Dubai from the sofa

1. A virtual visit

enlarge photo The Burj Khalifa building, 828 meters high. getty images

Let's start with the symbol of Dubai: the Burj Khalifa (burjkhalifa.ae), the tallest building in the world. But instead of breaking our necks looking up to its 828 meters, we will make the journey from its observatory on the 148th floor, 555 meters from the ground. The view, which can be enjoyed in many videos on YouTube or Google Arts & Culture, is impressive. Even more so if one imagines everything empty of buildings, only sand. This was the city 25 years ago. Or almost. The thread of water to the north is Al Khor, the cove that centuries ago served as a refuge for pirates and then as a natural port for maritime trade. Around it came the original city, where the gold and spice souks still function. To the west, the Persian Gulf. On a clear day you can guess the profile of The World, a failed real estate project formed by an artificial archipelago in the shape of a world map. The route to the south can be done by following the highway that crosses the city, Sheikh Zayed Road. Although it is much more pleasant to skirt the coast along the Jumeirah road. Looking towards the Burj al Arab, an advertised 7-star hotel, the panoramic view reaches La Palmera, another landmark of the emirate. No visit is complete without getting close to one of its macro-commercial centers, one of the cornerstones of its economy. Let's take the elevator from the Burj Khalifa. Recovered breath after the dizzying drop at 10 meters per second, you do not even have to cross the street to find yourself in the Dubai Mall, another record for its size and which continues to expand.

2. A movie

Dubai achieved its consecration as a world movie star in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol (2011). The image of Tom Cruise scaling the glass walls of the Burj Khalifa projected the speed and vertigo inherent in this city, and no less than in a Hollywood blockbuster. But no film has captured the ostentation and excess that make the emirate a magnet for dreams like Happy New Year (2014). Bollywood's delirious response to that film takes place at the other end, in the presumptuous Atlantis de la Palmera hotel. In it, Dubai is not just a stopover in adventure, but the absolute protagonist, reflecting the attraction it exerts on India, two million of whose inhabitants work here and dozens have taken root since before their independence from the British in 1971 .

3. A recipe

With just 10% of the native population, its cuisine is inevitably multicultural. Although lamb meat tops local preferences, the emirate's coastal character has left a version of the machbus with fish.

enlarge photo 'Machbus samak', one of the most typical dishes eaten in Dubai. Alamy

• Ingredients: 1 kilo of sheri (a gilded fish similar to bream); 1 kilo of basmati rice; 2 onions; 2 tomatoes; 3 garlic cloves; coriander; 1 potato; 2 tablespoons of raisins; half a liter of water, and oil for frying.
• Spices: 1 dried lime, a cinnamon stick, ½ teaspoon of turmeric, ½ teaspoon of cumin, 4 cardamom pods, 2 teaspoons of saffron diluted in lime juice, salt to taste.

Fry the minced fish until it is half done and set aside. Sauté the tomato with the garlic for about five minutes. Next, add the diced potato and spices, cover the pot and leave to simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then, the previously washed rice is incorporated, carefully stirred, the fish is placed on top and the water is added until it covers the fish. When it comes to a boil, sprinkle with the saffron mixture and cook over low heat until the rice is to taste. Meanwhile, fry the onions until they are soft and golden and, out of the fire, add the raisins. The result is poured over the rice and decorated with coriander leaves. 

enlarge photo Traditional houses in the Bastakiya neighborhood. S. Sonnet GETTY images

4. A typical home

In view of the images, the skyscraper is king. Most of its 3.3 million residents live in towers whose aesthetics range from the almost Soviet brutalism of the Jumeirah Beach Residence area (known as JBR) to the futuristic style of Business Bay. Nothing further from the roots. You only have to look out over the Bastakiya neighborhood to see the adobe walls of the traditional houses, with their barrel , or wind towers, which provided a natural ventilation system. With the discovery of oil and greater purchasing power, their owners exchanged them for large villas, less visible than skyscrapers, but equally numerous. Now, those typical houses have been restored as museums, galleries or small hotels.

enlarge photo Silhouette of the Burj al Arab hotel in Dubai. GETTY images

5. A book

Many texts have tried to reveal the secret of this city. Laudatory some, critical others. Among those who are looking for their success in financial management and spectacular photo catalogs, there is an old novel that captures better than most how this place has become what we know today. Dubai (Circle of Readers, 1976) recounts the adventures of a former American military man in the years before independence from the United Arab Emirates and the oil boom , when the small enclave was still living on the smuggling of gold into India, although it was already beginning to attract all kinds of fortune seekers. There is action, there is suspense and an inevitable love story, but its author, Robin Moore, a good connoisseur of the Middle East, documents the social and political context as if it were a journalistic report. Almost half a century later, the Ten Tola bar described in its pages has been replaced by clubs of international fame; the ambiguous businesses it housed, such as the gold bullion that gave it its name, continue, however, to fuel the mirage that is this city that came out of nowhere in the desert.

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