2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Last week I posted about the cheapest sashimi in Kuwait and a reader mentioned Sakura’s open buffet might be considered cheaper since it’s basically all you can eat sashimi (and everything else) for a set price. Although I disagree with that fact it did remind me of a Japanese buffet a friend had told me about. Fusion (the one next to the Kuwait Towers) have an all you can eat Japanese buffet for KD7.950. Compared to Sakura’s KD12,900 it’s a pretty good deal.

I passed by last night with some friends to check it out and honestly, it’s clearly not award winning food but there was a lot of variety and you can’t go wrong with sashimi. I ended up eating a ton of salmon sashimi, some spicy grilled chicken on skewers and a shrimp with veggies dish so I managed to keep it mostly healthy stuff although the eat all you can eat shrimp tempura they kept freshly frying for us wasn’t really helping my cause. They also have eat all you can eat teppanyaki and a whole variety of regular and unhealthy/mayo/cripsy sushis as well.

Again, don’t expect to have the best Japanese food in Kuwait but for the price it’s really hard to beat. I’m not sure if they have the buffet for lunch or just dinner but here is their number 22418901 if you want to find out (I’m too lazy to call and ask).

According to a friend of mine the sinkholes on the King Fahad Highway (40) are being caused by ongoing pipeline projects. They’re micro-tunneling under the 40 passing pipes from one side of the highway to the other and because the ground beneath the road is not stable it’s creating sinkholes [1,2].

In case you missed the Red Bull 5 Pics exhibition at 52 Degrees, photographer Alex Dennis Bolado created a virtual tour of the exhibition that took place there a couple of weeks back. Red Bull 5 Pics was a competition in which each photographer using just 5 photographs had to answer the brief “Kuwait through your eyes”. Check out the virtual tour [Here]

Once you’re done with the tour you can check out all the submissions including the winners on the Red Bull website [Here]

A few days ago I found out one of my friends (Abdulwahab Alansari) has the strangest/coolest/wtf/successful/creative local business which I thought would be amazing to share as an example of how local businesses don’t have to be all about cupcakes and burgers.

My friend manufactures cheer leading outfits in Kuwait for the UK market.

I thought he was pulling my leg at first but turns out it’s true. Back when he was in university in Liverpool he used to coach their gymnastics and cheerleading team and he was really good at it helping them go from an average team to a team that would come in first place in two out of the three annual competitions. Cheerleading kits in the UK were very over priced and of low quality so he did some research and decided to manufacture his own kits so he could help out his team. Ironically though, his team only placed an order for kits just 8 months back… after supplying over 5,000 kits over a period of 2 years to other universities and private clubs. In fact his small Kuwait based business now supplies 30-50% of UK universities and well over 30 private clubs. His clients include all the universities in Liverpool as well as the big ivy league unis in the UK like Oxford University.

Sebs Cheer Apparel don’t design outfits although they do help teams with elements of their design. Their main focus is manufacturing the outfits with the fabrics ordered from suppliers in LA, China and sometimes Kuwait. The outfits are all manufactured locally and then shipped to the various teams in the UK.

The name “Seb” was Wahabs alter ego and what most people in the “cheer world” knew him as. It’s that recognition that got him his first 10 clients since coaches and athletes he worked with respected him as an athlete and knew he would do a good job of getting efficient kits out. The business started off small with him supplying people he knew but soon word of mouth spread and more and more universities wanted to do business with him.

So there you have it, an interesting and successful small Kuwaiti business that doesn’t involve cupcakes. If you want to find out more about his business you can check out the following links:

Website
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram

If you’re eager to get your hands on a PS4 or an Xbox One on launch day without having to pay ridiculous Kuwait launch day prices this is probably your best option. You can pre-order the consoles from Amazon AND Amazon will ship them directly to Kuwait bypassing your US forwarding mailbox (Shop&Ship/Borderlinx) and saving you a ton on shipping.

According to Amazon, shipping either of the two consoles to Kuwait via their AmazonGlobal Priority Shipping (averages 3-7 days) will cost you just KD14. If you’re interested here are the links to Amazon:

PlayStation 4: Standard Edition
Xbox One Console – Day One Edition

Thanks BAJS

www.ismajlisdissolved.com

According to @7eyad there was another stabbing last night at The Avenues. The stabbing occurred opposite West Elm and Life with Cacao and resulted with one person getting stabbed in the shoulders and rushed to the hospital. The reason I have a question mark in the title is because according to mall security this morning, someone tripped down the stairs and hurt themselves.

Photo from @7eyad

Mapbox is a website that allows you to check out the geographical usage patterns of various mobile phone devices in Kuwait. iPhone and Android seem to be very close with the BlackBerry lagging behind the two. [Link]

Thanks Az

According to Major General Abdul Fattah Al Ali in the video above, they will soon be slapping travel bans on anyone who hasn’t paid their traffic violations. So if you have any fines (like I did) then you better pay them now. [YouTube]

You can check and pay your traffic violations online [Here]

“Beating the NBA: Tales From a Frugal Fan” is a book by Kuwaiti author Motez Bishara. I thought the subject was very interesting since I purchase most of my concert tickets from “secondary markets” so I emailed Motez and asked him to tell me more about himself and how he came up with the book and this is what he had to say:

I am a Kuwaiti who grew up between New York and Kuwait, before going to university in Boston and grad school in New Orleans. I now reside in London (so I’m kind of all over the shop).

I have been a big fan of the NBA since I was a kid at ASK, where I played high school basketball. Going to Boston University during the end of the Larry Bird era, I had to find ways to buy tickets to see the Celtics on a low budget. From there, I developed a set of guidelines that ordinarily allowed me to gain entry to live events of every nature (theater, rock concerts, etc.) for less than the price printed on the ticket.

About eight years ago websites like StubHub and Craigslist allowed fans to find ‘secondary market’ tickets much easier. Buying off of scalpers on the street was now just one option, instead of the only option, aside from the box office. Conversely, sports teams kept raising their prices to the point where they were not in line with demand. As more and more season ticket holders in the United States started using the likes of StubHub and eBay to sell unwanted tickets, I would often find deals for a fraction of what teams were charging.

[Radio Interview]

As a fan, and conscientious consumer, I was insulted that sports teams — NBA teams in particular — were still clinging to their antiquated model, while it was obvious that their ticket prices were not reflective of the actual market value of those seats. A point I drive home in the book is that fans (and consumers of all goods) should pay no more than the market value of what they are purchasing. And if they can get away with paying less, then all the better. I show people how to do just that.

Beating the NBA: Tales from a Frugal Fan is a collection of stories from my trips around the United States, Canada and London which document how I, along with other fans I met, go about getting good deals. It is sprinkled with anecdotes and interviews from my travels to 31 games.

If you’re interested in purchasing the book its Available on Amazon as paperback [Here]
The Kindle version will be available any day now as well.

The Daily Mail has photos and an article about the two executions that were carried out yesterday. Their article also has over 900 comments so far with the majority of the commentators praising the executions. Here are some of the “Best Rated” comments on the article:

Well – THEY won’t be raping and killing again… what a concept!
– John

Nice one Kuwait …… hanging is the ‘green option’…. hardly any carbon footprint.
– Captain Calamity

Rape a child, you need to die. Period.
– farsideoftheworld

People may say that it’s inhuman and barbaric, but crimes like these are very rare in Kuwait due to the death penalty. Sadly in this Country of ours, there are no deterrents for any crime!
– UK was great

Now why can’t we do the same here in Britain.
– david

Check out the photos, article and all the comments [Here]

Thanks Kashif

Just a quick note. If you ever come in here and don’t find a new post but still want something interesting to read or check out then visit 248PM. It’s just a random place where me and my brother just post interesting videos or anything else we deem interesting that’s not related to Kuwait.

You can visit that blog by hitting the link on the top navigation strip or just by clicking [Here]

The Masked Hitman is a 4 part short film that will be aired this coming Ramadan. The film by Khaleel Hayat is based around a hitman that was kidnapped as a child and had his parents killed by a gang that kidnaps children to use in drug trafficking. After escaping their clutches, the hitman is coming back for revenge. Not your regular run-of-the-mill Ramadan series that’s for sure.

Originally the film was going to be shot in Canada but due to the film containing weapons and Canadas strict rules, the film is now being shot in Kuwait. The Masked Hitman will be uploaded onto YouTube in 4 parts with one episode per week during Ramadan. Once the first episode is out I’ll be posting it here on the blog so stay tuned. [YouTube]

Two days ago I was parked at the traffic light on the Gulf Road before KFC heading to Kuwait City when a cop in a tracksuit walked out onto the road towards a Ford Mustang that was a couple of cars in front of me. I recognized he was a cop because he was wearing a fluorescent orange vest with the words “POLICE” printed on it plus it looked like he was wearing his badge on a necklace.

Last night I was dropping a friend off near Holiday Inn Salmiya when I noticed a checkpoint on the opposite side of the road with cops again dressed in casual civilian clothing with the same fluorescent orange vest and badges hanging around their necks.

Not sure why they’re in civilian clothing but my guess is it’s connected to the recent crackdown. I’ve been hearing a lot of stories recently in regards to the crackdowns and it’s hard to tell what is real and what is just a rumor. Fajer has been trying to find out more in regards to that but she’s been facing difficulty as well.

Al Jazeera is featuring some great black and white photos of the bidoon community in Kuwait with all the photos taken by award winning photographer, Greg Constantine. Check them out [Here]