SecureID,
$70 to $100 a day for food? To be fair, are you working on a basis of "expensive restaurants with a bottle of wine"? or "to get similar to that which you have at home"?
I would expect to be able to get an evening meal for just over Dhs 100 ($30) in most of the area, in a quite reasonable restaurant (not McDonalds!) and I could find a hotel with meals for not much more than the "meal allowance that you quote, if I wanted to save a bit oif cash (and I don't mean a sleazy place)
And do you factor in what you would be paying for the groceries to feed yourself at home (and your cook and live-in maid if you have one?)
Come on, $100 or a bit under is realstically pretty reasonable as a "food" allowance isn't it? Not "knocking", but seriously questioning.
Or are you saying that "food allowance" should include an "inconvenience factor" for staying away from home comforts? Surely the salary (for any job that requres being away from home) should be where that is evaluated?