Occasionally (well, quite often...) life in Dubai seems a bit surreal. Once I went shopping at the Mall of the Emirates (you know, the one with the indoor ski & snow park) with a friend from Germany. She knew this a great German bakery -inside the mall-, which sells really good German bread, pretzels and more yummy food. But the location and the staff of the Bäckerei were slightly different than you'd expect.
The bakery was in fact in the corner of a five star hotel restaurant. After we had made our choice, we were asked by the staff, who were wearing suits and white gloves, to take a seat.
Then they carefully wrapped the loaves of bread and buns we had ordered in plastic instead of tossing them in a paper bag.
But paying was even more odd. You know, how in some restaurants they put the bill in a leather folder which you replace with notes or a credit card? That's exactly what they did in this bakery. My friend and I could hardly contain our laughter as it seemed so out of place. The change came back neatly tucked in the folder. Quite an experience, but the bread and pretzels were very tasty indeed.
