Category: Kuwait

I didn’t know if this review should focus on their Shawerma or everything as a whole. So after a lot of consideration I decided I would focus more on the shawerma and just mention the other items. Sajj House has been around for a couple of years now. I first found out about it when I was in highschool I think, or first year of university. I started eating there though 3 years ago. In this time I was able to try many of their items, their shawerma, their Taouk sandwich, kofta, and a variety of sajj sandwiches. Everything I have ever had at Sajj House tasted incredibly good. Everything, from their Taouk to their Chocolate with Banana Sajj sandwich. Their prices are extremely reasonable and their service is very friendly.

Now that I have done introducing the place we can finally focus on their shawerma. I am not very picky with shawermas. I would and do eat shawermas from any place. It could be a small shawerma place in a backstreet of Hawalli, or it could be a shawerma place in Salmiya high street, if I feel like having shawerma I will head to the closest source. I have only had 2 bad experiences with shawermas through out my life, so in general I find most shawermas satisfying. But, I have never ever given a shawerma place a score of 5. So this brings us to a very important question. What shawerma would deserve a 5? Its very difficult since a 5 would mean this is the ultimate souper douper shawerma. You might have figured out where I am going with this review, if not I will tell you. On my way to Sajj House yesterday I was thinking about how I rate their shawerma. Is it a 4.5? or is it a 5? Could there ever be a place that would score a 5? Does a 5 mean a perfect shawerma? Then I realized something, Nataly had never had a shawerma at Sajj House, plus she is very picky when it comes to garlic. So I decided at the moment, if Nataly liked the shawerma that would mean it gets a 5. If she didn’t it would get a 4.5.

We went to Sajj house, we both ordered shawermas and then we drove off to our secluded spot (dead end next to the french school). We sat down, opened up the windows and started eating. She loved it. She didn’t mind the strong garlic which tastes really good, she loved the sajj bread they use to wrap the shawerma in and she loved the fact that the chicken wasn’t greasy at all. Thats when I knew, we hit the jackpot with Sajj House. They truly have the ultimate shawerma and its only for 350fils. What gives their shawerma a 5? Well as I mentioned above, they wrap the shawerma in sajj bread, which makes it very light, the garlic they use is perfectly blended and the chicken is not greasy at all. The chicken is actually grilled on coal flame not gas. To add to all this, Sajj House provides other items you can take with the shawerma. Say you want to have 1 shawerma and 1 zaatar sajj, when you order you know both of your items will taste incredible. This strong support from the other items on the menu helps push the score up. Their service is also very nice. Everyone from the Lebanese cashier to the Lebanese shawerma guy, they are very nice and clean. You also have 3 options of getting your shawerma, you can order delivery by phone, you can park your car outside and they will come to you, or you can go down and order it yourself. Their location also helps, they are located in Salmiya adjacent to the Restaurant Street but away from all the traffic (if you are heading towards platinum gym and restaurant street, if the cinema is to your right then you will come up to a small roundabout, if you go straight its platinum gym, if you take a left and continue going straight past the stadium on your left, you will find sajj house on your right). In conclusion, if I gave their shawerma a 5 you should know its really has to be something out of this world to get a 5, and the fact that Nat, an amateur picky shawerma eater loved it, then it just adds more credibility to my score.

update: Since I posted this review over a year ago I have to say the shawermas at Sajj House have become terrible. They have changed the recipe or something but I have now stopped eating there and my new favorite place is Badar Al Badoor. If I was to review Sajj House today I would give them a 2.5 or 3.

In reply to the previous post titled “Crackdown in Wonderland“, a regular reader Fadibou commented saying the following:

Hi Mark and all of you. I work in a software company here in Kuwait and its frustrating to see people supporting Piracy. Piracy is a nice word for stealing. Copying software and selling it without permission and without giving money back to its creator is pure theft. As for the crack down, it will increase and hopefully soon there will be no place to buy pirated(stolen) games and software. As for your remarks that a lot of games are not worth buying, well try getting evaluation copies or demos. They should cover your investment before you buy. As for Rihab, Can you please tell me which shop did help you get Doom 3?

Doom 3? I don’t know what you are talking about.. (starts whistling casually)..

Today I had a tough choice for the Miskan project. I had 2 good pictures but in the end I had to choose one. This one is the picture that lost the battle. I shot it today morning while dropping Nat at work. Its a trace from a fighter jet, we get them in Lebanon two at a time and usually accompanied with the breaking of the sound barrier.

Yesterday I went down to Rihab Complex in Hawalli to my favorite videogames store. When I first walked in I noticed something different but I couldn’t figure out what. So I shook hands with the owner, and I told him I wanted Doom 3. He took out a piece of paper, wrote down Doom 3 on it and gave it to an Indian employee at the store. The Indian guy took the paper and left the shop to get me the game. I was like huh!? Usually I ask for a game and he gets it for me from a box behind the counter. Then it hit me, I looked around the shop and noticed there wasn’t a single pirated game anywhere. Thats what looked different, the shop looked emptier. So I asked the guy what happened, turns out the municipality has been giving them a hard time and are cracking down on them every week. So now they are being extra careful and all the games and stuff are hidden in another shop.

I took my game and left to another shop elsewhere in Hawalli where me and Nat wanted to get some DVDs. So we walk into the shop we usually buy DVDs from and there are no catalogues to be found. The only thing you could find in the shop was computer power cords hanging on one wall. At first glance you would think this store only sold power cords, but I asked the guy what no more DVDs? He is like yes sir one minute. He went outside the shop and came back in with a small box full of catalogues. Turns out the municipality has only been giving them a hard time.

I hope piracy doesn’t end in Kuwait. Some games are worth buying original but other games, games you would only play once or twice are not worth KD18.

I got Doom3 yesterday on the Xbox and it was the first time I had seen it live. All I had seen before were static images on the web and after yesterday, I don’t think I will be playing Doom3 again. Its just so fucking scary. I would be like walking in the dark with my tiny flashlight when suddenly the ugliest creature you could imagine jumps out of no where and starts biting me. Then I panic and start hitting it with my flashlight instead of my shotgun. Spent the whole first level running as fast as I can hoping incase a creature does pop out that my guy is physically fitter and will be able to outrun it.

I got a phone call from Osoul yesterday night. No it wasn’t because I wrote about their logo but it was because of another issue. Last year my best friend purchased some electronics and bought them using Osoul financing. A few months later my best friend leaves to Lebanon and passes away there. So naturally he can’t pay back the installments anymore because he is dead. Osoul don’t get that. I get a phone call from them at-least once a month asking me about my best friend and reminding me that he hasn’t paid the installments. It could be someone from Osoul, a lawyer, a collection office, all different people calling me and telling me the same crap over and over and every-time I have to tell them all that my best friend is dead.

So yesterdays call was the worst. A guy calls me up and asks me if I am mark, I am like yes, he was like your friend owes us some money and he has your name and number down as a reference (note: i wasn’t my friends guarantor). I was like yeah I know, you guys keep calling me and I keep telling you my friend is dead, he past away last August. The guy was like then send me his death certificate. I was like what the fuck?? No fucking way, I don’t have to send you anything, and stop fucking calling my number. He is like well he owes us money so you need to find a way to pay us back. I was like no I don’t, I don’t have to do anything for you, I am not a guarantor or anything. He was like yes but we have your number. I was like listen you fuck, I am not going to send you anything or do anything for you, don’t fucking call me again and I hung up the phone.

Unfucking believable how some people are. Till when will this go on? Will they ever stop calling me?

I just found the coolest website, something I didn’t know existed in Kuwait. The site is actually a car talk forum but based in Kuwait. The members there discuss their latest car upgrades, or a recent car they spotted or which car they raced on what street. Its amazing stuff. Here are some examples of the topics they are discussing:

A8 Quattro Killed moi….. was worth it..
DB9 spotted (with pics)
Driftmaster accident (wallah maa testahel)
HaSsOnY Car Accident!! Gulf Road
SLR in Q8 (with pics)

There are tons more interesting topics and sections for all street racers or car modifiers in Kuwait. Very very interesting stuff and all this is in Kuwait! The website is Q8speed.com. The picture above of the Lamborgini’s is from a Q8 Speed gathering at AUK.

Someone at the office just got me the KDD space shuttle icecream called Columbia (yeah after the space shuttle Columbia that blew up). I hadn’t had it since I was a kid and so it was nice to have it again. I was trying to figure out what it tasted like though and I couldn’t figure it out. So I checked the ingredients and there was something called Boysenberry. That sounded a bit fishy, Boysenberry, Poisonberry… notice the similarities? So I did a quick search and it turns out Boysenberry is an actual fruit, who would have thought!

A boysenberry is a cross among a blackberry, red raspberry and loganberry. It was created by Rudolph Boysen, and first commercially cultivated by Walter Knott.

So now I know what Boysenberry is, I still don’t know how KDD could call an icecream after a Space Shuttle disaster.. [Link]

I just witnessed the strangest thing. There is a new pigeon on the ledge outside my window and he seems like a tough guy. The first thing that grabbed my attention was his hairy feet, like really hairy. Didn’t know pigeons good have hair on their feet yet alone this much. So I was was starring at the pigeons feet thinking what name to give him, when suddenly he started chasing this pigeon. They were both running outside and the hairy feet pigeon was trying to peck the other pigeon with his beak. Finally the second pigeon flew away. Hairy pigeon then proceeded to chase another pigeon! This fucker like chased 6 other pigeons off the ledge until he was the only one standing there. THEN, if that wasn’t enough, their were 2 pigeons sleeping below the ledge, the guy jumped them both! In the end he was the only pigeon left. So I decided to give him the name Zaeem which means chief in arabic. Then when everything went quiet, a super pigeon appeared. This other pigeon which I decided to give the name Rambo started chasing Zaeem. He wasn’t able to make Zaeem fly off but he was able to chase him till he ended up at the far end of the ledge. Now every-time Zaeem comes close to the other pigeons near my window, Rambo chases him back to the far end of the ledge. It’s really fun watching all this. Makes you wonder whats going on in their minds. I also decided to call the toeless pigeon Tobby.

Here is a picture of Zaeem with his hairy feet

At the office I am on a 512kb Fasttelco connection. At home I am on a 512kb Qualitynet connection. I ran a bandwidth test at both locations and the following were the results:

Qualitynet
Communications: 475.4 kilobits per second
Storage: 58 kilobytes per second
1MB file download: 17.6 seconds
Subjective rating: Not Bad

Fasttelco
Communications 362.5 kilobits per second
Storage: 44.3 kilobytes per second
1MB file download: 23.1 seconds
Subjective rating: Not Bad

In both trials, no one but me was using the connection on the network.

Winner of Round 1: Qualitynet

If you remember last month I posted about the new terrible BKME logo. Well since then I heard that the logo was done by an international agency (hard to believe) and I heard another story that it was designed by Horizon here in Kuwait (more believable). Yesterday I also got an email from someone called Jeeb, this is what he had to say about BKME and the logo:

The sphere isn’t only about a pearl, a BKME personnel indicated to me that two pepole reaching each other are actualy represented inside! I said who in the world would know or see that? By the way when copied, the “pearl” or “human reaching each other” logo goes white! Vanishes..

It also took me 2 days to open an account! Still confused, I received 6 e-mails with 6 user numbers bkmeonline/e-trading, which one to use? Why the guy kept telling “use another username this one is giving an error”? Now, ofcourse, i can’t use any of them, each had a password which i don’t remember now!! Bmke didn’t reply, i have to waite till sunday. Talking about making “life simple” for us!!!

I drew with a red line what “might” be 2 guys, one seems very fat. Also I can understand about the terrible service, when I tried calling them to ask about the logo 2 weeks ago it took me all morning to get a hold of someone..

I spent all night listening to the British Radio One in my car. Whenever there is a dust storm or humidity in Kuwait my car gets the Radio One signal on 102.1Mhz. I think its broadcasted from UAE or Bahrain. Tonight I was listening to the Ministry of Sound session, some really cool stuff.. for the radio atleast.

I saw this new burger yesterday and I forgot to post about it but Forzaq8 just posted about it and he even took pictures. Their new burger is carb free which means no bread. The burger is wrapped in lettuce. When I was asking the guy at hardees about it (i was picking up a cookie) he was giggling while explaining it to me. They don’t even know what the hell it is. Its like a deformed burger. Anyway check forza’s post for the pictures. Totally looks like something I do not even want to try!

Yesterday night me and nat watched Office Space which tivo had recorded earlier in the week. I already have watched the movie atleast half a dozen times but its a classic and always worth watching again. But, this was the first time I watched it censored! I can’t believe how badly one tv sucks! The words fuck and shit are censored, there is a whole “PC Load Letter” scene in the movie which was cut short, there is a completely missing scene in the movie where the Michael Bolton guy is listening to rap, there is a cancer tits ad missing scene, there is just so much cut out that the movie wasn’t worth watching anymore. They completely slaughtered what has to be one of the coolest movies of all time. In the end I just couldn’t handle it, we deleted the movie off the Tivo and watched something else. The only good thing about One TV is The Contender. I don’t know how they got the rights for Sopranos..

There is this one pigeon I keep seeing outside my window which doesnt seem to have any toes. I don’t know what happened to them but its pretty fucking sad watching him all day long. He seems to be getting along fine with all the other pigeons, they don’t seem to be leaving him out of any of their activities but I know deep inside this pigeon wishes he had all his toes. He seems to be able to walk fine but every few seconds he tries to stand on just 1 leg, I guess cuz it might be his other leg hurts him or something. Anyway I took pictures for you guys to see.

Birdie Pic 1
Birdie Pic 2 (warning: not for pigeon lovers)