Author: Mark

Pizzeria Volpe is a new Neapolitan pizzeria that has been open in Mahboula for a couple of months. The pizzeria is a small hole in the wall place with just three tables inside and a couple of more outside. The pizza chef is a Kuwaiti who studied and got his certificate under the famous chef Enzo Coccia. Enzo runs the pizzeria La Notizia in Naples which was the first pizzeria in the world to be recommended by the influential Michelin Guide and fork. Volpe are still in their soft launch stage but I passed by anyway earlier this week to try them out. We were two people so we ended up ordering:

Garlic Bread KD2.000
Margherita con Funghi KD4.500
Peperoni Pizza KD5.000
Pistachio Dessert KD2.750

The first thing that arrived was the Garlic bread and it was super garlicy and delicious. Lots of flavor and when there was one piece left on the plate I wanted it. After the garlic bread the pizzas came one after the other. The pizzas were both great and similar in style and taste to traditional Neapolitan except for one minor edge, the Kuwaiti chef rubs a bit of garlic oil around the edge of the pizza to make the crust edge more enjoyable to eat. It works. It’s not as powerful in flavor as the garlic bread but you definitely get some flavor. Finally for dessert we ordered their Pistachio dessert. Not sure if I should call it Pistachio bread or pistachio pizza but whatever the actual term is doesn’t matter, the dessert was actually the best part of the whole dinner. It’s probably the single dish that would make me want to drive out all the way out to Mahboula again. Even though they had a Nutella pizza I really wanted to try something new and the pistachio pizza turned out to be a ridiculously great alternative.

If you live in Mahboula or in the vicinity, Pizzeria Volpe is a no brainer, probably the best pizza place in the area if not the only authentic pizza place there. On the other hand is it worth the drive from the city all the way to Mahboula? That I’m not so sure about although the pistachio dessert is definitely worth trying out at least once. Pizzeria Volpe is open from Saturday to Thursday, 7:30PM to 10PM. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

Update: Based on the comments it seems Volpe are randomly closed sometimes so might be better to give them a call on 98927436 before you head there.

This is a busy weekend. The Kuwait Little Theater will be performing their last show before the theater will sadly be demolished to make space for a new one. The Red Bull Car Park Drift is taking place on Friday and Qout Market is back again this Saturday. The coolest event this weekend though is the Battle of the East crossfit competition taking place at Marina Crescent. I went to the one last year and it’s by far the most properly setup and organized sporting event that currently takes place in Kuwait and this year it’s supposed to be even bigger and better. Check out all the events taking place this weekend below:

Thursday
KLT: Talking Heads

Friday
KLT: Talking Heads
Battle of the East 2014
Kuwait Human Rights Mapup
7Market Haunted Garden
Red Bull Car Park Drift

Saturday
The Secret Garden Project
Battle of the East 2014
7Market Hunted Garden
Qout Market

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

This past weekend the Dance Battle Finals were held at the newly opened graffiti park Spraybox in Shaab. I passed by to check it out and was completely surprised by how talented some of the kids were and how many people showed up to watch them.

Great event, venue and people so check out the video above. [YouTube]

The Global Gender Gap Index seeks to measure one important aspect of gender equality: the relative gaps between women and men across four key areas: health, education, economy and politics. This year Kuwait came first among Arab countries coming in 113th place. Although that sounds great, Kuwait came 113th place out of 142 so yes it performed better than Arab countries but is still far behind the rest of the world overall.

On the other hand, UAE ended up coming two places behind at 115 and Saudi Arabia at a lower 130 which is what you would expect. What I didn’t expect though is Lebanon coming in five places lower than Saudi Arabia in 135th place. That’s just messed up. Check out the full report [Here]

British Pathé have been uploading their historic archive of news onto YouTube and awhile back they uploaded this short clip related to Kuwait which I had somehow missed. [YouTube]

Thanks Roberto

A few days ago a friend of mine on instagram posted pictures of a photo studio in Kuwait city where she was getting her picture photoshopped onto different backdrops. The very cheesy kind of backdrops with the worst photoshopping job ever. I had seen those kind of photos countless of times before but had no idea where to get them done so I asked her for directions and headed there myself.

I have no clue how she found the place but my guess is she must have just been exploring because I know that area pretty well but had never run across the studios. To find them follow these directions: If you’re walking from Salhiya, keep Caribou Coffee on your right hand side and walk straight to the area behind it. There will be a large parking garage on your left with shops underneath. Keep that building on your left and keep walking straight until you see a shawerma place on your right called Tarboush. Right after the shawerma place is corridor that takes you inside the building which is filled with shops. Walk around 20 meters until you find stairs on your left that take you down to the basement. Thats where you will find a number of these photography studios.

I opted for Foto Star Studio since they were willing to take my photo, retouch it onto a backdrop and print it for me all while I wait. The shop next door wanted an hour for example which I didn’t want to wait. Choosing a backdrop was the most difficult thing to do since they had so many options. I decided to get my photo taken first so the guy can start working on it while I look for a suitable backdrop. Next time I go back though I will do it the other way around since I realized depending on the backdrop you choose you might want to pose a certain way. I ended up going with a backdrop of a park with the popular Indian actor Chiranjeevi super imposed onto it while I’m standing next to him. It will now be my new Facebook profile pic.

The cost is fairly reasonable, originally he wanted KD1.5 but I managed to bring him down to KD1 because I wanted two photos. I actually wanted to get more photos done but he didn’t accept Knet and I only had KD2 on me so I’m definitely going back again most likely with a group of friends. Also if you’re thinking of doing this you might also want to consider taking some props with you.

Last week I passed by the Arirang Korean restaurant for lunch and it turned out to be a pretty disappointing experience to be honest. It was such an unexciting experience I’m actually forcing myself to write this review.

Arirang has been open for nearly three years and they’re located inside the Swiss-Belhotel Plaza (inside Muthana Complex). The location at one point was an Indian restaurant, a Kuwaiti restaurant and possibly a Chinese restaurant before finally becoming a Korean restaurant. So far the Korean restaurant has lasted the longest but not really sure why.

The interior is fairly decent looking I guess, it’s very spacious and the booths look cozy although awkwardly large for just a couple to just sit in alone.

We were three people and so we ended up ordering the following:
Beef Dumplings x 2 KD2.500 each
Shrimp Teppanyaki KD5.500
Bulgogi KD7.000
Galbi Pot KD7.000

Now here is where things started going downhill. Firstly there was only one waiter for the restaurant which is fine considering we were the only occupied table. But, because of the way the restaurant is laid out, the waiter was always at the main entrance while we were all the way inside. That meant whenever we needed anything we would have to get up and walk down a corridor to call him. It then took 50 minutes for them to serve us our starters (the dumplings) which was absurd considering we were the only customers there. Finally when the main courses arrived, the only dish that was any good was the Shrimp Teppanyaki… a non Korean dish. I had the Bulgogi which was dry and bland while Galbi Pot although looked great presentation wise, the dish was just too fatty. Once piece of rib for example had fat the size of a golf ball on it.

Maybe I visited the place on a bad day I’m not sure but I do know I didn’t enjoy the experience. They also have pretty strong competition since the popular Koryokwan Korean Restaurant is located across the street from them. But then again, if they’ve bene open for three years it must mean they have a loyal fan base, I just don’t know why.

Around two weeks back a friend of mine at the British Embassy called me up and asked me if I’d be interested in having the new British Ambassador Matthew Lodge guest post on my blog. At first I was a bit hesitant but the more I thought about it the more interested I was in the idea. Part of the reason I like inviting people to write on the blog is so that I have interesting content to read and I was curious to know what kind of posts the British Ambassador would write about. The way I looked at it, if there was a reality show based around a British Ambassador living in Kuwait I’d want to watch it which is why I called my friend back and said lets do this.

So last Monday I was invited to have breakfast with the British Ambassador at his residence inside the British Embassy grounds. We sat and spoke casually for nearly two hours discussing various topics but mostly about Kuwait (he just moved here around two months ago). Just before I left we decided to start off with two posts for now and see how they go. Starting today and if everything goes according to plan, the British Ambassador will be guest posting every Monday under posts called “Mondays with Matthew”. His first post is already up and you can check it out below.

The Secret Garden is a new project by Mimi, the same person behind the popular Shakshooka nomadic farmers market. She originally started the project last year but shifted it to full gear around a month ago and I passed by yesterday to check the place out and left extremely impressed.

The Secret Garden simply put is an urban community garden. Mimi got permission from the municipality to occupy part of a public garden in Salmiya and setup planting stations so that people and children could come and grow their own vegetables, herbs and fruits. Majority of the garden was built using recycled material and they even have their own compost pit which they’ve started filling up in hopes of it being ready for next year.

Every Saturday the community is encouraged to come by the garden from 9AM till sundown to either plant, paint, build or just socialize. Mimi has some great plans for the future including possibly turning the garden into the permanent spot for the weekly Shakshooka farmers market, having gardening workshops and even hold film screenings in the garden.

I’ll be posting about The Secret Garden every weekend with the rest of the weekend events to keep everyone posted on whats taking place there so stay tuned. For now you can check out more pictures of the garden by following @mimikuwait on instagram or the hashtag #thesecretgardenproject

I passed by Bang & Olufsen in Symphony Mall the other the night to see when they were getting the new BeoPlay A2 when I spotted a new AAB World store on the lower level. It turns out the store has been open for two months now and it’s their largest store yet. AAB World are a photography store and I’ve dealt with them on a number of occasions either for product reviews on the blog or for personal purchases.

The branch I used to frequent often was in the basement of Shamiya Coop and that location is really tiny so having this large store in my neighborhood makes things a lot more convenient. This location is so big they practically have each one of their products on display for you to check out including all their studio lights and camera stabilizers (for the movie buffs).

So if you’re interested in checking it out, they’re open from 9AM to 1PM and then again from 4PM to 10PM.

Thursday
Exhibition: Ghadah Alkandari – Secretary
STOMP Theatrical Show

Friday
STOMP Theatrical Show
Spraybox Opening
Book Club Meeting

Saturday
STOMP Theatrical Show
The Flying Start Triathlon
Yoga Fest

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Back in the 70s there was a British journalist living in Kuwait by the name of Keith Wells. He used to work for the Arab Times and in his spare time he also used to write books about Kuwait, including a witty series on a character named Wizr who was Kuwait’s greatest driver. Between 1979 and 1984, Keith released three Wizr books but sadly there really isn’t a lot of information on them nor Keith online. In fact, there is a blog dedicated to keeping Keith and his Wizr series alive but even the blog doesn’t have much info nor content. The books document life in Kuwait during that period with humor and nicely drawn illustrations.

Since The Kuwait Bookshops is closing this might be your only chance to own one of his Wizr books. In 1984 he released “The Last Wizr Book” and The Kuwait Bookshops in Muthana still has copies of it remaining and they’re selling them cheap for KD1.5 (the bookshop is selling everything for 50% off). The book was his last one on the Wizr since the illustrator he had teamed up with for the previous two books had passed away. I tried to find the other two books online and I managed to snag his second book (pictured above) on eBay for KD7.5 and his first book on the series (pictured below) for KD16. It was more than what I wanted to pay, but I somehow felt compelled to save this part of Kuwait’s history. So try to grab his last book from Muthana if you can.

If anyone has any interesting information related to Keith or his books let me know.

My friend sent me the screen capture above, at first I thought it was a joke but I called Hilton up and it’s actually taking place tomorrow.

2aorganic is a local website which claims to have the largest collection of organic products for sale in Kuwait. I didn’t count their products so I can’t really confirm that claim although by quickly flipping through the website I could tell they do have quite a large selection. So if you’re interested in organic products here is a link to their [Website]

On a side note not sure why they chose such an awkward name. How do you even pronounce 2aorganic?

Thanks Khaled

A bit of drama has erupted over the past few days between a few local American female bloggers. From what I’ve been able to grasp so far it turns out Expat and the City is not who she says she is, personal information on Crazy in Kuwait was released and supposedly American Girl’s World started all of this.

Personally I find all this drama entertaining to read but I’m also completely against outing someone who wants to remain anonymous. Even Single in the Shires recently posted that people have figured out her identity as well. There are plenty of good reasons to post anonymously in Kuwait so its very understandable why these girls would want their real lives to remain private. Plus, I don’t think it really matters if the blog stories or characters are fictional, a blog can be whatever it wants to be.

In any case this is turning into an episode of The Only Way is Essex, so if you’re bored and want to catch up on whats been going on, here are some links in chronological order:

Expat and the City 1
American Girl’s World
Crazy in Kuwait
Expat and the City 2