Murt is Pakistani, and today he wanted to give us the full Desi experience (Murt defines Desi as simply South Asian, South Asia being India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh)

I woke up at 2:30pm since we were up so late the previous night. Around 3, Murt's housekeeper Jean helped us make breakfast, and around 5pm we finally left the house to go out for the day. This time, Murt's mom was accompanying us (and drove us!) We intended to head to Meena Bazaar, a Desi shopping area in Bur Dubai, the old part of town, but seeing that the traffic was so bad, we instead debated on where to eat as we wanted to stop for food on the way. Since all of us decided we didn't want Western food (or as Murt's mom called it, "white food"), we decided to get "brown food" instead. (it is unclear to me if "brown food" specifically means Desi/Indian/Pakistani food or if Arabic food would also be included).

We drove about an hour to Al Barsha, which coincidentally is the same neighborhood where Dad and I stayed when we went to Dubai in March to go to the Expo. In Al Barsha, we ate at a restaurant called Muhammad Iqbal restaurant. According to Murt's mom, this is where all the taxi drivers go to eat, so you know it must be the real deal.

We walked inside to the restaurant, greeted by an ongoing cricket match on TV, as all the patrons were busy watching Pakistan play against New Zealand (Pakistan won, by the way). The food was delicious: we ate a variety of Pakistani dishes, highlights include nihari, which is a slow-cooked beef shank in a delicious gravy. Other dishes include similar things to what you'd find at an Indian restaurant in Michigan: aloo gobi, potato samosas, and daal tadka, chicken tikka, and fresh hot naan, all cooked to perfection. Our delicious meal was finished with some sweet lassi and karak chai (the classic Dubai-style tea).

After dinner, we finally made it to Meena Bazaar, and went into a clothing store that Murt's mom suggested. Our objective was to buy some traditioinal Desi clothing (called "shalwar kameez") to wear to a hip Desi lounge later in the evening. It took Murt, Sacha, and I about ten seconds to decide on our outfits (there was not a huge amount of variety in the men's clothing), and we spent at least twenty minutes waiting for Mel and Irena to pick outfits (the women's clothing had substantially more variety, and there were more fun colors and patterns to choose from).

At the shopkeeper's suggestion we headed across the street to get some juices and falooda (like a milkshake with lots of seeds and nuts and fruits mixed in). The highlight was definitely the mango falooda: it had mango ice cream, chunks of mango, basil seeds, vermicelli noodles, and was overall a delicious and refreshing snack. We also got sugar cane juice, a coconut milkshake, mango lassi, and a "fruit falooda" (which tasted more like artificial bubble gum to me).

After our dessert, we headed back to Murt's house to change into our Desi clothing. Around 12:30am we took a taxi to Haveli Lounge, a hip Desi restaurant/bar that Murt had been to with some other friends in the past. When we arrived, Sacha was given a hard time because he did not bring any physical ID with him, and only had a scanned copy of his passport on his phone. Thanks to Murt's convincing, he was finally allowed in. Inside, the waitress told us that if we paid with cash, a huge variety of menu options would be half-off (not suspicious at all...). We ordered some drinks and some "bougie Desi food" that Murt suggested. This included palak pakora (fried spinach leaves) and pani puri (fried dough with a sweet filling), but "bougier". The background entertainment alternated between a live band playing covers of Bollywood hits that all the other patrons knew by heart, and a DJ playing a mash-up of various Bollywood hits and others (Gangnam Style was thrown in at one point).

The lounge was a lot of fun, but the night was cut short around 2am. Irena has a bad nut allergy, and despite being assured that the dishes she was eating were nut-free, and being careful not to cross contaminate, she still indicated that she was feeling some nut allergy symptoms. We left in a hurry, and had the taxi driver stop by a hospital located very close to Murt's house. Murt helped Irena visit the ER, and as of 4am it seems like everything is okay. An abrupt end to an otherwise very fun day.