It seems that one of Dubai’s favorite garnish for their food is real gold.
Rafael Nadal biting the Wimbledon men’s singles trophy after defeating Tomas Berdych on July 4, 2010
Dubai has a well-earned reputation for being an incredibly pricey city. Just walking down the street will give credit to its reputation. High-end luxury brands line the roads and exotic cars race down the streets. Dubai’s wealth isn’t just contained to its vehicles and shops, though. Even their food is pricey and worth its weight in gold – and we mean that literally. It seems that one of Dubai’s favorite garnish for their food is real gold.
Gold is entirely safe to consume. We’re not saying you should take a bite out of your wedding ring, that would be dangerous because it most likely contains impurities. Edible gold must be between 23-24 karats and when you eat it, it is usually pounded into thin sheets or ground into glitter before it is used as a garnish. It is essentially flavorless, and its only value to the food beside a spike in price is making the dish look fancy. Which is precisely why Dubai enjoys using it as a garnish to as many of their dishes as possible. From cocktails to burgers to even cakes, here are 19 foods made out of gold that could only be found in Dubai.
19. Black Soil Soup
19.Black Soil Soup
We’ll admit, the name of this soup is not the most pleasing sounding thing. However, this soup actually sounds delicious if you actually read the description of it. The soup is made from wild mushrooms that include black truffles (of course). It is garnished with some toasted breadcrumbs, mascarpone, and truffle gold flakes. You can find this soup at 24 Karat, an Italian restaurant that is located in the Marriott Hotel in Dubai. Even the restaurant is decorated in gold!
The price for this bowl of soup is 103 AED, about 28 dollars. Not too bad in our opinion. If you opt out of the gold leaf, the price drops to 65 AED – about 17 dollars.
Nothing captures the imagination quite like an island of luxury and excess. Believe it or not, there are 46 island nations in the world, and many of them are home to the world’s elite. Here are the 20 richest island nations in the world, according to the International Monetary Fund’s rankings of GDP per capita.
Palau – $16.27K Located in the South Pacific, Palau is a collection of over 500 beautiful, picturesque islands. Formerly a territory of the United States, Palau became a sovereign nation in 1994. It owes its status as one of the richest island nations to a strong tourism industry, which attracts the world’s wealthy to its many private islands and exclusive resorts.
Seychelles – $16.38K Seychelles is not only one of the world’s richest island nations, it’s also one of the wealthiest nations in Africa. It owes some of this economic success to a thriving tourism industry for the world’s elite, including Prince William and Kate Middleton. Seychelles is also a haven for offshore banking and has been labeled a haven for “tax-dodgers.”
Trinidad and Tobago – $16.93K Trinidad and Tobago consists of two islands in the Caribbean with a bustling tourism industry and, more importantly, a wealth of national resources such as oil and gas, that keep its economy moving. As a major shipment point in the Caribbean, Trinidad and Tobago is also a hub for cocaine smuggling, which contributes to the country’s relatively high crime rate.
La Brea Pitch Lake, La Brea, Siparia, Trinidad and Tobago. Photo taken as part of the Southern Trinidad Aerial Photo Project, a small project sponsored by WMDE. Drone used: DJI Phantom 4. Snapshot taken from video footage via VLC.
Hanuman statue, Carapichaima, Couva-Tabaquite-Talparo, Trinidad and Tobago.
Antigua and Barbuda – $17.48K Despite high rates of inequality and poverty, Antigua and Barbuda retains a high GDP thanks to its tourism industry and its status as an offshore tax haven for Western industrialists such as Texas billionaire Allen Stanford, who invested heavily in Antigua and operated an offshore bank on the island nation before being convicted of creating a massive Ponzi scheme.
Saint Kitts and Nevis – $17.96K Saint Kitts and Nevis attracts many tourists to its beautiful islands every year. In recent years, however, this tropical paradise has become a centre of investment for its valuable passport, which allows visa-free access to 128 countries. The catch, however, is that you must invest in the nation if you’re planning to call yourself a citizen.
Barbados – $18.37K Barbados is one of the most well-developed nations in the Caribbean, with a thriving tourism industry and a reputation as a tax haven. Not many billionaires reside in Barbados full-time, but numerous members of the super rich own property on the idyllic island, including the owners of the Sandy Lane, one of the most exclusive resorts in the world.
Aruba – $24.88K Like many islands on this list, Aruba relies on tourism for its economy. This can be treacherous when global markets are slow, but recent years have been good to Aruba. In 2013, the Ritz Carlton, Aruba opened, lending the Caribbean nation a touch of class and helping it earn a reputation as a playground for the rich.
Taiwan – $25.53K Unlike many of the wealthy island nations on this list, Taiwan has a sizeable population and a long-standing industrial base. In recent years, Taiwan has become a major hub for electronic exports. Despite increasing tensions and competition from mainland China, Taiwan retains a strong, independent economy.
Bahrain – $26.53K Bahrain is a small island state in the Persian Gulf, with much of its wealth coming from the discovery of oil, but Bahrain has diversified by liberalizing its economy and becoming a major hub for tourism and trade in the region. The wealthy from the Gulf States flock to Bahrain for its liberal nightlife and more tolerant legal system.
Cyprus $27.86K Located in the Mediterranean Sea, Cyprus is an island nation with a distinctly European flavour. Some of the island is currently under the occupation of nearby Turkey, but Cyprus continues to prosper. In recent years, Cyprus has attracted wealthy foreigners to invest in the island, with the promise of quick access to Cypriot passports.
Malta – $30.56K Like other island nations on this list, Malta attracts wealthy foreigners to the Mediterranean island with the promise of a convenient passport. As a member of the European Union, Malta’s passport is attractive to outsiders. Likewise, its promise not to tax nationals on income or wealth earned abroad makes the Maltese passport an ideal choice for the world’s wealthy.
Puerto Rico – $32K The US territory of Puerto Rico was harmed by the effects of Hurricane Maria in 2017, yet its GDP remains strong compared to its Latin American neighbours. This could be due to trade, Puerto Rico’s connection to the United States, the use of the US dollar, and stronger labour regulations than neighbouring states.
Coast Guard Barque Eagle sailed into San Juan, Puerto Rico, May 21, 2014, for a four-day port call, as part of the school ship’s training schedule to sail to the Caribbean, along the East Coast, to Canada, and throughout New England. Following San Juan, Eagle is scheduled to visit Oranjestad, Aruba; Cozumel, Mexico; Miami; Sydney, Canada; St. Johns, Canada; New York; Bourne, Mass.; and Rockland, Maine. Eagle will return to New London City Pier in early August. During these voyages, Eagle will train four different groups of approximately 150 cadets each. (U.S. Coast Guard photo)
The Bahamas – $34.33K Like several other island nations on this list, the Bahamas attracts tourists with its beautiful tropical beaches and high-class resorts, as well as tax laws that have caused some to describe it as a tax haven. In addition, celebrities like Johnny Depp and Eddie Murphy own private islands in the Caribbean nation.
Japan – $40.11K Japan might seem like an odd fit for this list, considering it has the world’s third-largest economy, but it is still an island. Japan owes much of its current stature to the post-war “economic miracle” that occurred between the 1960s and 1990s, allowing the island nation to become a global hub for culture, design, auto manufacturing, and, most importantly, technology.
051115-N-8492C-125 Pacific Ocean (Nov. 15, 2005) – The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) destroyer JDS Kongou (DDG 173) sails in formation with other JMSDF ships and ships assigned to the USS Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group. The Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Group is currently conducting the bilateral Annual Exercise 2005 (ANNUALEX) with Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force. ANNUALEX focuses on improving the military-to-military relationship between the U.S. and Japan. The purpose of ANNUALEX is to improve bilateral interoperability, defend Japan against maritime threats and to improve capability for surface warfare, air defense and undersea warfare. U.S. Navy photo by Chief Photographer’s Mate Todd Cichonowicz (RELEASED)
New Zealand – $41.62K In recent years, New Zealand has become a hub for the world’s technology elite, even wooing Silicon Valley investors and entrepreneurs like Peter Thiel. Advocates for the island explain that it owes this reputation to a welcoming business climate unencumbered by the regulations of starting a business in the United States.
The Emerald Lakes seen from the Red Crater. This is about half way on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, one of the most impressive walks in New Zealand.
United Kingdom – $48.26K The United Kingdom may have a long reach around the globe, but the country itself consists of the island of Great Britain (along with Northern Ireland). The United Kingdom has long been one of the world’s wealthiest nations, thanks to a long history of imperial conquest, innovation, and long-established trade routes with former colonies.
Pictured is an aerial view of HMS Queen Elizabeth, HMS Iron Duke (centre) and HMS Sutherland (right). The carrier is shown conducting vital system tests off the coast of Scotland. HMS Queen Elizabeth left Rosyth, where she has been under construction since 2014, to conduct sea trials. Type 23 frigates Sutherland and Iron Duke joined the 65,000-tonne aircraft carrier, along with Merlin Mk2 helicopters of the Fleet Air Arm, to guard the seas as the trials get under way. The Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers are the biggest warships ever built for the Royal Navy – four acres of sovereign territory, deployable across the globe to serve the United Kingdom on operations for 50 years. HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales will be the most advanced warships in the Royal Navy fleet. They are the future flagships of the nation. Initially the ships will carry helicopters. The vast flight deck and hangar can accommodate any helicopter in Britains military inventory. From 2020, however, our punch will be delivered by the F35 Lightning II, the worlds most advanced stealth fighter-bomber.
Stitched Panorama
Hong Kong – $48.23K Hong Kong, currently a pseudo-autonomous “Special Administrative Region” of the People’s Republic of China, became a centre of trade in Asia as a colony of the British Empire. Presently, as Asia’s economy continues to grow, Hong Kong is benefitting from that history. The region now has more multi-millionaires than New York City.
Singapore – $61.23K Singapore was recently the setting for the Hollywood film Crazy Rich Asians, which speaks to the city-state’s high GDP and concentration of wealth. Located at the tip of southern Malaysia, Singapore has historically benefited from being a hub for trade in Asia, and it has long attracted the continent’s wealthiest businesspeople and elite to its shores.
Ireland – $75.19K Ireland has a long history of emigration due to poor economic circumstances, which is why you can find signs of the Irish diaspora around the world. In recent years, however, Ireland has attracted corporations and big tech companies with its business-friendly tax policies, allowing it to become one of the wealthiest island nations in the world.
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Iceland – $75.7K Cold and remote Iceland, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, once had an economy that relied mostly on fishing. However, Iceland has diversified its economy in a number of ways over the past half a century, investing heavily in tourism, financial services, and natural resources, making it the richest island nation in the world.
Gold in the form of jewellery is not only used as a wearble but also works as a tool to tide over financial emergencies. So, buying gold has traditionally been a financial support system over the years.
There are ways of owning gold – paper and physical. You can buy it physically in the form of jewellery, coins, and gold bars and for paper gold you can use gold exchange traded funds (ETFs) and sovereign gold bonds (SGBs). Then there are gold mutual funds (fund of funds) which further invest in gold ETFs. There are gold MFs (fund of funds) which invest in the shares of international gold mining companies.
For buying physical gold, one may reach out to the neighbourhood jewellers. Few jewellers allow placing an order on their websites too. Further, there are e-commerce websites such as Amazon India, Paytm and Snapdeal where one can buy gold coins online to get the coins delivered at home.
PHYSICAL GOLD Jewellery Indians certainly cherish possessing gold. But owning it in the form of jewellery has its own concerns about safety, high costs, and outdated designs. Then there are the ‘making charges’, which could prove to be a costly affair. The making charges on gold jewellery, which typically ranges between 6 percent and 14 percent of the cost of gold (may go as high as 25 percent in case of special designs) are irrecoverable.
Gold Coin Scheme Gold coins can be bought from jewellers, banks, non-banking finance companies, and now even e-commerce websites. The government has launched ingeniously minted coins which will have the National Emblem of Ashok Chakra engraved on one side and Mahatma Gandhi on the other. The coins are available in denominations of 5 and 10 grams while the bars will be for 20 grams.
The Indian Gold Coin and Bar will be of 24 karat purity and 999 fineness carrying advanced anti-counterfeit features and tamper proof packaging. All coins and bars will be hallmarked as per the BIS standards. These coins are distributed through designated and recognised MMTC outlets and through specified bank branches and post offices. MMTC also offers a transparent ‘buy back’ option for Indian Gold Coin through its own showrooms across India. MMTC will repurchase the Indian Gold Coin, in intact tamper proof packaging and with original invoice, at the prevailing gold base rate.
Gold savings schemes Gold or jewellery savings schemes come in two forms. A typical one allows you to deposit a fixed amount every month for the chosen tenure. When the term ends, you can buy gold (from the same jeweller) at a value that is equivalent to the total money deposited, including a bonus amount. This conversion is done at the gold price prevailing on maturity. In most cases, the jeweller adds a month’s instalment at the end of the tenure as a cash incentive or may even offer a gift item.
PAPER GOLD Gold exchange traded funds (ETF)
An alternate way of owning paper gold in a more cost-effective manner is through gold exchange traded funds (Gold ETF). Such investments (buying and selling) happens on a stock exchange (NSE or BSE) with gold as the underlying asset. What’s more, the high initial buying and even selling charges that go into owning jewellery, bars or coins gives an extra edge to the low-cost gold ETF. The transparency in pricing is another advantage. The price at which it is bought is probably the closest to the actual price of gold and therefore the benchmark is the physical gold price.
What you need is a trading account with a stock broker and a demat account. One may either buy in lump sum or even at regular intervals through systematic investment plans (SIP). You may even buy 1 gram of gold.
Even though there are no entry or exit charges there are three costs that come with gold ETFs. One is the expense ratio (for managing the fund) which is generally low compared to other mutual funds and is around 1 percent. Second, is the broker cost that needs to be accounted for every time you buy or sell gold ETF units.Third, which technically is not a charge but impact returns is the tracking error. It arises because of the fund’s expenses and cash holdings thus not mirroring actual gold price.
Sovereign Gold Bonds (SGB) Sovereign Gold Bond is another way of owning paper gold. They are issued by the government but availability is not ‘on-tap basis’. Instead, the government will intermittently open a window for the fresh sale of SGBs to investors. This could typically happen every 2-3 months and the window will remain open for about a week. For investors looking to purchase SGBs anytime in between the only way out is to buy earlier issues (at market value) which are listed in the secondary market.
Digital gold You can now purchase gold coins, bars and jewellery online. ‘Digital Gold’, is offered on the mobile wallet platform of Paytm and ‘GoldRush’ is offered by the Stock Holding Corporation of India on their website, while Motilal Oswal has launched Me-Gold, a digital gold online investment. All of these are offered in association with MMTC – PAMP, (a joint venture between public sector MMTC and Switzerland’s PAMP SA)
Making a choice The initial cost of owning physical gold in the form of bars or coins is anywhere around 10 percent and it is even higher for jewellery. SGB and Gold ETF, both paper-gold, are cost effective as there is no entry cost in SGB while costing for gold ETF could be around 1 percent.
SGB should benefit those who want to invest in gold for a longer period as its maturity is after 8 years, although the lock-in ends from the fifth year. However, gold ETF provides much better liquidity than SGB. Owing units is much easier than SGB as it’s entirely online in case of ETFs. The risk of owning, holding also doesn’t exist in both.
The big difference is on the taxation front. Gains in SGB on redemption are tax-exempt but gains in Gold ETFs after 3 years are subject to 20 percent tax post indexation.
The only disadvantage with gold ETFs is that its units won’t be earn the additional interest of 2.5 per cent per annum like you would get for SGBs.
Get clarity as to why you need to invest in gold – is it for marriage purpose or for pure investment. For investments, one should not have more than 10 percent of the total portfolio in gold. Choose between Gold ETFs or SGBs depending on how comfortable you are managing investments online and keep the worries of purity, security aside.
The year 2019 has been the year of bullion for the global commodity market wherein gold and silver prices staged a strong rally. A host of events that took place across the globe such as extension and intensification of Sino-US trade, geopolitical tension in the Middle East, US sanction on Iran, Nigeria, Venezuela, an extension of trade dispute of the US with Europe, Mexico and India attracted more buyers of gold. Weakening of global economic condition as measured by GDP, inflation, labor market condition, trade balance, etc. also attracted increased investment into the bullion market in general and gold in particular. As a result, the CME gold prices surged by 21.70% since closing on Muhurat Trading in 2018 i.e. on 7th November, 2018 till 17th October, 2019 while silver gained by 20.70% in the same period. On domestic market, MCX gold futures gave a return of 20.92% since Muhurat Trading of last year till 17th October, 2019 and silver surged by 19.05%. The details are presented in the table below.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has lowered the global economic outlook through its quarterly reports. In its April World Economic Outlook report, IMF lowered global growth forecast to 3.3% for 2019 from 3.6% in 2018 and for the year 2020, the projections were made at 3.6%. These projections were revised lower by 0.1% to 3.2% for 2019 and 3.5% for 2020 from April 2019 forecast. In the latest World Economic Outlook report released on 15th October, 2019, growth projection for 2019 was kept at 3.0% and for 2020 it was projected at 3.4%. Gloomy economic condition attracted yellow metal as the best investment option among asset classes.
On trade-related activity, the US and China kept on retaliating by imposing additional tariffs on import of goods and services. There were several rounds of discussion that took place at different levels including the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese Premier Xi Jinping. However, both the sides failed to end the more than 1 ½ years trade dispute. Though there was a temporary relief in the form of delay in imposition of additional tariff, agreement between both the countries on buying the products and services did not really have a major impact on the market.
As the economic condition was worsening, the central banks stepped in to bring the economy back onto the growth trajectory through easing monetary policies. At the beginning of 2019, the US Federal Reserve was on the course to keep its interest rates rising. However, the stance was changed in second half of the year wherein it slashed interest rate by 25 basis points each in July and September 2019. This has resulted in fall in the US Treasury Yield of 2-year and 10-year to multi year lows thereby attracting investment flow into the bullion market.
Indian gold market follows the trend of international market and so the rally seen in global market was witnessed in the Indian market as well. The gold in international exchange rose to a 6-year high in 2019 while on MCX, the prices rallied to an all-time high thanks to the depreciation of Indian Rupee against the US Dollar. Apart from this, another factor that led to the rally in Indian gold was change in import duty on gold. During the second term of Modi government, the Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman in her maiden budget speech raised the import duty on gold and silver to 12.5% from earlier 10%. This rise in import duty sent shocking signals to the bullion market wherein the market participants were expecting cut in the import duty.
The economic outlook is still bleak for major countries and this is prompting the central banks to step in to further ease the monetary policy. This step will attract further buying in gold and silver in the days to come. Recovery in the global economic conditions as well as end of trade war between US and China will change the trend in gold and silver.
This festive season, invest in gold via the ETF route.
Investment Required:
Investors can invest in Gold ETFs with a minimum investment of around Rs. 350 (1Mili Gram) and multiples thereof.
Advantages of buying Gold ETF:
1. Transparency in pricing
2. Available in Demat form
3. No fear of theft
4. Minimal or no charge of Buying and Selling
5. Prices of the ETF are closer to Spot Gold /Actual Gold
Invest in gold via ETF this Diwali and harvest future gains. Below is the list of ETFs as per the liquidity and returns over the past one year. Investors can choose Gold ETFs from the list below:
