Carluccio's

Joe and I found an excellent restaurant - Carluccio's in Dubai Marina Mall. It's an Italian cafe, restaurant, and store (as you can see on the sign below...) The store has lots of high quality oils, vinegars, and other cooking yummies.

Sitting indoors, you will have a view somewhat like this:

Or, if you turn your head, a view like this:

Isn't it beautiful? It opens right onto the Marina Promenade overlooking the water.

Joe & Colin had chicken, and I had prawns (= shrimp). Very fresh and tasty. Joe had an after dinner coffee (+ chocolate & cream) and I just had chocolate!

We'll definitely return to Carluccio's in the near future. Colin even liked it! Score one for us!

Brunch!

Friday brunches are a popular activity here in Dubai. (Remember, the weekends are Friday and Saturday here) Almost every restaurant offers a brunch of some sort, most with free-flowing champagne. These brunches are not cheap, but tend to be worth the money. Joe's been to three so far, and I've been to one.

In November, we joined Pete, Simone, one of Pete's friends from Abu Dhabi, and two of Simone's friends from the UK (fresh off the plane, literally) for a brunch at the Observatory. It's on the fifty-something-est floor of the Marriott in the Marina. The view was stunning. See the fronds from the Palm Jumeirah? I neglected to photograph the food (next time, for sure) but I can tell you it was incredibly delicious. I had my first taste of Yorkshire Pudding. Mmmm..

Here are the girls: Gayle and I are standing, Kate and Simone sitting. I had great fun with these ladies while they were in town.

Really looking forward to our next brunch....whenever we might be able to afford it!

P.S. I'm sorry for the late posting...about to post 3 more!!

The Dubai Mall

This morning we headed to the Dubai Mall so Colin could see the aquarium. On the way, we went under a Salik toll booth. These were designed in 2007 to improve traffic flow. Instead of throwing a quarter into the toll booth, a Radio Frequency Identification camera reads the barcode that you have to stick on your windshield and sends you a bill. Dubai can issue you a speeding ticket in the same fashion. No cops on the side of the road here...just cameras. We saw the Burj Khalifa on the way. (The tallest building in the world)

Once inside, we saw the Dubai Aquarium and Underwater Zoo. Colin was hooked! (No pun intended) It has the world's largest acrylic panel. Noticing a trend here? Dubai likes to have the biggest EVERYTHING.

We didn't go into the aquarium because, well, we're cheap, and you can see a huge tank without paying to go inside! We'll go in eventually, I'm sure.

Colin was totally in awe. I think we probably stayed at the viewing window for close to an hour, total.

Every time a fish would come near the glass (acrylic, I guess!), he would just laugh and laugh.

A little guy about Colin's size joined us for awhile. He was equally amused.

Luckily, Romano's Macaroni Grill is just across from this tank. We ate lunch there so Colin could keep tabs on the fish.

Also in the mall is this awesome wall of water with silver diving manequins. I couldn't find any information online about those, so all I have is a picture :)

And then we found the Hershey's store! YUM!

And the Reese's corner of the Hershey's store...super YUM. Joe found white chocolate Reese's cups which made him happy.

For a mere 69 dirhams, you can have a Hershey's Dubai shirt.

The entrance to the Burj Khalifa is actually inside the mall. We went out to the plaza to take some pics.

If you look just to the left of the building, you can see the moon.

Colin wasn't super thrilled about having his picture taken with the Burj Khalifa, but it turned out pretty good anyway! This was my favorite store in the whole mall...

Shopping!!

On Sunday, all 3 of us slept until 2pm. Oops! After "breakfast" we packed up Colin and headed to Ikea in the Festival City area of Dubai. I was so excited because, well, who doesn't love Ikea?!? Everyone in Dubai appears to love Ikea. The sheer volume of people in that place was quite impressive. Now I understand why Joe would be so stressed out every time he shopped there.


Moving around inside of a store is really tricky here in the Middle East. Their method of crowd control is quite different than it is in the US. As a generalization, people at home will let you pass by, then go back to what they were doing. Here, people seem kind of oblivious to their fellow shoppers. I got stuck in the middle of a family speaking Arabic and showing each other placemats. I was seriously right in the middle of them and no one would let me out! I had to accidentally undo the velco of my pop-up hamper that was accidentally aimed in their direction and then apologize profusely while I shuffled between two startled women.

The good thing is that we bought a wardrobe, changing table, toy shelf, chair covers, and some other small things, so it was well worth the trip. Colin thought so, too, since I bribed him with ice cream.

Then we came home and had a nice KFC dinner with Pete & Simone, the couple that Joe met when he moved here in March. They are a lovely pair. We won't get to see them for the next two weeks because they are headed to New Zealand to visit with Pete's family.




This morning the Ikea delivery people brought our furniture and put it together for us. Everyone delivers here, it's grand! Colin's room is now pretty much finished, so I thought I'd post some pictures. My cousins (the Haviland Jacksons) sent some great Thomas the Train appliques for the wall so I put those up this morning. I think they turned out pretty great.


This is the other side of the room, with a cheap but efficient changing station, a panda-themed trash bin that I bought by accident at Geant, and the black-out curtains that help Colin sleep 'til 2pm.

Of note, the closets here are really awesome.

For lunch today, we went down to The Walk at Jumeirah Beach Residence in the Marina which is about a block from our apartment. Pete & Simone live in JBR which is oceanfront. We had lunch at El Chico. Who would have thought that you can get sensational Mexican food in the Middle East? (If you look closely, you can see our reflections in the doors) The Walk is really beautiful, and is full of great restaurants and stores.
Tonight we went shopping at Carrefour, another French hypermarket. This one is better than Geant, but a little further away. It's inside the Mall of the Emirates. Having a grocery store inside the mall means that you walk through the mall with your cart full of food. Strange concept, right? You put a dirham into the cart when you pick it up, and when you put it back, you get your dirham back. It's the same concept as Aldi. We stood in line for at least 20-30 minutes to check out, so Colin needed a snack.

While in line I spotted this display of dates, any way you want them. Very popular here, and used to break your fast for Ramadan each night.I'm not sure if this picture does it justice, but the checkout lines here are a serious bottleneck. People pack in like sardines.

I was super happy to find a Carter's in the Emirates mall! AND they are having a sale! Wonder if they take American coupons?!?