October 6th

Growing up in Dubai has desensitised me to flashy cars and fancy buildings. But a good dinner deal? That’s something especially London can’t offer.

On Saturday night, it was Eid — a Muslim holiday. Which also meant I have no kids to teach this week (noooo). Oh yes, I should also probably explain that Dubai’s weekends are Friday Saturday.

I’ve experienced 3 different weekends in my life!

Till about 2000, Dubai weekends were Thursday Friday. Friday is Islam’s holy day — Sunday’s mulsim equivalent. But, Dubai realised that their entire system was out of sync with the entire world, so they popped it over to the Friday Saturday (one day better than no day). Then, going over to London, I had to readjust my weekends to the SATSUN.

So I met up with Karan and Phil at Reef Bakery & Eat and Drink Cafeteria. Probably the finest two Arabic restaurants you can find adjacent to each other!

The Lebanese bakery makes the best Manaeesh in town — for less than a quid. BEST DRUNK/HANGOVER FOOD. I used to eat it for breakfast every Friday with my Grandpa too! It’s open at ungodly hours though, and it’s almost every Dubai kid’s haven after a night out. Manaeesh is a flat arabic bread with different fillings in the middle —the most popular being ‘Jibn’ (CHEEEEZ). Meat and cheese (La7m wa jibn) , Zaatar (this crazy Rab spice), sausage… I think there are around 15 different fillings but to be honest, we don’t really venture too far from the list because we know what’s good!

Eat and Drink is next door and serve the best shawarmas (that’s a chicken sandwich thing — kind of like a ‘London kebab’ except not as decadent — and probably 1/6th of the size ). I’ve turned vegetarian recently though, so I didn’t go for that — Phil and I shared a falafel plate with hummus which was aronund 1.5 quid. For 8 falafels and a shit ton of hummus. WAT? My fatoush salad (basic mixed salad with toasted arabic bread croutons) also 1.5 quid. We decided to splash out with some fresh juice — costing 2.5 quid for a large FRESH lemon, ginger & mint. How did I just get dinner and drinks for less than 6 quid?

We headed over to Reem after to meet Vardhan and Bine. We were already running late (standard) and I followed Phil in my car whilst Karan sat with me for directional support. I am EXTREMELY directionally challenged. I don’t know where the fuck I’m going, ever.

Last week, I was going to Souk al Bahar to have lunch with my family. I was already in a shite mood and ended up missing the turning to go into parking and ended up driving past the mall. ‘Fuck it,’ I thought. ‘I’ll just go to Ikea.’ BUT WHERE THE FUCK WAS IKEA? I ended up driving towards Al Ain and was in the middle of fucking nowhere for an hour. I was so pissed off and upset that I just cried. One wrong turn in Dubai and you’re headed down some highway with no way to turn back! I ended up hunting down a taxi and paid him 10 Dhs to lead the way (1 pound = 6 Dhs ish).

Anyway, Reem al Bawadi is a 2 minute drive from E&D. We ended up going the entirely wrong direction, and Karan wasn’t really paying attention because my windows were covered with condensed dew. I thought my wipers would make the windows worse and so I just peered over a little gap above the foggy glass. When we realised that we were driving for 10 minutes the wrong way, I burst out laughing at the entirely comical situation — and then it turned out that my wipers DID work. Only me.

Reem Al Bawadi (RAB, with a rather phallic logo too — go look!) is a shisha joint with overpriced Arabic food. You can get a bigass shisha for 2 to share for around 10 quid. The staff usually love me here because I try and practice my Arabic. A little Asian girl speaking Arabic? They lap it up!

We have a great catch up chat with Vardhan and Bine, but I leave early at around 10.30 because I’m knackered. My ACL surgery isn’t letting me have the best of sleeps. The worst is forcing myself to sleep on my back — I usually sleep on my side. It feels so alien to me! I’ve been popping Panadol nights to make it better — but the next day always feels really minging.

I guess that’s enough. Till next time x

Sarsoori