Last time I checked, the top seller for nearly every burger restaurant on Carriage was a fried chicken burger. The reason I had checked was because a friend told me that was the case and I hadn’t believed him. But it’s true, we love our fried chicken sandwiches and that’s why we’ve got some really great options to choose from. Below are my favorites:
#2 Crispy from Little Ruby’s (KD4.350)
Bun: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Looks: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Taste: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price: ⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
#3 Milkyway from Lucky Bun (KD2.500)
Bun: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Looks: ⭐⭐⭐
Accessibility: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Taste: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Firstly a quick disclosure, CHKN is actually a brand I’m involved in as part of my day job, but only for the past year. I’ve actually been a diehard fan of their fried chicken for years which is how I came to be involved with the brand. I love their burgers, they’re huge, crispy and I love the way they look.
Little Ruby’s, on the other hand, have one of my favorite beef burgers and also one of my favorite chicken burgers. Their Crispy burger uses Rice Krispies for the breading and it just tastes so good (without the pickles of course). Finally, Lucky Bun has recently become one of my new favorite places to order from mostly because they have a kitchen in Salmiya but also because their beef and chicken burgers are really really good. Picking between their Chick of LA burger and Milkway burger was difficult, but the Milkyway comes with a turkey slice which always reminds me of KFC’s Zinger Supreme which I also love.
Last Tuesday I was invited to the premiere of Doctor Sleep by my favorite movie theater, Vox Kuwait at the Avenues Phase 4, and as usual for their premieres, the event was a pleasure for film geeks (full of thematic decor and even two little twin girl actresses which were adorable in their attempts to scare guests). After walking on a red carpet designed after the famous carpet from The Shining, we took our seats and the lights went down.
Regarding the elephant that’s always in the room, censorship, this film has been cut in a few places, but not in a way that makes it unwatchable. It doesn’t affect the plot and you’re aware of what’s going on, but some cuts do come at some moments where you’re really drawn into the film. But all the cuts were momentary, nothing like whole scenes removed. Anyway, onto the review.
You’ve got to have quite a pair to think you can pull of a sequel to The Shining. Not only is it a horror masterpiece, but it is perhaps one of the most obsessed over films in history (watch the documentary Room 237 for proof). Up until now, director Mike Flanagan has been a solid horror filmmaker with a fresh voice and a couple of strong entries under his belt, but he hasn’t attempted anything quite so ambitious as Doctor Sleep. Does it pay off? Well yes… and no.
To be fair, it’s near impossible to create a satisfying sequel to The Shining especially since Kubrick veered way off the Stephen King novel it was based on, creating instead an intimate horror film with a singular vision which benefits most from its ambiguity and its lack of a need for a sequel. So when adapting Doctor Sleep (King’s sequel to his Shining), Flanagan decided to take a route where he bridges the gap between King and Kubrick. The result feels like two interesting films in their own right mashed up messily. The script suffers a lot from it and it’s the script itself which is the weakest link in this film.
The storytelling and filmmaking, however, is where the film shines (ahem). Flanagan does an excellent job of building tension, creating mood, and allowing scenes to be paced calmly and correctly. He doesn’t rush you into “scares”, but rather allows you to get invested into the characters. This is most evident in the first 40 minutes or so where very little plot is divulged, and we are just getting to know our three main characters. These were some of my favorite scenes in the film because Flanagan directs them maturely and really allows us to connect to Danny Torrance’s struggle with his demons. I very much appreciated that the film did not rely on The Shining nostalgia or fan service to create excitement. In fact, the only time we are really given that kind of nostalgia is in the last 30 minutes of a 2.5 hour film, so by then you’ve already emotionally invested into this new story entirely.
Aside from the filmmaking, the performances stand out as well. Ewan McGregor is perfect in the title role, and Kyliegh Curran gives an Excellent child performance that is exciting and convincing. But really it’s Rebecca Ferguson as the antagonist who steals the film. I was worried from the trailers as her storyline looked cheesy, but she is somehow convincing and gives a very interesting performance of a character that is at once cold blooded but somehow understandable. I like her work in the Mission Impossible films, but now I’m a full on fan.
In the end, I felt Doctor Sleep was an entertaining film with some really strong sequences (the Astral Projection moment was visionary, and the Baseball boy sequence was extremely disturbing and effective), but it’s nods to the Shining only reveal how much stronger that film is. To me, this is a pretty weak Kubrick tribute, but a very strong Stephen King film adaptation. It’s different than most films coming out in cinemas these days, and some of it’s inventive filmmaking makes up for its flaws. I still recommend a watch to horror and film fans as it has an original voice and style to it that is a breath of fresh air amongst the hundred of cynical cash grabs posing as cinema today.
Back in 2001 when I moved back to Kuwait from university, I started looking for a clean second-hand 4th generation Toyota Supra. It was one of those dream cars to own back then and I really wanted the twin-turbo version with an automatic gearbox. In hindsight, I wish I wasn’t so picky. I only ended up coming across manual cars and so never ended up buying one, but if I had and kept it, today it would be worth more than what I would have paid for it. The 4th generation Supra ended production in 2002 and since then prices of the old cars have kept rising as they became harder to find in good condition and just a few months ago an excellent condition one sold for a staggering $176,000.
Finally, earlier this year the new 2020 Supra was unveiled and it launched in Kuwait a couple of weeks back. I was lucky enough to borrow one off the dealer this past weekend and if I was looking for a new sports car to buy, this would be an option I’d seriously consider.
The new Toyota Supra and the new BMW Z4 share a lot of the same parts including the engine and interior. That’s because Toyota and BMW collaborated on the project which caused a lot of controversy with Supra diehards for obvious reasons. I’m not that big of a diehard and even I cringed when I heard that the new Supra would be built with a BMW engine. But, after spending a weekend with the car I’ve realized this collab might actually be a benefit for us. BMW is a more premium brand than Toyota so things like the interior end up looking better and feeling a lot more expensive than what a Toyota would usually look or feel like while still paying Toyota prices.
But, before getting inside the car, the first thing you’ll notice about the Supra is how cool the outside looks. When I first saw pictures of the car online I fell in love with the rear end and it looks even better in real life. The car is super hot looking and an eye-catcher on the road, especially right now because there aren’t that many on the streets. One thing I was surprised with was the size of the car, it’s not big at all and so not intimidating which I really like. And even though the car is small, the interior didn’t feel cramped and was actually a really nice space to be in.
At 335HP the Supra doesn’t have an absurd amount of power but it does have more than enough to make it feel pretty fast on the streets. I’ve also already seen videos on YouTube of Supra’s being modified to produce 1000HP so if you want more power that’s going to be an easy fix. The performance parts market for the Supra is going to be HUGE that’s for sure.
Every one of my friends whom I let test drive the car (both guys and girls) loved it. There is very little not to like about the Supra but there were some things I had issues with. The steering wheel makes the car feel cheap, it’s fairly hard and just felt plasticky even though it was leather-wrapped. I also didn’t find the exhaust loud but I think that has to do with the new European regulations since a lot of cars don’t sound loud anymore either. On downshifts, you get some amazing crackles and pops but while driving (even aggressively) I kept wishing the exhaust was slightly louder. If I want to be really picky I also had issues with the suspension which felt soft when I wanted it to be hard, and felt hard when I wanted it to be soft. But one of the best things about the Supra is that you’ll most likely want to customize all these things anyway yourself, the first thing I’d do if I bought the car would be to install a sportier aftermarket exhaust. Customization is part of the reason of getting a Supra to begin with. What isn’t a minor thing though is the lack of Apple CarPlay. I guess I should be incredibly grateful the infotainment system comes from BMW and not Lexus (who have the worst infotainment system in the world), but I still wish it had CarPlay.
At KD16,500 the new Supra is priced extremely competitively and it going to sell like hotcakes. I wouldn’t be surprised if the dealer hasn’t sold out already. In Kuwait, the local dealer only have one model available which is basically the fully loaded version with the only options being the exterior and interior colors. They have a test drive vehicle available so if you’re interested in trying out the car as I did then visit the dealer @toyotakw.
Every year right after Apple announces a new iPhone, Digits get in touch with me asking me if I’d be interested in one. They always make sure I have a device on launch day so I could review it for the blog, and they always hook me up with a good discount on top of that. But, this was the first year I was a bit hesitant to say yes to them. I got the iPhone XS from them last year and it has been my favorite iPhone to date. The battery life was great, the camera was amazing and the OLED screen incredible. My phone was in great shape and I really didn’t have any issues with it so I wasn’t sure if I really wanted to plunk down money on a new one. But, since I take so many photos with the iPhone for the blog, the new ultra-wide lens and the new night mode would be really helpful, so I decided to get the iPhone 11 Pro in the new midnight green color.
When it came to choosing a color for the phone, any color would have been fine with me. I actually didn’t know what color my XS was until a friend asked me and I had to take it out of the silicon case to check. But since I wanted to feel like I got a new phone, I got the midnight green with the new matching silicon case. A lot of people online have mentioned how the green doesn’t really look green in real life, not sure what they’re on about but I can clearly tell its green. Its a grey green, not a bright or saturated green, but still green. I took the photo on top in front of my grey wall and you can clearly see how green the phone looks. I like it a lot and it sucks that I’m too clumsy or else I would have really enjoyed the color instead of having it hidden behind an iPhone case.
The changes in the new iPhone compared to the previous XS aren’t that noticeable and the only time you really can tell the difference is when you use the phone side by side with an older one. I found that out because whenever friends with iPhone XS’s ask me about the new 11 Pro, I downplay it a lot. I tell them there really isn’t much of a difference but then they take my phone and start playing with it and you hear sounds like “oooh” and “ahh” either because my phone launches apps a lot faster than theirs or because the new camera takes pictures that are noticeably better and because of the new ultra-wide lens.
After personally using the iPhone 11 Pro for a week now, here are the three things that really stick out for me compared to my XS:
Battery Life
Not sure how many extra hours my new iPhone battery lasts, but I used to leave the office before at around 3PM with my XS battery at around 40% full, now I leave the office with the battery at around 70% full. So a pretty noticeable improvement.
Ultra Wide Lens
Yes the three lenses do look a bit weird on the back of the phone but it also does help differentiate the new iPhone from the older ones. As soon as people see the three lenses they ask me if that’s the new iPhone 11 Pro and want to play around with it. The third lens on the new iPhone Pro is an ultra-wide lens and I’m generally a big fan of these kinds of lenses. I have a 12-24mm ultra-wide lens for my Sony A7 III camera and I tend to use it a lot so I love having a similar lens on my phone which is always with me, unlike my Sony cam. It’s going to make capturing interior shots a lot easier and I love shooting cars with ultra-wide lenses. Below is a photo of my apartment I took using the three different lenses for comparison.
Night Mode
This is a new feature that I’m really liking at the moment even though the effect is very subtle. The new iPhone 11 Pro has a feature called night mode that activates in low light situations. The camera then takes different exposures of your photo and combines them into one brighter and better lit photo. The result looks great but because this process all happens in the background, it doesn’t feel like the phone did anything special. It’s only when you compare the photo with the same image with night mode turned off do you notice the magic. This is why I said the effect is very subtle, not because the phone doesn’t do much but because the result looks natural and more real lifelike. Below is a perfect example of this, I took the shot at Peacock, the first with night mode off and the second with night mode on. In reality, the scene looked closer to the second shot (night mode on).
I do have one big issue with the new iPhone and that is the lack of 3D touch. Not a lot of people know this (which is why it’s a feature that got removed) but with the iPhone X and XS the phone recognizes hard presses on the screen. This was a pretty cool feature that allowed me to do various things quickly. If I was typing something and wanted to move the cursor to a previous word or area in the paragraph, I could just press hard on the keyboard area and then move the cursor that way. But now with 3D touch gone, I need to change my habits. Instead of hard pressing on the keyboard to move the cursor around, I have to now long press on the keyboard space key to move the cursor which is just more awkward and slower. Even something so simple as opening the camera from my lock screen requires me to relearn the button press timing right because I’m used to hard pressing the camera button and opening it up instantly. Instead, I now have to press the camera button for a short time to open the camera and after a week I still haven’t gotten the timing right.
But, the biggest question everyone wants to know the answer to is if it’s worth the upgrade?
If you have an iPhone XS
Probably not, not unless you really want the ultra-wide lens. If you travel a lot or post to instagram a lot then you’re gonna really appreciate the new opportunities the ultra-wide lens will give you. The night mode is a great feature but not nearly as fun or obvious like the new ultra-wide lens.
If you have an iPhone X
You probably should, the camera quality difference between X and XS was big, and the difference between X and 11 Pro is even bigger. Plus the new phone is a lot faster and because your X’s battery probably doesn’t hold as good as a charge now as it did 2 years ago, you’re gonna notice an even bigger jump in battery life.
If you have an iPhone 8 or older
Yes, for sure! The larger OLED screen is the biggest reason you should upgrade but the excellent camera and much faster processor are also really good reasons to upgrade.
Let me know if you have any questions below and thank you Digits for the hooking me up again!
Around a month ago Zain sent over a 5G router for me to test out at home. I’ve already posted a first and second impression post and now after trying out the device for a full month, I’m convinced it’s a must-have connection. There isn’t anything faster right now on the market, not even close.
Clearly 5G is super fast but there are two important questions that need to be answered here:
1) Do you really need 5G speeds?
No, I don’t think so, I don’t think the majority of people need 5G speeds, I personally don’t. Someone left a comment the other day under my iPhone 11 Pro post saying it sucks that the new iPhone doesn’t have 5G, and I have to ask, why would you need 5G speeds on your phone? On my home computers, I rarely download torrents anymore which is where I can see speeds of 500 or 700Mbps making the biggest difference and maybe for downloading a new videogame on my PS4 every now and then or a software update but that’s really it. For normal use 100Mbps would be more than enough. The reason I see the need for 5G is because not everyone can get a fiber connection at home and rarely anyone gets decent LTE speeds at home, so 5G is really the only other option.
When I tried downloading a torrent file over 5G, I hit speeds of around 10MB/s and I ended up downloading a 5GB file in around 7 minutes. 5G is so fast that it might have taken me longer to copy a 5GB file off my home server to my Mac. There is a wow factor when downloading large apps or PS4 updates and you see the progress bar fill up so quickly. 5G is so fast its stupid funny, and in my case where just until a few months ago the fastest connection I could get at home was 10Mbps, jumping up to 700Mbps is a HUGE difference.
So no, I don’t think anyone really needs full 5G speeds for normal use, but for the majority of people, 5G is the only way to crack the 100Mbps barrier at home.
2) Is it expensive?
I know a lot of people might disagree with me here but I don’t think 5G is expensive. If you compare 5G to fiber prices or how much I’m paying for Zain Beam, you’ll quickly realize the amount you’re paying for the speed you’re getting is actually great deal. Here is a quick comparison:
I think what really makes 5G seem expensive is the limited bandwidth. Optimally the minimum you would want is 1TB per month. I just checked my usage and from September 12 up to September 30, I consumed around 320GB of bandwidth which is a lot less than I was expecting so 1TB would work out just fine for my needs. If you download tons of PS4 or Xbox games, you’ll probably want more than 1TB and the next step up is a whopping KD65 for 1.8TB.
In conclusion, I want 5G at home even though I just signed up to Zain Beam a few months back. I did ask a Zain employee if I could “upgrade” from Beam to 5G and was told I could without any penalties so that’s good news. I am worried that once 5G becomes a lot more common the speeds would drop, but even if it drops to say 300Mbps I’d still be happy with it. If you haven’t checked out my previous posts on 5G here are the links:
You would think this would be an easy post to do for me but with so many burger options to choose from, it was actually pretty difficult to find my very top three. Here are the results:
My biggest difficulty with putting this list together was the fact that there are so many great burgers in Kuwait, but in the end, it really came down to which places I personally keep going back to. Up until a few days ago I had even decided McDonald’s should be on this list since the Big Mac is probably the burger I have the most.
The BBT is a delicious burger thats well priced and easily accessible. There are no longer any queues and it’s a pickup place so you’ll have to eat in your car but I love that. White Robata on the otherhand isn’t a place you’d associate with burgers, but the owner of the place also has Burger Boutqiue and OFK which at point also had my favorite burger. The wagyu burger at White Robata is extremely delicious and melted in my mouth like hot butter, but, if you don’t like your burgers cooked medium rare and bloody then you’re not gonna like this. White Robata currently have a sort of a social experiment going on, all their best cuts of meat can only be ordered medium-rare. I love that they’re doing that. Finally, the Bronte burger at Little Ruby’s has been my go-to burger since 2010, but even their double cheeseburger could have easily made this list.
Movie studios have been purchasing and investing in properties over the past few years as their main currency: Marvel, DC, Disney, Star Wars… What property can we own and milk for years and years to come. But there’s one property no one has a monopoly on: Nostalgia. In this age of endless information, bad news, white nationalism, prejudice, and dabbing, people have had a need to relive the good old times. But when a film adaptation of IT was announced off the heels of the success of Stranger Things, I said “here we go again”. Surprisingly though, Andy Muschetti’s film turned out to be one of the most entertaining and well directed films of the year.
So when Vox Cinemas invited me to the premiere of IT Chapter Two, I didn’t hesitate. The event itself was quite fun, every seat had a gift bag with a poster, a funky pop Pennywise doll, and a few other little trinkets. For added effect, each seat had a red balloon tied to it. But the standout was an extremely dedicated actor dressed (with some impressive makeup) as the titular character. He would provide some fun jump scares to the guests as they walked into the theater (but thankfully disappeared when the actual film started). As a whole, it was a great experience from Vox and I hope they do this with every major release. Now let’s get to the film:
IT Chapter 2 picks up 27 years after part one, and after a disturbing opening sequence, we catch up with our characters all grown up, mostly successful, but separate from one another. However, after the resurgence of a familiar string of missing people back home, it becomes clear that they have to reunite and fulfill the pledge they made to each other at the end of the first film. And that’s as much as I’ll spoil in terms of the plot, because half the fun of the film is discovering it as it reveals itself.
It Chapter 2, like its predecessor, is one of the most entertaining films of the year. There was not a moment where I shifted in my seat or looked at my phone. The film is exciting, at times surprisingly hilarious, and sometimes pretty scary. The best thing about these films remains the characters and the performances. The casting of Chapter Two is impeccable. Probably the best casting I’ve seen where the adult actors look like their child counterparts. The characters themselves are fully developed and individual enough that they always keep the film entertaining. The performances by James McAvoy and Jesica Chastain are solid as always, but its clear the standout here is a hilarious but ultimately moving performance by Bill Hader (Barry fans rejoice!). The film as a whole doesn’t take itself too seriously and is aware that some of its plot’s sillier aspects (faithfully adapted from the original Stephen King novel who has a fun little cameo here) aren’t given too much weight to take away from the film itself. The story itself and the turns it takes is a bit disappointing, but it’s clear that Mushcetti has a lot of love and passion for this story and for filmmaking itself. Which brings me to the production. A second highlight of this film is its production value, specifically the cinematography, musical score, and directing itself. It’s directed with a strong visual and emotional intelligence, harkening back to the days of early Speilberg and Zemeckis, giving the film a kind of 90’s bravura of big visuals, big sound, a living camera, and little bit of cheesiness. As a director, Muchetti is definitely a talent to look out for. Some of the more “harrowing” sequences are beautifully shot and executed, and having a big budget horror spectacle like this is rare these days, so that alone is worth the watch.
However, not all things are great. Midway through the film it’s clear that the scares (while “bigger” here) aren’t as effective as the first time around. There is some creativity with the way Pennywise manifests the character’s fears, but it slowly gives the feeling of when you’ve seen one scary sequence you’ve seen them all. In addition, the themes of the different trauma’s the characters and the town endured growing up and how that helps them in the end, while clear to me as a book reader, didn’t translate so well in the finale.
And that brings me to the final 20 minutes of the film, which are exhilarating. I was kind of dreading it as everything the film was building towards felt a bit like the final sequence would be predictable, but I was so happy to be wrong. The film builds and builds and then it delivers a non-stop rollercoaster ride of horror, comedy, and emotions that by then I felt I could overlook the issues I had earlier on.
All in all, this is a GREAT time at the cinema. It’s not a perfect film, and it’s not as solid as the first one, but it’s definitely worth the price of the ticket, and is the kind of horror film that everyone (above 18) can enjoy.
Mango soft serve is all the rage right now (well every summer) so I decided to try three of the most popular ones and do a comparison. Here are the results:
A few months ago during Ramadan I was driving by the Press location in the city and noticed a long queue out the door. So I called up a friend and asked them why that was and they told me it’s because of their mango soft serve. I ended up trying it a few weeks later and I’ve been hooked on it ever since. From the three soft serves above, the Press one tasted the closest to an actual mango which is why it’s my favorite of the bunch. Pick on the other hand which is usually my goto soft serve place came second for me even though their mango soft serve is really great, it’s just that Press set the bar pretty high on this one. Finally in third place it’s Ananas, their soft serve tasted the most creamy-ish and the least fruity, even though it came with actual mango pieces and mango syrup all over it
What’s your favorite mango soft serve in Kuwait? Also what else do you want me to compare? Best burgers? Best car wash? Give me some ideas.
Since I had a lot of free time over Eid I decided to do a hotdog comparison. My go-to place usually is Shake Shack but decided to try out the Five Guys hotdog and the Johnny Rockets one which I hadn’t had in years. Here are the results:
I had all three hotdogs with just ketchup and mustard. My favorite tasting one ended up being the Five Guys hotdog but in the end, Shake Shack ended up slightly edging out because of the price. Johnny Rockets was easily the worst of the three, the bun to hotdog ratio was completely off and I also thought it was the greasiest of the three.
What’s your favorite hotdog place in Kuwait?
Update: The Shake Shack hotdog is no longer being sold for KD1 and instead now costs KD1.5
A few weeks ago I ordered a new turntable (Fluance RT81) from Amazon since the one I had was from the 60s and sounded great when playing old stuff, but not so great with newer music. Once the record player arrived I decided I’d look for a new pair of speakers that I would just use with it. I ended up passing by Xcite and narrowing down my options to the KEF LSX and The Sixes by Klipsch. Both sounded great, The Sixes looked retro which matched well with my player but they were also fairly big and bulky. The KEF were a perfect size, but they didn’t have the retro look of The Sixes which I liked. In the end, I decided not to buy either one because the KEF cost KD340 and the Klipsch KD240. I already had my B&O Beolit 15 speaker which I wasn’t using, so I decided to connect that to the turntable instead and save myself some money.
No bullshit, a few days later I log into Reddit from my browser and noticed someone had sent me a direct message with the chat feature. I check Reddit from my phone daily but the app I use doesn’t support chat and so I didn’t know someone had tried contacting me. The message was two weeks old from someone at Xcite asking me if I’d be interested in reviewing the KEF LSX. I right away replied back with my phone number hoping I wasn’t too late. A few days later I headed to Xcite to pick up the speakers to review.
Full disclosure, I have a long-standing relationship with Xcite who provided me with this speaker to keep. They’ve been very supportive of the blog from the very early days and they’ve lent or given me a number of items over the years to review, as well as hooking me up with discounts. I’m a huge Xcite fan.
The KEF’s turned out to be a perfect size for my turntable. They don’t overpower it and although they don’t look retro, they did fit in looking very cool on my cabinet. The speakers come in five different colors but I opted for black since it would match my space better. All the colors are clad in a fabric made by the Danish contemporary textile designer, Kvadrat so the speakers look and feel very premium (they’re also pretty heavy).
Each one of the KEF speakers has it’s own built-in amplifier so I had to connect each speaker to a separate power outlet. The reason for this is the speakers can be used wirelessly and placed in different areas around the room so they each need their own power supply. The KEF has four sources of input, Bluetooth, WiFi, optical input and a 3.5mm auxiliary input. I connected the record player through the auxiliary input and as soon as I played one of my records I was completely blown away. I didn’t think records could sound so good or clear, that partially had to do with the fact I had previously been listening to records with my vintage record player but it also had to do with the fact how good these speakers sounded. For their small size, the speakers were crystal clear and fairly loud. I could hear so many different layers of instruments and even at max volume, they never distorted or sounded muddy. In fact, the speakers sounded so good I started researching KEF speakers for my home theater.
For those of you who are interested in wirelessly connecting to the speakers, other than Bluetooth they support Airplay 2 and have Spotify and Tidal built-in. Although I’m using it with an analog connection to my record player, I do have the speakers connected to my WiFi network so I could connect to it with the KEF app. The KEF app allows you to manage all the settings of the speaker including the volume control, input port as well as various detailed sound options.
Speaking of the volume control, there are some downsides to these speakers with the main one for me being the lack of a physical volume knob. The only way to lower or raise the volume is with the included remote control or through the KEF app. I guess that’s practical if you don’t want to get off the couch, but with my vinyl player I tend to spend a lot of time up next to it swapping records and flipping them over, so I want to be able to reach out and raise or lower the volume without having to pick up the remote. The other negative is the lack of deep bass. Although most reviewers online state the unit has good bass, that really depends on the music you listen to. I wouldn’t listen to electronic music with these speakers, not unless I attach them to a subwoofer (it has a subwoofer output port). But since most of my vinyls are composed of old music from the 70s or MTV Unplugged sessions, the speakers performed really well without needing a subwoofer.
At KD340 these speakers aren’t cheap, but then again you wouldn’t be looking at KEF speakers if you wanted something cheap. The best way to really appreciate these speakers is by listening to them in a quiet environment because no matter how many YouTubers say these speakers are great, you’re not gonna know what great sounds like unless you hear them in person. Personally, I think these speakers sound incredible, so much so that I’ve been trying to figure out how to make more use of them since I don’t use my turntable a lot and I really want to listen to these speakers more.
If you’d like to hear the speakers, they’re on display at the large Xcite in Avenues and their Al-Rai location. The speakers are also available on their website.
Yesterday I passed by the newly opened Momo Zaa for a late lunch. I nearly bailed out since I was starving and when I’m starving I generally don’t like trying anything new just in case the food turns out to be crap. But, I was having lunch with my brother and he wanted to try it so he convinced me to try it and I’m glad I did.
Beef, chicken and vegetable momo’s
Momo Zaa is a small hole in the wall opposite Boulevard Park in Salmiya. There were around four tables inside and the place felt cozy with pictures up on one wall and Ashtamangala symbols up on the other. Momo Zaa describes themselves as the first Bhutanese restaurant in Kuwait and I heard the place belongs to the daughter of the Bhutanese ambassador (Update: Turns out it doesn’t). It was my first time experiencing Bhutanese food and I honestly didn’t know much about it, just that they had dumplings which I never say no to.
The menu had a variety of options including noodles, momo’s (dumplings) and curries. I took pictures of the menu and you can check out the front page here and the back here. We decided to go with three kinds of dumplings (beef, chicken and vegetables), a dry chili and cheese curry, Wai Wai Chow fried noodles and the crispy chili potatoes. Everything was pretty good except for the steam vegetable dumplings, I didn’t like it much but I did like the steamed beef and fried chicken dumplings. My favorite item though had to be the crispy chili potatoes.
Crispy Chili Potatoes
If you’re looking for a new place to try or want to experience a new cuisine then you can’t really go wrong with Momo Zaa. The service needs a bit of work since the waiter wasn’t very knowledgable, but the chef was super helpful and took our order while explaining all the dishes to us. Their prices are really reasonable and if you like dumplings then you should definitely check them out. They’re open from 11AM to 11PM but closed on Sundays (but they will be open today from 6PM). Here is their location on Google Maps and they’re also on instagram @momozaa.kwt
Last week I was contacted by Chevrolet asking me if I’d be interested in test driving their fully electric car, the Chevrolet Bolt EV. Although I wasn’t interested in the Bolt specifically, I was interested in experiencing life with an electric car so I agreed to borrow the car for the weekend.
Right now I don’t think there is any other company in Kuwait that sells a fully electric car, I know both Toyota and BMW sell hybrids (a combination of regular petrol engines and electric motors) but can’t think of anybody else that sells a fully electric car so Chevrolet I guess are the first.
First, let’s talk about the elephant in the room, the Chevy Bolt isn’t a pretty looking car to put it nicely. If I’m driving around in an electric car I want it to look like an electric car and I guess by that I mean I want it to look futuristic with lots of things glowing blue and lots of sharp and angular shapes, like a car that wouldn’t look out of place on the set of Tron. The Bolt looks like an entry-level budget crossover vehicle and the car I picked up was a super boring white. But, I already knew that the Bolt wasn’t pretty, for me this was all going to be about the electric experience.
I picked up the car on Thursday and it was half-charged showing me I had a range of 161KM left till empty. That was fine since I only had a few errands to run and then I was heading home so I could charge the car there. There are no Chevy fast-charging stations around Kuwait, there is a Tesla fast-charging station at Al Shaheed Park but that isn’t compatible with the Chevy charge port.
If you want to charge the Bolt you need to use the charging cable that came with it which allows you to plug it into any regular power socket. My building’s underground parking lot has power sockets all around so when I got home I just plugged the car into one and headed upstairs. A few hours later I decided to check on the charge status and was surprised to see it barely charged. So I started playing around with the car settings and noticed the car had two charging options, 6Amps and 10Amps. According to the car infotainment screen, the car was currently charging at 6Amps (which is the default setting) and that the car would be fully charged by 1:15AM on Saturday. Keep in mind it was Thursday night at that point so 6Amps wasn’t gonna work for me so I switched the car to 10Amps charging. At 10Amps, the car would be fully charged by 1:45PM the next day. Not fast enough, but still a lot better than the original estimate I got.
Next morning I left the house early around 8AM and the car was around 80% charged showing me I had a 261km range. I later found out after reading the manual that it takes around 33 hours to fully charge with the 10Amp setting. That’s just too long although I guess if you’re charging the car every time you park it then it’s not so bad, but in my case, it was starting to give me anxiety. Friday I had a bunch of things I needed to do and by the time I got home that evening, I had around 60KM range left. Unlike with fuel, if you’re close to empty you can’t just fill up at any gas station, so once I saw my range drop to 60 I was like shit, I need to get home now. I really don’t need more anxiety in my life…
Other than the whole charging debacle the car felt like a normal car to drive. I liked the minimalist dash display which was the most electric thing about the car and it was a fairly comfy vehicle to drive. Although not a fast car, the electric motors made the car feel fast since acceleration from a standstill was fairly instant. You know, thinking about it now, I think the biggest issue I have with the car isn’t the looks, or the interior or the slow charging. I think the biggest issue I have with the Bolt is with the price which is causing me to set my expectations so high. The Chevy Bolt is selling for KD13,000 which might be considered affordable compared to other electric cars, but compared to what you’d get from a similarly priced petrol-engined car, it just feels overpriced.
If you’d like to test drive the car yourself or check it out you can do so by passing by the local Chevrolet dealer. They’re on instagram @chevroletalghanim
I haven’t posted a shawarma review here in nearly a decade but that’s mostly because no new shawerma place has really interested me until now. Recently a new shawarma place opened up in Al Rai called Shakir and there has been a lot of hype surrounding it which is why I wanted to pass by and try it out. I think what grabbed my attention the most about the place was the fact they used freshly baked breadrolls for the shawarma, and after trying it out yesterday, I think that’s my favorite thing about the place.
Shakir is located pretty much walking distance from The Avenues, on the same street as Party Land and True Value. It’s a super busy area all day long so by the time you walk into the place you’re already stressed out from traffic. Your stress level will only get worse once you’re inside since there will most likely be a really long queue to order food. I stood in line at 5:47PM and got back to my car with the food by 6:22PM. That’s over 30 minutes just to pick up shawarma!
The place doesn’t have chicken shawarma, just meat with two sauces, either the regular tahina or the spicy tahina sauce. Other than that the menu only has fries, juices and laban. Pretty simple which I like although as a chicken shawerma guy, I would rather they have chicken instead of meat or the option to choose between either. While waiting for my food I spent most of my time watching them bake the breadrolls and I think that’s just the smartest idea and I don’t know why no other place does it. Plain fresh bread tastes good as is, so imagine how much better it would taste stuffed with juicy meat and tahina.
I ordered the regular shawerma as well as the spicy one along with fries and juice to go on the side. I think the regular shawerma tasted just ok with the spicy one tasting a lot better because of the more interesting spicy sauce. The best part about the shawerma was the bread as expected, and that’s what would probably make me go back, BUT, only after the hype dies down. It was definitly not worth waiting 30 minutes and I went at an irregular hour, so I can’t imagine how long the line would be during regular lunch or dinner timings. At 650 fils per shawerma I’d also expect the breadroll to be stuffed with a lot more meat which they weren’t. They’re pretty stingy with the shawerma which is a turnoff.
Back in February Zain hooked me up with Zain Beam to test out. Previously I had been using B Wirless (WiMD) but my direct line of sight with their tower had been blocked and so my connection was no longer stable. A regular LTE connection in my area was also unstable with speeds varying between 2Mbps to 4Mbps, maybe a bit more sometimes. After trying out Zain Beam in February for a couple of weeks, I loved it so much I decided to commit for 2 years and subscribe to it. This is now my follow-up review around 4 months later.
If you want to read my previous post on Zain Beam including details on the installation process, click here.
Since I installed Zain Beam the internet connection has been pretty flawless. I subscribed to their 20Mbps service but I rarely get speeds less than 27Mbps, in fact, it’s usually always around 30Mbps. For those of you with LTE connections in fancier less congested areas, you’re probably not impressed with my internet speed, and that’s understandable. I find it frustrating that my phone’s speed can reach 120Mbps in some areas, but yet my Zain Beam connection at home gets me only 30Mbps. It’s even more frustrating now to see my friends get upwards of 600Mbps with 5G as well. But, 30Mbps is the fastest connection I’ve ever been able to get in my apartment.
That’s the thing you need to be aware of when comparing Zain Beam to other internet services in Kuwait. Not everyone has fiber optics or fast LTE in their areas. Zain Beam is meant for people like me living in heavily congested areas with no fiber, no decent 4G connection, and no 5G either. So 30Mbps is super fast for me, it’s three times faster than my previous 10Mbps connection I had with B Wireless, and the only other connection that I can get which is faster than mine… is the 40Mbps Zain Beam package.
Another thing I want to point out is that Zain also limits the amount of Beam users in an area, I guess to keep the experience consistent. A friend of mine wanted to get Beam in my area but Zain told him all the slots had already been filled.
In the 4 months I’ve had Beam I did run into one issue. Around a week or two after signing up I woke up one morning and found my internet down. No biggie, I called up Zain to talk to support and this is where I ran into a problem. With B Wireless, if I had a problem I’d call support and someone would pick up right away. The support guy would then try and solve my problem over the phone and if the problem was more complicated, he’d either tell me he’d call me back or that a technician would be sent over. Fairly simple and the whole process of solving my issue would take less than 5 minutes. With Zain, on the other hand, you don’t talk to a support persona, instead, you have to call up the regular Zain call center and leave a complaint and then someone gets back to you. Wouldn’t be that big of a deal but the process to leave a complaint takes forever! It took the call center guy over 10 minutes (not exaggerating) just to file my complaint. Their process for taking complaints is excruciatingly long, that’s over 10 minutes just to tell them my internet is down and for them to tell me someone will call me back. Other than that I didn’t really have any issues and that day it turned out my connection was down because they were doing maintenance.
With the launch of 5G last week the only thing that I’m bothered with right now is the price vs speed ratio compared to 5G. Viva, for example, offers 5G at KD25 a month (although with a 250GB limit) which is how much I’m paying, so I now feel like my connection is starting to feel overpriced. If 5G in my area can get me speeds over 100Mbps I’d be super upset that I’m committed to two years of Zain Beam and just getting 30Mbps. What I’m hoping is that Zain will eventually upgrade the speed of their two Beam packages in the coming months from the current 20Mbps and 40Mbps options right now, to maybe 40Mbps and 80Mbps instead. That would make things more palatable when compared to 5G.
If you have any specific questions on Zain Beam you can ask me in the comments below. If you’re interested in signing up to Zain Beam, here is a link to their product page.
The new 2019 G-Class might look like every G-Class built since the 70s, but the 2019 model is a completely new car with some obvious and not so obvious differences. I borrowed this car from a friend of mine who was traveling and got to spend a few days with it. Just like the previous generation G-Class, the new 2019 model has its quirks, but they’re minor stuff and this is a car I’d really love to own.
The changes on the exterior of the car are not dramatic, they’re minor and most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between the previous and current generation models. The new model is slightly curvier which some diehards hate, but I think it works. Where the biggest changes are visible though is on the inside.
The new G-Class has one of the nicest interiors of any car and that mostly has to do with the new digital dash and large infotainment screen. Mercedes have found a way to seamlessly integrate both screens into the interior by laying them down side by side on the dashboard under one sheet of glass. This gives the impression that it’s one long screen stretching from the driver’s door all the way to the end of the center console. I really love it and I think it gives the interior a very futuristic look. The infotainment system software is also nicely designed, I’m not sure how Lexus is fine with their 90s looking infotainment system when their biggest competitor has something so good looking in their cars. Other than the car’s default infotainment system you also have the option to use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. The only issue I have with the infotainment system is that it doesn’t have a touch screen. I’m used to using CarPlay with a touch screen and being forced to use a dial or touchpad to move around CarPlay felt like a bit of a mess. That’s really my biggest quibble with the car.
The interior was also very comfortable, while with the previous generation I struggled to fight a comfortable seating position this time around it was really easy. The interior also felt more spacious and it was generally a great place to be. The ride is comfortable, the soundproofing is extremely good and the car felt very solid and could take abuse.
I like the combination of an old school exterior with a very modern interior and I wish more cars did this. The G-Class comes loaded with modern features like brake assist, active distance assist, surround view cameras and parking assist just to name a few. Active distance assist is probably my favorite feature, it works great in traffic since it accelerates, slows down and stops the car for you without you having to do anything. So you could be on your phone watching a youtube video and the car will keep you moving in traffic without requiring your attention.
There are currently two versions of the new G-Class available, the G500 which has 422hp and the G63 which has 585hp. You do NOT need the G63, nobody needs it! I found the G500 more than capable power-wise for an SUV that’s shaped like a brick, plus the G63 is a lot more expensive. Earlier I mentioned my biggest issue with the car was the lack of touch screen, well I lied. The biggest issue I have with the G-Class is the price. The new 2019 G-Class starts at KD38,000 while the G63, on the other hand, starts at a whopping KD55,000.
38,000 is about what I feel this car is worth when fully optioned out but, the G500 actually peeks out at around 50,000 when all the options are clicked. If I’m paying 50,000 I want to feel special and I don’t think the G-Class feels that special anymore. They’re too common on the roads and that takes away from the special feel. In reality though, what luxury SUV isn’t a common sight in Kuwait? They’re all plentiful.
Do I want a G-Class? Yes, I do. I love the size, I love the interior and I love that it can take my abuse. But with all the options I’d want to fit into this car, I’m going to be wayyy past the 38,000 starting price.
If you’re interested in checking out the new G-Class, here is the instagram account of the dealer @mercedesbenzkuwait
