The Secret Circle

Galeries Lafayette Dubai Mall

Christmas eve brought me here for my virgin experience. I had been in Galeries Lafayette before, but it's the kind of store I tend to walk through quickly and wistfully on the way to the carpark, trailing my fingers over the dangly costume jewelry, not bothering to even check the price of the earrings my inner bowerbird takes a liking to. It's a showpiece, this store, a little like Bloomingdales, there to give the mall elite clout, but nobody really expects it to make great sales volume.

On Christmas eve I came to sort my husband out. Hambone had been letting the side down recently - turning up to end of year dos with ragged cuffs and extra buttonholes. Along with his misguided belief that scruffy = cool, involving middle-aged sideburns, birkinstocks and sloppy jeans, he made me feel like I was turning up at all my friends places with the town tramp. (he can start his own blog and comment on my fashion choices if he so wishes, but this is my hurrah, so I am allowed to say things like that even though I love him very much and find him more attractive than the picture I paint.) It was time to take things up a notch, so avoiding all things mainstream I entered the premier cru classe establishment and selected three very stylish and expensive shirts.



Making one's first purchase at a store such as this is like being accepted into a club. I felt all warm and prestigious as I approached the counter, and the cashier welcomed me into her elite circle with the most lovely smile, straight out of a Singapore airlines ad - I almost felt like one does when greeted with a bow at a five star South-East Asian resort. Then she let me in on a little secret - if you sign up to get a reward card, you get 10% off nearly all your purchases for that first day. Now you must trust me and believe that 10% off an exorbitant GL bill is really quite a teaser. It involved a half hour wait and a trip upstairs to the customer service desk, but it was going to mean 300 dirhams off the bill, so I went ahead. Besides, a little red card in my wallet would be proof of my acceptance into this little clique.

So I ascended, and arrived at the top level, the home of interior decoration goodies, toys, the customer service desk, and THE FOOD HALL! WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT THIS?!?!?! I looked around in complete wonderment, probably with my mouth open, too astounded to make any serious choices, but vowing to return (the ten percent doesn't include food).

So that brings us back to today. Well-dressed hambone is vainly attempting to deflect castle-carnage in the toy section, Lion and Goldilocks are the enemy, and I am the escapee, peacefully sipping at a toasty (but not burnt) latte with a pretty fern drawn on top wondering if my perfect moment will be shattered before the coffee-art.

The odd thing that immediately strikes me is that everyone here appears to be stylish and intelligent. Perhaps that why they have not advertised the food hall with general aplomb. One must be stylish enough to want to come into Galeries Lafayette, and smart enough to consider wandering up the final escalator to see what kind of heaven awaits.

It's not just a grocery store rimmed with Swavroski. The area is a veritable foodie zone, and one is welcome to take a load off and eat wherever the mood so takes. Any filet that can be purchased wrapped can also be poached, fried, grilled or shawarma-ed as per the customers directions and eaten instore. And that is exactly what people are doing today - I have just seen the second most beautiful wood fired pizza in my life. And despite the fact that the area is at least three quarters full, the acoustics are ideal - I can hear my three year old sotto voice at my elbow. Its time to move on.

Let's see, what to offer them for distraction as I wander the aisles? home made ice-cream in typical French flavours like caramel and noisette (without a rainbow or bubblegum flavor in sight)? Or maybe some pretty little French chocolates, that are lined up as neatly as a North Korean army in multicolored tinfoil? Oooh, possibly the patisserie? Cakes and pastries straight out of Barbie's fairytale princess village. Definitely the patisserie. And chocolate. I'll get the icecream on the way out.

The butcher sells only the best cuts of meat, so don't ask him for a slab of blade bashed up for the BBQ. Instead choose some Wagyu sirloin or tenderloin, fine or rich marbling, and don't worry that you wont be able to afford any wine to go with it, because you will be intoxicated enough just with the meat, and they don't sell it anyway. Or maybe today some of that pretty lamb... The cutlets come frenched or un-frenched, crowned or tied in fence-rows.

The seafood section has all kinds of goodies from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and of course some tight lipped oysters from the Camargue to be shucked at your bidding. King crab legs stand like candles in a giant ice cake, prawns arranged like the weave of a wicker basket, even the tellines are smiling at me. It's just like the slick 3D steel letters above me say, "So French".

And following my nose, I find the fromage. J'adore fromage! And here, there is a Cheese room the likes of which I have not seen since the Richmond hill cafe and larder in Melbmourne, except here the selection is almost entirely French, so combine sleek refrigeration and a provincial market and here you are.

Finally we reach the groceries. Malo yoghurt in citron - my all time favorite. Then more cheeses, but prepackaged goodies like soignee and petit Billy. There are about 400 different types of pasta, including spelt for my wheat-intolerant husband. There are all these unusual things in pretty jars and tins that tempt you with their beauty. I'm even considering combining sardines, bamboo hearts and red cabbage, just so I can keep the packaging. And I really do need to start drinking expensive tea, because the tins are like jewelry boxes.

Of course the place is not cheap, I am in fact quite astounded by the pitiful size of my post-cashier package, and the enormous size of the bill. However, when I consider all the treats my nose and eyes have gorged on for free, I believe it good value overall, and an experience well worth repeating.

By the way, my new friend posted about Galeries Lafayette the other day, and I promise I was working on this before I read hers, but you should read it too - She's far more sensible than me: My Custard Pie