The adventures of DaddyBird and Kangayayaroo as they move from the United Arab Emirates to Shanghai, China, and venture to explore the Eastern hemisphere from there.
My office has two doors. One leads out into the periodicals room and this is the door that is most frequently used. The other leads to a stairwell that is also the emergency exit. This door is always open, but posted on the back of it is the above sign.
Yes, it is actually called Safestway and it’s logo is below. (For those not in the U.S., there is an American grocery chain called Safeway and their logo is a big red S in a white square.)
All People Coffee and Cafeteria Shop
Konfidential Cuisine Restaurant
We’d tell you what’s on the menu, but it’s hush, hush.
In a world of foreign franchises, it is nice to see a locally owned restaurant with a unique flavor. (Actually, if you’ve been reading this blog for very long, you know that prefer to eat at locally owned restaurants with unique flavor, as a rule. I didn’t mean to imply this was the only one. Sushi is unique in the locally owned realm, however. Some restaurants seem new to us, but they are just franchises from other countries. )
Last week we met up with friends and completely new people we’ve never met before at Bu Qtair Cafeteria for lovely fried fish. There were about 18 people in our group. Tom Gara and Rami were having some kind of private hat contest. Tom is sporting a red fez these days. Rami wore a Russian army cap. Rami won the contest. Daddybird could have blown them both out of the water with his Viking hat, had he known. Rami is collecting money to pay for the meal, but it looks more like a Russian black market deal going down.
One thing that has been rare, until recently, in Dubai is good book stores. There are a few used bookstores, small Arabic book stores here and there, and one chain of stores that have new English books as well as some Arabic. But, when Dubai Mall opened so did Book World by Kinokuniya. It is HUGE. They have books on everything. I was able to get a couple of books on embroidery and beading. They have loads of English books, but also French, German, Japanese, etc. They have a large section of comic books & manga. I ventured into the language section and found a book on beginning Cherokee. How thorough is that?
When I first walked into the restroom, these sinks scared me. For a brief moment, I thought they were some strange urinals or toilets. Later, I asked Daddybird what he thought of the sinks and he had the same reaction.
We recently received two of our boxes shipped from the States. (Christmas decorations, yeah! I had the Peanuts Christmas song in my head the whole time I was unpacking.) The kittens went crazy “helping” and smelling all the exotic smells on and in the boxes.
Once the boxes are emptied, they become the bestest toys.
[Warning! Rachel, if you are reading this make sure you are sitting down and wearing flame retardant clothing. You might even want to have a fire extinguisher nearby. You might just burst into flame from pure envy.]
Manga Sushi
I stumbled upon an article in the online newspaper about a restaurant called Manga Sushi. We had to go check it out.
Manga Sushi chefs
Dragon Ball Z was playing on the big screen behind the sushi chefs.
The Menu
The menu included manga (Japanese comics, for the uninitiated) on each page. They also had a collection of manga novels on shelves and invited customers to read.
Green Tea Milkshake
This is Daddybird’s green tea milkshake dessert. Yummy! (I had a sip just to make sure.)
Stuffed Pear dessert
This is my stuffed pear dessert – Asian pear with blue berries, raspberries and black berries with a scoop of strawberry ice cream. Yummy, also, and you can even eat the dish, sort of.
The sushi was very tasty, too, but I did not take a picture. I was too busy eating it. (It took us a while to find the restaurant, so it was past dinner time and I was hungry!)
The Best Part – they play what seems to be their theme song and all the staff, including the chefs stop to dance. See for yourself:
So here’s the dome of the Emirates Palace Hotel looking up from below with my old camera:
Here’s what it really looks like with a good camera: Man, that new camera was worth every penny.
There are two gigantic tapestries. One showing the hotel in a daylight scene and one in a nighttime scene.
My office has two doors. One leads out into the periodicals room and this is the door that is most frequently used. The other leads to a stairwell that is also the emergency exit. This door is always open, but posted on the back of it is the above sign.
Yes, it is actually called Safestway and it’s logo is below. (For those not in the U.S., there is an American grocery chain called Safeway and their logo is a big red S in a white square.)
Living the Travel Channel 