The Spanish restaurant El Sur that opened its doors at Dubai's Westin Hotel in November is running a tribute to the famous Spanish restaurant El Bulli every Monday through June and July.
Gastronomic Mondays at El Sur offers six contemporary starters and three "special" dishes, inspired by the deconstructed food that used to be served at El Bulli, a Michellin three-star restaurant.
El Sur's chic decor and competent service - the restaurant boasts as many as six chefs from Spain and mainly Spanish serving staff - set the right mood for the culinary delights that came our way from a set menu.
We started with the liquid marinated olives - a tasty titbit with a tangy pop of olive-infused syrup - and cantabric anchovies with tomato shavings on a flat, crisp tortilla.
The avocado cannelloni with tuna, bursting with fishy flavour, was next, followed by a crunchy air bag of meat and Manchego cheese - a creamy delight that we could have had more than one each of.
The hen egg with potatoes and black truffle was when it started to get seriously gourmet - served in a perfectly slurp-worthy mini eggshell cup, the dish was foamy and full of flavour.
The standout starter, for me, was the burratta with mustard vinaigrette - a cheese-and-cherry dominated dish that has its origins in Rafael Nadal's hometown Manacor in Spain's Balearic Islands, or so our chatty server informed us, and then proceeded to discuss the French Open with my by-now-full partner.
The three mains - inspired by Ferran Adrià, the chef whose revolutionary cooking made El Bulli the top name on erstwhile haute cuisine lists, soon had our taste buds re-tingling, though. The liquid meat croquets, similar to the popping olives served up front, had croquette shavings and a throat-warming syrupy filling. The highlight here was the deconstructed Spanish omelette. Served in a martini glass with a potato-foam texture at top with the egg in the middle and a base of cooked-to-perfection onions, this is no everyday omelette. That didn't stop us from enjoying every spoonful of its frothy fabulousness - all the way from bottom to top, as instructed - though.
The Kellog's paella - a minuscule portion of soup, which reminded me of Malaysian laksa, with rice crispies on the side, was too seafoody for me, but my partner proceeded to wolf down his portion before turning his attention to mine with no such olfactory issues.
Gastronomic Mondays at El Sur, Westin Mina Seyahi, Dubai, run through June and July. Doors open at 8pm during Ramadan. The three "Tribute to El Bulli" dishes cost Dh50 each. Call 04 399 7700 or email reservations@elsurdubai.com to book a spot
pmunyal@thenational.ae
Kanguva
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The specs: 2018 Chevrolet Trailblazer
Price, base / as tested Dh99,000 / Dh132,000
Engine 3.6L V6
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power 275hp @ 6,000rpm
Torque 350Nm @ 3,700rpm
Fuel economy combined 12.2L / 100km
If you go
The flights
Emirates flies from Dubai to Seattle from Dh5,555 return, including taxes.
The car
Hertz offers compact car rental from about $300 (Dh1,100) per week, including taxes. Emirates Skywards members can earn points on their car hire through Hertz.
The national park
Entry to Mount Rainier National Park costs $30 for one vehicle and passengers for up to seven days. Accommodation can be booked through mtrainierguestservices.com. Prices vary according to season. Rooms at the Holiday Inn Yakima cost from $125 per night, excluding breakfast.
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
Other ways to buy used products in the UAE
UAE insurance firm Al Wathba National Insurance Company (AWNIC) last year launched an e-commerce website with a facility enabling users to buy car wrecks.
Bidders and potential buyers register on the online salvage car auction portal to view vehicles, review condition reports, or arrange physical surveys, and then start bidding for motors they plan to restore or harvest for parts.
Physical salvage car auctions are a common method for insurers around the world to move on heavily damaged vehicles, but AWNIC is one of the few UAE insurers to offer such services online.
For cars and less sizeable items such as bicycles and furniture, Dubizzle is arguably the best-known marketplace for pre-loved.
Founded in 2005, in recent years it has been joined by a plethora of Facebook community pages for shifting used goods, including Abu Dhabi Marketplace, Flea Market UAE and Arabian Ranches Souq Market while sites such as The Luxury Closet and Riot deal largely in second-hand fashion.
At the high-end of the pre-used spectrum, resellers such as Timepiece360.ae, WatchBox Middle East and Watches Market Dubai deal in authenticated second-hand luxury timepieces from brands such as Rolex, Hublot and Tag Heuer, with a warranty.
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Visit www.wtatennis.com for more information
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Stars: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville
Rating: 4/5
The specs
SPECS
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Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
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Sector: FinTech
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Label: Warner Records
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The biog
Simon Nadim has completed 7,000 dives.
The hardest dive in the UAE is the German U-boat 110m down off the Fujairah coast.
As a child, he loved the documentaries of Jacques Cousteau
He also led a team that discovered the long-lost portion of the Ines oil tanker.
If you are interested in diving, he runs the XR Hub Dive Centre in Fujairah
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Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
Day 1, Abu Dhabi Test: At a glance
Moment of the day Dimuth Karunaratne had batted with plenty of pluck, and no little skill, in getting to within seven runs of a first-day century. Then, while he ran what he thought was a comfortable single to mid-on, his batting partner Dinesh Chandimal opted to stay at home. The opener was run out by the length of the pitch.
Stat of the day – 1 One six was hit on Day 1. The boundary was only breached 18 times in total over the course of the 90 overs. When it did arrive, the lone six was a thing of beauty, as Niroshan Dickwella effortlessly clipped Mohammed Amir over the square-leg boundary.
The verdict Three wickets down at lunch, on a featherbed wicket having won the toss, and Sri Lanka’s fragile confidence must have been waning. Then Karunaratne and Chandimal's alliance of precisely 100 gave them a foothold in the match. Dickwella’s free-spirited strokeplay meant the Sri Lankans were handily placed at 227-4 at the close.
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A ancient classical dance from the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Intricate footwork and expressions are used to denote spiritual stories and ideas.
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ADCC AFC Women’s Champions League Group A fixtures
October 3: v Wuhan Jiangda Women’s FC
October 6: v Hyundai Steel Red Angels Women’s FC
October 9: v Sabah FA
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE