On New Year’s Eve, Ben was at work from morning till midnight as usual. He took his camera along in case he had a chance to see the fireworks display outside the Burj Al Arab after work.
A New Year’s Eve dinner menu was created, and special table menus were ‘printed’ just for this one night.
The menu was ‘lasered’ onto the glass prism, and visible only when lit up.
This in Manfred, the Jr Sous Chef/Chef Tournant at Al Mahara. He's from Austria n his girlfriend Jana is from Czech Rep. Jana n I have met up a couple of times, for coffee or to go to the beach.
Here’s the kitchen team of Al Mahara restaurant.
1-Ansgar, Sous Chef (Germany); 2-Darrell, Chef de Cuisine (Australia); 3-Benjamin, Sous Chef (Singapore); 4-Ashish, Commis Cook (India); 5-Wang, Wok Chef (China); 6-Tinnakorn, Jr Sous Chef (Thailand); 7-Manfred, Jr Sous Chef (Austria); 8-Peter, Commis Cook (Goa); 9-Amir, Demi Chef (Malaysia); 10-Olivia, Pastry Chef (Korea); 11-Andrew, Commis Cook (Germany); 12- ?; 13- ?; 14- ?; 15- ?; 16- ?; 17-Simon (China); 18- ?
I had my kind of celebration at home. I turned down Jana's offer to go out n watch the fireworks by the beach ‘cos I wanted to stay home n watch Harry Potter! Yeah… nerdus maximus. But shiok what… They were showing The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets back to back from 11pm. Harry Potter movie marathon! Would have been better if they showed all four back to back, but this is Dubai local TV so I should just be grateful that it wasn't dubbed in Arabic.
On New Year's Day, Ben worked the early shift (8am - 5pm), so we went for a movie after that. Saw III. Pretty gory movie to start a new year, but Ben loved it of course. Movie tickets here cost 35 dirhams each. So movie for 2 plus popcorn+drink comes up to almost 100 dirhams (S$40plus)!
Ben worked the early shift on Christmas Day too till 6pm, so we went for a buffet dinner at JW Marriott that night. The spread was pretty good at first... cos the starters were excellent... sushi, sashimi, oysters, salmon gravlax... Then we went on to mains, quite good too - they had roast turkey & roast beef at the carving stations, and Ben loved the turkey stuffing.
Also, grilled crayfish (which they labelled as "lobsters") and scampi. The desserts were a real letdown. Minced pie...yuck! Christmas pudding...yuck! They even managed to make chocolate mousse yucky!
The restaurant played piped in Arabic music so Ben asked the waiter why they weren't playing Christmas carols since it was after all, Christmas Day, and we were having a Christmas buffet. The waiter just gave us a blur look n was like, "uhh...ah...err...". But anyway, with or without carols, decor etc, Christmas just isn't Christmas-sy here, and Dubai just can't do Christmas. We found out why after dinner.
These buggers killed Santa.
A New Year’s Eve dinner menu was created, and special table menus were ‘printed’ just for this one night.
The menu was ‘lasered’ onto the glass prism, and visible only when lit up.
This in Manfred, the Jr Sous Chef/Chef Tournant at Al Mahara. He's from Austria n his girlfriend Jana is from Czech Rep. Jana n I have met up a couple of times, for coffee or to go to the beach.
Here’s the kitchen team of Al Mahara restaurant.
1-Ansgar, Sous Chef (Germany); 2-Darrell, Chef de Cuisine (Australia); 3-Benjamin, Sous Chef (Singapore); 4-Ashish, Commis Cook (India); 5-Wang, Wok Chef (China); 6-Tinnakorn, Jr Sous Chef (Thailand); 7-Manfred, Jr Sous Chef (Austria); 8-Peter, Commis Cook (Goa); 9-Amir, Demi Chef (Malaysia); 10-Olivia, Pastry Chef (Korea); 11-Andrew, Commis Cook (Germany); 12- ?; 13- ?; 14- ?; 15- ?; 16- ?; 17-Simon (China); 18- ?I had my kind of celebration at home. I turned down Jana's offer to go out n watch the fireworks by the beach ‘cos I wanted to stay home n watch Harry Potter! Yeah… nerdus maximus. But shiok what… They were showing The Philosopher’s Stone and The Chamber of Secrets back to back from 11pm. Harry Potter movie marathon! Would have been better if they showed all four back to back, but this is Dubai local TV so I should just be grateful that it wasn't dubbed in Arabic.
On New Year's Day, Ben worked the early shift (8am - 5pm), so we went for a movie after that. Saw III. Pretty gory movie to start a new year, but Ben loved it of course. Movie tickets here cost 35 dirhams each. So movie for 2 plus popcorn+drink comes up to almost 100 dirhams (S$40plus)!
Ben worked the early shift on Christmas Day too till 6pm, so we went for a buffet dinner at JW Marriott that night. The spread was pretty good at first... cos the starters were excellent... sushi, sashimi, oysters, salmon gravlax... Then we went on to mains, quite good too - they had roast turkey & roast beef at the carving stations, and Ben loved the turkey stuffing.Also, grilled crayfish (which they labelled as "lobsters") and scampi. The desserts were a real letdown. Minced pie...yuck! Christmas pudding...yuck! They even managed to make chocolate mousse yucky!
The restaurant played piped in Arabic music so Ben asked the waiter why they weren't playing Christmas carols since it was after all, Christmas Day, and we were having a Christmas buffet. The waiter just gave us a blur look n was like, "uhh...ah...err...". But anyway, with or without carols, decor etc, Christmas just isn't Christmas-sy here, and Dubai just can't do Christmas. We found out why after dinner.
These buggers killed Santa.
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