A Date With ME!

Stuck in glitzy Dubai for a single night, Raul Dias recently had one of his life’s most perfect dates… with himself!


Solo, alone, solitary, forlorn… my company-bereft mind was making a list of synonyms that reflected my desolation. I was all by myself in the great urbs primus, Dubai—a city that is always kitted out like a glittering diva, raucously screaming for attention. Now, normally I am one of those people who think that it is rather sad and maybe a tad ‘desperate’ for any sane person to even eat at McDonald’s alone, leave alone plan a full fledged solo date with drinks and dinner. But sanity had to take a vacation of it’s own that evening, I resolutely told myself. Besides I had just one night left in Dubai and having heard extensively about the possibilities of a great night out, I wasn’t going to let the lack of company put a damper on my plans to make the most of my situation.

So, dinner reservations done, togged out in my best party wear and generously doused with the latest fragrant offering from the house of Armani, I slipped into the passenger seat of the hotel’s complimentary BMW and gave the chauffer my destination. “Are we picking up anybody else on the way sir?” the chauffer enquired, only to be met with my rather despondent monosyllable, “no”.
My first stop was the spiffy wine bar Cin Cin at The Fairmont Hotel located on the glitteringly meandering Sheikh Zayed Road for a little pre dinner cocktail. Perched atop a leather-upholstered bar stool nursing a whisky sour, I looked around and saw many others like myself, enjoying their own company, totally oblivious to the stares of cooing couples who managed to take time off from their PDA to shoot us with patronizing looks, almost forgetting that I was once just like them pitying the solo drinker who lurked by the bar. After two very expensive libations, I realized that part one of my ‘date’ was accomplished.

Part two of the date actually began a little before part one, when I made the call requesting a reservation for a dinner table at the foul-mouthed Gordon Ramsay’s fine dining temple, Verre. “A table for one sir?” the mellifluous but surprised voice on the other side the telephone line asked for the second time. “Yes” I answered patiently, not letting her tome unnerve me and chicken me out of my date. Now at the entrance of this culinary Mecca that is housed in the Hilton Dubai Creek Hotel, I waited patiently to be escorted to my table for one. Expecting my table to be somewhere back in the beyond, I was pleasantly surprised to see the most perfect little table set for one overlooking the tranquil Dubai Creek that had the traditional boats called Abras plying the waters. And what followed was sheer edible poetry. The food was beautifully cooked, and very fresh. If the brill, lobster and herd risotto was divine the roast lamb was tenderness personified. The lack of conversation was never missed as I got lost in my other senses of taste and smell. But yet it was a date in all other respects and yes, it even included a kiss. So what if it was only a Hershey’s kiss that I found atop my Grand Marnier mousse.

Well, I sure had fun… and my date du nuit? Even more!!

(First published in DNA Me)