The United Arab Emirate states have long been known for over extravagance; including driving white gold Mercedes sports coupes
and keeping cheetahs and other wild animals at home
as pets.
These oddities may appear to be the ultimate in personal vanity, including selling gold bars in vending machines. Perhaps the ultimate vanity extreme in the UAE is a new trend for restaurants in Dubai and Abu Dhabi to serve edible gold in foods ranging from hamburgers to steaks and seafood.
This bizzare foodie trend includes foods with actual gold dust sprinkled on or mixed in them are selling well to those who can afford to purchase them. Examples include 24K prime steaks or “golden” sea bream dinners running at about $90 per person. Even desserts like ice cream often come available with gold-laced flower toppings at appropriate prices.
Gold still appears to be a favored and sought after commodity in the UAE, especially in uncertain times. The opulence shown in this region, where luxury hotel suites can run as much as $25,000 per night, is often a topic for social protests; especially when construction workers and domestic servants there work in near-servile conditions for mere pittance wages
while those more fortunate live luxurious live.
In Dubai, for example, one can order a gold-laced cappuccino coffee, served in the lounge of the Burj Al Arab hotel.
From an environmental viewpoint, overbuilding and overconsumption and desalination has caused considerable damage to the already fragile ecosystem of the Arab Gulf region, which still claims to have one of the world’s largest populations of dugong aquatic mammals.
Obviously, money wasted on foodie trend opulence which serves zero health benefits could be better spent on trying to save what’s left of the region’s natural environment. The big question is who is concerned enough there to do this?
Read more on Arab World opulence:
Gold and Armored Rolls Royce is Most Ungreen Luxury
How much gold goes into a white gold Mercedes sports coupe?
Wild Animal “Pets” still Commonplace in the Gulf
Photos of gold covered sea bream and gold laced coffee, The National
Author: Maurice Picow
Maurice Picow grew up in Oklahoma City, U.S.A., where he received a B.S. Degree in Business Administration. Following graduation, Maurice embarked on a career as a real estate broker before making the decision to move to Israel. After arriving in Israel, he came involved in the insurance agency business and later in the moving and international relocation fields. Maurice became interested in writing news and commentary articles in the late 1990’s, and now writes feature articles for the The Jerusalem Post as well as being a regular contributor to Green Prophet. He has also written a non-fiction study on Islam, a two volume adventure novel, and is completing a romance novel about a forbidden love affair. Writing topics of particular interest for Green Prophet are those dealing with global warming and climate change, as well as clean technology - particularly electric cars.
