He grew up in Dubai. But he’s not from Dubai. He left Dubai. Now, he’s back in Dubai. Lantian Xie’s new installation “I’ll Be Back Someday” opens this Wednesday at The Jam Jar. Xie’s work examines the continual experience of leaving, wandering, returning, and waiting. Wandering and hunger. Waiting and eating. At the end of our path waits a warm bowl of gumbo: a diasporic food dislocated from the bayou … and brought to the desert.

Sippy sip! How much do I want this Hello Kitty wine? I can’t help it, I even like my booze kawaii. And when the bottle is all drunk up, you can keep the charm. The Veuve Clicquot Chinese New Year silk knot may be more elegant, but it’s not this cute! Just my luck now that Dubai has retracted its ban on cooking with alcohol, the Hello Kitty wine website is currently closed for maintenance due to insatiable demand. I’m still desperately seeking suzette.

2006 Hello Kitty Devil Red – Garnet red with brickish highlights, this is a classically rendered Pinot Noir that presents a seductive bouquet of wild flowers and forest aromas.

Apparently Koreans are using sausages to control their iPhones instead of taking off their gloves in the winter. There are even reports that the sausage manufacturer has to ramp up production due to an alleged surge in demand. We hope this isn’t an “Asians are so wacky!” thing. So are people really using sausages as stylus pens? You can get all kinds of meaty things at Korean 7-11 — see the video tour below. Or as a commentator pointed out are they just using processed cheese sticks? We are somewhat skeptical about the sausage as pen because there’s only 1 photo circulating. And the source article (in Korean) reads like an ad for food made by South Korea’s CJ Corporation. What do you guys think?

It took a year of searching in two Gulf countries, but we are finally enjoying the fruits of camels’ labor: camel milk cheese. We’ve already made yogurt, yogurt cheese, quark, and a hard quark pressed cheese, similar to ricotta salata. And we like a strained quark that we roll into logs on chives and cracked peppercorns like chevre. Camel milk has about half the fat of cow’s milk making less creamy, but it’s more concentrated in protein and vitamins. It’s possible to buy commercial camel milk, but the supply is limited and it’s only sold in specialty boutiques. But production might be ramping up; if they can make robot camel jockeys, we’re eagerly expecting robot camel milkmaids. Hopefully in time for when our flora danica cultures arrive from America to make a bloomy camembert style cheese – camelbert if you will. Picture below from left to right: camel milk choclate, camel milk, camel milk cheese starter.

A reader asked about the chocolate Rocky Horror Picture Show inspired dress, so I had to also show you guys this delicious riff on Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona day bed.