Global Village has returned for another season of fun and excitement — and a whole lot of food. In fact, the experience is incomplete without taking a bite or two out of the park’s diverse culinary offerings.
More than 200 restaurants, cafes and street food options are on-site this season, making Global Village a must-visit for foodies.
Scroll through the gallery above to see dishes you can try at Global Village
In the vast sea of choices are a mix of Global Village favourites, including the always-busy Bosnian House, as well as new arrivals including Indian casual dining concept Khaojee by Michelin-lauded chef Rohit Ghai.
“We try and have new concepts every year, so people can try stuff they wouldn’t be able to anywhere else,” Jaki Ellenby, the park’s executive marketing director, tells The National.
She says the park, which is open during UAE's cooler months, has become an incubator of sorts for entrepreneurs — both seasoned and young ones — as they navigate how to enter the bustling food and drink community of the country. "People can come and see if a concept works," says Ellenby. "We have a lot of entrepreneurs that are trying for the first time to see if they want to get into this industry."
Culinary tourism plays a crucial role in the success of the park, which welcomed a record-breaking 7.8 million guests during its previous season. Last year, Global Village launched a guided tour called Culinary Trails, where guests were treated to a food-themed walk around the park, trying the offerings from various vendors. The tour is back this season too.
The park, which spans 1.6 million square metres, assembles the food options in groups, so that a food walk feels more intuitive. One of the most popular chow corners in the park is the Floating Market, which serves a number of cuisines from Asia, including grilled seafood, chicken skewers, Vietnamese pho and Korean dumplings, among many other dishes. The famed mango sticky rice dessert is also on offer.
The juicy chicken barbecue skewers served at one of the stalls in the market are indeed reminiscent of the South-East Asian street food scene — particularly the popular food carts peppered across Manila in the Philippines.
Other food spots serving a variety of street food-style options such as cheesy baked potato and crispy fried chicken are spread across the eclectic Happiness Street, Fiesta Street and Indian Chaat Bazaar.
There are also some interesting kiosks this time around, notably the Emirati gabgoob at Crab Kiosk. A creamy dish served in a crab shell, it is the perfect mix of cheese with a seafood flavour.
One prominent area this year is Restaurant Alley, which features four two-storey restaurants including Khaojee, as well as Belgrave, a Persian outlet by award-winning chef Amin Ebra, whose grandfather served as a head chef for the Iranian royal family.
The massive selection of food and beverage in Global Village truly speaks to its aim of bringing diverse cultures under one proverbial roof. "Global Village is all about people discovering other cultures and one of the best ways to experience any culture is through its cuisine," said Ali Al Hashimi, director of commercial and sponsorship at the park.
Although the park has many other attractions, which have significantly expanded over the years, there are still many visitors who come mainly for its culinary offerings. The restaurants are a given, but another one of Global Village's allure is what you can find to eat at the various pavilions.
"In the pavilions, there are a lot of ingredients, like beautiful spices, for cooking," Ellenby says. "If you are a foodie, it's also worth visiting the pavilions and trying the special food products from different countries."
Global Village is open from 4pm to midnight from Sunday to Wednesday and 4pm to 1am from Thursday to Saturday. More information is available at globalvillage.ae
Scroll through the gallery below to see the newly opened ice rink at Global Village
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
PROFILE OF HALAN
Started: November 2017
Founders: Mounir Nakhla, Ahmed Mohsen and Mohamed Aboulnaga
Based: Cairo, Egypt
Sector: transport and logistics
Size: 150 employees
Investment: approximately $8 million
Investors include: Singapore’s Battery Road Digital Holdings, Egypt’s Algebra Ventures, Uber co-founder and former CTO Oscar Salazar
The specs
Engine: 0.8-litre four cylinder
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Price: $1,075 new in 1967, now valued at $40,000
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Ticket prices
General admission Dh295 (under-three free)
Buy a four-person Family & Friends ticket and pay for only three tickets, so the fourth family member is free
Buy tickets at: wbworldabudhabi.com/en/tickets
THE LIGHT
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Rating: 3/5
Skoda Superb Specs
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KEY DEVELOPMENTS IN MARITIME DISPUTE
2000: Israel withdraws from Lebanon after nearly 30 years without an officially demarcated border. The UN establishes the Blue Line to act as the frontier.
2007: Lebanon and Cyprus define their respective exclusive economic zones to facilitate oil and gas exploration. Israel uses this to define its EEZ with Cyprus
2011: Lebanon disputes Israeli-proposed line and submits documents to UN showing different EEZ. Cyprus offers to mediate without much progress.
2018: Lebanon signs first offshore oil and gas licencing deal with consortium of France’s Total, Italy’s Eni and Russia’s Novatek.
2018-2019: US seeks to mediate between Israel and Lebanon to prevent clashes over oil and gas resources.
The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
