One frog I am eating whilst on lockdown is sorting out all my photos, salvaged over the years from various defunct devices and iCloud, which I don’t really trust and in any case, is completely full.  It’s obviously always nice to see some photos – long since forgotten – pop up, and as any food-related ones (natch) appear and are worthy of particular attention (at least in my eyes), then I will post them on here with a brief overview of the whats, wheres, whens, whys, whos and hows…

First up is this rather grainy shot of a burger on a plank of wood.

This was taken on the 9^th March 2015 at a gastropub in Dubai called ‘Gramercy’.  I have just checked to see if, after five years, it’s still kicking around and lamentably not; it’s permanently closed.  Gramercy was located in a maze of office buildings called the ‘Dubai International Finance Centre’, or DIFC for short.  There were plenty of amazing restaurants and bars there, some of which you might read about on this blog.

The appalling way this photo has been taken reflects its somewhat shameful and pathetic context.  If we flick back to the morning of the day it was taken, The European and I were in the office (this was when we were working together) and moaning about our food pouches and how we were both in need of a gym or at least some fitness regime.  The European had heard about a fitness centre in DIFC which, like many places do, was offering some kind of introductory deal and so after work we decided to go along to check out the facilities and hear more about the cost.  

Once we had visited the gym and heard the personal trainer’s blurb, The European (for the record, not me) suggested that we go to Gramercy which was in the next building over.   A purveyor of all things gastropubby such as a wide range of beers, steak, burgers and other stodge, we found ourselves necking one of Dubai’s overpriced IPAs, eating that burger, and (I think) some mac ‘n’ cheese and a hotdog too.  

I can’t remember much about our experience, other than our food and beers were swiftly eradicated, so it could not have been that bad.  I do though remember our discussions as we feasted, mainly focusing on why we were considering paying for a gym when we had a perfectly good one – and a swimming pool – available for free in our apartment building. 

So on that note, another rewarding evening in Dubai – checking out a gym for no reason and then rewarding ourselves with junk – was concluded.