We went to old Dubai today, not the part with the sky scrapers and the athleisure, but the older bit, with rows of restaurants, jewellers, sari shops etc, from all over the subcontinent, the restaurants with a Salt n Pepper aesthetic and filled with families from all over Asia. This time it was to a Keralan restaurant that specialises in crab and it was not only some of the best food I’ve had in Dubai, but also some of the cheapest. It was also designed for people to walk around, at least a little bit more, not to be ferried around in chauffeured cards: the rows of shops and restaurants had pavements, and there were strips of park in front. If I ever had to live in Dubai I would like to be within reach of here, as it felt more real than the places where most people I know tend to live, and with less of an extreme divide between the social classes.
This felt closer to the Dubai I gleaned from reading Young Times as a child – the supplement featuring Otto the flower-shaped alien, that came with the Khaleej Times newspaper. Not quite the same environment, perhaps, as those children lived in villas a little further out, but familiar to them.
And did I mention the crab? Really lovely.