New In Town

Probably the most prominent establishments in Dubai are the malls. I haven't verified this statistic, but I would be willing to bet that there are more malls in Dubai per capita than anywhere else in the world. And unlike anywhere else I've ever been, the malls are a tourist attraction. New ones seem to continuously pop up all the time, all trying to outdo or 1-up the last. The new Mirdif City Centre Mall is no exception. I won't say it's better than the Dubai Mall (I am loyal to 'our' mall... it is, after all, like my second home here), but it's a pretty damn good mall. It's been open for a couple months, but we went for the first time on Saturday. I was sufficiently impressed that I had to take some photos.

Completely over the top interior designs. Dubai has the nicest malls in the world, so after going to pretty much any mall here, all malls back home look, well, shabby. Even the new ones that try to be really nice, like the Natick Collection, still look boring and drab in comparison. The malls are one thing I will definitely miss when we move home. They are like little cities unto themselves.

The Food Court. Forget cafeteria style dining. Eat your McDonald's while feeling as if you are in a fine dining establishment. I guess it might take away some of the shame...

Indoor Sky Diving. Check. In case you need a little adrenaline rush to break up your day of shopping. I am actually dying to try this...

Indoor Soccer Arena. Check. I actually think this is a fabulous idea. My mom always hated going to mine and my brother's indoor soccer games when we were kids. They were early in the morning and we played at a gross, smelly field house in the middle of no where. Here, moms can drop their kids to play soccer for a couple hours and go off and drink cappuccino's while shopping for their designer clothes. What could be better?

Also, why not throw in a Bowling Alley for a sense of completeness (which is coincidentally located in the whole 'kids fun area' pseudo indoor amusement park with games and rides including an indoor roller coaster). Personally I just enjoyed the fusion of Arab to Western cultures going on here. "Yalla! Bowling" Yalla is an Arabic word that means "go." Love love love it!

Then to cap off our Mirdif City Centre experience, Jared and I were ecstatic that it has a P.F. Chang's. We love P.F. Chang's but never went all that often in Boston because a) it was on the expensive side (for Chinese food), and b) there are millions of delicious [American] Chinese restaurants to choose from, and we always tended toward our fav. dirty Chinese delivery "New Hong Kong." Well, fake Chinese food is one thing seriously lacking in Dubai. We haven't found a single decent place and I haven't had a crab rangoon in going on 10 months. That's a big problem for me, so P.F. Chang's will definitely fill that void. The food was just like home, and the American staff was still there training the Dubai staff, so the music playing was all 90's rock off one of the American's ipods. Truly delightful! We'll definitely be going back, probably sooner rather than later.