7pm to 11.30pm. Tel: (04) 3165550. indya-dubai.com
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The post Review: Indya by Vineet appeared first on What's On Dubai.
It was October 2003; the setting was the recently opened Madinat Jumeirah, its lobby strewn with even more rose-petals and incense-bearers than usual. For the weary Dubai hack pack, lured there by the anticipation of free Jumeirah International catering and yet another laser-etched paperweight or pleather business folder, it was clear that Sheikhliness was afoot.
Sharpened pencils and reporters' notebooks were readied as the crowds descended the elevator into the press conference room. It was packed to the rafters. As well as journalists there were endless VIP guests, businesspeople and white-robed members of the royal retinue.
This was an era of great works of Vision™ - from Dubai Internet City and Media City to Dubai International Financial Centre. The emirate was growing, it was the start of the boom. People were excited about Dubai, they were anticipating great things. So far everything made sense. The direction was clear. Trade, commerce, technology: all areas that Dubai already did or likely could excel at.
And then a lengthy video played, introducing Dubailand. Endless CGI scenes of housing developments were intercut with stock footage of theme parks and shots of Dubai. It was more bewildering than impressive. As it went on, it made progressively less sense. The accompanying speech was no more enlightening.
As the media shuffled out, and started swapping notes, one thing became clear. Everyone had been left with a strange, prevailing sensation of tackiness. (According to one source in a production company that didn't win the bid, the video was made on the cheap in Asia). Nonetheless, this was an era when everyone believed in Dubai, and when everyone - local or expat - wanted to believe in Dubai.
But no one understood Dubailand. Other than that it appeared to be connected to tourism, it didn't seem very well defined. And its history has been one of cancellations, cover-ups, shifting goalposts. There was this article by ITP (link goes to archived pdf): "Projects worth billions of dollars have been shelved on the massive Dubailand development" - it was hastily pulled from the web, despite containing quotes from a senior official. Its assertions were never corrected or denied. As one source says in the banned article: "Many [projects] were unfeasible and impractical - the numbers just didn’t work, and they were simply shrouded by the glitz of the idea."
Looking back, Dubailand is perhaps the defining moment when the Vision™ first faltered. Let us not forget what we were told that day, these are the words of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum:
"I would like to tell capitalists that Dubai does not need investors, investors need Dubai and I tell you that the risk lies not in using your money but in letting it pile up. It is dormant and dead if it is merely a figure in an account. I tell them not to hold onto it and kill it in safes, let it breathe and be active because money is like water - if you lock it up, it becomes stagnant and foul-smelling, but if you let it flow, it stays fresh. If it does not flow, it will become stagnant and its colour will change. When I encourage you to invest, I am not asking you to put your money into a fire - I guarantee that your money will be invested in carefully studied projects. I want to be frank with you - I have the courage to take decisions and to bear the responsibility for the consequences. Do you have the courage to be frank and decisive?"
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During my thirteen years in Dubai, I usually had at least one friend or acquaintance who was in jail at any one time. Usually, they were found to be innocent of whatever it was they were accused of.
Farting in lifts, middle-finger-waving, driving with a miniscule amount of alcohol in your blood, having a poppy seed from a bread roll stuck to your jacket, even having smoked a spliff in a different country, not having the actual prescription (translated into Arabic) for the medications you have to take: these were all considered 'crimes' so serious as to justify a month in jail followed by deportation.
I consider myself very lucky to have avoided any personal incarceration during my time there (although I did have a scare when I once told an Iranian client to 'just pay the sodding bill' and a few days later received a letter from their lawyer).
So, the latest blot on Dubai's travesty of a legal system. A couple accused of kissing in public sentenced to a month in Al Slammer followed by a one-way flight home. The evidence in this case seems to be vague, contradictory and/or non-existent. It was the word of one Emirati woman, who didn't even turn up to any of the hearings. And who said, variously, the kissing was witnessed by her 2-year-old daughter (at 2am in a burger joint); or that she'd seen it herself.
Of course, the UAE is a sovereign country, and has the perfect right to make any laws it cares to. However, I do think the government (especially in Dubai) needs to think about the contradictory and negative image that cases like these are creating. On the one hand, they are desperate for tourist dollars, but on the other hand these stupid little 'crimes' (which are just normal behaviour elsewhere) are punished out of all proportion to their severity.
And you can say 'well, tourists should learn about these things before they come', but it is not actually possible to do so. And if it was, I think a lot of people would just be too scared to visit.
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