Gulfood 2007

Gulfood 2007 took place in Dubai from 18th – 22nd Feb at the Dubai World Trade Centre Convention Halls. The highlight of this five-day event was Salon Culinaire, a culinary competition featuring chefs of all levels from hotels throughout Dubai, judged by a panel of ‘internationally acclaimed’ chefs.

This exhibition is also an avenue for suppliers and others in the F&B and Hospitality industry to promote their products and services at the Food & Equipment halls. Gulfood is open only to trade visitors, and persons below 21 years are also not allowed to visit the exhibition. I managed to get visitor passes for myself as well as Jeremy & Hui Chin by applying online.

I made my way to the World Trade Centre on 19th Feb, wandered through the Food Halls cramped with stalls from all over the world, including Singapore and Malaysia. I met our friend Andrew there and we walked about looking at Salon Culinaire contestants’ creations. Apart from hot cooking, Salon Culinaire also consists of other segments such as Cold Display (5-course menu), Ice Carving, Pastry, Butchery, etc.

Finally, a wedding cake that beats ours!

We had just moved from Ewan Residence to our new apartment at Gardens a few days before, and Ben had a busy week with Valentine’s Day and other special VIP menus, plus staff appraisals to conduct, so having to take part in the competition and still work throughout really stressed him out. But he seemed cool enough as he prepared his dish within the one-hour time limit.

Japanese-influenced Trilogy of Dover Sole - shallow fried dover sole and wakame roll, slow poached dover sole with miso, and baked sole fillets with yuzu fondant. It’s a wonder how he managed to make all this in under an hour. Contestants have to present 4 portions (plates) of their creations – one for show, one for tasting, and the other two are just thrown away.

Sadly, the judges were old-fashioned, their taste buds and eyes only accustomed to traditional, boring and purely European food, clearly seen by how they awarded these "prize-winning" dishes:

This dish won a Bronze medal

This one got a Silver, and the fish was not properly cooked

The next day, I met Jeremy & Hui Chin at the airport and brought them over to Gulfood. The Security Guard stopped us as we entered the exhibition hall, and we panicked, thinking it was our bogus passes. But it turned out the idiotic guard stopped us ‘cos we looked like kids, and he kept insisting I wasn’t 21.

I showed him my passport and he didn’t believe that I was 30, and then I kept saying that my husband was taking part in Salon Culinaire and he was wasting our time, but he also wouldn’t believe that a ‘kid’ like me was married. Finally, I just brushed him off and we went in. Jeremy had a good time tasting all the food samples at the Food Hall – roast beef, icecream, nachos, meatballs, fried chicken, waffles, frappes, pralines, sushi… They were pretty excited to check out Salon Culinaire as Jeremy wanted to catch the chefs in action, thinking it would be like watching Iron Chef, live.
Ben’s Reconstructed Australian Beef with Vanilla Marrow Crust, Leek ‘Cannelloni’ and Strawberry Balsamic Sauce.

One of the judges told Ben that beef with vanilla and strawberry balsamic sauce is “just NOT right”. Ben asked him what the judging was based on. He said, "creativity, something new, something we haven’t seen before", then proceeded to tell him how good this other dish was. This dish, pictured here, like something you get at Jack’s Place or even Han’s:

The judge said, a dish like this will definitely get a medal. And it did. A Silver! Ben then said, “So this is creative and something you’ve never seen before? Do you judge based on what’s creative or what you like?”

The judged wasn’t too happy and couldn’t retort. Then Ben asked him, “So you’ve been a chef for how many years now? Must be a very, very long time”. The judge seemed ticked off so Ben rubbed it in some more by sarcastically saying, Oh, one day I want to be like you.

These are the dishes that received medals:

I noticed that sometimes there were 4 judges judging a plate, and sometimes just 3. The fourth judge, Chef Otto Weibel, was too busy attending to award presentation ceremonies and others that he was not present to judge all the plates. So I wonder how they summed up the scores whenever Chef Otto was missing. Did they judge on his behalf? Makes you wonder......

New Year, New Home

I didn’t manage to update my blog in Jan/Feb, so I’ve gotta blog in retrospect for the next few entries. While we were living at Ewan Residence, we shared the apartment with a Thai guy, after the Swedish dude moved out. Our new Thai housemate was one helluva smelly fella. Seriously!

He works in the same kitchen as Ben, as a Jr Sous Chef. But it’s gross to imagine how someone who prepares food all day can be so unhygienic. Like Ben, he works from 9am to 1am on most days, but comes home and goes right to bed. It’s like he got the “Go To Jail” card in a Monopoly game – “Go Directly To Bed. Do not pass the bathroom, do not shower, brush teeth, or wash your feet.” You can imagine how sweaty & smelly he is after a long day in the kitchen, plus he has super-power-terama toe jam… And he just goes straight to bed.

Now our bedrooms share the same aircon unit, so after a while, his ‘smell’ would seep out into our bedroom, or stink up the whole apartment if he left the bedroom door open. We tried to tahan at first ‘cos we were grateful that at least he wasn’t a backstabbing sneak like the previous two housemates. But after a month, his ‘bau’ was really too ‘kow’ so Ben would tell him to shut his door if he left it open ‘cos "It smells!"

Once, I tried to hint about his stench by asking him if there were shower facilities at work that he used before coming home. He got my drift but boldly replied that he knows he doesn’t shower after work and he doesn’t care 'cos he just stays in his bedroom and hardly comes out. I was too dumbfounded at how blasé he was about being smelly & dirty that I couldn’t tell him that we got his ‘drift’ too.

My brother Jeremy and his wife Hui Chin were coming to visit us at the end of January, so I spring-cleaned the whole apartment and washed the sofa set. Afraid that Tinnakorn (the housemate) would stink up the sofa again after all my hard work, I left a note on the main door one night, warning the guys not to sit in the living room if they were “smelly & dirty” and to “shower & wash their feet”. Very mak nenek, I know. But it was my last resort.

Tinnakorn read the note and asked Ben about it the next day, thinking it was a note from their company. Ben said, "No, worse… It’s from my wife! She’s very angry! I don’t know why. She didn’t speak to me all night… She’s very angry!” So Tinnakorn panics and says, “I think I can’t sit in the living room anymore”.

Tinnakorn also sings very loudly, in Thai, in a Cantonese opera kind of style. Sometimes he plays Michael Bolton’s “I don’t have the heart to hurt you” and tries to sing it in ‘Thaiglish’. I dong have the haaaarse to hursss yoo… nam mong prung chai ma dooo… His singing is so loud that you can hear him from the elevator before he reaches the apartment! Sometimes it gets to me so I retreat to the bedroom and blast a special playlist in my iTunes, made up of really loud and angry rock music.

Jeremy & Hui Chin visited, and after that Tinnakorn started sitting in the living room again, but only for a couple of times before he was told that he’d be moving to a studio apartment in Gardens. And we were moving to Gardens too. After 8 months, they finally could accommodate us in a single bedroom apartment.

A place all to ourselves. No more smelly, sneaky housemates! We had to move from Ewan to Gardens between 15th – 17th Feb, just before Chinese New Year. We were kinda sad to leave Ewan Residence ‘cos it was so spacious and quiet there.

Gardens Furnished Apartments in Jebel Ali

Ben was extremely busy that week so I had to arrange to have all our stuff moved while he was at work. I spent Valentine’s Day at the mall, stopping at countless shops to ask if they had empty carton boxes to spare. I finally managed to find a few boxes in a few of the carparks at the mall, and brought them back for packing.

On the 15th, I made two trips on the shuttle bus to Gardens to bring a load of stuff over. Our new apartment is on the 8th floor, and with a huge-ass haversack on my back and 3 other bags, it was just my luck that the lifts were not working and I had to walk all the way up. Our new apartment is huge! I found it in good condition, and not too dirty or smelly.
There are 8 blocks of furnished apartments here, and they’re all leased out to Jumeirah. So the Security and Accommodation offices here are manned by Jumeirah staff too, which is good ‘cos they’re quite efficient. There are more staff shuttle buses here too. Direct buses to Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Burj Al Arab, Madinat Jumeirah and Emirates Towers, as well as a shuttle bus on Friday mornings to the churches in Jebel Ali Village, and a twice-daily bus to Deira City Centre, Karama and Bur Dubai.

I called a mover who wanted to charge 300 Dirhams. Gardens is just a 15-min ride away from Ewan so I didn’t wanna pay that much and contacted Rana, our regular car lift instead. That night, I paid Rana 150 Dirhams, and we moved all the barang-barang together. He forgot to bring a trolley so we had to carry all the bags, boxes and suitcases from apartment to elevator to carpark to van at Ewan, then vice versa at Gardens.

It was quite a rush to get the new place cleaned and all our stuff settled by the night of CNY eve. I spent the whole of the 16th and 17th cleaning, as well as shopping for Ben’s list of compulsory CNY stuff for our new home – mandarins, pomelo, pineapple, rice, salt, oil & ‘kum chwee’ (orange crush!), last minute baking of cornflake cookies and cooking a ‘happy & prosperous’ meal for Ben n myself.

By Chinese New Year, I was completely drained, muscles sore and body aching. First day of New Year was really ‘sedih’. Ben was at work, and I was zonked out. It didn’t feel like New Year at all of course.

CNY 1st Day for me is usually in my uncle’s house in Malacca, waking up to the smell of vegetarian food, Malacca coffee and joss sticks, the sound of roosters crowing in the neighbours backyard and my Mom & aunts chatting away in the kitchen, wearing new clothes and wishing my parents and relatives, snacking on New Year goodies while waiting for more relatives to arrive or visit.

But like Ben said, “At least… new year, new home”.

Jeremy & Hui Chin’s Visit

Jeremy & Hui Chin were leaving London and moving back to KL for good. So on their extended journey home, they stopped by Dubai for 5 days (from 31st Jan – 4th Feb), followed by a 2-week trip to Cairo and Jordan. They then returned to Dubai for another 2 days before returning to KL on 22nd Feb.

They were hoping to get an inside view of the Burj Al Arab, but only hotel guests and pre-booked dining guests are allowed to enter the Hotel, so I advised them not to waste a shit-load of money on a meal at Burj Al Arab just to gain entry into this 7-star all-suite hotel.

We did however get a look of Burj Al Arab from the outside, as I brought them to the beach and Madinat Jumeirah. We had dinner at Japengo restaurant within the Madinat Jumeirah, where Chef Andrew works, followed by drinks at Bahri Bar for a nice view of Burj Al Arab by night.

They were to arrive at around 6.30am on the 31st, so I called Rana beforehand to get him to pick me up at 6.00am, then drive to the airport to pick them up. Rana however only arrived at 8.30am, while Jeremy & Hui Chin waited for at least 3 hours till we finally reached the airport. Instead of a van, Rana drove his small sedan which could only fit one suitcase in the boot, so Hui Chin & Jeremy had to squeeze in the back seats with another suitcase and bags.

Quite soon after we left the airport, a car hit into Rana’s from the back and the bumper fell off! So Rana had to hail a cab for us. Rana has proven that he’s not very dependable, but sometimes it’s nice to use a car-lift whom you know… I consider him a familiar face. He has since sold off the sedan and now has a permanent day job ‘cos being a car-lift is illegal and he’d be fined 4,000 Dirhams if caught.

We passed an Egyptian ‘skirt dancing’ performance while we were at Madinat Jumeirah

Ben managed to get 2 days off while Jeremy and Hui Chin were here, so we chose one of the days to go for a tour of the Hatta Pools in the Hajar Mountains. The guide/driver picked us up from Jumeirah Beach Hotel in the morning, and the 4 of us rode in his Ford Land Cruiser past Sharjah, into Omani territory, thereafter Hatta town. After passing sand dunes and small towns, it was great to get away from the dull sandy grey of the city and see mountains, greenery and wadis (rock pools).


The Hajar Mountains were once ocean floor millions of years ago. The rock formations here originated at the bottom of the ocean, and its dark brown and slate-coloured rocks are actually oceanic crystal rocks.

One thing they conveniently forgot to mention when advertising this tour is that the ‘Pools’ are usually dried up unless there has been significant rainfall up in the mountains. And if it’s raining, the SUV would not be able to take us up into the mountains for safety reasons.

Ben spots this tiny frog (or toad) (4-5cm), in camouflage

Luckily, the ‘Pools’ weren’t completely dried up, although it didn’t look as inviting as the deep and azure blue pools I saw on the Internet and TV. One couldn’t dive into the wadi like how the host on Discovery Channel did, but only wade about, if you wanted to. Even so, it was a pleasant trip and our guide, Anasi, was very competent.

After driving up and down the steep and rocky inclines in the mountains and making two stops at wadis to take photos, we enjoyed a nice lunch at the Hatta Fort Hotel. Back in Dubai, we got Anasi to drop us off at The One&Only Royal Mirage Hotel.

Jeremy took a nap on a deckchair while Ben, Hui Chin n I rested by the pool enjoying a drink, and much needed coffee. We took some photos on the beach as the sun set, and then headed to Hard Rock Café for dinner.

Ben enjoyed this REALLY huge burger

One of Hui Chin’s “Things to do in Dubai” was to go watch a camel race. I found out as much as I could about camel racing in Dubai before their trip, but the info on websites are very vague about it. Some say there’s racing on Tuesdays & Thursdays, some say Thursdays & Fridays, some say every morning throughout the winter months…

Most websites say Camel Racing takes place all over Dubai, but don’t pinpoint where, and some say it’s “near” Nad Al Sheba. If you call the Nad Al Sheba Racing Club, they only have info about Horse Racing, and give you another number to call, probably the camel stables or something. When you call this number, someone tells you in a not very convincing way that there “should be” a race on such and such a day and time.

We call Muhammed (a new car lift) and get him to bring us to Nad Al Sheba one afternoon. We pass the camel race track but don’t see any races going on, so I call the ‘mysterious number’ again. The guy on the line says yes, there ‘should be’ a camel race right now, but there we were, parked in front of an empty and deserted track.

The next day we find out from a hotel concierge that camel racing is temporarily banned (because of the use of kids as young as 9 or 10 as jockeys), until they introduce ‘robot jockeys’ sometime this or next year. Ben is against camel racing or any other kind of animal race ‘cos he thinks it’s cruel, so he was happy he didn’t have to watch a race.

Outside Basta Art Café, waiting for the weather to clear up

Hui Chin wants to check out the belly dancing ‘outfits’ and handicrafts in the Souks, so we plan to meet her friend Umica in Bur Dubai, hoping that Umica can help when haggling at the Souk to get the best bargain. Umica is a resident here, actually born here in Dubai.

It’s not a very good day to visit the souks as it’s raining, so we have coffee/tea and really yummy strawberry cheese cake at Basta Art Café while waiting for Umica to arrive. She gets lost as she doesn’t know where the Bastakiya is. When she finally finds her way to the Bastakiya, we follow her in her car as she parks it at a carpark near Shindaga.

We forget it’s a Friday, and Jeremy & Hui Chin are amazed at how crowded the area is. The souks, creekside and just every street and corner is packed with Indian men. Jeremy tries to spot a woman, any woman, in the crowd but it’s like trying to find ‘Wally’.

I spent my first month here studying the Dubai Explorer, Street Guide and TimeOut, so Hui Chin n the guys find it very amusing that I know the area so well whereas Umica who’s been living here her whole life is kinda lost. It’s still drizzling as we walk through the Textile Souk and the Old Souk. Ben buys some really shiok Indian deep-fried snacks, and we take the abra over to the Deira side of the creek.

We visit the Gold Souk and other fringing souks, and later find out from Umica that there are so many Indians in Dubai that Hindi is the ‘official’ language at markets and small shops instead of Arabic. Even most of the Emiratis speak Hindi.

The souks aren’t like what Hui Chin was expecting, as she thought it would be more authentic like those in Morocco or Istanbul, with local Arabs selling handicrafts and such. Instead, it was like Little India, but she and Jeremy did enjoy the experience, especially seeing so many Indians congregated in such a congested area.

We take the abra back to Bur Dubai and ask Umica to bring us some place where we can try authentic Arabic/local food. So we have dinner at a restaurant in Garhoud. Arabic cuisine is pretty similar to Lebanese food, with influences from the Mediterranean too. We enjoy stuff like grilled skewered meats (kebabs), shish tawouk, hommous, arayes and zatar bread, and local flatbread with this really yummy & creamy garlic spread.

Then Jeremy orders this really weird drink that he spotted in the Fruit Juice list, something called ‘Jalab’. He asks the waiter what it is, and he says it’s date juice with pine nuts. It tastes really gross and Hui Chin says it smells like insecticide, but Jeremy seems to enjoy until we keep seeing different waiters pass by, whisper to another waiter, then stifle a laugh.

We also try some shisha, which is pretty gross too. The waiter who gives us the disposable plastic mouthpieces for the pipe tells Jeremy that it’s called “biz” in Arabic. So Jeremy keeps saying “biz” till the restaurant manager comes up to him, telling him not to say it ‘cos it means “breast”.

Ben n I order Nescafe and the waiter brings us this:

DIY coffee

We also bring Jeremy & Hui Chin to the ‘famous’ malls, probably the only thing that Dubai proudly boasts – Mall of the Emirates and Ibn Battuta Mall. They’re not very interested and I can’t blame them. Like I said at the start, Dubai has nothing much to offer a tourist, or even a resident. Ask any Emirati what’s a good place to visit in Dubai, and he’ll say “Mall of the Emirates”.

Ben advises me not to encourage any of our family n friends to visit Dubai. Airfare to Dubai from Malaysia or Singapore cost as much as a flight to Europe, and the hassle and chaos at the airport is enough to make any visitor turn back. Although we now have a huge apartment to ourselves that can accommodate all my Ah Ees at one go, there’s nothing much to do in Dubai, unless you don’t mind parting with a lot of money at the malls and expensive restaurants.

My advice for a fulfilling getaway that doesn’t burn a hole in your pocket, visit a nature spot in your home country (Pulau Ubin or Bukit Timah in Singapore, or Taman Negara, Kota Tinggi, and many more in Malaysia), or take a ‘Glutton’s Tour’, savour the smells, sounds, sights, tastes, take lots of pictures, and share it with everyone you know ☺

What Time Is It?

Just remembered something funny Louis pointed out on the old Singapore $2 note. The four main races in Singapore were portrayed on the note. I can’t remember exactly what they were, but it was something like the Chinese with the lion dance, Malays with kompangs or smtg, Indians also doing something stereotypically cultural, and then, the Eurasians… What were the Eurasians doing? They were holding balloons.

What did Eurasians holding balloons mean? Life’s a party for them huh… What would have been a better way to depict them? Maybe have my mother-in-law making Sheperd’s Pie in front of a Christmas Tree while singing the “jingly nona” song? :o) It’s difficult to be the ‘lain-lain’ of Singapore n Malaysia I suppose. Not having a distinct cultural background… part Asian, part Portugese, part Dutch, part Mat Salleh…

But then again, it’s not easy being a Singaporean or Malaysian outside of South East Asia. Ben says we’re really ‘lost’ here in Dubai. The Pakistanis think we’re Chinese nationals, the Chinese nationals think we’re Filipino, the Filipinos think we’re Thai, the angmohs call anyone ‘yellow’ an Oriental, and the locals… well, we’re just the ‘golongan hamba’ along with every Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, etc who come here to work.

Chinese and Indians have cuisines that are uniquely theirs, and what do we have? Ice kacang. Satay bihun. Red mi goreng.

It’s interesting to study a particular country’s culinary history and influences, apart from geography. Confucius emphasised the art of cooking and enjoyment of life, establishing culinary standards and proper table etiquette. And by fusing these beliefs, the Chinese dine with the mantra that food and friends are inseparable. And that’s how we have communal dining to this day. Taoism however was concerned with the search for longevity and nourishment of the body, studying the medicinal properties in foods. Hence, the liberal use of herbs in Chinese cooking and toasts to long life, good health, etc at dinner parties or the long list of good wishes my fifth aunt makes when we do the Chinese New Year ‘lo hei’.

In Singapore cuisine, there’s always the chicken n egg argument about whether a dish is actually Malaysian or “uniquely Singapore”. I guess if we were to make Singapore’s culinary history interesting, we can’t mention too much about how everything is borrowed from Malay, Indian, Chinese n Portugese cuisines, but that it’s a unique ‘rojak’ of all the above.

And the national drink isn’t that gross stuff from the bottle that you mix with pineapple juice or whatever. How many uncles do you see at a coffee shop ordering Singapore Sling? Singapore is the Lion City. And our national drink is TIGER beer (the Thais stole our Singha). The national sport is played at Singapore Pools.

Perhaps we could make a special paste of durian and ikan bilis... call it tapenade esplanade. By the way, we all know Eight Wonder’s Harry’s Island isn’t really named after some fictional character… So let’s have Roti Harry, cos we still don’t know who John is. Like saying grace before a meal, let every uncle, aunty n child in every restaurant in Singapore shout, what time is it?

Time for some Roti Harry, Chil-LEE Crab and Stamford Waffles!

Size is everything

Dubai's big on everything. Big malls. Big cars. Big spenders. Even the makan stuff is huge. That's not a baguette, it's a masala dosai!

So when it comes to their lucky draw contests, you can imagine how big the prizes are too. Of course one would also need to spend big money to be able to enter any of the big draws here.

The annual 45-day Dubai Shopping Festival started a month back, and with it, mega raffle and lucky draws. Now we're not talking grand prizes such as "A trip for 2 to New York" or "$10,000". No, no. We're talking HUGE-ass prizes. And on a daily basis.

There's the Daily Lexus Mega Raffle - daily prize of 2 Lexus cars PLUS AED100,000, and the Daily Gold Raffle - daily prize of 1 kg of gold. So that's 45 KILOS of gold, 90 Lexus cars and AED4.5 million they're giving away. However, these raffle draws aren't exactly like Toto where you can spend as little as $2 for a chance at hitting the jackpot. Each raffle ticket costs about AED200.

Then there are lucky draws organised by shopping malls and other companies...... "10 winners x AED100,000 each in fortnightly draw"...... "Gold phones worth AED 1 million to be won"...... "AED50,000 in cash + 50,000 in shopping vouchers"......

Virgin Records has a small but interesting draw - buy 2 "Front Row" DVDs, stand a chance to win your height in DVDs. So even if you're kinda short like me, that still makes up a 158cm tower of DVDs!

And you can certainly forget about "cheapo" prizes like a Camry. Think BIG. Like Dubai Duty Free. They're giving away AED1 million in one raffle draw, and luxury cars in another, like this Lamborghini here.

One little, two little, three little……

I remember reading an article a few years back about the Indian diaspora, and thinking ya, Indians are EVERYWHERE! A significant percentage of the Malaysia and Singapore population is made up of Indians, but of course, these are Indians whose ancestors had come to Malaya a long, long time ago. More recently though, you get lots of Indian nationals in the region… y’know, like the I.T. guys you see at work who hang out in the corner sipping tea and chatting. Then you go to London, they’re there! Amsterdam, there! New York, there!

When I was training at SIA, there were just 6 of us girls from Malaysia, 1 girl from Indonesia, and the rest (like about 20 of them) were from India. I have nothing against Indians of course. Our instructor actually made me some sort of Chinese-Indian liaison ‘cos there was hissing and scratching between the Indian and Chinese girls from Day One. The Indian girls kept saying we spoke funny and made fun of the way we said “lah”, “aiya” and “can, can”. They believed they did not have an accent ‘cos they spoke “Queen’s English”. The Chinese girls kept complaining that the Indian girls were so ‘how lian’ and ‘sombong’. To make things worse, all of us, new to Singapore, had no idea what the heck people meant when they mentioned “P.I.E., E.C.P., C.B.D.” and how to pronounce Tampines without sounding vulgar.

Anyway, back to Indians. I think it was my brother Jeremy who mentioned before that we seem to find really good friends in Indians. My grandfather’s best friend was an Indian. My dad has some really good Indian friends whom he’s known since his university days. My brothers have some pretty close buddies who are Indian too. And me, well, let’s just say I’m so un-Chinese that I actually respond if someone on the street shouts “Hey, macha!” You can thank my INDIAN friend, Jamie for that. You can also thank the ‘mats’ back home for that since I especially don’t respond to “Ah Moi”.

For my brothers and I, I guess a big reason why we have as many Indian, Malay, Eurasian and ‘lain-lain’ friends as Chinese ones is probably ‘cos we don’t speak Chinese! So in school, we either hung out with the non-Chinese or other un-Chinese Chinese like us. My brother, Andrew, is so ‘angmoh-fied’ that when he was young, he’d fill in “English” under the “Race” field in forms.

Now, here in Dubai, Indians everywhere too. My first few ‘friends’ in Dubai are from India. Ben laughs each time I say “my friend” ‘cos they’re actually the bus drivers lah. First there was the small, short guy who drove the shuttle from Ewan to the nearby shops. Actually, he’s from Nepal. I guess the drivers see me so often ‘cos I’m always at home, taking the same shuttle every other day, and not many people take the shuttle in the afternoons. So after a while, my Nepalese ‘friend’ recognises me and waves or nods when he sees me. Ben thinks it’s hilarious how we nod to each other like, “Ay, macha…” Anyway, my Nepalese friend disappeared one day and was replaced with a different driver, from Bangalore. He’s my new ‘friend’ now and we nod n wave too! Sometimes we chat – about casual stuff… like the ‘veather’.

Guide to the friendly nod n wave:
Nod head upwards = “Ay”.
Return with 2 nods, pausing between each nod = “Ay. Whazzup”.
Tilt head left, then right, followed by nod = “Ok lah. You?”
Tilt head left, then right, then wave.
(Note #1: Quick tilt = Good. Normal tilt = Ok. Slow tilt = So, so lah)
(Note #2: If you’re too lazy to nod, raising your eyebrows works too)

My other friend is one of the drivers on the Ewan-Gardens route. His name’s Subriano and he’s from Goa. He’s my favourite driver ‘cos he drops me off right outside Ibn Battuta Mall so I don’t have to make the long walk there from Gardens. Among all the drivers, he speaks the best English, so if I’m taking his bus I usually sit in front so we can chat. We chat about lots of stuff lah… How’s my job hunt getting along… Friday Mass at the church in Jebel Ali… Christmas in Dubai… His family back in India… Life in Singapore……

Angmohs speak English so why don’t I have a whole lot of mat salleh friends? I just realised that I still find it difficult to be ‘buddy-buddy’ with Caucasians probably ‘cos I just can’t do the kiss-the-cheek thing without feeling terribly uncomfortable. It’s like so muah-muah. And here, it’s done three times so muah-muah-muah. Ugh… Maybe it’s ‘cos I’m not sure if I should go left cheek or right cheek first? Or most probably it’s ‘cos it’s difficult when short Asian has to tiptoe to reach tall mat salleh’s cheek. Some just do it cheek to cheek but some actually kiss each cheek and actually verbalise the “muah”. And sometimes you meet someone who’s quite a good friend by now, and so you think it’s gonna be a hug, but you get the cheek-to-cheek thing instead as you’re reaching out for a hug, and it just ends up really messy and dumb. Ugh…

I know I’m not anyone’s brother-in-law, but next time you see me, just do the wave, nod, “Ay, macha”.

What were you doing New Year’s Eve?

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.