Half Life

Half-life is the period of time it takes for a substance undergoing decay to decrease by half, well it’s been 6 hours since I had the Methi Chicken and the odours are actually getting stronger rather than weaker.

Clearly the sweat and perspiration induced by riveting, edge of seat action from the Arsenal – Barcelona game clearly did not help matters, and spraying half a bottle of Lynx only offered a somewhat temporarily relief.

I was so intrigued into the strong smell of Methi that I undertook some research. Basically Methi has a compound known as 3-hydroxy-4,5-dimethylfuran-2(5H)-one (aka sotolon) which gives it a distinctive flavour.  The human body doesn't metabolise sotolon at all, so it passes through the body unchanged - this makes sweat, urine and the breath smell like ,,,,,yes you’ve guessed it Methi !

Talking about genetically modified foods, why can’t some clever boffin make Methi smell like some expensive cologne.

Disco Tea

Went out with some friends for a meal at a Pakistani restaurant close to the Burjuman shopping centre, afterwards we decided to head towards the world famous Disco Chai Corner (Disco Tea) and experience the finest masala tea that Dubai can offer.

We came across a very small shop located on a street corner, a complete change from the coffee/tea shops which you find in all the malls. No fancy furniture or décor in this joint, only the finest Chinese made plastic seats and stools in various different colours and sizes neatly arranged on the pavement.

This was café culture desi style, you could quite easily be in the backstreets of Karachi, Dhaka or Mumbai. The furnishings may be simple but the place definitely had a soul, the constant stream of customers including drive by’s confirmed the popularity of the tea house.

The disco tea was very nice, it was full of aromatic spices and herbs which made a pleasant change from the standard tea bags that I was accustomed to. I was told that the actual ingredients of the disco tea was a secret known only to the café owner and had been passed down from generation to generation.

Legend has it that if you knock back two cups of Disco tea you start to suffer from Saturday night fever, and will have a strong urge to strut your stuff on the dance floor. With this health warning in mind and my weakness to the sound of Disco I decided to be cautious and only have one cup.

When I returned back to my place I decided to google “disco tea”, and see if I could discover which herbs and spices they use to prepare this fine drink.

UHH OHH, SHOCK HORROR !!!

Disco tea dance is high energy disco dance performed by gays, listening to tracks from the 70’s & 80’s.

Looking back now it’s beginning to make sense, the place was full of marvellously Moustachioed Men who were smiling and nodding their heads a lot ! Right I think I’ll stick to my PG Tips.