Mall of the Emirates

Hi friends,

Last week, my friend had a day off from work, and so we decided to make use of our afternoon off. We went to check out the new Mall of the Emirates (MoE) in Dubai, and guess what? I fell in love with it. This is the first mall where I really enjoyed being in. Of course, the shops are the same everywhere, but somehow, MoE was designed a lot differently. If you remember, I talked about the Ibn Batutta mall earlier, which I was impressed with, but realized the novelty wore off after going there several times. City Center will eternally be crowded, but it is very touristy. Wafi and Bur Juman are for shoppers for more exclusive designer stuff. Mercato is good too, but the novelty has worn off, and is good for those living in close proximity to it.

MoE is very different, because, presently it is the biggest mall in Dubai, soon to be over shadowed by the Dubai Mall, which claims to be the world’s biggest mall! However, MoE has the added attraction of Dubai’s first ever skiing slope. From part of the mall, you can see into the lower half of the skiing slope, where you can also see the Snow Park, which is always full of children, and adults too, playing around in the snow. Who would have ever thought that you would see men and women in local traditional garb playing around in the snow?

The reason why I loved MoE is because of the interior design. It is very European styled, with concealed and dim lighting. The reception area for Ski Dubai is reminiscent of a Swiss chalet, complete with timber frames and beams. The only thing missing was a huge fireplace. There are sections of mall, which incorporates stonework, again reminiscent of Europe.

We also checked out the Magic Planet, the kids’ gaming area. There was something there called Robo Coaster, which was a six dimensional roller coaster. We were so ready to try it out, but my friend had a skirt, and so we decided to postpone it for some other time.

My absolutely favorite place was a small place called Marble Slab Creamery. I first had their ice cream in Houston, and was absolutely delighted to see them here too. What you do is order any flavor ice cream, and your ice cream scoop will be spread out like a dough on a marble, which is being cooled by cool water from below. Once your ice cream is spread like dough, you can have anything on top, like pizza toppings. Now, your toppings include gummi bears, chocolate chips, mars, kit kat, marshmallows, peanut butter, and chocolate syrup, among dozens of other stuff. I had the gummi bears and chocolate chips. Once put, the ice cream is folded over, and mashed up, and put in a cup. It was absolutely delicious.

On a short note, the coffee shops were not that amazing. In particular Columbus Café, where the service was pathetically poor. We ordered milk, and got the bill. I said I don’t want anything to drink, and she was writing latte for me. My friend ordered milk from three different waitresses, and eventually had to get some for herself. We also tried another organic café, Le Pain Quordinaire (something like that). It looked impressive, but once we tried it out, it was so-so. Bar the poor cafes here, MoE is a welcome addition to Dubai’s increasing number of malls.

Mansur