No Reservations Season 7 Episode 6: Dubai
Tony travels to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where luxury living is the order of the day. The natives of Dubai are very wealthy and are treated well. The majority of people in Dubai are Asian, seventy-five percent of them are from India, Pakistan, the Philippines and other places, making them immigrants who are often unwelcome in this land of wealth.
Dubai boasts the tallest building in the world, its also known for its desert heat and sand storms. Tony stands at the top of Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building and looks over Dubai. He quips “Hey, I can see my house from here!” Tony and his guide sit down for a meal of Indian food, feasting on nan, curry and lentils. Tony says its good. Next Tony visits Mall of the Emirates, a huge shopping mall that features Ski Dubai, an indoor ski resort. Tony is surprised at the size of the ski resort, equipped with fresh snow daily, a huge ski run, ski lifts and ski lodge, everything you need for a real ski resort experience. Tony watches a kid ski and tells the audience “What are you doing, Timmy? Going skiing at the mall, Mom!” Tony says the heat of the desert outside compared to the ski resorts indoor air conditioning and cold snow is mind blowing. Tony sits at Avalanche Café and sips hot cocoa with marshmallows as the artificial fireplace keep him warm.
Its nighttime and Tony and guide travel to Bu Qtair, a Fish Curry Shack in a trailer near the beach. Bu Qtair features three kinds of fish on its menu. Today the fresh catch of the day is grouper with a firey rub and coconut sauce, fish curry, prawns and bread. Tony says the food is “Very good with fresh flavors.” Tony loves the fish curry. Tony discusses the lack of alcohol in Dubai saying “Drunken, loutish behavior would probably be unacceptable. I don’t see that as unreasonable. That would probably cause some problems for the British.”
Tony introduces the next segment telling the audience “What’s more Dubai than a Gordon Ramsay restaurant?” Tony and his guide visit Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, Verre. Tony asks his guide if Dubai is a celebrity chef hot spot, “A new Valhalla for chefs, or elephant graveyard?” when faced with the lack of patrons in the restaurant. His guide, a local English banker who works for an English bank in Dubai, explains the economic downturn is the reason for the lack of business in the restaurant. Tony and the banker discuss Dubai culture and money, and as they do so, the banker lowers his voice, concerned about being overheard. Tony keeps talking, unconcerned with what others think of his conversation. Luckily for the banker the food arrives and the topic turns to food. Tony and the banker feast on quail and mushroom in pastry with confit, and veal cheek with leeks. Tony thoroughly enjoys the old school dishes at Gordon Ramsay’s Verre, telling his guide “Man cannot live on delicate pastry and wild game alone.”
Tony meets with his next guides, two brothers in traditional Arab garb who tell Tony they learned their American accents from watching American 80′s sitcoms. They sit down at Bait al Mandi, serving a popular form of shish kabob. The spiced lamb kabobs are served with saffron rice, yogurt and bread. Tony says the food is really good. Tony tells the brothers he is amazed at the beauty of the architecture in Dubai.
Tony introduces “Mr. Spanky” to the audience in the next segment with great delight. Camels are no longer used for work here so one of the forms of entertainment in Dubai is camel racing. The camels have on their backs a robotic jockey that automatically whips the camel’s rump to make it run, thus the fond name Tony creates for the robot “Mr. Spanky”. Tony watches the camel racing in the desert along with his three guides. Tony comments on the camel racing “Whenever the party starts to slow down, the conversation reaches a lull, Hey! It’s Mr. Spanky time!…Start exporting to England?” One of the guides tells Tony without the camel he thinks his country would not have survived. Tony and his guides sit down at a local home to enjoy a lunch of pureed lamb and grain, whole grain porridge, and chickpeas with onions and coriander. Tony says the cooked down lamb is very tender.
Tony arrives at the guide brothers home for what he calls the best meal of his trip. Their mother prepares the meal of four or five dishes, with additional dishes brought for the meal by the community. Tony will not go away from this meal hungry. The dishes include a crispy pancake with oil and fish sauce, a soft bread, local samoas, battered onions, lamb on the bone, fried regional fish, tomatoes, onions and saffron rice.
As the camera pans over the brothers home cooked meal, Tony narrates that westerners watching this show would find this family dining scene much the same as anywhere else in the world. Tony admits he had some preconceived ideas about Dubai but after his visit understands why Dubai is often called a city built on dreams.
