Category: Food

Since we’re on the subject of breakfast today, I just found out about a new breakfast delivery place called Eggcellent that opened up last month. I haven’t tried them out but based on the photos their sandwiches look pretty appetizing. They deliver from Sunday to Thursday, 6:30AM to 2PM and Saturdays from 7:30AM to 3PM. Their instagram is @eggcellentkw

via @theculinaryquest

One of my favorite breakfast and brunch spots just updated their menu this past weekend. Cocoa Room has been my go-to place for years but their menu really hasn’t changed much since they introduced their breakfast menu. Now they’ve added a bunch of new dishes to the menu which I’m going to have to start going through one by one and trying out. They’ve started posting some of their new creations on their instagram account which you can check out [Here]

A few days ago I posted about how a new law came out stating that restaurants could no longer place a minimum order amount on deliveries and how the maximum they could charge for delivery is also just 500fils. As a consumer I think thats fantastic news but as a business order and specifically a small business order this could signal doom. I had long heated discussion with a friend of mine on Facebook and later offline on this very subject. My friend is one of the co-founders of Al Nata, a brand I’ve posted about on the blog a number of times. They’re a small business, a startup basically and this new law will be causing them a lot of issues. I was originally going to write about their perspective but then decided to let them do it themselves so I invited my good friend AJ to post about it himself. This is what he sent me:

I’m not sure if you’ve recently seen news of a law that was passed on the 10th of April and enacted on the 17th of April.

The Law, in its first article, states the following:

“Delivery charges –
Within the town of the restaurant 0.250 KD
Outside of the town of the restaurant 0.500 KD

Minimum order amounts will not be allowed on meals or single items. Delivery must be done according to the rules above.”

It has a few other articles that are reasonable, but it’s this first one which I believe to be unreasonable.

First a little background on myself. I’m a budding entrepreneur with almost no key money. I don’t have a family office I can withdraw funds from at leisure and as such predicated my entire business model on hard work and financial projections that I update on a daily basis and continue to tweak to ensure I can manage my cash appropriately until I break even.

I have been operating for almost a year now, and recently I’ve been able to just about touch the horizon of break even-Dom. Ah yes, the fabled land of not having to worry about whether or not you’ll have enough cash to pay your rent and employees.

A big part of seeing this horizon has been based on my restaurant’s ability to attract orders on a daily basis to supplement direct cash injections into the company that I regularly make from my own day job salary. I was able to accurately model the income and growth of these cash deliveries by building my model according to a fixed minimum order amount when I make a delivery.

Here’s the best part. As any startup will attest, it’s physically impossible to make all deliveries ourselves on a daily basis with just one driver and a car. As such we have two solutions:

1- Pray to our lucky stars that we somehow find enough cash lying around to pay for more drivers and cars. (Oh, and that’s if we can get more drivers on our Shu2oon documents, but let’s leave that for another day).

2- Contract a third party to do our deliveries for us at an exorbitant but necessary price.

Naturally, being the pragmatic fellow I am, I went for the latter, though on occasion my partner does leave a few offerings for the cash Gods to somehow rain upon us. He’s a believer though.

Anyway, we began looking for perishable delivery services with as quick turnaround as possible ( ps quickest turnaround available is an hour from placing the call, which is why restaurants delivery times on Talabat are normally one hour or more – yes, a lot of us use third parties). Once we got a shortlist, we started using them to find someone that can stick to a schedule.

No trials come free of course, so this is out of pocket money to make sure we can deliver on time before we even start delivering.

Here’s the kicker though:

Price per trip within the first 6 ring roads?
2.500 KD – 3.000 KD

So before we even start preparing your order, I’ve already paid 2.500 to 3.000 KD of your order amount to this third party.

Let’s assume I’m a brilliant negotiator and got the 2.500 KD per trip rate (ps – I am…)

So here I am looking at your order for let’s say 3.500 KD of food.

In order for me to make money on this order, I’m going to have to make sure your ingredients and the labor cost to make it cost are equal to or less than 1 KD.

Let’s assume I’m Superman and somehow make the above work (hint: it’s pretty impossible if you’re using quality ingredients and quality staff).

So now I’ve got 2.500 KD delivery cost and 1.000 KD ingredients AND labor/staff overhead costs rolled into one.

That’s a total of 3.500 KD in this best case scenario in costs.

If I have to follow this new law without placing a minimum order value on deliveries, I have broken even on this delivery. I have not made not lost any money.

And maybe for some that’s all well and good (honestly it isn’t good…for anyone), in which case they’re simply fulfilling orders for people without any gain.

And actually they’ve lost something even more valuable, the time they had to spend fulfilling an order that made them no money. So this break even model assumes there’s no inherent cost for time…

And that, my friends, is bogus.

If time had no value, your sitting at a desk doing nothing on some days should by default also equate to no pay. And yet you do get paid, because your employer understands your time has an implicit value that you have contracted to and seek to honor.

In the above scenario, my business breaks even on your order and loses the implicit value of time spent painstakingly preparing your order. But we get no recompense because we are a seller in a supposedly free market that you buy from.

But this market isn’t free at all, because all its done is protect the consumer’s right to eat whatever they want whenever they want (which mind you, isn’t really a right at all).

So here I am, looking at this law and thinking about how I can work as a business moving forward.

I can’t predict cash flows any longer from my orders. My bills are piling up, and I can’t get cash from banks or funds. I’m pretty much staring down the barrel of a gun, and my government has decided to pull the trigger.

Good bye, and good luck,

Signed,
Ahmad Jafar (Al Nata Co-Founder)

Ahmad has already submitted a letter of grievance but he’s certain they won’t hear it without other parties being a party to the grievance claim. So Ahmad’s asking anyone that owns or runs a restaurant that feels this law will negatively impact them to contact him directly to create a union or class action filing of sorts. To get in touch with him you could contact him on [email protected]

A new policy was introduced this month by the Ministry of Commerce stipulating that restaurants can no longer have a minimum order amount for delivery. They’ve also added that delivery charges can also not exceed 250fils if the delivery location is within the restaurants area and 500fils if outside it.

I know from a friend of mine who has a business that they’re not too happy about the change but from a consumer point of view this seems like good news. Talabat has already started contacting all the restaurants letting them know of this change but a lot still have a “Minimum Order Amount” in place. According to Talabat “it will take a considerable amount of time for the remaining restaurants to adhere to this new regulation.”

I rarely order delivery so not sure how bad the charges are or the minimum order amounts but I’m assuming they must have been ridiculous for them to create this new policy. I tried to find an English (or Arabic) source for this news but I couldn’t so if you find one let me know so I can link to it.

They’re supposedly opening sometime in May or June across the street from Al Shaheed Park in Al Tijaria Tower. They brought down their hoarding today so May or June seems plausible.

Update: The hoarding is still up, the shot was taken from inside it

I didn’t try Backyard yet, I just passed by it yesterday because I was meeting with a friend but I left in complete shock at how unexpectedly beautiful the location was. Backyard is located in the Argan Business Park, a place I didn’t even know existed until a few days back. It’s a very striking and impressive glass structure located at the far end corner of the Free Trade Zone. There are no markings or any signs outside the building, and because of its heavy use of dark glass, the building could easily pass as a headquarters for a secret spy agency or the offices of Darth Vader Enterprises if such a thing existed.

Once you walk inside this complex though you’re suddenly in an open air courtyard with beautiful pools and greenery. Just gorgeous landscaping which caught me by surprise. And right there over looking the pools and greenery is a new restaurant that just recently opened called Backyard.

The chef is Bernat Rodriguez Candel which some of you might know of if you have any friends at C Club since he’s also responsible for the restaurant over there. Chef Barnat is also now responsible for Backyard and flipping through the menu I caught a few things that I’d want to go back and try. I wish I knew about this place last week when the weather was still cool during the day but it shouldn’t be that bad right now if you go in the afternoon. They also have indoor seating but really it’s their outdoor seating that I found very serene. Right now they’re open from Saturday to Thursday, 8AM to 6PM, here is their location on [Google Maps] and here is a link to their instagram account @backyardkw

Healthy Feast and the popular coffee shop Arabica are both opening their second branches in Shuwaikh. Their new location is going to be down the street from Tilal Complex and Lilly Center, just before my favorite flowers shop, Orchidaceae. The two will also be joined by a second branch of the burger place EightySix.

The area there is booming but parking is already difficult to find as is and traffic there can be unbearable so things are just going to get worse.

OVO, not to be confused with Drake’s record label, is a new vegan and vegetarian restaurant that opened up in Bneid Al-Gar around two weeks back. They’re located inside the Massaleh Complex and they have a pretty great outdoor seating thats secluded from the rest of the surrounding area.

More than 80% of their menu items are vegan or vegetarian but they also have some flexitarian options (food with meat) for those tagging along with vegans or vegetarians. I took a couple of photos of their current temporary menu so you can get an idea of what kind of food they serve. You can check it out [Here] and [Here]

Even though they’re currently in a soft launch phase and they’re still adding and fixing stuff on their menu, I’d definitely recommend passing by since the weather is amazing and you don’t want to miss out on their outdoor area before it gets too warm.

Finding their location might be a bit tricky though since they’re hidden off the main road. OVO is located inside the Massaleh Complex, so you’re going to have to park your car, and then take some side stairs to the back of the complex to find it, but if you follow this [Google Maps] link you shouldn’t have any difficulties. In case you get lost you can call them on 22575324/22575374 or visit their isntagram page @ovokwt

That area of Bneid Al-Gar is shaping up to be a healthy area with Alive Yoga and Healthy Feast both located nearby.

Now that Pret recently opened up their first location in the Middle East inside the Dubai International Airport, does that mean we’ll also get it? According to a friend who was in Dubai recently and spoke to a Pret employee, it seems that might be the case. The employee didn’t reveal much other than to say they will be eventually expanding around the region which logically should include Kuwait.

Pret is a popular sandwich chain based out of the UK and is super convenient for grabbing a bite on the go which is why I’m not so sure it would succeed here in Kuwait. Not unless they do what “Walls” are doing which is setting up small stations in office towers.

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Elevation Burger is opening up a new location on the Seef Strip in place of where Pintxos used to be. I’m curious to see if Elevation will be able to break the curse of that location since everything that has opened in that spot never ended up doing well.

Many of us turn to salads when thinking of a low calorie meal option, yet we neglect to realize that some additions to our salad could actually sabotage the caloric amount in that salad. I thought it would be interesting to look at ways we are adding extra calories (perhaps unnecessarily) to our salads.

Going nuts with healthy fats
I’m guilty for this one. Just because olive oil is a healthy fat that does not mean we can add an abundant amount to our salads and still stay low in calories. Always keep in mind that 1 tablespoon of olive oil does has about 120 calories, adding more tablespoons could easily sway your salad to a 500 + calorie salad. Choose a nut or an avocado (not both) and limit the oil in your salad to control your calories and still get some healthy fats.

Romaine is your green of choice
With salads it’s important to discover other greens that could be added besides romaine. Many of us rely on romaine lettuce due to its availability virtually everywhere, which is a great source of vitamin A; but mixing up your greens will make sure you get plenty of fiber, feel fuller and get a variety of nutrients. Think of using rocca, baby spinach or even kale every once in a while.

No chicken please
Many of us avoid sources of protein in our salads, and we tend to get hungry again within an hour which could lead us to overeating. It’s always a good idea to add protein to any of your salads, and keep in mind that protein doesn’t just mean chicken or steak; you could also add eggs, low-fat cheese or even salmon or tuna as sources of protein.

Croutons and toppings
You’d be surprised how many added calories croutons and other toppings could add to your salad. Most croutons or breads have been deep fried to give you that crunch in your salad – and to me, crunch always means one thing -HIGH CALORIES! Beware of these added toppings even if you are having your salad as a main course. The same goes with toppings like dried fruits and nuts, yes they may be healthy but if we’re not careful with the amounts in our salad the calorie amount could go overboard. Instead, measure out your toppings and make sure you have more veggies and greens to feel full.

Extra dressing please
Now we all don’t want to have a dry salad, but dressings could increase the caloric amount of your salad to be the same of a huge burger. Really watch what dressing you choose to add to your salad. Creamy dressings are a big no-no and filled with calories, the same goes with balsamic vinegar. Unless you are buying expensive aged balsamic vinegar, most of the ones found in restaurants or even the grocery store are actually loaded with added sugars. My tip, ask for your dressing on the side, this way you can measure how much is added to your salad. Also, always aim for vinegar like apple cider vinegar or even lemon to enhance the flavor of your salad minus the added calories.

I hope you enjoy these tips, just remember that with any food – healthy or not – portion size is key.

Post by Hyatt Al Sayegh, a Clinical Dietitian and Dr. Sears Health Coach.
Founder of Fork Fed.

My good friends at Al Nata have started selling their baked goods on Talabat. They’re the guys behind the addictive Portuguese tart pastries (pictured above) which I posted about on the blog. Previously you could only catch them at various food markets on weekends with also a limited product placement at Sultan Center. But now their full product line is available on Talabat and that includes the Al Nata tart pastries, the Claudinos and their fluffy croissants. Check them out [Here]

Gia have finally opened up their new location in Kuwait City after countless construction related delays. Their new location has a slightly revised menu to better cater to the employees in the area including different ready made sandwiches and munchies to go like muffins and manaeesh.

The new location has indoor seating as well as outdoor seating and they’re open daily except for Friday’s from 8AM to 4PM. Here is their new location on [Google Maps]

Coffee places are becoming the new thing in Kuwait which I don’t mind since we really need to move on from our burger joints craze. As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I’m not a coffee drinker but, I do like coffee shops and what I found interesting about Richard’s Coffee is that it’s a pop-up.

Starting from tomorrow (Thursday, March 17th), Richard’s Coffee will be located at Bao Cafe for 90 days only. After 90 days? They’ll shutdown and move on to a new location. Bao Cafe is what they’re calling the space next door to Bao the Restaurant, it’s a small empty spot that in 90 days time will be occupied by a new Indian restaurant. But until those 90 days are up, they’ve given the spot to Jarrah, the guy behind the concept Richard’s Coffee. Jarrah is an avid coffee nut who roasts his beans the old fashioned way and is really passionate about his brand. So if you’re a coffee person then you might want to pass by and check his coffees out.

Starting tomorrow and for the next 90 days they’ll be open from 7AM till 10PM except on Fridays when they open from 4PM to 10PM. They’re located right next door to Bao in Sharq, if you don’t know where that is, here is the link on [Google Maps]. They’re also located on instagram @richardscoffeebar.

Is pickle juice the new health hype? Many new health claims state that pickle juice can enhance athletic performance, and improve blood sugar control for those with diabetes; which makes me wonder whether drinking pickle juice can actually be worth it?

Before we take a look at the nutritional aspects of pickle juice, we need to keep in mind that this drink is definitely going to be a salty one! So those with high blood pressure issues should definitely stay away from this drink. In regards to carb, protein or fat amounts, pickle juice doesn’t really have much to make it stand out in a special group. What pickle juice does have is lots of sodium as well as a decent amount of probiotics.

In the old days, pickle juice was the result of combining cucumbers, salt and water. The cucumbers are fermented by the bacteria Lactobacillus resulting in some probiotic content in the pickle juice. Nowadays, pickle juice is the result of combining cucumbers in vinegar, therefore no probiotics are really available, so stick to your yogurt if you want the probiotics. Regardless of the probiotic content, pickle juice is claimed to have other health benefits that may or may not have any truth to them.

1 – Pickle juice can help relieve muscle cramps.
Muscle cramps could be the most annoying thing, especially when they happen when you’re asleep or during a workout. There could be a cure, but only after the cramp takes place. Recent research has shown that taking 1 ml per kg of your current body weight of pickle juice during a muscle cramp could help you recover faster than drinking plain water or ignoring it and not having anything at all. The verdict: TRUE! Keep your pickle juice jars on your nightstands or take them with you to the gym if you frequently get muscle cramps. It could be worth it for you if it takes you a while to recover from that cramp.

2 – Pickle juice can help with stomach cramps.
Stomach cramps usually happen due to low amounts of acid in the stomach. Adding in the acidic pickle juice could potentially help since we are re-adding acid to our stomachs. Unfortunately no scientific evidence has proved that re-adding acid could help with stomach cramps. The verdict: FALSE! Maybe sticking to antacids or just avoiding some foods could be best with stomach cramps.

3 – Pickle juice can help enhance athletic performance.
The theory is behind the high salt content in pickle juice. Since salt retains fluid, the idea is that having pickle juice prior to exercising could keep you more hydrated and enhance your athletic performance for exercises requiring stamina. Unfortunately most studies have not shown any effect making this claim worthwhile. The verdict: FALSE! Stick to regular water, good training and sleep to enhance your performance.

4 – Pickle juice can control blood sugar.
Vinegar and blood sugar have been researched for a while. The link is between vinegar and insulin to be precise, where vinegar has been shown to improve sensitivity to insulin in the body – therefore reducing blood sugar levels. Vinegar has also been found to slow down the absorption of food in the stomach, when taken with a meal; that could also help potentially lower blood sugar levels. The verdict: True! I would consider adding vinegar but not necessarily consuming a cup of pickle juice with my lunch or dinner. Perhaps some apple cider vinegar in my salad dressing would be a more palatable choice.

So, would you be consuming pickle juice? I certainly will continue to enjoy eating my pickles and until more research has been conducted, I will be holding off on the pickle juice.

Post by Hyatt Al Sayegh, a Clinical Dietitian and Dr. Sears Health Coach.
Founder of Fork Fed.

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