Hell Freezes Over or a Sri Lankan named “Mario”
My last night here in Dubai was hosted by Shabbir, who is in charge of financial operations for the region.
After a final debriefing with local management over remaining IT issues, it was off with Shabbir to places you wouldn’t believe.
First off, I must mention the traffic. A nightmare. Mostly because everyone in the Middle East drives like they own the road. The truth is, only the Arabs own the road. The rest of them, all the ex-pats, well, they drive like they can’t be deported.
Shabbir drove me to “Mall of the Emirates.” You may have heard of “The Mall of America,” which is in Minnesota. Well, not to be outdone, the Mall of the Emirates actually has part of Minnesota inside of it. No kidding. It is called “Ski Dubai,” and it is a 3000 square meter all-enclosed facility for downhill skiing, snowball fights, bobsledding, and all sorts of other snowy activities.
This is just down the main mall corridor from the hypermarket, where you can actually buy a TV and lamb chops, then run down to the Versace store and get expensive clothes. Imagine a Super Walmart next to Foley’s. And, you can smoke all through the mall! Ahh, “What a country,” as Yakov Smirnoff would say.
Shabbir and I went into Ski Dubai, and he quickly realized that a move to North Dakota was not in his future.
The best part was watching the Arabs in their traditional dress try to deal with snow.
After about 30 minutes, we left for dinner, which was at… a Mexican restaurant. Yes, your read it right, a Mexican place. This is the one kind of immigrant the UAE does not seem to have.
We were served by a Sri Lankan that had a name tag which read “Mario.” I am pretty sure that is not his real name. It was even more amusing because Mario is more Italian than Hispanic.
In typical UAE fashion, nothing is freestanding, but part of a larger building. And so the Mexican restaurant, Cactus Pete’s, was on the 8th floor of a Dubai high-rise hotel. This made the view nice, but– how was the food?
Well, the chips were stale, but the salsa wasn’t too bad. No green sauce, of course. And I had to explain the difference between a burrito and an enchilada to Shabbir. I ordered the fajitas, and they were pretty good, although the seasoning was mostly stuck to the bottom of the meat and not properly marinated throughout.
All in all, though, I’d have to say that the meal was better than you would probably find at a Mexican restaurant in Iowa or Pennsylvania. And the tea was fantasic! Clear, crisp, and refreshing; not at all what I was expecting.
It was only after the meal was over, and we were finished eating, that Shabbir admitted to me that he thought that Mexican food was very heavy, to which I had to agree.
Heh, for some reason the Arab gentleman in traditional dress with a winter athletic jacket over it got a chuckle out of me.
… and a Mexican restaurant? That’s like eating at McDonald’s when overseas. :-) Last time I went to England with my friend Louie, our last night in Manchester was spent at an Indian restaurant. We COULD have eaten somewhere else, but hell… you don’t get better Indian anywhere else. :-)
There was a point to that last paragraph, but I seem to have misplaced it.
Are you sure you don’t get better Indian food in India? :) I didn’t pick Mexican… Shabbir did. If it was up to me, I would have eaten somewhere more regional. I think he wanted to show me that Dubai was so filled with foreign culture that it even had a Mexican restaurant.
Amusingly enough, I have been told by several people that the Indian food is better in England than it is is India. The reason is because not only does the UK have a lot of citizens of Indian/Pakistani origin… the quality of the ingredients they work with is actually better than you’d find in India. It does make sense when you think of it that way.
One of the capital mistakes of my life thus far is eating Mexican food in Glasgow, Scotland. Never again!