The first visit to the Arab country

I've known people from Arab countries, but had never visited one.  Right before the end of year holidays, my hubby and I all of a sudden decided to go to UAE, as we found out it was fairly close and that there was a direct flight from Vienna.

UAE stands for the United Arab Emirates, and it is located on the southeast side of the Arabian Peninsula bordering Oman and Saudi Arabia.  It consists of 7 states; Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah and Umm al-Quwain.  Abu Dhabi is the capital, but Dubai became the business hub and is attaracting lots of tourists with massive resort hotels and shopping centers.

My impression of Dubai can be expressed with the formula below:

Dubai = (Las Vegas) - (alcohol, drugs, gambling, and prostitution) + (lots of praying, smoking, and no lining)

The minute I walked out of the plane, I could feel the warm and dry air.  People wearing kandura; one of those white dress, welcomed us at the customs. Big hairy men wearing kandura sitting in front of the PC and checking everyone's passport was rather an interesting sight for me.  

It was around 9pm, but the airport was full of people still (I later found out Dubai Airport had 4 million visitors just in the month of November, 2010).  Lots of people were at the Duty Free Shop buying wines and alcohol for their hotel room consumption :)

The hotel pickup we were supposed to have wasn't there, so we decided to take a cab to the hotel. It was already around 11pm when we settled in, but we were wide awake because of the 3 hr time difference between Dubai and Czech Republic. We headed to the hotel bar and got us a plate of Arab appetizers and a glass of wine before tucking ourselves into bed. 

Murakami is back in LA!

We had a chance to have a very short trip back to our sunny hometown LA this past Dec.  It was a very hectic 4-day trip on which I had to take care of my personal matters such as my greencard and my car which had been sitting in our garage.  What's more, the consulting work that I had been engaged in followed me all the way to the hotel room in LA, so I was pretty much working and had to squeeze in my personal matters here and there. 

But, since I missed so many restaurants in LA, we made sure that we had enough time to experience them, such as lobster and steak dinner at Palm, local tacos shop where we used to love to eat lunch, etc. 

Sushi and seafood was definitely on our list, but to be honest, we lost our favorite sushi restaurant called Murakami way back in 2006 or so when the chef decided to take some time off.  It was a very popular sushi restaurant in West Hollywood where we used to live.  Since we moved to another part of LA shortly after that, we had forgotten about it, but we happened to discover that Murakami was back(!)  when we were talking to a sushi chef in the sushi restaurant which opened up at same location Murakami used to be. So, I did some searches the next day and found it!! It was now operating mainly as a take-out place in Hollywood as "Murakami Sushi". You wouldn't believe how excited I was! 

We missed the chef but mostly his sushi. It is absolutely different from the random sushi places (sorry) in most part of LA. The ingredients are carefully chosen, the amount of vinegar in the rice is just right, and the tightness of sushi is perfect.

They are mainly open during the day until 8pm, so we decided to go for lunch. We each had a bowl of "chirashi", which Chef Murakami-san put together specially for us (you can also choose your own toppings), and our favorite "real" Murakami Rolls. 

It was great to see Murakami-san again, and his sushi dishes satisfied my cravings for sushi to the max. Now it became one of my must-visit restaurants in LA again.

A Happy New Year!

I can already sense that the year 2011 will be another year of changes. But, the most important thing is to stay healthy and to be with your loved ones. Happy 2011 everyone, and hope to see you all again this year.