Category: Food & Drinks

Today I got a long rectangular box with a dozen cupcakes from a new place that opened up in Fanar called Juju’s Cupcake. All the cupcakes looked stunning and within seconds they disappeared. Everyone just wanted one. I don’t have any idea on the prices and although the box has a website address, jujuscupcake.com, the website is still not up. If you are interested though you can call them on 5722999.

Picture above taken by 7oO7oO

I just got the following SMS from my sister who I’m guessing is inside Avenues:

Avenues has what is acclaimed to be the sexiest Starbucks in the world. Even the name and logo are in silver, not green. The walls are also dark gray granite.

Sounds cool. I am going to google now and see if there is anything like this anywhere else in the world. Avenues is still not open to the public.

Hungry Bunny is a local creation that opened up in the early 80s in Kuwait. It was inspired by a Australian franchise called Hungry Jack which was what Burger King was called in Australia back then.

In 1997 Al Homaizi Foodstuff Co. who owned Hungry Bunny got the rights to Burger King. Since they couldn’t have two competing franchises they decided to close down all the Hungry Bunnys and open up Burger Kings in the same locations.

Since then there have been copycats the most popular being “Hungry Bunny World” and “Super Bunny” which was named after the famous Hungry Bunny burger. Hungry Bunny World actually opened up a branch on the 4th Ring Road back in 2005 and called it just “Hungry Bunny”. This led to a lot of speculation and rumors that Hungry Bunny was relaunching but they weren’t true. Al Homaizi sued (or threatened to sue) so they added the word “World” on their signage.

I heard awhile back from a friend that Al Homaizi was actually thinking of relaunching Hungry Bunny but I don’t know if thats true or not. For now the only way you can enjoy Hungry Bunny is to drive down to Saudi Arabia where the franchise still exists there. Here is the link to their website: www.hungry-bunny.com

note: the above information is based on my knowledge. If there are any mistakes in dates or events I will fix them but as far as I know the above is accurate.

update: A reader by the name of HaMooR wrote the following:

Dear Mark,

Al Homaizi has the BK franchize since the first hungry bunny openned in Kuwait. and I believe it was Kaifan branch, in order for Al Homaizi to sake BK prudects at that time in kuwait. they have to change the name of BK, because BK was consider in the taboo list (boycott Isreal).

There was a big sign in kaifan branch that says all the meat prudects are BK. So when BK was removed from the list back in 97 .. and there is no reason to for them to hide the name, they switched to BK.

On my way back to my car after leaving The ONE I spotted the new Burger Company location. Its not bad but looks small. Its located next to the large parking lot outside The ONE.

I got an email yesterday from the owner of Shoo? Shawerma asking me to go back and try their shawermas now. He had read my extremely negative review of Shoo? Shawerma and decided to explain the situation to me.

It turns out they had a problem with the shawerma master and they ended up firing him and replacing him with a new more qualified guy. He also told me the reason their shawermas are more expensive then other places is because most places uses Indian beef which is 600fils a KG while they use Brazilian beef which is KD1.300 a KG. But with the firing of the shawerma master they decreased the shawerma price down to 300fils and they changed the menu.

So next time I go to Sultan Center I will pass by Shoo? Shawerma and give it another shot and then either update my review or keep it the same.

Have you gotten your loved one a Shani today?

Thanks to K.theKuwaiti for reminding me its Shani Day today.

Today I got a surprise call from Go Nuts Donuts. Turns out they read some of the feedback some of you left about their heart shaped donuts and they ended up changing them. They sent me a dozen to check out and they are now basically more colorful then the first version plus they came in a special valentines box.

Yesterday I took a day off work so I could go to the Pierre Marcolini event at Hilton. It started off with lunch at Teatro followed by a chocolate presentation at the Song Bird cafe at 2PM. The presentation which I thought would be boring turned out to be pretty cool and informative. It was like watching an episode on Discovery Channel on how chocolate is made except the presenter was Pierre Marcolini himself. I guess it was like watching the Teutul family talk about how they made choppers minus all the shouting and banging.

I now understand the difference between good chocolate and bad chocolate. The presentation was a walk through on how Pierre Marcolini chocolate is made. It turns out they are the only ones in Belgium who actually create chocolate starting from the cocoa beans all the way to the chocolate bar. Its a long process but in the end you get the best product. They even passed around chocolate in its various unfinished stages so we could smell and at one point taste.

Once the presentation was over me and Nat went up to Pierre and had a little chat with him. Since he only spoke French, Nat was my translator. I made her ask him if he had a favorite commercial chocolate like Crunch, Mars, Twix etc.. He replied telling her that he didn’t eat commercial chocolate but every now and then he would try new products just out of curiosity. He also told her he does like eating chocolate from small chocolatiers in France and Italy. We then asked him what he thought of Kuwait. He told us he had just been in Japan and now he was in Kuwait and the difference in culture is huge and he loves that. He said he loves experiencing new cultures because he learns new things. For example now that he has visited Kuwait he is considering making chocolate with coffee.

He was a very friendly guy with good sense of humor so the whole thing was really enjoyable. In the end they gave us some chocolates as a thank you for coming gift and we then left the place. It was a cool experience and I am glad I went.

The title says it all. [Link]

Took a day off work to enjoy chocolate day. Today is the chocolate event at Hilton and I am going to leave in a few minutes for the 12:00 lunch. 12PM, thats brunch or lunch? Anyway it should be fun, will try to take some pictures.

Oh and I got a call a few minutes ago from U Shop We Ship. My package which shipped on February 9th (another harddrive) from the US arrived to Kuwait today. Thats just crazy. I placed the order for my harddrive from Amazon on the 8th, the package then shipped and arrived to my USWS mailbox on the 9th, then it shipped from my US mailbox on the 9th and now the package is here in Kuwait by the 11th. I don’t think it could get faster then this.

Whats up with my luck? Thursday I suddenly felt like pizza and ordered from Papa John’s only to end up in a fight with them because over an hour and half had passed and my pizza hadn’t arrived yet. I decided I would never order from Papa John’s again.

Tonight I placed an order for pizza from Dominos. I placed an order at 8:33 and they told me I would have it within 30 minutes. 9:03 the pizza was still not delivered. 9:11 I get a call from the driver, he is around a block away from my house, less even like 100 meters away. He was lost and I explained to him how to get to my place. Take a right and get onto the main road, then take a left and another left. Very easy directions…

Thirty minutes later and the guy was still lost. Everytime I told him to take a left he takes a right, go straight he takes a right, U-Turn and he takes a left. The guy was a complete idiot. I just called and canceled my pizza, told them its been over an hour snce I ordered the pizza and over 30 minutes on the phone with the delivery guy and he still can’t follow directions.

I just called Papa John’s and ordered a pizza from them. I can’t be pissed at both Papa Johns AND Dominos… I have to still eat pizza from somewhere…

note: The guy was an Arab and I was talking to him in Arabic so it wasn’t a communication barrier.

Also while writing this post the Dominos manager called me and apologized. Told me what happened was unacceptable and that before anything they want me to be happy. He told me he would call the Dominos branch now and have them resend me the pizza and it would be for free. I told him thanks but I had already ordered from Papa John’s and thanked him for his call. He was like what can I do to make it up to you, I told him by calling me and apologizing you made it up and I would order from them again the next time. He apologized again and I thanked him and hung up. Thats good service.

update: Papa Johns told me the pizza needed 45 minutes, it arrived in 40. They must have sent me their best driver because he didn’t even call to get directions. Glad my pizza curse is over with.

Go Nuts Donuts sent me a Happy Valentines today made up of a dozen heart shaped donuts. I knew they had star shaped ones before but I guess for Valentines they are making heart ones.

A friend of mine in Lebanon just posted pictures and info on my favorite shawerma place called BouBouffe. The shawerma place is located in Lebanon, near ABC in Achrafieh and its been there since the 70s. [Link]

Placed order with Papa Johns at 8:30. Promised would be delivered within 45 minutes. Called back at 9:20 telling them pizza hadn’t arrived yet, they told me within 10 minutes. Called back at 9:35 telling them pizza hadn’t arrived yet, they told me they will check on it and get back to me. Called back at 9:45 telling them pizza hasn’t arrived yet even though I called twice. They transfered me to manager who told me he will call back in 2 minutes. Its been 5 minutes and no call back yet and I need to leave the house.

update: called back at 9:55, spoke to manager again told him he had told me he would call me back in 2 minutes and he hadn’t. He told me he spoke to Salmiya branch manager and he is probably trying to call me now and he is getting a busy tone. I told him no I have call waiting if he was trying to call me I would know. I told him I need to know when my pizza will get here because I need to leave. He was like if you have to leave I can’t do anything about it. So I was like then cancel my order, he was like fine. What the hell, what lame customer service is that.

Then a few minutes later I get a phone call from the Salmiya branch manager telling me my pizza will be late. I told him why didn’t you call me half an hour ago when the call center manager told me you would call me. He was like I had to call the driver. I was like you need 30 minutes to do that? I was like anyway I canceled my order. He was like ok and I closed the phone.

I would never order from them again. Why?
– They should have been apologetic instead of blaming it on traffic
– Its Thursday night and they know there is traffic so why tell me 45 minutes in the first place
– After my first call they should have called the driver and found out how long he needed
– After they told me they would call me back they should have called me back
– At the very least they should have offered me the pizza for free, its been over an hour and a half and the pizza is going to be cold anyway
– The two managers I spoke to were not friendly enough

I just got an SMS from Choowy Goowy saying that on the occasion of Valentines they have a special jar. If anyone is interested in sending cookies on Valentines the last day to place your order is February 11th. To order call them on 2626559 or 2620011.