2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The popular architecture website ArchDaily have nominated Al Shaheed Park for “Building of the Year 2016” under the category Public Architecture. To help Al Shaheed Park win, all you need to do is vote for it on the ArchDaily website [Here]

ArchDaily did a full feature on Al Shaheed Park last year which I posted about [Here]

Friday night I passed by RAW Sushi Bar with a few friends to try the place out. RAW is a new sushi place located in a very industrial part of Shuwaikh and currently opening just on the weekends. Actually up until last week they were opening only Friday evenings but starting this coming week they’ll be opening Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. They’re still in a soft launch phase which was why their menu wasn’t the final edition when we passed by but I liked the place so wanted to post about it.

First to get the food aspect out of the way, we ordered a whole bunch of rolls and starters so we could try a variety of dishes. The worst dishes we had weren’t really bad but they just weren’t anything that really stuck out. On the other hand the stuff we did like we would go back for more. Their Negimaki was the best I’ve had and from the rolls we ordered my favorites were the Cali Wearing Orange and the Pink Ink rolls. Forgot what was inside them but just look for them on the menu if you pass by. One of the things I liked about their rolls was the ability to order half portions so you can order more of a variety without over ordering.

The interior of the place was dim, industrial and trendy looking. It’s not that big with a small bar running along one side of the restaurant and four small tables scattered around. They’ll soon have outdoor seating but I think I’d still prefer the inside more just because of the mood. It’s a local business run by the owners themselves who happen to also be the sushi chefs. I asked one of the owners why he chose to open up in that location and he told me he was actually a bike builder and spent a lot of his time in that area. There literally isn’t anything else around them open that late, there aren’t even any street lights which can be a bit creepy. But, it’s where he feels comfortable and along with all the location quirks I thought they helped make the place seem that much more special.

The only issue we really had was with the service. It was fairly slow but that was to be expected since they had only been open a handful of times and are still working to fix all their kinks. Price wise I found them extremely reasonable. We were four people and our bill came out to KD26. It actually should have been around KD31 since we ordered 4 starters, 5 different rolls, 4 waters and 2 green teas but, they didn’t charge us for two half portions of rolls because there was a mix up and we ended up getting them really late. Still, KD31 add tip plus divided by 4 is KD8.5 per person. That’s really good. As I mentioned, starting this week they’ll be opening Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 7PM till midnight. Their instagram account is @eatrawkwt and here is their location on [Google Maps]

This post is for the MMA fans here. A few years ago I posted a clip from Warriors War, a middleweight MMA tournament that took place in Kuwait back in 2001 and involved the likes of Matt Hughes, Bruce Buffer and Big John McCarthy. I was pretty surprised back then that I hadn’t heard of this tournament before but Ray Elbe sent me a link to an article a few days back that discusses the event in full details. Turns out it was a complete mess from an organizing stand point which should be no surprise but there was also a scheme to rig some of the fights. If you’re an MMA fan you’re going to find this enjoyable to read, check out the article [Here]

After Room of Clues and Trapped Inn comes Mind Maze, a new local company providing live and interactive adventure games. If you don’t know how these games works you are basically locked in a room and have 6o minutes to figure a way out with your friends by looking for clues and solving puzzles. Mind Maze currently have two adventure rooms, the Alchemist’s Chamber and ENIGMA. Based on their photo gallery the two rooms look pretty well set up with ENIGMA (pictured above) probably being my favorite of the two. If you’re interested to check them out here is a link to their [Website]

4Sale is a local classifieds app which I have been hesitant to post about since it’s a pretty crappy app with tons of ads, terrible graphics and overall just a big mess. But, the app does have one thing going for it and that is the content. For some odd reason, the app (and their website) is super popular. It’s probably one of the most popular classifieds websites and apps in Kuwait even though they’re both horrible to use.

I hate it and it’s not just me, the App has a 2 star rating in the app store so clearly other people are facing similar issues. But like I said its about the content and you’ll find a ton of stuff for sale here. I’ve been mostly using the app to look for old cars from the 80s, a friend of mine uses it to search for vape products while another for video games. You’re bound to find something in there that interests you so you’ll end up putting up with all the flaws just like I do. To download the app search for “4sale” in the app store or click one of the following links [iPhone] [Android]

Last week the Winter Land Carnival opened up so I decided to pass by to check it out. It was freezing cold on Thursday night when I went but that just added to the experience instead of taking away from it. Winter Land is a fairly large setup and one you can see from a distance as you’re driving up. It’s mainly for children with the whole thing divided into two main are, entertainment and food.

For kids entertainment they have a number of activities include a large outdoor ice skating rink, a large ranch where kids can pet animals or ride ponies, a large archery section, some bouncy castles and a few other smaller games as well. The food area stretches from one side of the carnival all the way to the other with a ton of different food vendors to choose from although most of them had a similar menu involving either burgers or some sort of Nutella based dessert.

All in all though everyone looked like they were having fun including the friends and families who were manning some of the food stalls. The carnival will be up until February 20th so if you want to pass by and need more info, click [Here]

Back in 2011 the Salmiya municipality dug up the middle sidewalk in the old souq where I live. The trees originally were surrounded by a small square dirt patch but someone in the municipality decided to enlarge that patch more than double the size and then merge all the trees with one large dirt pit. When I had spoken to one of the employees who was digging up the street back then he told me the plan was to plant the sidewalk like on the Gulf Road. I obviously knew that wasn’t going to happen since we have a major garbage situation that wasn’t getting solved so I had doubts they were planning to “beautify” Salmiya with greenery. But, a few of my readers thought I was being pessimistic and were all for a greener Salmiya.

Well just an update 5+ years later, nobody has planted shit and the dirt pit is still a dirt pit.

The Shakshooka Market is back this weekend and it’s my personal favorite event for this weekend. But there are other honorable mentions like the Winter Land Carnival which seems interesting (they’ve got a large outdoor ice skating rink). For the geeks over here there’s Global Game Jam 2016 taking place this weekend as well. Finally there is the Camel Classic RC Race, for those of you who aren’t aware, we actually have one of the largest off road RC tracks in the world so that event should be cool as well.

I also think there is a military event taking place near the Kuwait Towers this weekend but I haven’t been able to get any info on it. If you know something let me know but for now, check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Art Exhibition: Complicity
Winter Land Carnival
Harry Potter Night
Rooftop Movie: Two Days, One Night
Camel Classic RC Race

Friday
Winter Land Carnival
Global Game Jam 2016 – Kuwait
The Hits Market
Mental Health Movie Night: A Beautiful Mind
Camel Classic RC Race

Saturday
Winter Land Carnival
Global Game Jam 2016 – Kuwait
The Hits Market
Yoga at the Park
Remedy Carnival
Protein Sheikhas: Boot Camp
Shakshooka Market
Cross Cultural Diwaniya
Rooftop Movie: The Fisher King
Camel Classic RC Race

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 double check info with organizers.

Photo taken this morning in Al Salmi area. [Source]

Update: Got a few more pictures, check them out below:

Arabian Business have released their World’s 50 Richest Arabs list for 2016 and Kuwait made the list three times:

10- The Al Kharafi Family
11- The Bukhamseen Family
26- The Alghanim Family

The richest Arab is Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Al Saud from Saudi Arabia but thats not a surprise. What is a surprise to me at least is that 7 people from Lebanon made the list including Joseph Safra whom I hadn’t heard of before coming in 2nd place. Due to the amount of wealth in Kuwait I just expected more people from Kuwait to make the list although a lot of Kuwaitis are not on the list like Mohammed Alshaya because Alshaya is a private and family-owned business and so their finances are a secret.

Check out the full list [Here]

As I’m getting ready to move apartments, I can’t help but feel like I’m going bananas! Which, brought me to think about discussing bananas. I’ve realized that people can be divided into 2 groups – a group that loves bananas and think they’re healthy and a group that wants to stay away from one of the starchiest fruits out there. So are bananas worth the calories? Let’s take a look.

Taking a look at the Nutrition Facts (please keep in mind that a banana comes in a variety of sizes and ripeness, this information is for the average medium sized banana)

– Energy: 105 kcals
– Carbs: 27 grams
– Protein: 1g

The calories in bananas are mainly from 2 types of carbohydrates – resistant starch and pectin. Both are mainly found in unripe (green bananas).  These type of starches are essential in maintaining gut health (feed your good bacteria), keeping you full, and helping avoid a blood sugar spike post meal. All of which are key factors to helping anyone eat less and hopefully lose some weight regardless of the caloric amount. This makes banana an excellent choice for a quick and easy breakfast, along with a nut butter, or alone as a snack. Keep in mind that the more ripe a banana is the less pectin and resistance starches are available, BUT don’t let that bring you down, ripe bananas contain a good amount of soluble fiber, the kind that attracts water turning the food into a gel-like consistency and slowing down absorption. I guarantee you you’ll be full regardless of the ripeness of the banana.

Bananas are also high in antioxidants like dopamine and catechins (similar to those found in white tea), provide your body with many nutrients and help protect your heart’s health. The antioxidants and nutritional profile make a banana an excellent snack for athletes as it provides a quick source of energy as well as many electrolytes to help avoid dehydration.

I personally find bananas to be worth every single calorie. I know that some may prefer another 100 calorie snack, but not all calories are the same, and if you choose to alter your taste buds to favor the unripe kind, bananas could actually keep you full and help you achieve your weight loss goals. In the midst of packing up my kitchen and not having any cookware to prepare a meal, a banana with 2 tablespoons of almond butter might just be my dinner of choice.

Post by Hyatt Al Sayegh, a Clinical Dietitian and Dr. Sears Health Coach.
Founder of Fork Fed.

Last month an ebook containing 1,001 vintage ads from old Kuwaiti newspapers was released by the Dawood Treasury. The ads are grouped into categories to make it easier to navigate but sadly the whole ebook is only available as an Adobe Flash based flip book. It’s difficult to navigate, it’s slow, it spends forever loading and there is no way you could download it to view it later on your iPad or laptop. It sucks that they went through all that effort to create this ebook but then to make it so inaccessible. In any case check it out [Here]

Thanks Adnan

For the people who were doubting the project would be completed in 2 years, looks like you were wrong. I’m hopefully going to get a site tour of the Cultural Centre soon and once I do I should have more pictures and information on the status.

So a new sushi place opened up in Kuwait called RAW and I’m in love with their branding. But, nobody seems to know where they are located, their website rawsushibar.com doesn’t work and I can’t find any info about them. Does anybody have an idea where they’re located?

Recently I’ve been doing a bit of maintenance work on my car and one of the things I badly needed to sort out was my windshield. The windshield had thousands of tiny pits that were mostly invisible unless the sun hit the windshield at a certain angle and then my visibility would completely get killed. Last time I swapped out my windshield was at the dealership, it cost me around KD180, I needed to book an appointment and I needed to leave my car with them overnight. It was just too much of a hassle which is the main reason I had put this job off for some time. But, last week a friend of mine snapchatted a video of his windshield getting fixed at a place called Glass Clinic so I decided to pass by and check them out.

When I got there and started talking to the employees I realized the place was legit so I told them to go ahead and swap out my windshield. There are plenty of places on Canada Dry Street that can swap a windshield but majority of them are pretty sloppy with their work, reuse your rubber moldings and most importantly, use silicon instead of a windshield polyurethane sealant. Glass Clinic solves all those issues.

Firstly the place is pretty clean with a waiting area upstairs that overlooks your car. They covered my interior seats before they started any work and the employees wore latex gloves the whole time while working on my car. Instead of using a silicon sealant, Glass Clinic use the Totalseal brand of sealant which is specifically made for automotive glass and is a lot safer and stronger than regular silicon. If you’ve ever replaced a windshield on Canada Dry Street you probably had to suffer with the horrible smell for days after installing the glass, thats the smell of the silicon. With a proper polyurethane sealant there is no smell. The whole installation process took around 2 hours, which is more than double the time it would usually take you on Canada Dry Street so you get an idea of the amount of care they put into the job.

I opted not to install an original Toyota windshield since it was going to cost me KD135 without installation. Instead I went with an OEM version and the final cost with installation was just KD55. Slightly more than what it would cost me on Canada Dry Street but a fraction of the dealership cost. They also fix tiny windshield cracks and they also offer the service of coming to you wherever you are for an extra KD3. If you’d like to find out more, they’re on Instagram @glassclinic and here is their location on [Google Maps]