Five years after it shuttered its doors, the Okku, or Okku 2.0 if you will, is reopening on Monday, at the Marriott Resort Palm Jumeirah, Dubai.
The home-grown Japanese restaurant operated from The H Dubai hotel on Sheikh Zayed Road until 2018, and was something of a must-visit for Dubai residents and visitors.
The National got a sneak peek at the new iteration on Tuesday. “It's really all about going back to basics – serving really good food,” the venue's general manager, Marija Milojevic, tells me.
About 90 per cent of Okku's original “O-style” menu has been retained, with favourites such as hushihu salad (mixed leaves with crispy duck and hoisin-amazu dressing); ginger salmon sashimi; and dynamite kani (two whole baked king crab legs with a spicy mayonnaise dressing).
Keeping the dishes was an intentional decision, given the restaurant, which ran for nine years, had built a loyal following for its food. The head chef also worked at the original Okku, so it was easy to replicate the menu.
Of the dishes I tried, the Wagyu beef and foie gras kushiyaki was succulent with an umami flavour punch; while the spicy tuna on crispy rice had a delightful contrasting texture.
The Okku team confirms there will be new food to look forward to as well.
The biggest change, aside from the move to the Palm West Beach area, is the layout and decor of the restaurant.
The Japanese inspiration is apparent from the get-go, as diners enter through a lantern-lit hallway.
Within, one wall features jellyfish floating in three side-by-side aquariums – but unlike in the original restaurant, Okku 2.0 serves up photorealistic recreations of the jellyfish, using LED screens.
The use of digital imaging is also apparent inside the women's powder room, where mirrors hang against a fully immersive wall that shows varying scenic displays, from waterfalls to cherry blossoms.
Several 3D-printed life-size samurai statues stand guard in various corners of the restaurant, which can seat 214 diners.
The rest of the space has an industrial look and feel, with stone walls, an exposed ceiling and plush yet modern seating.
A central bar pulls all sides of the restaurant together in one coherent vibe. There is also a 20-metre-long sushi bar and robata grill area, where guests can see chefs in action; plus a DJ nook and a private dining room in the back.
Milojevic says about a third of the employees are from the original Okku, which allowed the team “to really recreate the restaurant's glory days from 2009 to 2018”.
Opens June 12; 6pm-2am on Monday to Thursday, 6pm-3am on Friday and Saturday; 04 666 1566; okku.com
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$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
