60 Minutes Around the Mall of the Emirates

So little time, so much to see… so much to buy! In a mall the size of a small country it’s easy to lose your way, so J Magazine offers a brief guide to all that’s best about the MoE

01/Via Rodeo

Also known as “Millionaires’ Row”: a neo-Italianate parade of top-end fashion boutiques (Marc Jacobs, Versace, YSL and more), plus skinny food at the Emporio Armani Café.

02/Arabian Souk

This is great – we’re all in favour of a souk that doesn’t involve traders repeatedly imploring, “My friend, my friend,” while at the same time fully intent on scamming all your cash.

03/Harvey Nichols

When London department store Harvey Nics opened in 2006, the emirate’s brand-conscious shoppers rejoiced. Dubai, in terms of luxury shopping at least, had finally arrived. Once you’re finished with the rails of designer wares head upstairs to the brilliant Almaz by Momo, one of the top restaurants in town. Eat in or just pick up some nutty Moroccan pastries from the bakery.

04/The Taxi Dodge

To avoid drowning in your own perspiration as you queue outside the air-conditioned comfort of the mall for a taxi, head for the main entrance of the Kempinski Hotel, where there’s often no queue at all. Walk confidently and who’s to know you’re not a hotel guest?

05/Aizone

Among the MoE’s many upmarket fashion emporiums, trend-setting Aizone stands out for being so well-appointed it employs an airport-style moving walkway to ferry its sophisticated customers from one end of the store to the other. It’s great for jeans.

06/Carrefour

In terms of size and stock, this is to the normal supermarket what an aircraft carrier is to a rowing boat. It sells just about everything anybody could ever wish for, from squash racquets to fresh sushi, and at prices that are unlikely to be beaten this side of the Arabian Gulf.

07/Ski Dubai

You don’t have to ski to enjoy this attraction, you can just settle in at Sezzam – a restaurant so big it must cover three time zones – for a cup of hot chocolate while watching all the snowy downhill action.

08/The Fountain

Our favourite MoE feature isn’t in the mall but outside – head for the lake beyond the car park for a fountain with water jets that dance to the theme music to movie Mission: Impossible. Nothing’s impossible in Dubai.

Arabian Heights

We like a book that opens with a quote from The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The reason for it in the case of this new volume from European art publisher Taschen, is architect Adrian Smith, who candidly admits that his design for the Burj Dubai was inspired by the towers of the Emerald City in the film version of L Frank Baum’s popular children’s tale. The Burj Dubai is just one of more than 20 buildings – some already realised, some still just pixellated dreams – included in this overview of some of the unworldly new architecture that’s shaping the region. Whatever you think of the aesthetic results, when every new building is required to be instantly iconic, collected together they do make for one striking addition to the coffee table. www.taschen.com