Last week HR told Ben that they would get the Swedish guy to swap rooms with a Thai guy who lives in an apartment on the ground floor, cos the Thai guy is a Junior Sous Chef working with Ben so they think they might get along. It was a really stupid suggestion cos Budak Baru actually wants to move to some place closer to work, not to another room where he’ll have to share the flat with two other guys. I dunno if they did propose the idea to him and then realise how stupid they were.
But anyway, Budak Baru moved out on Friday to Jumeirah Village. Yup, to a tiny ratty studio like the one Ben viewed. At least he’s a little closer to work and the place has a gym, pool, pool room, internet access etc. So great, he’s here less than a month and he gets what he wants.
That’s what it’s like here. All hail the angmoh gods! If you’re not Arab or angmoh, you’re treated like pond scum. Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Bangladeshi… all Asian, all bottom dwellers of the Dubai ‘caste’ system.
So we’ve got the apartment to ourselves again, till Wednesday when Tinnakorn moves in. Tinnakorn just started at the hotel about a month ago. He’s supposed to be working at the new restaurant too, but like Ben, he’s now at Al Mahara till the new restaurant opens next year (now they say June 2007). So I’ll be living with two chefs. In the words of wacky Form 2 Geog teacher, Mrs Nathan, “Tuhan selamatkan saya”.
Maybe more like “Tuhan selamatkan dia” cos at work, it’s like “Yes, Chef”, “No, Chef”, “Ok, Chef”. Then when he comes home he still has to see Chef and live with Chef. Poor guy. Ben already stresses him out at work, and now tells him, “So you can teach my wife to cook Thai food yeah”. I guess with him being South East Asian and a chef, he should hopefully be more “normal” – the “normal” Ben n I are used to. At least he won’t be put off by stuff like belachan and durian.
Hopefully it’s third time lucky and we all can live happily ever after. But Tinnakorn’s very unhappy at work cos he, like many others, specialise in Thai or Chinese or Japanese cuisine, and come here only to find out that the opening of the new restaurant has been delayed till mid next year. Then they’re thrown into any kitchen to do something almost alien to them.
So he may decide to up and leave. Like Ben’s first flatmate, Hiro-san. He stayed here at Ewan for less than a month cos he works at Emirates Towers and had to move somewhere closer to work too. He went back to Japan after two months cos he told Ben the standards here “cannot make it” and he couldn’t bear to watch the restaurant serve such sub-standard food and pass it off as some sort of Japanese fusion fine dining. Against his principles. A chef with pride.
I’m afraid this place is really killing the chef in Ben too. He says, everything he’s learnt, all his blood, sweat, tears, and the blood, sweat, tears of all the chefs who have been a mentor to him, all gone. Everything good they’ve taught him doesn’t apply here, and it kills him to watch how the so-called chefs and cooks here commit what a chef back home would consider sacrilegious. They have no pride in the work they do, even when they act so proud.
Of course they have the right to act all high and mighty. They’re angmoh. Chef Julien used to always tell Ben and the rest, “You can cheat the customer, but you can never cheat yourself”. Ben says now he really knows what Julien was talking about. And now it makes sense why lots of things here get by if you just close one eye. You know how they say, in the land of the blind…
But anyway, Budak Baru moved out on Friday to Jumeirah Village. Yup, to a tiny ratty studio like the one Ben viewed. At least he’s a little closer to work and the place has a gym, pool, pool room, internet access etc. So great, he’s here less than a month and he gets what he wants.
That’s what it’s like here. All hail the angmoh gods! If you’re not Arab or angmoh, you’re treated like pond scum. Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Filipino, Bangladeshi… all Asian, all bottom dwellers of the Dubai ‘caste’ system.
So we’ve got the apartment to ourselves again, till Wednesday when Tinnakorn moves in. Tinnakorn just started at the hotel about a month ago. He’s supposed to be working at the new restaurant too, but like Ben, he’s now at Al Mahara till the new restaurant opens next year (now they say June 2007). So I’ll be living with two chefs. In the words of wacky Form 2 Geog teacher, Mrs Nathan, “Tuhan selamatkan saya”.
Maybe more like “Tuhan selamatkan dia” cos at work, it’s like “Yes, Chef”, “No, Chef”, “Ok, Chef”. Then when he comes home he still has to see Chef and live with Chef. Poor guy. Ben already stresses him out at work, and now tells him, “So you can teach my wife to cook Thai food yeah”. I guess with him being South East Asian and a chef, he should hopefully be more “normal” – the “normal” Ben n I are used to. At least he won’t be put off by stuff like belachan and durian.
Hopefully it’s third time lucky and we all can live happily ever after. But Tinnakorn’s very unhappy at work cos he, like many others, specialise in Thai or Chinese or Japanese cuisine, and come here only to find out that the opening of the new restaurant has been delayed till mid next year. Then they’re thrown into any kitchen to do something almost alien to them.
So he may decide to up and leave. Like Ben’s first flatmate, Hiro-san. He stayed here at Ewan for less than a month cos he works at Emirates Towers and had to move somewhere closer to work too. He went back to Japan after two months cos he told Ben the standards here “cannot make it” and he couldn’t bear to watch the restaurant serve such sub-standard food and pass it off as some sort of Japanese fusion fine dining. Against his principles. A chef with pride.
I’m afraid this place is really killing the chef in Ben too. He says, everything he’s learnt, all his blood, sweat, tears, and the blood, sweat, tears of all the chefs who have been a mentor to him, all gone. Everything good they’ve taught him doesn’t apply here, and it kills him to watch how the so-called chefs and cooks here commit what a chef back home would consider sacrilegious. They have no pride in the work they do, even when they act so proud.
Of course they have the right to act all high and mighty. They’re angmoh. Chef Julien used to always tell Ben and the rest, “You can cheat the customer, but you can never cheat yourself”. Ben says now he really knows what Julien was talking about. And now it makes sense why lots of things here get by if you just close one eye. You know how they say, in the land of the blind…
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