Sushi in the Desert

There are many things in the UAE that make it hard to live here, but there are also quite a few things that are really nice that many of us expats don’t have the opportunity to do/have back in our home country. For example, many expat families/couples have a full-time live-in maid, they drive nice cars (like Ferrari, Maserati, Range Rover, etc.), and you can order just about anything to be delivered to your home.

Since we’re trying to save up money while we’re here, we haven’t been fully utilizing these opportunities. The one that is the most reasonable for us though is ordering things in because they don’t charge you to deliver. You just tip the guy that drops it off. It really is amazing the stuff you can order. You can have your groceries delivered, Subway, McDonalds, something from the pharmacy, dry cleaning, etc.

The main reason we have been apprehensive of the delivery is because we were afraid they would never find us since there are no addresses and you are never speaking to a native English speaker when you are trying to give a delivery man directions. Usually we end up having to get in our car and drive a couple of minutes to a landmark and then let them follow us back to our apartment.

Eventually we decided to give it a go based on a friend’s recommendation and ordered in some sushi from a nearby restaurant. It only took 45minutes and the guy amazingly found our place with us only giving him directions once (well he did stop on our street way too early and we had to walk out and wave him down, but that is minor compared to most of our other experiences)

Excited for some sushi!

One thing I have noticed is that the way I give directions has changed since being over here—the biggest change is that now I tell people to go straight, I can’t remember ever feeling the need to tell anyone that before. Our conversations when usually go something like this…

Hello
Deliver
Ok, is this Sumo Sushi?
Yes, where are you
Do you know where _______ (nearby landmark A) is?
Alskjdf;asdf (something garbled that I don’t understand)
_________ (landmark A)?
Yes
Ok, are you there?
No
Where are you coming from?
Alskjdf;asdf (something garbled that I don’t understand)
Are you coming from _______ (landmark B)?
Yes
Ok, when you get to landmark A, there is a roundabout, go left
Ok
Then go straight through the next roundabout
Ok, roundabout straight
At the next roundabout go left
Ok
Then make your first right onto street ____...the sign is half-fallen over
Ok
Then make your first right again onto street ____
Ok, first right
Then go halfway down the road and we’re the ____ building on the right with parking outside
Ok, so roundabout left, roundabout straight, roundabout left, then left
No… after the last roundabout you make the first right, the right again, and we’re halfway down the street on the right
Ok, ok…5 minutes
*I think to myself “Insha'Allah”*

Usually, sometime about halfway through the directions I forget “which roundabout” I’m referring to and have to retrace it in my mind.

Masdar

Anyways, all this to say that we’ve found a new Sushi place that we like. It’s located in MASDAR city which is this uber-sustainable development near the airport (not really sure how something can be so sustainable when it’s built in the middle of a desert….but I won’t get into that). So we decided to go over there and check it out one night.

When you arrive, you park in a garage then walk over to these Personal Rapid Transport (PRT) cars. The cars are automated and are guided by magnets in the floor. They are supposedly carbon neutral, although I don’t really see how it’s any better than walking or just letting people park a little closer…I guess it’s really just for the experience.

Getting into our PRT

Paul chillin’ in his carbon-neutral transportation

MASDAR is still being developed. So far I think they have at least parts of a university complete as well as a couple of cafes and an organic grocery store. They plan to have apartments and all sorts of other mixed-use stuff.

Camel made out of plastic bags to encourage recycling & using reusable bags for shopping

Courtyard in Masdar where the sushi place is

We enjoyed the restaurant and the food was just as good. We enjoyed sitting outside and enjoying the beautiful weather.

Mmmmm… Salmon Sushi Bento

Paul’s loving his Beef BBQ Bento