Tantuni

The last two weeks have been crazy. After leaving Tunisia, we spent nine days in the Netherlands, visiting Rihanna Gaga’s grandparents and preparing ourselves for our stay in Dubai. And now here we are: Dubai. Surrounded by enormous towers we’re walking past an artificial lake. One of these towers is our home for the coming month. We just moved in: three days ago, we arrived in Dubai and since then my girlfriend has been busy finding an apartment. The result is great: a large apartment on the fifth floor, looking out over water and several towers.

Rihanna Gaga is impressed: when we approached the towers by taxi, she fell silent when she noticed these high buildings. She’s never seen anything like it before. After unpacking out suitcases, the three of us head out for lunch. This is as simple as taking the elevator down and walk past the artificial lake, where there are several small restaurants and fast food places. We opt for a place serving Turkish rolls called Tantuni (both the rolls and the place atr called Tantuni). At the table beside us, a man wants to know whether the waitress is Turkish (she’s actually Thai), whether the cook is Turkish (he’s from South East Asia too) and finally whether the owner is Turkish (I can’t hear the answer to this). I wonder why this information is so important for him – does he expect his food to taste better, more authentic if real Turks are involved?

While we are studying the menu, Rihanna Gaga’s attention is caught by the dog that is carried by a woman who stands next to the terrace on which we’re sitting. She grabs my girlfriend’s hand and demands they both go there to look at it. This is something she’s doing a lot lately: she’s a bit too timid to do these kind of things by herself, so she expects us to come with her. After examining the doggy, they walk around on the boulevard along the artificial lake and I notice that the woman and the dog were in fact standing in front of Europets, a veterinary and pet shop. When Rihanna Gaga returns from her walk a bit later, she’s dismayed to find the dog gone.

She’s not in a very good mood today. She’ll easily start crying if she doesn’t agree: when we take her on our lap because she gestures she wants to be lifted up, she gets angry because she wants to be put on the ground. She demands her shoes are taken off and only wants to walk barefoot after that. All this is made clear through frowns, cries and angry shouts. It might be her age, but I suspect all the change lately has made her a bit grumpy too.

I order the Chicken meal and my girlfriend orders the vegetarian version. These come with a drink and a side dish. We both chose ayran, a salty Turkish yoghurt drink and salad as side dish. The ayran served here in Dubai is less salty than the one in Turkey and Rihanna Gaga loves it. I ask for a straw and she enthusiastically drinks large parts of both our ayrans. She also loves the flat bread that the rolls are wrapped in, but refuses most of the vegetables and chicken. Soon, she tires of sitting on our lap and starts walking about again, collecting pebbles from the boulevard. 

Authentically Turkish or not, the food tastes great and after finishing our meal, the three of us walk back to our new home. Of course, Rihanna Gaga refuses to be carried or even taken by her hand: she’s not a baby anymore, you know!