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In-Flight Dining / Etihad Airways / UAE / First Class Travel / Middle East Travel / Airplane Food / In-Flight Meals / Food Travel / → All Tags

First Class Food from a Five-Star, Onboard Chef? It's Coming to Etihad.

This is some next level stuff. First Class in-flight meals on Etihad—the Abu Dhabi-based airline—are now being prepared by a qualified chef. No, really; one person is dedicated to cooking, preparing and plating the meals served in the front of the plane. Yes, you read correctly: cook!

Etihad announced the hiring of 110 restaurant-caliber chefs to fly back and forth from Abu Dhabi to a handful of cities while preparing the menu for the Diamond Class cabin. The chefs will also be responsible for contributing to the evolution of the menu and meal choices both in-flight and on the ground in the each of the airline's lounges. Each chef will need at least 6 years experience in a 5-star restaurant to be welcomed aboard, and there are even some Michelin-starred restaurants that have lost their chef to the airline.

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Middle East / UAE / Art Museums / Guggenheim / Culture Travel / → All Tags

Abu Dhabi Sneaking Out Of Dubai’s (Big) Shadow

Playing little brother to international city of the moment Dubai would definitely suck, but tourism officials are keen to make the UAE’s second city Abu Dhabi famous for something other than bizarre morphing skyscrapers. Abu Dhabi is proudly striving to become the cultural capital of the Middle East instead.

And while we scoffed a bit at first, on closer investigation it seems like Abu Dhabi does know something about culture. There’s going to be a Guggenheim Abu Dhabi by 2012, and in keeping with the UAE's penchant for world records, it'll be the world's biggest Guggenheim museum.

They've also got a bunch of national cultural buildings in Abu Dhabi like the National Theater and the main national library. Perhaps we’ll soon be able to skip the skyscrapers of Dubai and spend our layover soaking up the museum culture of Abu Dhabi. Pity the shopping will probably never be as good.

Related Stories:
· Oil’s Well in Abu Dhabi [The Age]
· The Incredible Morphing Skyscraper [Jaunted]

[Photo: Ioan Barbulescu]

Cartoons / Television / UAE / → All Tags

South Park Goes to the Middle East

For the section of our reading demographic that overlaps with South Park viewers, you may have heard about the censorship to-do surrounding Wednesday's episode. The episode, which contained a show within a show (just like Hamlet!) controversy about Family Guy showing an image of Muhammad that was censored by FOX, was censored itself by Comedy Central.

Issues of free speech aside, it's interesting that while Comedy Central is worried that South Park may spark unrest in the Arab and Muslim world, the Arab world is pretty positively disposed towards South Park. So positively disposed, in fact, that recent startup carrier Air Arabia, based out of Sharjah Airport in the United Arab Emirates, has a picture of a swarthy looking Kyle (pictured, though it could be Stan) from the show on the front page of their web site. Actually, there are several versions, including Kyle wearing a fez and a dishdasha.

Keep your eyes peeled to see if Comedy Central tries to censor those images, too. There is no religion holier than copyright law, after all.

Related Stories:
·   South Park Creators Skewer Own Network [AP]  
·   Air Arabia & South Park? [Online Travel Review]  
·   Air Arabia[Official Site]