Alcohol back on the menu in Dubai restaurants
Posted on 23 March 2010 with no comments from readers
In a rapid U-turn the Dubai Municipality has reversed a ban on alcohol in food served in local restaurants and said there had been ‘a misunderstanding’. On Sunday an official had told several local media that the ban was being enforced and the story made headline reading in Dubai.
Now there has been a clarification that states only that restaurants are required to declare the presence of alcohol in food on their menus in Arabic and English, and that regulations necessitate the separate preparation of such foods in kitchens.
Lunchtime investigation
Hotels were certainly confused by the news stories. ArabianMoney ordered a red wine sauce on a steak in the Rib Room at the Emirates Towers Hotel and met with no problem. The manager said the hotel had not received any order to stop serving food made with alcohol and would not do so until it saw a written instruction.
Chefs led by Uwe Michaeel, president of the Emirates Culinary Guild and director of kitchens at the Radisson Blu Dubai Creek where he has been working for over 15 years, objected to having to prepare dishes without alcohol. This is a standard ingredient for many famous Western and Asian specialties and would have limited the range of Dubai cuisine.
As it is Dubai is a multicultural melting pot with Indians probably just in the majority. The local population is 90-95 per cent expatriate and diluted further by the presence of large numbers of tourists. Dubai vies with Egypt as the region’s biggest tourist destination.
Multicultural city
Even regional tourists choose Dubai for its relaxed and tolerant lifestyle, and the reaction to the alcohol in food ban is a reminder that the city has built its wealth and reputation on its multi-cultural approach.
The official religion of Dubai is Islam but only a minority of residents are Muslim. This helps to explain why Dubai remains such an open and tolerant, multicultural society and has become the hospitality centre of the Middle East as well as the location of choice for multinational companies and banks.
Having spent hundreds of billions on its infrastructure over the past decade Dubai is not about to risk its future prosperity for the sake of a ban on boeuf bourguignon or any similar misunderstandings.
