2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Today is the last day if you want to do this. [YouTube]

Happened on the King Fahad Highway (40) but down south near Nuwaiseeb. Al Aan has more details and photos [Here]

Thanks MSM

There’s currently a British Spitfire on display at 360 Mall as part of the “Aircraft” Exhibition that’s currently taking place starting from today until the 27th. The 70 year old Spitfire fighter aircraft was flown during World War II and is still operational and had been on display at the British Royal Air Force Museum since the end of the war. I’m not in Kuwait so I can’t pass by but if you’re looking for something to do this weekend then this exhibition sounds interesting. [YouTube]

I’ve never eaten at a Michelin star restaurant so when I found out there was a restaurant with two Michelin stars in Rotterdam, I decided to to try it out. The restaurant is called Parkheuvel and at one point had three Michelin stars before losing two stars and then gaining one back again. I was worried I wouldn’t find a table available since I booked the night before but I did find one and to my surprise the restaurant was actually empty when I was there for lunch.

I decided to go with the fixed 5 course menu option since I wanted to try as many dishes as I could. Below are the dishes I was served with their descriptions written underneath it. Of course when they presented the dishes to me they explained it in a much more elaborate way:

Green pea soup with sausage foam. The soup is inside the crunchy sphere.

Lobster, crab and goose liver.

Lightly simmered scallops with cauliflower and hazelnuts.

Grilled turbot with risotto.

The main course: Lamb with artichoke and potato stuffed with something.

Dessert, golden pearl of white chocolate filled with blood orange and a side of lemon icecream.

When I got the soup I thought it was funny at first but then I appreciated the fact that the soup didn’t look like soup since it made it different than any other soup I’ve had before. I thought the scallops and the grilled turbot dishes were incredible, lots of flavor and like nothing I had tasted before. I actually liked the risotto that came with the turbot more than the turbot itself and I’m not a big risotto fan. Everything else was also good but nothing really stood out like the scallops and the turbot.

The portions as you can see were pretty small making it more a tasting experience than a dining one. The service at the restaurant was the best I had ever experienced with very friendly and extremely knowledgable staff. Price wise the 5 course meal cost 110 euros (around KD40) which I think is very reasonable considering it’s a two Michelin star restaurant. The experience overall was well worth it and has made Michelin star restaurants more approachable and less intimidating to me. I always had the impression you would have to pay an arm and a leg to dine at one and that you would never be able to find a table. Now I know that’s not always the case.

Someone is selling their A-Team van replica on q8car. I posted about this van back in 2011 when I spotted it outside 360 Mall and according to a reader, the van is one of five that were made for the recent A-Team movie. [Link]

Ahmadi currently has a beautiful light display up and one of my readers took it upon himself to create a 360 Virtual Tour of some of the displays. It’s a great way of experiencing Ahmadi at night without having to go there so check out the 360 shots [Here]

Thanks Alex

Although this might be hard to believe, Batcha is a dish I’ve been wanting to try for a very long time. I had heard about it from a friend who had heard about it from another friend who most likely also heard it from someone else which would explain why I was told Batcha was actually a soup containing sheep balls, eyes, bones, brains, liver and tongue. That’s (disappointingly) not what Batcha turned out to be.

I was told there was a small restaurant tucked away at the corner of a traffic intersection in Kuwait City that serves only Batcha so I headed there with a friend of mine expecting to try the soup I described earlier. Instead it turned out Batcha was just sheep head and hooves. We decided to order their largest platter which included a sheep tongue, sheep head and four hooves. A short time later we were served two bowls of what looked like hot water mixed with oil. Not very appetizing but turns out it’s the broth that the heads and hooves were boiled in. We also got some fresh Irani bread as well and some greens. While we were trying to figure out what to do with the bowl of broth the waiter came back with our platter. It didn’t look appetizing either, but I wasn’t expecting it to.

The bowl of broth according to the waiter is a soup but I decided to use it as dip instead. I took a piece of Irani bread, put some tongue and sheep head on it and then dipped it into the broth and took my first bite. It tasted as good as it looked, not that great. But I was there for the experience so I tried to eat as much as I could. The hooves, those were the most difficult thing to eat since they looked really gross. It’s mostly skin and when I peeled the skin off and tried to eat it, I bit on something hard which turned out to be the nails of the sheep. Who knew sheep had nails?

I really didn’t eat much neither did my friend and our plate was left mostly full. But, I would still recommend the place. The thing is it’s a strange and exotic dish with the added benefit of not having to travel to some far away country to experience it. So if you’re into trying strange dishes you should pass by and give it a shot. Here is a map to the location [Map]

I’m in Holland for the next few days so if you’re interested in following me on my trip I’ll be posting photos on my Instagram account @mark248am. No idea what I’ll be doing here since I’m kinda winging it but I know I’ll be meeting the mayor of Rotterdam today and having lunch at Parkheuvel which has 2 Michelin stars (it will be my first Michelin experience). Other than that nothing is really planned.

The video above of the impressive shot that took place during the recent ITTF Kuwait Open has been making its rounds around the internet today. What I find more impressive is how an important event like the ITTF Kuwait Open took place in Kuwait and very little knew about it. Based on the news stories on the ITTF website, it looks like it was an important event yet I don’t recall seeing any advertising for it. Not a lot of activities like this take place in Kuwait so I’m sure a lot of people would have been interested to watch it. [YouTube]

If you’re staying in Kuwait during the holidays then this is something you can do. Below is the Cinemagic’s rooftop movie schedule starting this Thursday:

Thursday February 21st, 2013 at 7:30PM
THE WHITE RIBBON
Winner of the 2009 Palme D’or at Cannes, and directed by living maser Michael Haneke. Strange events happen in a small village in the north of Germany during the years just before World War I, which seem to be ritual punishment. The abused and suppressed children of the villagers seem to be at the heart of this mystery.

Saturday February 23rd, 2013 at 7:30PM
BULLHEAD
Nominated for best foreign film at the 2011 Oscars, and winner of many international awards for best film and best actor. A young cattle farmer is approached by a veterinarian to make a deal with a notorious beef trader. But the assassination of a federal policeman, and an unexpected confrontation with a mysterious secret from Jacky’s past, set in motion a chain of events with far reaching consequences.

Thursday February 28th, 2013 at 7:30PM
THE CLASS
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival, as well being on over 20 top ten of the year lists, The Class follows teacher and novelist François Bégaudeau who plays a version of himself as he negotiates a year with his racially mixed students from a tough Parisian neighborhood.

Cinemagic Kuwait, is organizing these events as part of its efforts to contribute to the development of an internationally competitive Kuwaiti audio-visual production industry, partly by bringing the filmmakers and audiences together and by Increasing the public’s interest in – and appreciation for – the art of film-making. Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG and there is no entrance fee. Here is a link to their Facebook group [Link]

This incident happened a couple of days back. It seems they were filming something on Blajat Street and the horse escaped and got hit by a car. The horse died and the uncensored photo looks pretty gruesome. No idea what happened to the car that hit the horse or the driver. [Link]

Warning: Link will lead to graphic image

Thanks Rayboy

Photo by @lolalovepabulum

This is one list where I’m glad we’re at the top of. I also can’t believe the gas prices in Venezuela are THAT cheap. If I lived in Venezuela I could fill up my FJ’s gas tank for just 250fils! That’s a lot cheaper than bottled water…

1. Venezuela US$0.06
2. Saudi Arabia US$0.45
3. Kuwait US$0.81
4. Egypt US$1.14
5. UAE US$1.77
6. Iran US$2.15
7. Nigeria US$2.34
8. Malaysia US$2.36
9. Mexico US$3.22
10. United States US$3.29

(Prices above are per gallon)

via ArabianBusiness

Phuket Thai was a restaurant that came highly recommended by a few of my readers. It’s a small place in Salmiya and it’s actually pretty near to where I live. I was actually a bit concerned that if the place did turn out to be great I’d end up eating there all the time and gaining weight. Turns out that’s not going to happen.

First impression as I walked in wasn’t that great since The interior looked gloomy and old. Me and my friend sat down and waited for someone to hand us the menus but no one did. There was one woman in the restaurant behind the cashier but she was busy talking on the phone. Finally a guy came down from upstairs and noticed us sitting and gave us the menus. There are two menus, one with photos and numbers and the other with numbers and descriptions. You flip through the photos menu and if you find a dish that looks interesting you get the number and then flip through the other menu to find out what it is. Not very practical but we ended up ordering the following:

Tom Yam Soup (Seafood) KD1.750
Tom Kha Soup (Seafood) KD1.750
Fried Wonton (Shrimp) KD1.500
Prawns on Toast KD1.750
Pad Thai Fried Noodles KD1.500
Steamed White Rice KD0.500
Sweet & Sour Shrimp KD1.750
Panang Curry (Beef) KD2.000

We started off with the soups which were pretty good with lots of seafood inside (although the crab was literally cut up and thrown in there with shell and all). The starters followed soon after but they were pretty disappointing. The fried wontons were super greasy while the prawns on toast were the most disappointing prawns on toast I’ve had so far. The toast was burnt and there was just too much sesame seed on top. Once the main courses arrived things picked up again but just slightly. The Pad Thai was really greasy and the sweet & sour shrimp was bland although to be fair, it’s a Chinese dish and my friend shouldn’t have ordered it in the first place. The beef curry on the other hand was pretty good and if I was to go back I’d order it again.

Finally when it came time to pay the bill we found out they didn’t accept Knet. I looked everywhere for a sign that says they didn’t accept Knet but couldn’t find any. At Thai Chow for example they have a large paper plastered on the entrance door saying they didn’t accept Knet. That way you can go to an ATM machine before having lunch. Since Phuket kept the no Knet fact a secret it created a bit of awkwardness since I had to leave the restaurant and drive to the nearest ATM machine in Salmiya while my friend stayed behind waiting for me. Not very cool.

Overall I was fairly disappointed with the place. Even though it’s seems really popular I just didn’t have a good experience myself. If you’re interested in trying the place out it’s located right behind Dodo and Kout Way on Baghdad street in Salmiya. Their phone number is 25714805. Make sure you have cash.

I’ve been getting emails from people who heard a really large explosion around the Ahmadi/Subhan area. Does anyone know anything about it?

Update: According to the Ministry of Defense, the sound was the result of an air force jet breaking the sound barrier during the GCC joint war games that are currently taking place in the desert.