Category: Food & Drinks

Had it over the weekend, it was meh. The Nutella was fine, the banana was fine but the actually crepe was too moist. At KD1.250 it’s a good price but it soo wasn’t worth breaking my diet over. If you want to try it out its only available at Coffee Republic at 360 Mall.

Yo! Sushi has reopened in Kuwait again but this time at the 360 Mall. I passed by for lunch today and although I found the sushi below average I will be going back again.

The place was pretty packed when we got there but we managed to find a table in the back. Wherever you sit in the restaurant you have a conveyor belt in front of you. The idea is that you sit down and watch the different types of sushi pass in front of you on the conveyor belt, when you see something you like you just pick it up. There are 5 different colored plates, each representing a certain price. So for example a green plate is 700fils while a blue one is 900fils. When you’re done with your meal, you call the waiter over and he calculates how much you’ve eaten based on the colored plates in front of you.

I actually found an app for the iPhone that allows you to keep track of how much you’re spending but it was in British Pounds so I’m probably going to make one thats in Kuwaiti Dinar since its a simple thing to do.

Anyway the sushi isn’t really that great. I had a bunch of stuff and they were below average BUT this is like a fast food sushi place so you can’t expect Kei quality sushi specially when they’re really cheap. Me and Nat had around 6 different dishes plus a drink and our bill came out around KD8. As I said, although the sushi wasn’t that great, my experience was and they’ve still got a ton of stuff I haven’t tried so I’m bound to find something I like sooner or later.

Update: I contacted the creator of the Yo! Sushi iPhone app (SumSushi) and asked him if he could include Kuwaiti currency, turns out he was planning on adding more countries/currencies to the app but didn’t have access to the prices. Since I had emailed him the prices in Kuwait he is now going to add it in the next update which should be by the end of the month. He even sent me a screen shot of his app with KD. Should make the Yo! Sushi experience even better.

The only reason I am posting about this is because I no longer can eat Count Chocula because of my diet. I love Count Chocula and I wouldn’t want Sultan Center to stop getting it but since I can’t have it now no one will (insert evil laugh here). A reader called Zack sent me an email saying that he asked General Mills (the company behind Count Chocula) if it contained any pork products and they told him it did. Of course I had to check myself so I emailed General Mills and this is what they replied:

Hello Mark :

Thank you for contacting General Mills with your inquiry. In answer to your question, the gelatin that is used in the marshmallows of the cereal is derived from pork.

We hope you find this information helpful. Please let us know if we can help you again.

Thank you,

Paula
Customer Care Specialist

So there you have it. Count Chocula contains pork. I wonder if other cereals that contain marshmallows like Lucky Charms also contains pork gelatin?

In the future, there will be no more shawerma guys, there will be shawerma robots. [YouTube]

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

“Dude, I’m really skinny up top, but down below I’m a MESS!”

“I’ve been doing ab work for ages! I literally spend hours in the gym everyday crunching and leg raising my butt off! Why do I still have this belly!? Where’s my six pack!?”

“I might as well paste that muffin I just ate on my thighs, because eventually that’s where it’s going to end up.”

“I’m a 27 year old guy that has better breast development than Pamela Anderson!”

“I’ve been on Lipo-6 for 3 months! Nothing happened!” Me: what’s your diet like? “I pretty much eat whatever I want.”

These pretty much sum up what I am about to tackle today (and obviously the title). Before I do, I’d like to point the finger of blame:

1) Training is 20-30%; it only refines a physique.
Nutrition is the other 70-80%.
2) Abs are made in the kitchen.
3) Why are you crunching with no weights when you clearly don’t have any abdominal muscles?
4) The abdominals are a muscle. If you work a muscle everyday it’ll shrink and never grow.
5) If you eat like a pig and train like a horse, you’ll lose overall weight; except for those stubborn fat stores you want to get rid off.

Too many of you quit too early to see any significant results. You tend to give it all up once results start to slow down. It took you years to gain all that fat, so why do you expect to lose it in such a short time?

It’s hard to make your first million, but once you do, you’ll know exactly what kind of work ethic you’d have to give in order to get it. Same thing goes with a set of abs or shapely thighs; you’re pretty vague about how long or hard your journey will be, but once you give into the commitment then it’ll be all worth it.

I’m here to serve as a guide to that journey, where simple bouts of information may prove useful for that much needed push you’ve been looking for.

Local blogger and teacher Miss Farah posted something which I wanted to share with my readers. One of her kids in class had brought only chips and chocolate for lunch (pic above), so Miss Farah sent a letter to the parents explaining to them how unhealthy that was for their daughter. Next day she checked the kids lunchbox and this time the little girl had cucumbers, carrots, croissant, corn and juice (pic below).

I thought it was great of Miss Farah for caring enough to contact the parents and I thought it was also great from the parents to actually listen to her. Hopefully the lunchbox continues to stay healthy and other parents reading this can do the same with their kids. You can check Miss Farah’s blog [Here]

UNO restaurant at the Avenues has a pretty cool offer where if you buy one of their burgers you get another one free. Sadly I wasn’t impressed with my burgers (stay tuned for a review) but it’s still a pretty good deal.

I just found out from a friend that Blimpie is opening up in Kuwait. Blimpie is a American submarine sandwich chain just like Subway and Quiznos. Since Quiznos has closed down their only store in Kuwait, Blimpie will now be our alternative to Subway. First Blimpie branch will open in June, location still undisclosed.

I got an email from a reader saying that he heard that In-N-Out were opening in Kuwait. Of course I was skeptical and contacted In-N-Out right away and asked them about this. Here is their response:

Dear Mr. Mark:

Thank you for your e-mail. It’s always nice to hear from our customers, and we appreciate your interest.

As plans for new locations are always subject to change, we are unable to confirm any site in as a future In-N-Out Burger® until it is under construction. However, we can affirm that we plan on expanding as far as we can, and particularly into areas in which our customers have expressed interest. As such, we are happy to let our Real Estate Department know that you are anxious to have an In-N-Out Burger® location in your area!

For the latest information regarding new store openings, please call our toll-free Customer Service line at (800) 786-1000. Our representatives are available 7 days a week, from 8am – 1am (PST).

Thank you again for contacting us.

Notice the part I highlighted in bold? In-N-Out are only located in the Western United States, I think they’re actually only located in California. Previously when contacted their response would be along the lines that they would not open outside the US but now their response is they’re willing to open wherever their customers need them. In-N-Out are notorious for not wanting to expand or franchise so this new tone of voice I think is evidence that it might be possible they are considering expanding outside the US in the same way Shake Shack did. Hopefully we get someone more evidence soon.

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

It’s almost summer time and all the gyms around Kuwait are packed! People have locations to travel too, beaches to swim in and jet skis to ride, but you got to look good doing it. What’s the sure-fire, shortcut approach and rapidly fast solution to all this? A truckload of performance enhancers, dietary supplements and A LOT of chest and bicep exercises! That was the norm back in my university days, but people now demand abs too; but no legs, definitely no legs. They are evil and such a pain in the butt when exercised.

The summertime crowd is a lot more demanding and highly impatient in comparison to other seasonal clients. They expect so much in such little time. Moreover, they tend to quit early if extreme results are not presentable within 72 hours, literally. This is how a typical meeting with an average “I need to look like 50 Cent within a month” client:

Client: “All I’m looking for is definition. I need to tone my arms a bit, expand my chest and work on my abs. As you can see, I’ve got the jello jiggles all around dis area yo.”

Me: “How long do I have in order for to make these changes?”

Client: “Brah! I’ve got a month and I’ll be hittin’ da beaches of Ibiza. If things don’t work out with da visa (that rhymed, dude must be a rapper), I’d might extend it for another month and go to Sharm.”

Me: “What you’re asking for is a shortcut, which is highly unlikely since you’ve got no muscle for me to tone and a spare tire around your waist.”

Client: “NO YO! I’ve heard Core Fitness does wonders. I need to lose all of this and gain poundage’s all ova my upperbody. Wam, bam, do me SON!”

Me: “Uhh, no, we don’t offer doing anyone, we just provide you a diet plan, a workout plan and absolutely no happy endings.”

Client: “And yo, no legs. I’ve got more jiggle than Santa Claus lying around this lower area as you can see, so no leg workouts whatsoever. I don’t want to be looking like an Egyptian belly-dancer yo.”

Me: “I hope you realize you’re whiter than I am. Anyways, cutting out legs isn’t a good idea; it’s literally half your body. If you want those changes, you have to give us a minimum of 2 months. It’s a lifestyle.”

Client: “Dude, I’ll pop pills! I’ll drink dem powders! What’s dat white stuff called? Crac….I mean creatine? Yeah, I’ll give that a try!”

Me: “No. What’s your current diet like?”

Client: “I’m not a breakfis’ person, so screw dat. At around 11 am at work, I pass by a Starbucks and order a triple-shot-venti-half-caf-half-decaf-French-roast-2 caramel pumps-extra-whip-non-fat-mocha-with-extra-foam……Oh, and a low fat muffi’. At home, I eat pretty much what I want and for dinner, strictly fast food.”

Me: “I swear to God, if you don’t stop talking like that I’m going to punch you on the face.”

Client: “Ok man, jeez…so I’ll give you two months. Does that work for you?”

Me: “Two months, our workout routine and a strict diet plan should do.”

Client: “Ho-nee FUT! DUDE, DATS INCWEDIBUL! You ma boi!!!”

Me: “Get the f%$k out.”

Health and fitness is a lifestyle. If you want to look good and feel good from this day onwards, you need to understand that it requires a lot of effort at first, and once you get used to it, it’ll be like breathing air and drinking water.

Reality

For every goal you set, commitment must be taken into consideration; the greater you want the end result to be, the harder you have to push yourself to achieve it. For example, in order for me to maintain the current weight and body fat percentage I am on, I’d have to consume a specific amount of calories, weight-lifting poundage’s, and rest and recovery. Since summertime is approaching, my meal plan has to be a lot cleaner, sometimes tasteless and slightly low in calories, with the addition of cardiovascular activity. If I expect a leaner set of abs, I need to put in the effort in order to achieve this.

A lot of you have slowly introduced this lifestyle and are witnessing good results. If you’ve currently stopped producing any significant results (i.e. fat-loss or muscle-gain), your eating and training habits have to be a lot stricter, which may include cleaning out or adding in calories; this is only assuming you’d want more results.

I was at Sultan Center here in Beirut when I spotted these huge ass mangoes. They are the largest mangoes I’ve ever seen and I held my Blackberry next to them just so you can get an idea of the size. They’re from Cote d’ivoire by the way.

I passed by Salad Creations today and it turns out they started serving panini’s. I had the turkey, cheddar and bacon with ranch sauce which was amazing. I’m definitely going to start passing by more often now, I prefer hot toasted sandwiches over cold wraps. Check out their panini menu [Here]

A week ago I posted about a burger that looked really delicious and was located in the US. Well a reader who lives in LA decided to pass by and give the burger a try. Turns out the burger is called the Pretzel Burger and costs $12.5 (comes with fries). According to the reader the burger was delicious and the caramelized onions were great but that the burger looked better than it tasted.

Thanks twit1977!

This is a complete shocker. Turns out there is a Mexican catering place in Kuwait thats run by two Mexican women! All this time we’ve been complaining about the lack of good Mexican food in Kuwait and it turns out we had a place that specialized in home cooked traditional Mexican food. They’re called Sahuaro and they have a pretty decent website with their menu, prices and pictures of their dishes. I haven’t tried them but hopefully after Marzouq reads this post he will have them cater for us this coming Thursday (pretty please Marzouq). Here is a link to their website [Link]

Thanks K!

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

Eating out isn’t necessarily a problem, but can be a fuss to those around me. I start by scanning the restaurant’s menu for a lean source of protein, followed by a good source of carbs and a great source of fat. Usually, I pick a great option, a good option and a decent option; the waiter that’s about to approach me is bound to shut me down with words like fried, breaded and sauteed, so might as well make due with other sources since I’m already at my 3 hour mark and my muscles are aching for some food.

Me: “I’ll have the Cajun Chicken Platter with no Monterey jack cheese, crisps, refried black beans and mashed potatoes.”

Waiter: “You mean you want the Cajun Chicken Platter with absolutely nothing on it?”

Me: “Yes, but I’m not done yet. Do you serve sweet potato?”

Waiter: “No sir, we only serve mashed potatoes.”

Me: “Do you mash it in with butter?”

Waiter: “I’m not sure sir.”

Me: “Would you ask someone that knows please.”

Accompanying Friend: “Dude, are you serious? No he’s not doing that.”

Me: “Ok, may I have a baked potato please.”

Waiter: “I’m sorry sir, we serve only mashed potatoes.”

Me: “Are they mashed before or after they arrived in the kitchen?”

Waiter: “After sir.”

Me: “Ok, so take one unmashed medium sized potato and bake or boil it.”

Waiter: “I’m sorry sir, we cannot do that.”

Annoying Fat Friend: “FHAID! Cut that crap out! I want to order!”

Me: “Ok Ok. I’ll have the Cajun Chicken Platter with nothing on it, and only broccoli on the side. Is the broccoli sauteed or steamed?”

Friend: “F*ck you.”

I am literally a waiter’s worst nightmare and I don’t care. I even question a restaurant’s supposedly healthier options, and after a thorough investigation (i.e. annoying the hell out of the restaurant’s staff) it doesn’t seem healthy at all. I persuade any health conscious individual to do the same.

The Awesome Subject at Hand

I was contacted by a 248am subscriber in order to help him out with a diet plan. His routine was simple and average, and could easily relate to anyone who decides to pursue the healthy lifestyle, so I used him as an example in order to explain the ins and outs of nutrition calculation and timing. Hopefully, I’ll be able to simplify things as much as possible.