Dubai has emerged as an ethnically diverse metropolis where the world’s populations mingle in markets, galleries and international restaurants, both humble and high-end.
Self-study activity:
Watch the video and say whether the statements below are true or false.
1 Over 95% of the population are foreigners.
2 Tom & Serg is in the city centre.
3 The chef at Tom & Serg changes the menu every day.
4 Cucumber is an ingredient of the felafel sandwich.
5 SPM houses art collections with artists from all over the world.
6 Burj Khalifa is the second tallest tower on earth.
7 Forty-three years ago Dubai was a desert.
8 40 Kong is in the basement of a hotel.
9 At Musichall each band performs for two or three minutes.
10 You can dance in the open air at Pacha.
Dubai, it's a city that you come visit. It's young. It's vibrant. It's energetic. It's cosmopolitan
Everyday you wake up, it's sun, you can go to the beach.
…and beautiful, beautiful parks, incredible architecture.
Locals in Dubai are some of the warmest, friendliest people.
All people are here. The population of Dubai are two million. More than 92% of these are foreigners.
It's a dream city. Anything you can dream in Dubai, you can do it.
Zaroub means the narrow streets or the alleys that Syria, Lebanon and Palestine are famous for. And there are small restaurants in every one of those narrow alleys. We wanted to join all these small restaurants in one spot. My favorite dish is the shawarma. The meat shawarma is a sandwich, wrapped in either saj Bread or Lebanese pita bread. We add pomegranate molasses, and that's our specialty. Other restaurants don't use it in their shawarma.
We were the first place in Dubai to really have a restaurant in the middle of the industrial area. Dubai is very well known for its five star hotels, and its shopping malls, but not so well known for its food and dining scene, in a more grungy sort of way. I change the menu every two to three weeks, so that people can come and try something new every time.
Dubai is one of my favorite places to eat. It's always a great atmosphere. Everybody was doing fusions, but we never heard of an Arabian fusion. Our food is exquisite, our design is captivating. We deconstructed that felafel sandwich to form it into a salad. We took the regular chickpeas in a felafel. There's a compressed cucumber with it. I would love Qbara to give an impression that the Arabian culture has much more to give than what is basically perceived by the world today.
Most of the places of Dubai are new and modern. So where is that tradition of Dubai? It is here.
We have saffron, spices, mixed spices of all kinds, perfumes, incense… everything you want we have it here.
If you want to see a traditional Eastern city, you come to the spice market.
SPM, it's a very dynamic, contemporary, vibrant art place. It all started with the private collection of Mr. Salsali. We do have a collection of over 800 art works. Artists from Iran, European artists, and American artists. There is a very, very vibrant scene going on here. And I would love people to know that Dubai became the art spot of the Middle East right now.
Dubai taught us to be different. Burj Khalifa is the tallest tower on earth. From the front angle you can see the old Dubai, the new Dubai and the new upcoming projects in Dubai. If you go back 43 years, all Dubai was just a desert. Building the tallest tower is not only an achievement, it's American.
Everything in Dubai goes bigger, and we’re opening the biggest nightclub and the biggest restaurant and the biggest this and the biggest that. We wanted to kind of go against the current, and we said, you know what, why don't we open something small. We were actually the first open rooftop lounge to open in Dubai. We did a whole new signature cocktail menu for this season. One of my absolute favorite of our signature cocktails is one called Say Yes. Visually stunning. It comes with this ice bowl, which has a rose petal frozen into it. I've never met anyone who doesn't like it.
2013, we inaugurated the music hall of Dubai. The idea is to bring culture to nightlife. On the stage of the music hall, you have more than 12 bands per night, each band only performing for 10 to 12 minutes. It's a unique world night. In one night, flamenco, Cuban music jazz, rock, Oriental music. We are shifting from different worlds within 2 to 3 minutes. I like the people to feel that they travel in space and in time.
Pacha is one of the largest nightlife brands in the world. We change our entertainment team every 8 weeks or so. So we have everything from singers to dancing acts, to jugglers, to aerial acrobats, that kind of stuff.
But we do have other aspects to us as well. We've got a very popular roof terrace, which has great views. It's a great place to be. It's a very very fun atmosphere. Very vibrant. Full of people who are generally happy and here for a good time. Dubai is a cultural hotpot really. There's just so much to do here, so much to see. You could spend a lifetime and not get everything done.
Key:
1F 2F 3F 4T 5T 6F 7T 8F 9F 10T
