Burj Khalifa
Ah, the Burj Khalifa. It stands out so much in Dubai due to its sheer height, especially in contrast with the neighbouring buildings. I admit I underestimated the number of visitors somewhat, as I was surprised when the 7PM tickets were sold out by the time my session had started at 5PM, but I'm very glad that I bought the tickets in the morning to secure a trip to the top.
I was a little concerned when I first landed that it was a cloudy day, however it cleared up quite well, but I couldn't quite figure out why visibility was still lower than I liked - and realised that it was the sand in the distance that made everything look smoggy. Either way, I was looking forward to take pictures as I read that it was an open air observation deck.
And there is a mini model of it in the hallway! Because I had purchased a Sky ticket (the one that takes you to 148), we were first ushered into a waiting room where we were provided with snacks and coffee. It was a really nice spiced coffee that was served in a tiny cup, much like those in tea ceremonies. We then learned that the lift up to 125 was also the highest and fastest lift in the world. All the records! From 125 there was a separate lift to 148, where we were then greeted with more snacks and juice.
Obligatory upward shot. I couldn't help but think "you are being watched" while I was taking this one.
It's amazing how different the city looks from different sides of the tower. The bright, striking blue of the canal of downtown Dubai contrasts so much with the random towers and mostly desert on every other side. I had a great time attempting panorama shots too, but the view from here was just too much for the camera to capture!
And then of course, the sunset. One of the less spectacular sunsets I've seen as a result of the dust in the horizon, and made it very difficult to get a good shot. So instead, I waited for the lights to come on - and that's when I learned there was a fountain performance every half hour!
To get all the shots of the water I saw the performance 3 times - the first time I didn't realise what was happening, so everyone else took the best vantage points for the photos. I had to camp the spot for another half hour to finally get my turn, then once more for the outdoor shots after dinner.Speaking of dinner, I had my eye on a Lebanese restaurant inside the mall. I was still seeking the flavours of South Africa, and I figured that a Lebanese restaurant would also satisfy my urge to not have familiar, modern/contemporary/Japanese/French tendencies. It was then that I saw a chicken shawarma on the menu, something I hadn't had in Cape Town even though there was plenty of opportunity. I actually had no idea what I was ordering, but it came out quite quickly and it turns out it was like kebab shaved meat! This was presented on a bed of hummus and accompanied with olives and what I can only describe as puffy flatbread? It was very thin, but had puffed up while cooking.I considered the knife and fork for only the smallest moment, before figuring this was best eaten with hands. The puffy flatbread easily opened in half for me to spoon the shawarma in and eat it with my hands. The olives had pits, so I ate them separately. The chicken was a little dry, but I managed to eat most of it!Once I was done, I was very glad I had eaten it with hands, because another waiter came over and handed me a towel. She then proceeded to hand a towel to another diner, so I assumed this was normal, which lead me to the conclusion I had eaten the food properly. I'm very particular about keeping my hands clean, but there's just a great satisfaction in eating with hands!And so ended my 1 day Dubai adventure, and I could feel my body struggling as I had been awake for far too long. Not only had I underestimated the time it would take to exit Dubai airport in the morning, I had also underestimated how late I'd stay out, which meant that I now had no chance of sleep until the plane ride - at which point I fell asleep during the safety demonstration! I was barely conscious for takeoff.It was definitely a fulfilling visit and I'd definitely take the time to explore more leisurely and thoroughly next time, and definitely spent a fortune at Fortnum & Mason!For now, it's back to being able to cook for myself and catching up with my local baristas and enjoying the oh so good coffee!
Farewell Cape Town, Hello Dubai, Welcome Home
This will probably turn into a very long post full of very random rambling things. I would put Dubai in its own post, but considering I spent less than 22 hours there, it may as well all be crammed into one!In the last couple of weeks, I realised that I had visited a great many restaurants and cafes, so I decided to try and remember all of them, which lead to me on a mad last week scramble to match the number of places eaten with the number of days stayed - 84 - and managed to complete this quite easily. What an amazing achievement considering I've probably visited a low 3 digit count of places in Sydney, and high two digit in two years in Adelaide!A last minute cafe that I had to visit was Shift Espresso Bar, who had some cool "specialty" coffees with cool names, such as Rebellion (double espresso with condensed milk and whipped cream), Hashtag (double espresso, vanilla gelato, oreo), etc. I went for the Nicaragua single origin and a Rebellion, and they were both quite nice. I'm not a fan of sweet/novelty coffees anymore, but the rebellion didn't taste too bad at all; I got it more out of curiosity for their presentation.
And then I was off! Zoom zoom
So I'd been awake since 6AM Cape Town time on a Saturday for breakfast, a second breakfast, lunch, before finally heading out for an afternoon flight. The in-flight entertainment selection had greatly improved from three months ago, so I treated myself to The Imitation Game (which I loved because some of it tied in so well to Person of Interest - the parts about human versus machine, and if machines could think. Plus I reckon it helped me with my little cyberpunk story project thingy too!). I decided to also watch Interstellar, but alas, I fell asleep before the ending! So I have no idea how it ended, except that it was to do with trippy black hole gravity time bending stuff. I guess it was a good thing that I got sleep, I estimated it to be about 5 hours of plane sleep. Well, that was as good as it was going to get, because by the time I got settled in Dubai, it was Sunday 8AM - which according to my "explore Dubai" schedule, meant I had to be out and about.My first impression of Dubai was that outside of the city, it was "buildings in sand pits", and inside the city I affectionately thought of it was "sandcastles and glass towers". It's such a mixture of different cultures that it's amazing!
First stop, Dubai Mall to buy my tickets for the Burj Khalifa. Me being me, managed to walk into the residential area, and then had to circle back around to get to the actual mall. The tower is a really impressive sight!
Dubai Mall is pretty massive, but I knew I didn't have the time or the luggage space to buy anything, so I didn't go into any stores. There were plenty of intriguing sweets shops that I would go back to. The mall also has some great features, like the hanging butterflies and the fountain of divers.I was originally just going to get some breakfast here as the food court had interesting food, but then I decided to venture outside, and that's when I saw Fortnum & Mason beckoning me with its almost Tiffany & Co blue.
I never managed to visit one in London, so this was the next best thing! I had no idea what I actually wanted, so I managed to wander into the tea salon. The view from here is amazing, and though it was a very windy day, I managed to be able to sit outside without having anything blow away.
They have an awesome tea selection, though I'm no connoisseur. There were two assams that caught my eye, so I asked the waiter which of the two I should have. I was recommended the Dikom estate.
I love having fancy tea! I didn't actually like the style of the teapot, and I was worried that the leaves would sit in the water for too long and make it all tannic, but the tea was that amazing that it remained smooth throughout the entirety of my breakfast.
The one thing that strikes me as odd is the fact that there's no such thing as tap water here. Even Cape Town had tap water, but here it's all bottled. I ended up being given a 500mL glass bottle of water that I only had half of, which was kind of awkward. I ordered the scrambled egg and cured trout for 90AED, which was actually very costly when I thought about it, but I was glad it was also a decent size! I think this makes my most expensive breakfast, above Sushi Dai. The bottled water, tea and eggs came in at 205AED - yikes! But hey now I can say I dined at Fortnum & Mason and had a great single estate assam while gazing at the Burj Khalifa.
Isn't this the cutest little Synesso? With an adorable cup! With much awkwardness I decided to walk in and found a group of people all working with coffee. Being my odd self, I mentioned that I was visiting and hoping to find out what cafes to go to - after a time they invited me in and explained what they did. The owner then came in and introduced himself - apparently he's from Melbourne and has been working in Dubai for the last few years. We had a great conversation about coffee and I got to sample a couple - an espresso from a roaster in Seattle, and then a filter from their own roast - which was so juicy and tasted like strawberries!He mentioned that in Dubai, there wasn't really anything in the way of specialty coffee right now. Cafe Rider, the only other coffee place on my list, was apparently the only cafe that served specialty coffee, the rest weren't that great. Well, that meant my coffee adventure ended as soon as it started! They were a great bunch though, and did mentioned that they would be opening a cafe soon, which means an excuse to stop over again in the future.
The buildings are seriously amazing here! And being stranded in the middle of nowhere, I felt it was time to test out the public transport system. I walked to the closest station and fumbled a bit to figure out how to get to the Marina, which one of my taxi drivers had recommended. The person at the information booth simply said "Damac station" or something to that effect, and so I just said yes, and received a nifty contactless paper ticket! I totally didn't realise that these lasted 180mins with 3 transfers allowed, so there I was buying a whole heap of tickets till I gave up and bought an all-day ticket.
Walking through what I believe was the Jumeirah beach area (I did manage to get glimpses of the Burj Al Arab while I was on the road, but I didn't take any pictures. I also didn't manage to see the Jumeirah beach hotel) was quite interesting. I love going through alleyways and managed to find a set of stairs nestled between two massive sand coloured buildings. 
What a cute little sculpture thing!
The beach was very interesting because I've never had a view like it before! The sight of construction was so weird, as I'm used to seeing just endless ocean. They also had an outdoor cinema way further right. It was about lunch time now and I knew I had to eat, but my appetite wasn't quite there, which I attributed to not having had proper sleep in the last 24 hours, so instead of choosing something I hadn't had before, I defaulted to a light meal of sushi (I ordered each piece off an a la carte menu) and a sea bream tartare. Since the tartare came with free sides, I went for miso and cabbage salad.
I guess the sushi at Kyoto Garden Sushi in Cape Town really left a mark, as this I felt was your average sushi shop. Tasty, but not mind blowing.It was then time to figure out how to start heading back to Dubai Mall, for my final hours in Dubai up the Burj Khalifa!
All that is posh, hipster, pretentious and classy
It's almost time to return home, and I feel that I have eaten through Cape Town with a valiant effort. I finally found some mindblowing places - the first being Hemelhuijs. It's a weird name that I can barely pronounce, but I had noticed a crowd around the place during my explorations, so I decided to pop in for a visit. The decor is visibly posh, and even has a cute little deer head with leaves sprouting from its head as a piece of wall decoration. The other thing I noticed straight away was the black salt in petri dishes at every table.
I decided to order a flat white, having no expectations of their coffee, which was a good thing... it tasted like coffee, but nothing delicious or super fantastic about it. How it was served, on the other hand, was quite interesting indeed. This came in a handmade ceramic mug that was lined with gold, and there was no saucer. Instead it was placed on a serviette, with a spoon on the side, and was accompanied with sugar cubes in yet another petri dish.It was super fancy and classy, and would impress most people - but here I was, being the snobbish fake hipster that I am, judging all of these elements and then sadly sipping away at my average coffee.
I ordered a potato rosti and was offered a side of smoked trout, which I accepted. It turns out the side of trout cost more than half of the cost of the dish itself! The breakfast was already seasoned as well, so I wasn't actually able to use the salt, which was a shame. The waitress came back with a pepper grinder when I was halfway into my food, which I thought was a little silly. This post sounds a little harsh, but hey, I'm allowed to judge when a cafe decides to be as opulent as this.Afterwards, decided to do some exploring by myself again - I counted about 73 different cafes and restaurants visited during my stay, which I'm hoping is an impressive feat, however I don't really have anyone else's experiences to compare with, since I assume everyone else stayed in their hotel rooms or visited the same places over and over again. I too had several revisits to some places, but I have a feeling I have a better feel for the food here.As part of my exploration, I managed to witness some people waving guns about just outside where I was staying. At first I had no idea what was happening, it was just people shouting at one another. It wasn't until I heard a fairly loud click that I decided to see what was happening, and lo and behold, there was a person pointing a gun at someone down the street. He turned a corner, and the pursuer jumped into a car, also holding a gun and occasionally pointing it at this other person.Funnily enough, the first thought that crossed my mind was that I really hoped I wouldn't jump if there were shots fired. I had no idea how loud it would be, and I wasn't interested in finding out. Luckily, nothing actually eventuated. However, I can now say that I've seen people waving guns about on the street for real!After that excitement, I did some research on a Japanese restaurant I spotted while on a quest for yet another cafe on my foodmap and getting my hot dog fix while there. It turns out there's this wonderful little spot called Kyoto Garden Sushi, which is rated very highly!A quick glance at the restaurant indicated it was no ordinary sushi shop, and no other sushi place compares to this. Scallops, abalone, crayfish were all on the menu, and they have a small list of Japanese whiskies. So why not, I figured I'd step into this horrifically expensive looking place.
Lo and behold, Nikka single malt Yoichi, 15yo. I asked for it neat after agonising over which one to try, and I figured this one looked good. I did worry a little when I heard them playing with some ice, but then when I saw how the whisky was presented, I understood why. I call it "MYO whisky" - water and ice to your preference!
I ordered a small sashimi plate, and if I recall, the white fish might be kingklip. My desire to re-confirm the fish types fell away as soon as I saw the wasabi. It wasn't the standard green tube paste, it looked very different. I started wondering if this was real wasabi - it had quite a punch to it, something I was pleased with as every other place I've eaten at had the same weak green goo that I had to pile on with no effect. I eagerly asked the waiter about it, who then explained it wasn't real wasabi as it was too expensive to acquire, instead this was made in-house by their chef. A very nice touch!
I finally found scallops in Cape Town! And these were perfectly cooked.
The last savoury dish I ordered was known as "the sea" - mixed clams, scallops, octopus, prawns, seaweed. It was so tasty and I loved all the different clams in it. It was seriously raising my happiness level as the food was amazing as well as the service - after asking once for a water refill, the rest became magic. That's my kind of restaurant.They also had a very interesting dessert; a fried tofu and ginger ice cream, but I chose the cherry blossom ice cream and chocolate instead. Too bad that my choice tasted like a cherry ripe without the coconut - I would have liked to have had the tofu instead, but nonetheless the whole experience was still fantastic.I would now say this is the best restaurant I've been to in Cape Town - and simultaneously the most expensive I've been to.Now I simply have to save up money as I plan to spend big when I go back to Sydney...
Happy Easter, etc
I don't feel that I did too much over the last couple of weeks - it was a lot of rewatching Person of Interest and thinking up more characters for my amazing world. I also found out that there's a thing out there called technological singularity, and it's scarily close to what I was doing for my cyberpunk story, at which point I discovered that I really should read Neuromancer by William Gibson because it sounds amazing!In food news, I had my first shakshuka at Origin Artisan Roasters - it wasn't as salty as I had imagined it, but it had a lot of flavour so I really liked it and felt it was a healthy dish:
There was a visit to Camps Bay, a beachside with some very crazy winds. A group of us spent way too much money on tapas, and I was running to the beach every 10 minutes to capture the waves and the sunset. What made the waves particularly interesting was the fact that the wind was so strong and blew towards the sea, that the waves would be splattered with sand particles, making for some cool pictures, so here's some wave spam, courtesy of me discovering the continuous shooting function on my camera:
I also discovered the colourful area of Bo-Kaap and its bright, bold and even pastel coloured houses:
It had a cute little setup, and I managed to spot some nice soft shell crab which was quite costly relative to everything else on the menu, but was worth it!
Finally, a place that served bite sized pieces of sushi! This made me super happy, and all the white fish I've had here has been fairly tasty. I still miss Sydney and Japan's sushi like crazy, but this made do for now.
In terms of fine dining, I managed to find a few places in lieu of The Test Kitchen (I'm still crying over the fact that I missed out on booking a table - I found out too late that it's a San Pellegrino Top 50 restaurant but then decided to employ my snobbishness of having visited Dinner by Heston at #5 on the list) - places like Bizerca, Fork, and Borage Bistro. Bizerca was a really nice place with prompt service, Fork passed my magical refilling water service test, and Borage's chef worked under Heston.
Tuna tartare, pork belly, sticky date pudding - Fork
I had my eye on this place since my early days in Cape Town, but I wanted to avoid if if possible because it's situated on a main street, and I'm too hipster for that. I found it weird that they always served their food in portions of four, but in terms of flavour, it was all very nice!
Seared tuna and tuna tartare, beef tartare - Bizerca Bistro
I only had one issue with Bizerca, and that was their presentation of their beef tartare. Sure it's chopped steak with spices, but I felt that this was presented like an uncooked burger rather than a dish that is intended to be eaten raw. It was very nicely flavoured though! This visit was when I realised I do eat a lot of raw things...
And here's Borage Bistro, where I managed to get pictures of every dish I ordered:
Beef tartare - parsley, quail egg yolk, gherkins, onion, croute
This beef tartare had a much nicer presentation than Bizerca. I still miss my little sculptured blobs with spices trailing out from the centre and mustard condiments on the side, but hey, this was pretty decent!
Chicken Livers and Foie Gras Parfait - "Gluehwein" gel, sourdough
This parfait had a lovely flavour to it, and I love the garnish of figs and what tasted like a red wine gel. I guess I've eaten so many nice things at nice places, this was very nice, but I've had better - but that just makes me sound like a snob. I guess I am one, but every now and again I feel bad for being so judgemental.
Duck - pomme dauphine, brussels sprouts, sprouting broccoli, spiced duck sauce
I love duck, and haven't consumed any recently, so this was my perfect chance since I'd eaten a decent amount of game here. The legs were nicely cooked, though the second piece was either a little overcooked, or I was getting very full with the two entrees I'd already eaten. I was also glad to finally eat brussels sprouts, since I hadn't had it for at least a decade.
Sticky Toffee Pudding - homemade vanilla ice cream, honeycomb
They seem to call these sticky toffee puddings here, though I'm sure they're sticky date puddings. Quite delicious indeed! If I may be snobby yet again, I would have liked the ice cream a bit smoother, as it broke off in chunks. Yep, I'm so judgemental with my food here. But overall, it was certainly a lovely place to dine - the others I took here definitely enjoyed the meal!
I discovered one more cafe recently, a place called Loading Bay, right next to Origin Artisan Roasters. The most hipster and trendy place I've found yet - a cafe, clothing store and the only stockist of Aesop in South Africa!
They use Microlab roasters, and have a very nice espresso. I love the lights and the plants! It's also considerably less busy than Origin, so I've taken a liking to this place - they also do burgers and have kombucha on tap.
And finally the end of this post. With a Hot Cross Bomb from Jason's Bakery - hot cross bun with bacon, cheese and egg! A sweet and savoury special easter breakfast.
My other bonus today was a savoury and a sweet bunny chow in a single day! Above - lamb curry bunny chow in brioche from Jason's Bakery, and below - banana bread bunny chow with chocolate sauce and ice cream from Honest Chocolate. I love special holidays!
Not a normal superpower dream
My crazy dreams are back for the time being, but not quite the same as they used to be. I love my save the world with superpowers dreams, but haven't had any in a long time.At least this time my superpowers were back. Well, it wasn't actually me. I was more of a spectator that shared the same space and consciousness as the person in my dream. It was a character who wanted to run away from his city, because people were trying to kill him. He had to sneak out of his apartment, avoid a lady who was walking toward the apartment, avoid alerting or running into the police, and avoid a massive bomb to escape.So he ran. The first time, the lady spotted him and then called the police. He managed to run down one street before pretty much ending up exactly where some policemen were stationed, so that was the end of that. The dream "whited out" and the scenario reset.Next attempt, he decided he would shapeshift into a cat to be silent and to better evade the lady at the apartment. This worked out much better - though from his perspective there was still what felt like an audible thump as he jumped down a set of stairs and proceeded to dash in the opposite direction from the previous scene, and once he felt relatively safe, he transformed back into a human. He was on the left side of a river that ran through the city, when he passed a pole that lit up with red when he passed it - which happened to be the trigger for a bomb going off in the distance - but close enough that he would be caught in the blast. Once again, the scenario reset.Third time, he again escaped as a cat and this time ran on the right side of the river, far away enough so that he wouldn't trigger the sensor. But... a bigger bomb went off. A white wash again, and now I returned to my real self, in front of a witch-like lady, who held a tiny half robotic man in her hand. She explained that he never did make it, and that it was all a dream - at which point I was thinking "wow this is such a bad ending to a story"And that was pretty much it. How random! For once the super powers in my dream were being used to unsuccessfully escape. I hope I do get another save the world dream in the future!