Category: Personal

I haven’t purchased any new sneakers for nearly a year now. I didn’t know it was that long until I checked my previous posts and noticed the last time I ordered a pair were back in July. I now have three sneakers I’ve got my eyes on. I’ve already ordered the one above but still looking for a good deal on the ones below. As you can see, they’re a lot more toned down than my previous purchases. I’m also still on the look out for the Nike Air Force 1 X Clot but instead of the prices dropping they’ve now gone up to KD500 for a pair. Doesn’t look like I am ever going to own a pair of those…

I personally think the food in Lebanon is a mixture of good and bad. We obviously do good Lebanese food, we also make some of the best pizza’s, we’ve got some really great crepes and most importantly we have the world’s best beer (Almaza FTW!). One thing we strangely don’t have is good burgers. For some reason no one has cracked a good burger in Lebanon. I’ve been recommended so many places and every time I try a burger there I am left disappointed. Let’s Burger is a Lebanese burger creation which I was hoping would break this cycle.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the menu is they had mayonnaise listed under the “5 Elements for a perfect burger”. That’s when I knew things weren’t going to end well. Mayonnaise??? I continued flipping through their menu and decided to go with the stuffed cheese burger. I wasn’t asked how I wanted the burger done.

A short time later my burger arrived and I quickly took my first bite. Two things grabbed my attention. The first thing is, I liked the beef patty with the stuffed cheese inside. Because the cheese was all soft and gooey it made the beef patty very juicy. The second thing that grabbed my attention is the bun, it was cold and cracking. That meant the bun wasn’t fresh and was refrigerated. Cold bread + hot beef patty = Doesn’t work. Their sauce also wasn’t anything to write home about since although the description in the menu said grainy mustard mayo sauce, what I tasted was mostly just plain mayo.

For the final score I’m giving it a 2.5 out of 5. The patty was fine but they need to fix the bun issue, it shouldn’t be too hard to get fresh buns every morning delivered. They also really need to cut down on the mayo, not only is it not an important element in a good burger… it shouldn’t be on a burger in the first place. Period.

Let’s Burger is located at 360 Mall.
The cost of the Stuffed Cheeseburger was KD3.450

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

I was recommended by a couple of readers to try out the burger at the English Tea Lounge at Avenues phase II. It’s an ostrich burger and supposedly very good so I passed by today for lunch around 3pm to try it out. The place was empty with not a single person there so we had our pick of where to sit. We got the menu and I quickly flipped to the page with the burger on it. My sister was going to have a salad but Nat just wanted to drink tea.

Then Nat noticed the fine print at the bottom of every page which said that the minimum order per person had to be KD6. I told her that’s probably when its packed but not when it’s empty. I called the waitress over and asked her if this KD6 minimum charge was enforced? She said yes. I was like wait, so if me and my sister want to order lunch but Nat just tea we can’t do that? She said no it’s minimum KD6 per person. WTF? The place was empty with no one there!? It’s a TEA lounge! I told her fine and got up and left.

What a very disappointing experience. Didn’t even know restaurants with minimum charges still existed in Kuwait yet alone having it enforced in an empty place.

My favorite mountain bike brand is Cannondale and I’ve posted about the local Cannondale dealer a few times including on my Miskan blog 5 years ago. Thing is since I first got my bike in the winter of 2004 until now the dealer really hasn’t expanded, improved or changed in any way. It’s very sad and not sure why specially since more people bike today than they did 5 years ago. Maybe the dealer doesn’t care about the brand anymore but it’s very disappointing. I passed by yesterday to get my bike and Nat’s serviced and they didn’t even have transmission cables available. Luckily GoSport has a good collection of Shimano bike parts and so was able to pick up some cables from there and dropped them off to the dealer. The dealer doesn’t have many Cannondale bikes for sale as well, they had only 2 models available. I guess thats a good thing since if I did see a bike I liked I might have ended up buying it.

On the bright side I’m glad that GoSport carry a good collection of bike accessories and parts. Nothing hard core like Fox shocks or disc brakes upgrade kits but still a lot better than nothing. For everything else there is Amazon.

Fauchon isn’t one of those places that pops into mind when thinking about burgers but since a few people had recommended them I decided to give it a shot.

I passed by Fauchon at 360 Mall this weekend and ordered their Le Beef Burger a La Fauchon with classic fries on the side. According to the menu the patty is a prime US beef patty and comes with shredded cheddar cheese topped with their special dressing in their home made bun. The burger arrived and looked ok presentation wise except for the fact the whole thing looked kinda flat. When I first picked up the burger I noticed a problem and that was the bun was starting to fall apart. I hadn’t even taken my first bite so I realized that was going to be an issue. From that moment on I had to handle the burger very delicately at the risk of having the whole bun fall apart in my hand. After taking a few bites I realized two more things. First their special dressing tasted like a mix of cocktail sauce and salad dressing which doesn’t really belong on a burger. The second thing I realized is their beef patty might be the exact same ones I get from Sultan Center. Not a good thing since I’m not a fan of my home made burgers. The burger is pretty big and filling which is always a plus.

The final score for this burger is a 3 out of 5. One thing about this burger that I liked the most was the french fries that came on the side. They’re what I call hotel fries which is what I call fries that taste like ones you get from room service at hotels with a little portion of Heinz ketchup on the side. Price wise the burger cost KD4.450 which is fair for the fact it’s a burger at Fauchon although personally I don’t think it’s worth it since the burger wasn’t that great.

Fauchon is located at 360 Mall.
The cost of Le Beef Burger a La Fauchon was KD4.450

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

Back in 2006 I got introduced to Sumajin’s Smartwraps that did an amazing job of tidying up my headphone wires. Since then though I’ve somehow managed to lose all my Smartwraps. Instead of ordering them again from Amazon I was wondering if 5 years later someone in Kuwait now sells these. Does anyone know if I can find Smartwraps in Kuwait?

I’ve been looking forward to trying the Eighty 6 Bistro burger for ages but I passed by a few months ago and didn’t have a reservation and got turned away. After that I figured it would be a hassle to pass by and never did until this past weekend. I passed by on Friday for lunch and to my surprise the place was empty. Like literally there was no table occupied. I thought that was strange but didn’t mind it since it meant I didn’t have to wait for a table to free up.

I sat down in one of the booths and started flipping through the menu. I was about to order their classic cheeseburger when I spotted something called the Bistro Burger. I asked the waiter what it was and he explained to me the burger came with lettuce, tomato, cheese, caramelized onions and mushrooms. He also said the patty what thicker than the classic cheeseburger and that was all I needed to hear. I ordered the Bistro Burger without the lettuce and tomato.

When the burger arrived the presentation looked good. It came on a long plate with a small pot filled with a few onion rings on one side, a small cup of fries on the other end and the juicy burger in between the two. I took a bite and noticed something, the caramelized onions were just overpowering the burger. I spent the rest of meal wishing I had ordered the burger with just the cheese. The bun was nice and soft, the onion rings and french fries although have no effect on this review were pretty bland.

Honestly, for a place that was empty during lunch time on a Friday at the most popular mall in Kuwait I was expecting the worst but I am glad that the burger turned out to be good. I decided to give it a 3.5 out of 5 and “might” have given it a 4 if I had ordered it with just the cheese. The cost of the burger is KD4.5 which is actually on the high side but I guess the fact that it comes with a side of onion rings and fries makes up for it. As I’ve mentioned before the price of the burger has no effect on the review or the final score.

Eighty 6 Bistro is located in the Avenues.
The cost of the Bistro Burger was KD4.500
For reservations call 22597961

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

A lot of phones have reception problems, you just never notice them. I had the E71 for a few months and never noticed this reception issue or had a reception issue. I am assuming once I have my iPhone 4 I also won’t notice any reception problems. [YouTube]

Update: It takes just 1 finger to mess everything up in the iPhone 4…

Since I can have burgers as part of my diet, the burger challenge is back on. My diet says no cheese but once a week I will break it and order my burger with cheese since I am already sacrificing. This weekend I was at Slider Station and I didn’t have the chocolate pudding. Anyone who has had the chocolate pudding there would know how difficult it is to resist but I did it. That was on Saturday, Friday I passed by Nino. I wasn’t planning on trying their burger out but since everything else they had including the grilled stuff had butter in them I decided to go with the burger (salad on the side instead of fries).

I went with the Con Formaggio Burger which is their cheese burger. There is no egg in it even though it looks like it in the picture above, that’s just white and yellow cheese. No one asked me how I wanted my burger done.

I got my burger a short while later and noticed 3 slices of tomatoes under the meat patty which I quickly proceeded to remove since tomatoes sog up the bun. That’s when I also realized they had chopped cabbage lettuce underneath the tomato mixed with mayonnaise dressing. I quickly proceeded to remove those as well since they shouldn’t be in a gourmet burger. I don’t mind them in a cheap Lebanese style burger that also contains french fries over the thin frozen patty, but on a burger like this, it just feels out of place.

I put my ketchup and took my first bite. The bun is pretty good, soft and tasty. The patty on the other hand was dry. The burger was slightly messy to eat since even though I removed the tomato and mayo lettuce right away it wasn’t fast enough since the bottom bun got soggy. I struggled to come up with a score for it but in the end decided on a 3. I was going to go with a 2.5 but the bun was really good. I guess they’re lucky I’m on a low carb diet and crave bread more than burgers right now (I have dreams of the chocolate bread at The Meat Co.). The price of the burger was reasonable costing KD2.950 but even though I don’t think I would have it again.

Nino is located on the Gulf Road and Avenues.
The cost of the Con Formaggio Burger was KD2.950

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

As part of my diet I need to have grilled food for dinner and since Turkish Grill belongs to a friend of a friend, I’ve been passing by there 90% of the time for my dinner. The problem is, 100 meters down the street from Turkish Grill lies Papa John’s. It’s extremely extremely difficult to choose grilled chicken over pizza and having Papa John’s right next to Turkish Grill is proving to be a test of my will EVERY DAY!

I enjoy staring at delicious chocolate muffins in the face and saying NO! I enjoy craving a molten chocolate cake from Chili’s and resisting it. But right after the gym when I am really hungry it’s not as easy. So far from the dozens and dozens of times I’ve passed by Turkish Grill I’ve only cheated once with a medium pizza all to myself. Today I cheated although not as badly, I had tabbouleh with the dressing and I loved it. After having tabbouleh and salad this whole week without any dressing at all (something which I do not recommend anyone trying), the tabbouleh tonight was the best tabbouleh I ever had in my life. I really miss the lemon and oil dressing.

Now to make things worse I was talking to Essa from Choowy Goowy earlier and told him to send over two jars of cookies, the original and the Mark & Nat since Nataly wanted to shoot the jars for her portfolio. I told him to shove the jars with date cookies since I hate date cookies and that way I don’t end up eating them. Guess what? I got home to find two jars stuffed with freshly made original chocolate chip cookies and the Mark & Nat Oreo cookies. I just spent the past 15 minutes swearing at him on BBM. Luckily Nat has hid the jars somewhere in the house and since I just got back from the gym I am too sore and exhausted to go look for them.

While in New York I picked up the Elgato video capture device for my Mac. Basically it allows me to connect regular RCA and S-Video cables to my Mac which I can then use to convert analogue video like old VHS and Betamax tapes to digital. I have a ton of old videos from the 80’s I want to start converting to digital and sharing on this blog. My issue is the Betamax tapes, does anyone know where I can get a hold of a Betamax player here in Kuwait?

Since we’re on the subject of health and fitness, yesterday I picked up my new diet plan from Fahad. It’s a lot tougher and he’s added an extra work out day bringing it up my work out days to four. They’ve also increased my weights considerably and are going to be giving me a harder time at the gym. My new diet plan also includes supplements for the first time. I will be taking two supplements, Whey Protein Isolates and Ripped Fuel. Whey Protein from what I understand and have read will help me considerably in a variety of ways from helping me grow and repair my muscles to strengthening my immune system. Ripped Fuel on the other hand will help me burn fat, give me an energy boost and also help me gain lean muscle mass. I got both these supplements from Souk Sharq from the shop across from Nokia. Whey Protein was KD25 while Ripped Fuel was KD20.

Below is my new diet plan, you will notice it now includes burgers. Not any burgers though, I can’t have McDonalds or Johnny Rockets for example, it’s got to be better quality burgers like from Burger Boutique, Slider Station, Applebee’s and Chili’s. I tried the Chili’s burger today with a side order of broccoli and I have to say that’s the most horrible side order I have ever had with a burger. If I ever had a burger nightmare that would have been it. On the bright side I did have a burger.

Here is the diet plan:

WORKOUT DAYS

8:00 am: Upon Waking:
500ml of Water + 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

8:45: BREAKFAST
2 Egg Sausage McMuffins (No orange juice)

11:15 – Snack
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

1:30: Lunch
Option 1: 1 Burger (double patty), no cheese, no mayo + salad w/out dressing
Option 2: 1 edamame w/out salt, 6 pieces of maki, 9 pieces of sashimi
Option 3: 1 Shish Tawook or Tikka Meat, small hummus w/out oil, 1/2 white bread, tabboula without dressing

4:00 – 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

5:00: SNACK
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

8:00 – 8:20: WORKOUT + 10 minutes of cardio

Immediately After Training:
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

60 Minutes Later:
No carb, low fat, high protein, high veggie dinner

_____________________________________________

NON-WORKOUT DAYS

8:00 am: Upon Waking:
500ml of Water + 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

8:45: BREAKFAST
2 Egg McMuffins (No orange juice)

11:15 – Snack
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

1:30: Lunch
Option 1: 1 Burger (double patty), no cheese, no mayo + salad w/out dressing
Option 2: 1 edamame w/out salt, 6 pieces of maki, 9 pieces of sashimi
Option 3: 1 Shish Tawook or Tikka Meat, small hummus w/out oil, 1/2 white bread, tabboula without dressing

4:00 – 2 capsules of Ripped Fuel

5:00: SNACK
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

8:00 – Dinner
No carb, low fat, high protein, high veggie dinner

12:00 – Late Night Snack
1 scoop of ON’s 100% Whey Protein mixed w/ water

As most of you might have noticed, while in New York I ate a lot of burgers. Many people thought I was actually posting too many food posts but they would have been a lot more if I posted about all the burger places I went to. Before going to New York I had a list of around 60 burger places I wanted to try out which I got from the blog A Hamburger Today and even though I didn’t even get close to trying out 60 burger places I did have on average two burgers a day while in New York. And guess what? I lost weight!

Before I went on vacation I spoke to Fahad and I told him that there was no way I could eat healthy on my trip. It was New York and I wasn’t going to spend my time looking for something healthy to eat. He told me as long as I was going to do a lot of walking than I could eat whatever I wanted as long as the proportions weren’t too big. He told me I also had to have a meal every 3 hours. I could also have dessert if I wanted but it couldn’t be part of my main meal, it would have to be counted as a meal on its own. So if I had a burger at 12PM I could have an ice cream at 3PM. I thought that was fair and took his advice.

My morning started off either with a big breakfast from a cozy diner near my hotel or a McGriddle from McDonalds. I stuck to places near my hotel since I needed to have breakfast an hour after waking up. That would happen around 9 or 10am. Then, 3 hours later I would have a burger, 3 hours after that dessert (usually a chocolate cone from Pinkberry or a cookie from a bakery), 3 hours after that another burger and finally my last meal at night would be dinner at one of the trendy restaurants near my hotel.

I rarely had fries with my burger, I think I only had fries 3 times on my trip. I would also always order only 1 burger but sometimes it would be a double patty. One great thing (or it could be a bad thing) about New York is the fact I think by law they need to display the calorie count of everything on the menu. So one time I was at Wendy’s for example and I felt like a double bacon and cheese but then noticed the calorie count and decided to go with a regular double cheese burger instead. I think the calorie count helped me save a ton of calories. It was also one major reason I didn’t have french fries with my burgers since if I did the calorie count of my meal would double. I also went with Coke Zero over regular Coke since that was another easy 200-300 calorie saving.

I walked a lot, around 12 hours and the only time I took a cab was to and from the airport. I was using the subway mostly and it was mostly from Brooklyn where I was staying to Manhattan which is where everything was located. While there I walked everywhere and only took the subway if I was in a rush like to catch a store before they closed. One night I walked back to my hotel even which was around a 8-9KM walk according to Google Maps.

The result? I left Kuwait weighing 77KG and I came back weighing 76KG. I thought I had lost more weight but I am not disappointed losing only a KG with the food I was eating. Now that the vacation is over and I’ve returned to Kuwait I’m eating healthy again and today was my first time back at the gym since I left. Until my next burger rampage…

Just got back from New York earlier tonight. Nearly got a heart attack at the airport when picking up my luggage. I realized all my bags locks were missing and that my laptop which I had shoved between two pockets in one of my bags was gone. Turns out JFK security must have broken all the locks and searched through the bags because I found my laptop but it was placed in a different location. So far doesn’t look like anything is missing but that was pretty scary though.

After a million people recommended I try Burger Joint I decided to pass by Le Parker Meridien hotel and try it out. I got there around 11:10PM, 20 minutes before closing and stood in line (of course) waiting to order. The place was packed mostly with business men in suites who looked like they were staying at the lux hotel, some group of friends and a family or two. While waiting in line a table cleared up and Nat quickly took it over while I waited to order.

They had simple instructions up on the wall which were:

Step 1: Hamburger or Cheeseburger

Step 2: How d’ya want it cooked?
(rare, med-rare, medium, med-well, well)

Step 3: What d’ya want on it?
(Lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, ketchup, mayo, mustard)
With everything, call it “The works”

Be ready to order or else you go to the end of the line.

I decided to have a cheese burger, medium with just ketchup and mustard, plus fries, a beer and a diet coke. Total came out to $20 and I sat down and waited for my name to be called out. The hotel is very posh but Burger Joint is designed to look like some small dodgy burger place. It’s very small and I can imagine that must frustrate a lot of people who come in for a quick bite and not find anywhere to sit.

I got my burger and took my first bite, and then second and then third until there was no burger left. Honestly I wasn’t impressed. The burger was good of course, but it was missing an oomph. I know many people will shoot me down for this but I prefer Shake Shack over Burger Joint and as you know I prefer Five Guys over Shake Shack. Cute little place though.

Update: Comments now open, not sure why they were closed