Category: Food & Drinks

I just had the most expensive shawerma I have ever had in Kuwait. I tried this new shawerma place that opened near Restaurant Street (Share3 al Mata3em) called Shawermer. I had just left Sajj House because they were packed and was heading to get shawerma from Dodo when I saw this place and decided to try it out.

When I walked in I noticed they had two large shawerma skewers (one meat and one chicken) laid out horizontally over a charcoal grill. That grabbed my attention, I thought it was pretty original since I had never seen a shawerma skewer laid out like that. So I proceeded to order two chicken shawermas and a coke. The cashier then tells me he wants 900fils. I was like how much is one shawerma? He tells me 400fils. I was like “fuckin A” this is either going to be one really large sandwich or one unbelievably amazing shawerma.

So I stood by the horizontal shawerma skewers waiting to see how the chef was planning on cutting it up when I noticed some guy at the other side of the kitchen taking already cut up shawerma from a metal container and placing it into my sajj bread. I was like what the fuck? The shawerma isn’t even freshly cut!? I was like whatever, lets not judge anything before trying the shawerma. The guy finishes heating up my two shawermas and puts them in a bag and gives it to me with a small 250ml can of Pepsi (I really hate these cans!). I leave the place, go out into my car and decide to eat the shawermas there while they were still hot.

My first reaction was what the hell!? This shawerma had the worst tasting garlic ever. Like way worse than Kurdo’s garlic which I used to count as the lowest of the low when it came to garlic. Now out of the blue Shawermer was able to smash the charts with this absolutely horrendous tasting garlic. I didn’t know what it tasted closer to, cough medicine or tooth paste. Actually what am I saying, I would rather have cough medicine mixed with tooth paste and kitchen soap over a spoonful of this garlic.

So I finished up my two sandwiches and just sat in my car bewildered at what this place was thinking charging people 400fils for a shawerma that tasted like something you can find under your kitchen sink. Then I looked around and noticed the place didn’t look like it was doing any good which is a good thing. It was a Wednesday night and every other restaurant on the street was packed and this place was empty which put a smile on my face.

Final score, half a star out of a possible five. Like Shoo? Shawerma, it gets half a star because if there was a nuclear holocaust and all the food in the whole world got infected with radiation and Shawermer miraculously had radiation free shawermas, then I wouldn’t mind having one.

I was parking my car outside Sultan Center in Salmiya when I first spotted this place. Its located in the backside area near the clinic and because of the name I felt I had to try their shawermas.

After I was done shopping I put the bags in the trunk of my car and walked over to Shoo? Shawerma to order some food. I ordered two chicken shawermas with no pickles and a coke. Total price? 800fils. I was like “fuckin A” this must be some seriously good shawerma if they are charging 350 a piece for it. So, I picked up my two shawermas and headed to the car where I started eating them.

After my first bite I turned around and told Nat this was a 2.5, but the more I ate it the more I hated it. The shawerma was really bad, like really bad. It tasted really greasy and the garlic flavor was no where to be found so there was nothing to cover up the god awful taste of the chicken. It was so bad that once I was done with my first shawerma I threw the second one away. I had NEVER done that before!

Now if this was any ordinary crappy place selling shawermas for 200fils then I might expect something this bad, but 350fils for a shawerma, thats the big league, fuck that, thats the super league. Most top scoring shawerma places charge 300 fils for a shawerma and this joint was charging 350 for the worst shawermas I have ever had. Even the Pepsi can was the small 250ml one, who still sells these, even Bader Al Badoor sells the 330ml Coke cans!

So super high price, small Pepsi can, and most importantly the worst shawerma I have ever experienced in my life earned this place half a star out of a possible five. It only got that half star because if I was stuck in the desert with no food except for their shawerma then I would consider eating it.

Here is a pdf file listing the amount of calories in various Krispy Kreme donuts. In short.. its a lot. [PDF]

Sweden is famous for their meatballs so when IKEA started making and selling shawermas I was eager to try it.

First time I had the shawerma in the new IKEA branch at The Avenues mall I didn’t like it. They mixed vegetables with my shawerma and I hate places that do that. The vegetables which is usually made up of onions and some green stuff (I don’t know what its called) over powers the chicken flavor. So next time I passed by IKEA I ordered the shawerma plain with just garlic.

How was it? Its edible.

The biggest problem I had with their shawerma is the bread. I think there is too much bread for the shawerma. The solution I would recommend is to either increase the quantity of chicken in the bread or decrease the size of the bread itself. The chicken tasted good and the garlics presence was felt but not over done. If only they weren’t so stingy.

Final score I settled for was 3 out of 5. The shawerma costs 250fils which is great specially since the place is extremely clean. They also have an offer combo, coke plus shawerma for 350fils. The location is crap, no one is going to drive up to IKEA just for their shawerma of course. Overall its not bad for their first try. I just hope they start filling up the bread with more chicken.

Just read about this on Kuwait Unplugged. Must be the funniest thing I read this year.. unless, they know something we don’t like maybe they are legalizing alcohol starting January 1st. More details on Kuwait Unplugged plus a scan of the press release. [Link]

When I asked about good chilidogs in Kuwait a lot of people recommended I try the chilidog at Johnny Rockets. Well I tried it and it sucked.

First of all the hot dog arrived with the bun wide open. Then the hot dog itself was also split open down the middle and the whole thing was covered with a ton of chili and some chopped onions. When I closed the bun so I could eat it the top half of the bun split away from the bottom half and the chili just started dripping uncontrollably everywhere. Its definitely not a sandwich you would want to order on your first date… or ANY date for that matter.

After a short struggle and going through a dozen napkins I finally managed to finish my chilidog. I wasn’t impressed. Their chili is decent but really the whole experience wasn’t very pleasant, their chili burger is much more enjoyable. Compared to Hardees, Burger Boutique and Fuddruckers, Johnny Rockets has the worst chilidog. My final score is a 2.5 out of 5. The price of the chilidog is KD1.850. I’ll stick to their burger next time.

Picture by Kristel Wyman

I passed by Badar Al Badoor 2 today and the branding of it doesn’t resemble the original branch. This could mean it might be a fake Badar Al Badoor.

This is how the original Badar Al Badoor looks like [Picture]

Someone told Badar Al Badoor opened up in Salmiya in the restaurants road. The new branch is called Badar Al Badoor 2 which is pretty cool.

Here are the driving directions:
If Platinum gym is on your right, drive towards the sea side. After Platinum there should be a speed bump and a left turn. Take a left and drive straight and you will get to Badar Al Badoor 2.

I don’t know how many cookies exactly I had today but I know I had toooooo many. Final results are in though and here are the cookie rankings:

First Place: Oreo Cookies
Second Place: White chocolate chunks cookie mixed with Nutella
Third Place: Plain cookies with a Nutella core

The results were based on my personal favorites and the reaction of fellow employees

Tonight me and Nat passed by the Choowy Goowy bakery to make our own cookies. Originally I had planned a whole variety of cookies to make but due to the fact I am extremely lazy I didn’t get all the ingredients I needed plus the lack of a deep fryer at Choowy Goowy meant I couldn’t fry any cookies anyway.

The result of two hours of baking were the following types of cookies:

– Chocolate chunks cookie
– Chocolate and white chocolate chunks cookie
– Rice Krispies with marshmallow cookies
– Oreo cookies
– Cookies with smacks and a Nutella core
– Plain cookie with a Nutella core
– Cookies mixed with Nutella and white chocolate chunks
– Cookies mixed with Nutella and Frosties cornflakes
– Plain cookies with chocolate fudge on top

I tried a couple of them and they are really really good. Its going to be hard to choose only one to produce. I got a whole bunch of jars filled with cookies I am going to take to work tomorrow and share them. Really delicious cookies.

I just found out what an Irish Car Bomb is. I was telling my friend about the Torpedo, which is when you drop a shot of vodka into a pint of beer. In return he told me about the Irish Car Bomb which is when you light on fire a shot filled half with Baileys and half Irish whiskey and then drop it into a pint of Guinness. You are supposed to drink it as fast as possible before the Baileys expands and reacts with the Guinness curdling it. How did I not know about this??!

Two nights ago while sitting with friends for dinner I was told to try out the Iranian kebabs at Malak Sajj in Souk al Moubarakiya… the old souk in Kuwait City. So yesterday for lunch I went with 2 friends to try it and it turned out to be fairly decent.

The place is located in like the food court of the renovated old souk. There is only open air seating but the weather was really good so it wasn’t a problem. Once we sat down a waiter came and asked us what we wanted. They don’t have a menu so the guy just verbally tells you what they have. Everyone ordered something, I ordered a plate of kebabs, a plate of hummus and a coke. While we were waiting for our main course they gave us complimentary soup of the day. A few minutes later our food arrived with a lot of Iranian bread on the side.

The kebab was pretty good and filling. The hummus wasn’t bad either except a fly fell into it and drowned in the oil so we had to maneuver our bread around it. I didn’t like the soup but it was free so it really didn’t matter. Now I was told this was the best kebab in Kuwait so I was expecting it to be the best, but it wasn’t. The kebabs were good but not better then Baba Taher or Kebab 7ejat.

A ma3oon of kebab which is made of 3 kebabs cost only KD1. hummus cost 500fils and the Pepsi 100fils. Service also was good, fast and friendly. A nice combination.

Now for the final rating. I was having trouble deciding what to give it but in the end I decided I would give it a 3.5 out of 5. The kebab was nothing to write home about but the service, speed, friendliness and the price helped keep the score up. Also I tried a piece of chicken taouk from a friend and it tasted pretty good. I would probably visit Malak Sajj again but not before I try the fish and chips from Sha6er 3abbas which is also located in the same place.

I was talking to one of the owners of Choowy Goowy when we ended up talking about different kinds of cookies and what cookies I would make if I had a bakery. One thing led to another and basically me and Nat are now invited to create our own cookies. Tomorrow evening we will be visiting the Choowy Goowy bakery and with their help we will be creating our own cookies. We will experiment with a variety of flavors and ideas and our best creation will be sold by Choowy Goowy for a limited time.

Now I have a lot of ideas for cookies but I thought I would share them with you guys first. Some sound strange but I want to do them out of curiosity and they might even end up tasting good:

– Cookie with a soft nutella chocolate core
– Pizza Cookies. Cookie dough mixed with tomato paste and stuffed with mushrooms and olives
– 4 Cheese cookies
– Chocolate chip cookie dipped in chocolate sauce
– Rice krispy cookies
– Plain cookie dipped in chocolate sauce topped with cornflakes
– Tempura cookies
– A healthy cookie probably stuffed with broccoli and something
– Bubblegum flavored cookies
– Zaatar cookies
– Cookies with cocopuffs
– Oreo cookies
– Choco-Banana cookies

After sharing my ideas with the Choowy Goowy guy I felt he was going to take his invite back. Luckily he didn’t or should I say hasn’t yet. I will continue brainstorming on some cookie ideas and might add more to the list.

Why don’t they make the chocolate dip compartment larger? The way it is now, the chocolate dip always finishes before the sticks. [Link]

Handmade marshmallows made with Jack Daniels whiskey. Handmade marshmallows made with Jack Daniels whiskey. Handmade marshmallows made with Jack Daniels whiskey. I really can’t believe this exists.. HANDMADE MARSHMALLOWS MADE WITH JACK DANIELS! [Link]