I feel like Avengers: Infinity War is getting enough press but Burj Khalifa

Image of the day: Instagram bait galore in the INDEX Dubai's Off the Wall feature

Belgian "street luxury" artist Pablo Lucker. 

I've been seeing these all over Instagram lately and now, Dubai. It's worth a trip to the 28th INDEX Dubai, on at the Dubai World Trade Centre until Thursday March 29, for lots of reasons. But one is to get a shot like this in the Off The Wall feature. 

The side-ways room was created by Dubai-based interior designer Sharon Jutla and features furniture and décor worth an estimated Dh1.4 million from US designer Jonathan Adler. 

Day 1: Whole 30 in the UAE

I’m not a fan of fad diets and I’ve pretty much figured out how I like to eat: clean, with minimal dairy and bread items. 

But I was home in Canada for three weeks over the holidays and ate my face off. Also, I’m intrigued by some of this diet’s claims, particularly that it can reduce pain. (For some reason, I have had an inordinate amount of it in the last year).

So I ordered a ridiculous amount of vegetables from a new delivery company, The Honest Counter, which I can highly recommend. I’m to avoid all dairy, grains, sugar, legumes and alcohol for the next 30 days, then slowly add them in to my diet after to see what’s bothering me. 

(I drew the line at making my own condiments. C’mon.)

The day got off to a bad start when, after resisting this banana bread at Costa, I accidentally made off with the wrong drink order. It took me way too long to realise that instead of drinking an almond milk latte, I had downed half of some sort of all-milk drink. (I haven’t had milk in years - it was delicious!) How could I mistake a cup of hot milk for a coffee, you might be asking?

Well I’m working at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center this week and I couldn’t find the office I’d just left, okay? I think this diet might address brain fog, too. 

But not if I keep drinking milk accidentally. 

China's Iconiq brings freaky new driverless cars to Abu Dhabi's Masdar City

Iconiq's Level 5

The Chinese company Iconiq will test two driverless cars at Masdar City this year, including the Level 5 – developed in conjunction with Masdar – above, an announcement made at the World Future Energy Summit at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. 

Iconiq's chief executive said the company plans to deliver the first L5 fleet for the Dubai World Expo in 2020 and begin mass-producing them at the end of 2023. 

People are super stressed out in the UAE and they often have no idea why

I wrote an article on the link between depression and inflammation for The National this week and it's getting some really good traction and reaction. One of the most interesting things to me, in researching it, was that Lighthouse Arabia, a therapy centre in Dubai, sees the same pattern in the people who come in for help.

Breaking news: Are cigarettes being pulled off (or flying off) Baqala shelves in Abu Dhabi ahead of the big tax hike?

This guy posting on Abu Dhabi Q&A, the endlessly entertaining Facebook page, seems to think so. 

"So no more selling cigarettes in baqala near to my place as municipality told them to remove all cigarettes from the shelves," he writes. "Is this happening all over Abu Dhabi?"

Nice one: UAE domestic workers get legal protection and rights

This week the Federal National Council passed a bill that gives the UAE's maids, nannies and other domestic workers a day off, holiday pay and limits the work day to 12 hours (at least 8 consecutive).

In the absence of a law governing this stuff, and having heard so many horror stories of employers of all nationalities rampantly abusing the labour and human rights of their domestic staff, this is a very good first step in protecting the rights of the most vulnerable of workers.

Welcome to the world's largest book, now on display at Al Wadha Mall

I don't think anywhere in the world is more obsessed with Guinness World Records (there is no 'book', it's a common mistake) than the UAE. For example, 2017 kicked off with this largest tin of caviar in Dubai. 

Kim Kardashian and Scott Disick in Dubai

I finally got around to watching the two episodes of Keeping Up With the Kardashians where Scott Disick and Kim Kardashian visit Dubai with their crew. I'm still sort of blown away with this family as a cultural phenomenon. A couple of years it didn't seem possible for them to be more famous, and yet here they are, more and more and more. 

Anyway, it was scintillating viewing and not at all fake. Here are a few takeaways:

Boys in dishdashas: The picture I've been trying to get for 9 years

One thing that makes my heart instantly melt over here is the sight of a little boy all dressed up just like his dad. It's not that common - they are usually wearing the rough-and-tumble gear any little boy might wear - but when it happens it's the best. I've never been able to snap a photo though, mostly because I just couldn't figure out how to say 'can I take a picture of your little boy' without sounding like a Western weirdo.

Then, last weekend, while sampling the food truck fare at Reem Weekend, this little trio came walking towards me and I spotted the opportunity.

POUTINE! POUTINE! POUTINE! Where to eat it in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

In honour of Canada Day Friday, I resolved once and for all to find and add up all the places in the UAE serving this most fattening and comforting of dishes. It turns out there are 12. Please tell me what I've missed. It's a bit weird writing about something you know so much about. I'm not sure it works, but I tried.

Canada Day in the UAE: The last supper at Maple Leaf Diner in Dubai

I am super sad about this. Apparently the Maple Leaf Diner in Jumeirah is already closed and July 1 will be the last chance to visit the location in JLT. Opened by brothers Ahmed and Moutaz Al Ghussein, Maple Leaf offered yummy smoked meat sandwiches, hand-made cheese curds and lots of Canadian memorabilia.

You have three days to visit.

Spotted: Toronto on the menu in Dubai

Trying this next time I go to the amazing Weslodge Dubai, in the JW Marriott Marquis.

Fairmont The Palm, Dubai gets a Canadian executive chef

Alain Gobeil, new executive chef at Fairmont The Palm, Dubai.

 I've only ever eaten a pizza poolside at Fairmont The Palm, Dubai, but it was delicious, and I've always meant to go back and have the lobster burger at Seagrill on 25° Restaurant and Lounge.

Maybe I'll hurry that plan along now that a fellow Canuck has been named executive chef. Alain Gobeil has had a pretty cool - not to mention international - two-decade career, working on three continents.

He graduated from the  Institut de Tourisme et d’Hôtellerie du Quebec, with stints at the Fairmont Château Laurier, Ottawa, and Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, Montréal. Moving back and forth between Canada and the UAE, he worked on opening teams for the the company's two previous properties in the UAE: Fairmont Dubai and Fairmont Bab Al Bahr, with stints at The Address Downtown Dubai and The Address Dubai Mall in recent years.

Early on he trained under the famed French Roux brothers - Albert and Michel - during his time at their two Michelin-star Le Gavroche restaurant in London. He worked out in British Columbia at the Fairmont Château Whistler and at the Four Seasons Resort Whistler, as well at the Ritz-Carlton Grand Cayman and Four Seasons Sharm El Sheikh.

Gobeil now oversees six outlets as part of the new gig, as well as the hotel's plans to launch some new F&B, according to general manager Mark Sawkins.

St Regis Dubai welcomes a Canadian in chocolate

I'm staying at the (fairly new) St Regis Dubai for a couple of days in Al Habtoor City. It's gorgeous and restful and opulent and lush, just as a St Regis is. 

And then there is this gorgeous chocolate bar that was just delivered to my room. Someone Googled me! So cool. Should I eat it or save it?

Toronto restaurant group Icon Legacy brings Weslodge Saloon to Dubai: Meet executive chef Ben Heaton

Ben Heaton, Weslodge Saloon executive chef.

I'm pretty excited because I am hanging out in Dubai this week, and some friends and I are going to pay a visit to Weslodge Saloon, the first foray into the Middle East by the popular Toronto-based restaurant group Icon Legacy, which has 10 restaurants back home. 

I chatted recently with the 39-year-old executive chef Ben Heaton, a Yorkshire-born Canadian who arrived in the middle of March for the frantic launch process. He will leave Dubai at the end of April, when things are appropriately humming along, but return for several week sessions throughout the year. 

"I really want to nurture and grow the restaurant here," he said. "It's like my baby."

What it's like to live in Abu Dhabi, summed up nicely by a New Yorker

A writer and PR representative living in the capital, Christine Hinz has written a really good column about life here. It was top of The National's website all day, so you know it resonated. You can check it out for yourself, but I give you my favourite line:

For the most part, people who live in Abu Dhabi don’t like the idea of living in Dubai, and people in Dubai wouldn’t dream of living in Abu Dhabi.

Overheard in the newsroom: Legemat edition

It's like an Arab Timbit.

Editor A: She's one of the biggest stars on the planet!
Editor B: But she's not Zorro.

I'm going to go spend some time with my new curling iron.

Jennifer Aniston is cute as a button in Emirates airlines' first new ad

She's looking for the shower, by the way. And it's adorable.

Lululemon meets the Middle East, officially, at Dubai's Mall of the Emirates

Photo courtesy of Lululemon Athletica/Majid Al Futtaim - Fashion

Now this one is almost as hard to wrap my head around as all the Tim Hortons outlets I see around Abu Dhabi. Lululemon Athletica is just the latest big Canadian brand to hit the UAE, opening this week in MoE's level 2 expansion.