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# My Gold-Surfaced Cappuccino
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/my-gold-surfaced-cappuccino/
- Published: 2014-03-20T18:08:57.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:33:44.000Z
- Description: ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Silence is gold.
- Author: Hrag Vartanian
- Tags: Opinion, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 07:03 (2014, 2015, part 1)

![My gold surfaced cappuccino at the Emirates Palace Hotel. (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/03/goldcap-640.jpg)

My gold-surfaced cappuccino at the Emirates Palace Hotel (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — I am speechless. This afternoon I visited my family in Abu Dhabi — yes, I might be one of the few journalists at Art Dubai who has family in the country — and they took the opportunity to show me something unique to the city: the gold-soaked [Emirates Palace Hotel](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emirates%5FPalace?ref=hyperallergic.com).

I walked through a golden interior of the alleged seven-star hotel, past a gold-bar ATM, to a cafe encircling a golden bar, where I ordered a cappuccino that had gold floating on the foam (at the encouragement of the waitress), but could not bring myself to order the Emirates Palace Signature 24K Gold Camel Burger. It was nice to see my relatives, but the whole experience had such a distinct aesthetic about it — it felt like a family moment mounted in a gold frame in my memory, a polished photo on my mental mantlepiece. Silence is gold.

![PicsArt-640](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/03/picsart-640.jpg)

![camelburger24K-640](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2014/03/camelburger24k-640.jpg)