How can a girl get dibs on a salad around here???

As I said in my previous post, Arabs have a word, dibs, that has no good English equivalent, but somehow, it got mis-translated as molasses. So Wikipedia says that English now has the expressions 'grenadine molasses', 'date molasses', 'carob molasses' and many others, though none of those would be considered molasses in non-Wiki English.

Traditionally, English just absorbs words for which there is no English equivalent. So, it is better to speak of grenadine dibs, date dibs, carob dibs, etc.

In the Gulf, date dibs is very popular as a syrup for pancakes. In the Northern Arab countries, grenadine dibs is considered essential for salads, and they use it in place of vinegar in their customary oil and dibs salad dressing.

But when a Lebanese lady came to Dubai, she went from store to store asking, 'ayna dibs roman?' which is Arabic for, 'Where's the grenadine dibs?' The response was either a puzzled look, since the staff at Dubai grocers seldom understand a single word of Arabic, or a response of 'No have,' if they understood enough to know she was asking for something they'd never heard of.

After several weeks of searching, I have yet to find a single grocer in Dubai that does not carry grenadine dibs. But then, I have one more Y chromosome than that lady from Lebanon: men hate to ask directions, knowing that most people have no idea where anything is; while most women insist on asking directions, even though most people have no idea where anything is. (I'm not saying all men or all women, I'm sure there are exceptions somewhere.)

Grenadine dibs is not used in the cuisines of the people hired to staff the grocers, so they have no idea what it is or where it is. (I assume the owners of the grocery stores know what it is, and insist it be stocked, but they don't bother to train their staff in what it is, or in how to guide a Lebanese lady to find it.)

She told me she finally found an Arabic speciality store in one of the pricier Dubai malls, but the grenadine dibs cost her about $30, when ordinary grocers sell if for about $2.

So, for those willing to search diligently, I recommend the Lebanese oil and dibs salad dressing, and also Lebanese aubergine with dibs sauce, and I plan to try a suggestion in one of the comments of onions fried in dibs.

But for those who insist on asking, I'm sorry, all the grocery staff insist that there''s no dibs in Dubai.