Chinese New Year homemade nian gao, dinner and art

With a long-awaited special Mid Autumn Festival feast done, I decided to celebrate CNY 4712 with another tradition: nian gao (年糕), or Year Cake.

It's really simple to make. All you need is water, glutinous rice flour and brown sugar in a ratio of 4ml:4g:3g. After dissolving the sugar in the water (first half boiling, second half lukewarm), I whisked in the flour until I got a smooth brown batter.

I poured the batter into a medium oiled tin, and stuck it in a steamer on high heat for about an hour, halfway through which I lay chopped ripe dates (jujubes would have been better) on the top and sprinkled on some roasted sesame seeds (some honey would have be nice at this point, to hold the sesame seeds more firmly to the surface).

After cooling and refrigeration for a few hours, I carried it to work for all to enjoy.

Later in the evening in Abu Dhabi, I managed to convince the parents to go out for authentic Chinese food at Red Castle, one of Abu Dhabi's few options for that cuisine. It was alright, but not as good as some of the places I've been in Dubai in terms of preparation style, availability and attention to detail.

Swiss Art Gate also happened to be doing an exhibition called Year of the Horse at Yas Viceroy Hotel. It was not a Chinese art exhibition per se, but at least it was about horses.

Mathematics for the masses

Looking at the his large spider brooch and vintage necktie, I knew this NYU Abu Dhabi public talk was going to be interesting at the very least. But while his curious demeanor and deadpan quips did, in fact, do much to entertain, Institut Henri Poincaré director Dr Cédric Villani can talk math to educate just as well. He took us on a journey through the history of modern mathematics, from Riemann to Boltzmann to Kantorovich, illustrating concepts like geodesics, entropy, and linear programming with what I thought were fairly easily-digestible analogies and visuals, and using examples from real life to show how mathematical topics popularly regarded as distant and abstract have actually long been part of the familiar world. He also gave us an first-hand insight into the world of academic mathematics and the lives of mathematicians.

NYUAD introduces FIND cultural platform for artists and scholars

If you are interested in UAE life beyond working and partying, NYU Abu Dhabi's cultural dialogue and mapping platform FIND might interest you. I attended the public event at which the university introduced the initiative and hosted UAEU professor Yasser Elsheshtawy and Cuadro Gallery director Roberto Lopardo to discuss their work as fellows.

Yasser Elsheshtawy (L) and Roberto Lopardo (R)

The speakers talked about their projects for mapping Abu Dhabi. Dr Elsheshtawy's academic approach focused on the hidden-in-plain-sight world within the "super-blocks" of the city, observing and analyzing the human dynamics and public culture of "interstitial spaces", such as the bustling "square with a tree" in the middle of a block between Hamdan and Electra. Lopardo, on the other hand, extended his 24-hour picture-a-minute trek modus operandi, successfully executed in a number of other major cities (including Dubai, the result of which I remember seeing at Cuadro a long time ago), to 20 second video clips, and played a few of those clips for discussion. The third fellow, Reem Falaknaz, was unable to make it to the talk; too bad, as she was studying the mountain communities in the Northern Emirates, and would have added a rural perspective to what was otherwise an interesting, but very urban-set discussion.

Pan-Arabia Enquirer and the art of satire

If recent events are any indication, peddling satire in the UAE can be risky. So it was with more than a little skepticism that I took the news of a commissioned Pan-Arabia Enquirer exhibition at DUCTAC's Gallery of Light. But it turns out that this was, oddly enough, not just a big joke.

Fans of the publication know that PAE offers as much insight into the inscrutable idiosyncrasies of life in the Middle East as it does oft-missed satirical humor. A couple of prints are claimed to be early versions, from back when it was apparently called the Dubai Enquirer. Given PAE's premise, I really don't know how seriously I should be taking the descriptions of these. Suffice to say, though, that things have clearly improved since then, although there are still too many easy giveaways for my liking.

Highlights include select spoof ads (I love the job postings), and those facepalm-triggering letters that occasionally become as legendary as the articles themselves.

Print is not all there is to see; you can glance enviously at the VIP area while you wait in queue. A few manufactured artifacts, the articles relevant to some of which I recognize, are also displayed in glass cases.

Alliance Française Dubai launches weekly Cine13 series with Möbius

If the odd theatrical release, screening or film festival do not satisfy your yearning for French cinema, you will be happy to note that French films will be in Dubai as a permanent feature, thanks to the city's Alliance Française. They are launching a series they call "Cine13", in which a fresh French film is rotated weekly at Ibn Battuta Mall's Grand Cineplex, with multiple shows per day to suit as many schedules as possible. I caught a Saturday screening of the first film: the tri-lingual French/English/Russian espionage drama, Möbius.

DDG stages Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Dubai Drama Group's latest Shakespearean venture looks at Hamlet from a different perspective, in the comedy Rosencratz and Guildenstern are Dead. The play, staged at DUCTAC, features much philosophical musing on fate and luck, making humorous references to the minor roles, disposability, and near-anonymity of the titular characters.

Toby Masson and Ciaran Mulhern have great chemistry as the reluctantly duplicitous duo, Rosencratz and Guildenstern, respectively (or vice versa), bumbling their way about the Hamlet universe while the more well-known dramatic events take place around them, and pondering what it all means.

Some of my favorite moments in the play were those featuring Eric Dury as the head tragedian --- a character to which he is very suited. The play is also commendable for the attention paid to detail in production, most evidently in the costumes.

DSF thinks OTB with an outdoor alt market

In the shadow of the world's tallest tower, an anti-mall experience takes place at the Burj Park, where you can do your shopping right out of a shipping container. These icons of the warehouse/freight world (and thus of Dubai's status as a global trade hub) have been painted and converted into shops in a Dubai Shopping Festival event called Market OTB, or Outside the Box.

The weather being what it is, it's a great place to relax, enjoy a concert or show, paint, and partake from some of the excellent food options available.

While many nice household items and art works can be found here, the best thing about the market is the selection of clothing stores. I'm not sure to what extent these are actually "sustainable", but they sure look great.