2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

So the reason I was in Bahrain this past weekend was to take part in the Bahrain GP Open Track that took place on Friday. During one of the racing sessions, I experienced my first spin out and captured it on video. It had been raining earlier in the day and although the track had mostly dried up, the red and white rumble strips on the corners were still damp and I drove over one after running wide and completely lost traction.

The interesting part for me was how the experience felt a lot longer than it actually was. As soon as I started spinning out, in my head I started to go back and try and remember what I learned when I took drifting lessons a few months ago. I then let go of the steering wheel while at the same time I started thinking, ok, I might be heading towards the wall on my right side, if I hit it, I’ll probably mess up the whole side of my car. Then I started wondering how much that might cost in repairs and how long I was going to have to wait for the parts to arrive. During this time I was also trying to figure out where on the track I was and which way I was facing. When I saw that I was starting to point in the right direction, I took a hold of the steering again to control the spin. Luckily, I ended up with a perfect 360 spin and didn’t hit a wall or another car (I was going somewhere between 150-170km/h at that point). As soon I was facing the right way again I just stepped on it.

All those thoughts and discussions I was having in my head happened in just 2 seconds although it felt a lot longer while it was happening. I think I now kinda understand when people say life flashes before your eyes just before you die, or in my case, spin out. Anyway, you can check out snippets of Friday’s open track day in the video below compiled by the Bahrain International Circuit.

A post shared by Bahrain International Circuit (@bah_int_circuit) on Nov 24, 2017 at 12:14pm PST

I’m not normally a presents kinda girl but I did ask for one thing last year; the Anova. If you aren’t familiar, the Anova is a home sous vide machine. With sous vide cooking you stick food in a vacuum sealed bag and cook it in a controlled water bath to ensure your meats (typically) come out at optimal juiciness.

The Anova is a great kitchen tool for anyone who loves home cooking. It’s extremely affordable at 100USD and super easy to use. You can control the temperatures from the app on your phone and the cooker itself will easily attach to anything from pots, to big plastic Ikea containers if you’re planning on going to town.

The results are amazing but it does take time, so don’t expect to be using your Anova daily. Though I have made sous vide eggs, which were spectacular, I’ve only done it twice in the past year. Why? Because it’s a 45 min process and lets be honest, eggs are eggs, and ain’t nobody got time for that.

The Anova is amazing though for proteins, your steaks will always come out picture perfect and your chicken breasts juicy as ever. I have a bunch of friends that have gotten Anova’s recently and they all seem to enjoy it too, it’s a tool that really makes you feel like a pro-chef in the kitchen at a fraction of the cost of most other kitchen gadgets. [Amazon Link]

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

I really hate flying out of Kuwait on weekends and I hate it, even more, coming back at the end of the weekend. The airport is usually packed with travelers and immigration on arrival is usually total chaos for us expats. But, I think I’ve found a good solution, Hala Meet & Assist Service.

I’ve know about the Hala Meet & Assist Service for some time now but didn’t consider using it until recently. The way it works is fairly simple, first, you need to book the service before you arrive to Kuwait. When you land one of their employees waits for you outside the plane and then takes your passport and fast-tracks you through immigration by taking you through the VIP line. This allows you to skip the long endless immigration queues and the chaos associated with it.

The service isn’t cheap costing KD10, but on more than one occasion I would have been willing to pay double that just to get through the airport as stress-free as possible. The biggest downside to this service is the fact that sometimes you get to immigration and there isn’t a queue or anything, so the KD10 goes to waste. So its a gamble, you pluck the KD10 down in hopes that there is a huge chaotic scene at immigration (which is the case 80% of the time). If you’re interested in finding out more about this service, then click [Here]

Over the weekend I was in Bahrain and dropped by the recently opened Avenues there to check it out since I had some time to kill. It’s pretty tiny compared to Avenues Kuwait but they’ve got great outdoor seating that overlooks the bay.

I’m not sure how many phases Avenues Bahrain has, I think just two with the first phase currently the only one open. The first phase looks like Grand Avenues here in Kuwait just a bit longer and tighter. Currently not much is open there and what is open we have in Kuwait, so it’s probably not worth checking out yet.

Over the weekend I flew to Bahrain for one night and decided to take Wataniya Airways. I had booked my ticket fairly late, around 3 days before my trip and when I checked ticket prices, Gulf Air was KD68, Kuwait Airways KD50 and Wataniya Airways was KD40. Since its a short flight I went with the cheapest priced ticket. I hadn’t flown Wataniya Airways since they relaunched and so was curious to see if it was any good.

The first issue popped up 24 hours before my flight, I couldn’t check-in online. The online check-in button on their website didn’t work and when I contacted customer support they told me online check-in wasn’t possible yet. So Friday morning I woke up early and headed to the Sheikh Saad terminal so I could check-in early and choose my seat. When I got to Sheikh Saad Terminal I found out Wataniya Airways didn’t fly out from there. Neither my ticket nor the website had mentioned which airport they flew out from and since they used to fly out of Sheikh Saad Terminal before, I assumed that was still the case. It wasn’t and so I had to get back into my car and drive to the main airport instead. Wataniya Airways if you’re reading this, you need to mention what airport you fly out from on the website or the ticket!

My flight was empty with just 34 passengers so I didn’t have any trouble getting the seat I wanted. Speaking of the seats, the economy class seats looked pretty dated, they also don’t have screens nor USB or power ports. On the other hand, they did serve food and beverages on the flight although it was basic, just sandwiches and either a juice pack or a cup of water. The crew also had no issue with me using my electronic devices on takeoff and landing, some airlines still make a fuss out of this and it’s really annoying when they do, so it was a plus that they didn’t.

Would I use Wataniya Airways again? Possibly, their prices right now are pretty competitive and they’ve got offers running all the time. Last week you could have booked a ticket to Doha for free and now I just checked ticket prices to Beirut and it’s KD40 (using the coupon code SUNDAY). My only issue really is the online check-in since I like choosing my seats before I get to the airport. I could still do that but I’d have to pay for the seats and I think the first few rows are KD10 (I think I even saw KD20), and then keep dropping down in price the further you go back. When your whole ticket costs you just KD40, doesn’t make sense to pay KD20 as well on seats. Overall though it’s great having another airline to choose from.

Quick reminder, if you want tickets to the Sting concert, they’ll be going back on sale today at 1PM. Here is the [Link]

Goodluck!

Update: Tickets went on sale at 1PM with no drama. The website is functioning fine and 20 minutes after launch and there are still a ton of seats available.

Anyone who tried getting Sting tickets at exactly 1PM probably ran into the same issue I did, both the JACC and Knet payment gateway websites crashed. I must have been one of the first people into the booking page since all the seats were still available. Originally I wanted to get Platinum seats but the max budget me and my friends had set was KD75 a ticket and the Platinum were selling for KD175 which was over our budget. So I quickly scanned the ticket prices and found Silver for KD75 and booked 6 seats in the front row. I then proceeded to the checkout page excited that I had gotten great seats, I filled in my knet details and then nothing. It got stuck on “Processing…”

I had multiple tabs open trying to reload the ticket booking page while my Knet order continued to process. When the booking page popped back up to life for a minute I noticed the seats I had chosen were showing as taken, so I figured I still had a chance for my order to go through. Around 20 minutes later with the JACC site still down, my Knet order timed out with an error. At that point, I kept trying to reload the booking page until it finally came back to life. I tried to book the seats the same seats I had originally picked but they were already taken so got similar ones just a few seats down. It was too intense of an experience.

Regarding ticket pricing, below are the prices of all the tickets that were available for sale:

If the JACC website can’t handle this much traffic they shouldn’t launch all the tickets for all their upcoming events on the same day at the same time. They could have made them available at different points throughout the day instead of all at once so their server could handle the traffic. Hopefully, they’ll consider doing that the next time around. For now, I’m just glad I managed to score some good seats for me and my friends.

Update: Since I published the post they shutdown the ticket booking for Sting (and 7 other events) and kept pushing back the relaunch by an hour. I just checked now and they’ve decided to split up the ticket purchasing for their 8 events into half. The first 4 events will go back on sale in around 5 hours time (at the time I’m writing this) while the second batch of events that includes Sting will go back on sale in 2 days time.

Super busy weekend with lots of things going on so check out this weekends list of events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: The Box
Watercolor Exhibition: Yasmin Al-Mutawa
42nd International Book Fair
IGN Convention 2017
Winter Fest
DAI Film Night: Beasts of the Southern Wild
The Divan’s Movie Night – Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust
Modern Heritage Festival: Lena Chamamyan

Friday
42nd International Book Fair
IGN Convention 2017
The End of Year Gift Bazaar
The British Academy of Sport 4th International Basketball Tournament
Fall Festival
Battle of the Bands – Round 2

Saturday
42nd International Book Fair
IGN Convention 2017
Bēhance Kuwait 2017
Al Corniche Winter Bazaar
Guided Tour: Old Kuwait City
BSK Pink Saturday 2017
MarketSpace
Clean Eats Picnic Time
Photographers Bazaar 3
Voices & Verses

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double check with the organizers.

The movies below are now showing at either Cinescape, Grand Cinemas or Sky Cinemas:

New This Week:
Bounty Hunters (5.3)
Breathe (7.0) ♦
Coco (9.1)
Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (5.0)
Marrowbone (6.5)

Other Movies Showing:
Earth: One Amazing Day
Jigsaw (8.4)
Justice League (8.1)
Monster Island (5.0)
Murder on the Orient Express (6.7)
Suburbicon (4.7) ♦
The Foreigner (7.2) ♦
Thor: Ragnarok (8.2)
Victoria and Abdul (6.1)
Wonder (7.2)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

A Beautiful Planet 3D (7.9)
America Wild: National Parks Adventure (N/A)
Dream Big 3D (7.9)
Extreme Weather 3D (6.6)
Tiny Giants 3D (8.0)
Watermelon Magic 3D (7.4)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.
★ is for movies I’m interested in. ♦ implies movie might contain censorship.

The popular musician Sting is coming next month to perform in Kuwait. He will be performing at JACC over a period of two days. As if this post tickets are yet to go on sale, according to their website they’ll be on sale on Thursday, November 23rd (tomorrow) at 1PM.

I’d expect the tickets to sell out fast so if you’re interested in getting tickets, you should probably do so as soon as they go on sale. For more information, click [Here]

Watersouq is a website that focuses on just one thing, bottled water, and I like that. It’s very specific but because they’re very focused they do it pretty well. I think they have nearly every water brand that’s available in Kuwait on their website so even if you’re looking for an obscure brand, you’ll probably find it listed there. They also seem to have a bunch of deals going on like buy 10 boxes get 2 free or buy 20 get 6 free which is great if you’re buying in bulk for your office or large home.

It actually makes sense to buy in large quantities because Watersouq charge KD1 for delivery and an additional 400fils service charge. If this seems like something you’re interested in, here a linke to their [Website]

I cook a lot but there are some cuisines that always seemed a bit too out of reach, and that list sadly used to include Kuwaiti cuisine.

I always believed that Machboos would be way too difficult and too long to make to fit into my weekday cooking lifestyle. But I wanted to learn, so I tasked my Chef CoFounder Yousef Al Munayes to have a stab at making Machboos accessible to the average Jo. He being the whiz that he is, succeeded and I finally made my very first Kuwaiti dish at the ripe old age of 32.

When you break it down you can cook a whole Machboos in just one pot and in under an hour if the ratios are right. A small whole chicken for two can easily cook through in this time period just follow this simple recipe below and enjoy!

Ingredients:
800 gram Whole Chicken (split in half with spine removed)
1.5 Cups Basmati Rice (soaked in cold water for 15-20mins)
2 Cloves Garlic Minced
1 Small Red Onion Chopped
3 Tbsp Machboos Spice Mix (found in any grocery)
Rice Topping (1 Tbsp Rose Water, 2 Tsp Ground Cardamon, Few strands of Saffron)
1 Tbsp Vegetable stock
550ml Boiling water

1. Cook the chicken
Season the chicken with 3/4ths of the spice mix. Heat a deep sautee pan over medium-high heat and add 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. When hot add the chicken skin side down. Cook for 6-8 mins or until the chicken is well browned. Flip and cook for 4-5 more mins. Set aside.

2. Cook the aromatics
In the same sautee pan used for searing the chicken, add the chopped onion, cook stirring occasionally for 3-4 mins or until the onion is translucent. Add the garlic and remaining spice mix, continue stirring for 1 minute.

3. Put it all together
Strain your rice and add to the pan along with 1 Tbsp of vegetable oil. Gently stir for 1-2 mins, add the boiling water, season with vegetable stock, salt and black pepper to taste. Stir to combine. Top with the seared chicken pieces and cover. Set the heat to the lowest setting. Cook for 30 minutes then take off heat. Open the lid, add the rice topping. Cover and let sit for 10 mins. Serve with your favorite sides and enjoy!

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

I’m having a hard time keeping up with the new car impoundment campaign. When it was first launched they said they’d impound your car for 2 months if they caught you using your phone while driving or not wearing seatbelts. Then I heard the campaign was cancelled a day after they launched it. Now I’m hearing the campaign is back on but that it only applies to men, not women or old people? Whatever the situation is, Kuwait Impound is a website that allows you to find your car after it’s been impounded. So if you got your car impounded and want to know where it’s stored, use this [Link]

Thanks Fahad

“I am here” is a short film (ad) for the architecture firm SSH that showcases their work including the Sheikh Jaber Al Ahmad Cultural Center and the soon to open Sheikh Abdullah Al Salem Cultural Centre in Shaab. It’s a well-done film that really brings out the beauty of JACC so take a couple of minutes to watch it. [Vimeo]

Farouq Abdul-Aziz, the presenter of the popular show on KTV2 ‘Cine Club’ in the 80s now has a website. The website has a few blog posts by him, interviews and most importantly, original episodes of Cine Club. Right now they have around 7 videos on the website but they’re hoping to upload all his episodes eventually.

I really hope they do that since there is this one Cine Club movie I watched as a kid that I’ve been wanting to watch again but I could never remember its name. All I remember was that it was an adventure/treasure finding movie and the last scene of the film takes place in this mountain where the hero finds the golden artifact only to have to leave it behind because the whole mountain was collapsing. He escapes in a helicopter. That’s all I remember so hopefully I’ll eventually find it.

Check out Farouq’s website [Here]