2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Tonight I was invited to a tasting at the soon to open Fatburger. I hadn’t had a Fatburger before and I honestly only heard about it around a year ago after watching the great documentary Hamburger America. In the documentary they spoke about various popular burger places in America and Fatburger was one of them.

I had the double burger tonight and thought it was great. It was juicy and meaty and I loved that. The senior vice president of Fatburger was there and he turned out to be a great guy in an incredibly colorful and flashy Hawaiian shirt. I meet a lot of burger lovers all the time but I’ve never met anyone into burgers more than me until today. The guy is just incredibly passionate about burgers and he’s been having burgers a lot longer than I’ve been alive. He knows it all and he’s seen it all. I mean he used to have Fatburger back in the 50s when they first opened so he was really there from the start.

Just a few interesting details I picked up from him. Since they want the local experience to be exactly like the US experience they’re importing all their ingredients from the US. That includes the beef, fries and even ketchup. The Heinz ketchup that’s regionally produced is different from the US version. The color is bright red while in the US its a dark red but most importantly the regionally produced Heinz is sweeter. Since they prefer the flavor of the US Heinz ketchup they’re importing it directly to Kuwait. Imagine that, they could have gone with the local Heinz but they’re instead getting it imported from the US. To me that shows how much they care. You’re going to have the exact same burger experience as if you walked into a Fatburger in LA.

If you’re interested in trying out their burgers they’re opening next week in Fintas at Spoons. It’s easy to find since its on the main Fintas sea side road opposite Pizza Express. Good stuff.

I passed by Kei for dinner tonight and noticed they had a small fridge full of fruits imported from Japan. The grapes looked really good and I would have bought some if it wasn’t for the fact that they cost KD15 each! KD15 for grapes. KD15 for grapes. And one more time, KD15 for grapes!

Apple have started refunding customers for the bumper purchase, I just got the following email:

Dear Mark,

Apple recently announced that iPhone 4 customers who purchased an iPhone 4 Bumper are eligible for a full refund.

As of today, we have automatically processed your refund. You have also been refunded for any Shipping or VAT charges which may have been applied to your order.

If you paid via credit card, please allow 3-5 business days for the refund to reach your account.

Thank you for choosing Apple.

Sincerely,
Apple Online Store Support

Pretty sweet.

As an expat am I allowed to own a hunting rifle? What about a handgun? Are hunting rifles and hand guns counted as two different things? The video above is supposedly of the largest hunting shop in Kuwait. Lots of rifles on display but can I own one? I am not planning on hunting anything and not sure what people actually hunt in Kuwait but I’m just curious to know the laws of owning a weapon. [YouTube]

I got a forward in my email today that contained a picture I had taken at the Kuwait Airport back in 2005 (pictured above). I had spotted a sign that had been placed in front of a security camera and thought that was pretty stupid and took a picture of it. Now 5 years later, it’s become one of those “epic fail” kind of pictures that gets forwarded around. Pretty cool. [Link]

Gallup World Poll surveyed thousands of people and then came out with a list of the happiest countries in the world. Kuwait came in at 23rd, the second Arab country on the list, the first being UAE which came 20th. Lebanon came in at 73 while Togo came in last and Denmark first. For the full list click [Here]

Thanks Nancy

Getting an iPhone 4 is pretty simple but you need patience since the iPhone 4 is currently in short supply and can take up to 3 weeks to be delivered. To order an iPhone 4 you also need the following:

1) Local credit card
2) Aramex Shop&Ship account (not sure if it works with others like DHL)

Then what you need to do is go to the UK online Apple Store which is located at the following link address:
https://store.apple.com/uk

Once there click on the iPhones and then select the iPhone you want and check out. If you never ordered from Apple before you will have to create an account. Put your US Aramex mailbox as your billing address as your Kuwait base credit card address and then put your Aramex UK mailbox address as your shipping address. The UK iPhones are officially unlocked.

I placed my order on June 25th for a black 16GB iPhone 4 with a black Apple iPhone 4 Bumper. I paid the following:

iPHONE 4 BLACK 16GB 424.68 GBP
IPHONE 4 BUMPERS BLACK 21.28 GBP
——–
VAT 17.5% 78.04 GBP
——–
Final Amount (VAT included) 524.00 GBP

I paid with my NBK credit card and according to my bank statement the amount I paid in Kuwaiti Dinars was 236.570.

My iPhone 4 shipped on July 9th and arrived to my Aramex mailbox on July 15th. It showed up in my Aramex mailbox the same day and then shipped from the UK on July 16th. I received the iPhone today July 21st after being held in customs for 3 days.

The Aramex shipping charges were KD5.750 and that included the customs clearance fee. This was only for my iPhone 4, my iPhone Bumper is still held in customs. On a side note when the iPhone arrived it was unopened. Not just the actual iPhone box but the larger box the iPhone came inside had not been opened neither by Aramex nor customs.

I also passed by Zain and picked up a micro-sim card which you need for the iPhone 4. The sim card cost me KD5.

If you have any questions ask it below. Regarding antenna and reception problems, I believe this was blown out of proportion by the media and as Steve Jobs said it’s not a problem and 0.5% of the 3 million iPhone users have had reception issues. Many popular phones have similar reception issues which you will never have to experience if using the phone normally. If you have any questions regarding antenna problems click [Here]

Update: Some examples of phones that have a similar antenna issues
Samsung Galaxy S
Palm Pre
Google Nexus One
Google Droid
Nokia E71
Blackberry Bold

According to Arab Times:

Head & Shoulders in danger’
The Ministry of Health (MoH) might get the ‘Head and Shoulders’ shampoo removed from the market, in case it is proven that the shampoo contains carcinogenic substances, reports Al-Hurriya daily. A Qatari newspaper, Al Sahrq, recently published a report stating that research revealed the presence of ‘Deuxan’, which causes cancer, cirrhosis and kidney fibrosis, in the shampoo. The newspaper had warned the general public against using the shampoo and indicated that it will be withdrawn from the markets.

I’ve actually been using Head & Shoulders for years but just yesterday for some odd reason I decided to try Clear (pictured above). It’s actually pretty good, smells great and instead of burning your eyes like Head & Shoulders, Clear actually has this strange cooling effect.

Thanks xboclibe

Another Lebanese place I passed by to try their burgers was Casper & Gambini’s. I had heard their burgers were good so I decided to try them out. I went to the Avenues branch on Saturday and it was empty except for another couple sitting behind us. The location was small but cozy and tucked away from all the weekend traffic. I found two kinds of burgers on their menu, I decided to order the one with the thick 200grams patty and I asked for it to be done medium.

When the burger arrived I noticed something strange. Instead of one 200gram patty there were two thinner patties stacked on top of one another. I guess they had run out of 200gram patties and decided to replace them with two 100gram patties? I tried to take my first bite and had problems. The burger buns were very dry and with the two patties stacked on top of another the burger was too high for me to bite into. After squeezing the burger hard I managed to take a bite. It was super dry. The burger was cooked well done and the patties tasted like the Khazan frozen ones (no offense to the Khazan burgers). Actually the burger taste reminded me of the burgers I used to order at the beach in Lebanon as a kid. The burgers were usually terrible but because you’ve been swimming and running around all day, by the time it’s lunch anything you eat at the beaches canteen ends up being delicious. Only problem in this case is I’m not 12, and this isn’t a beach canteen.

The final score is a 1.5 out of 5 and that’s mostly because the taste reminded me of my childhood.

For a list of Casper & Gambini’s locations click [Here]
The cost of the Gambini Burger was KD4.350

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Let’s Burger
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

As I mentioned last month, me and my friends (zDistrict, Nibaq and K.theKuwaiti) entered Red Bull’s Flutag. This year there were over 100 teams who entered but in the end they had to choose around 35 I think and our team was one of them. They just dropped off a box of Red Bull along with a welcome letter and a pilot license. I guess they liked our previous plane design (pictured below) and want to see how we can improve on it the second time around.

I haven’t purchased any new sneakers for nearly a year now. I didn’t know it was that long until I checked my previous posts and noticed the last time I ordered a pair were back in July. I now have three sneakers I’ve got my eyes on. I’ve already ordered the one above but still looking for a good deal on the ones below. As you can see, they’re a lot more toned down than my previous purchases. I’m also still on the look out for the Nike Air Force 1 X Clot but instead of the prices dropping they’ve now gone up to KD500 for a pair. Doesn’t look like I am ever going to own a pair of those…

They’ve closed down the Italian restaurant (Italo’s) that was located in the area on top of GAP over looking Lorenzino and there looks like a lot of construction taking place there. I wonder if that’s where Shake Shack will end up? I guess it could although there would be a problem. The way Shake Shack works is you wait in line to order your burgers and then you go find a place to sit. Originally the Italian restaurants kitchen was located to the side near Mango which means if they apply the same Shake Shack system here then you will have a line of people waiting in the main passage way causing a lot of traffic. But, the idea of having the seating area separate from the kitchen and main ordering area works like Shake Shack. I guess we will have to wait and see.

This does go against what I previously had heard which is that they are planning to open Shake Shack in front of PF Chang. The restaurant will be built where the elevator currently is and the elevator shaft will be used for the ventilation (kinda like a chimney). The seating will be in the open.

Update: OK so it seems Italo’s Cafe was closed down to make way for Cafe Meem. BUT, they had to give up the kitchen location next to Mango. So now I am assuming the space next to Mango that was used by Italo’s as their kitchen is now going to be the second Pinkberry location.

I personally think the food in Lebanon is a mixture of good and bad. We obviously do good Lebanese food, we also make some of the best pizza’s, we’ve got some really great crepes and most importantly we have the world’s best beer (Almaza FTW!). One thing we strangely don’t have is good burgers. For some reason no one has cracked a good burger in Lebanon. I’ve been recommended so many places and every time I try a burger there I am left disappointed. Let’s Burger is a Lebanese burger creation which I was hoping would break this cycle.

The first thing I noticed when I opened the menu is they had mayonnaise listed under the “5 Elements for a perfect burger”. That’s when I knew things weren’t going to end well. Mayonnaise??? I continued flipping through their menu and decided to go with the stuffed cheese burger. I wasn’t asked how I wanted the burger done.

A short time later my burger arrived and I quickly took my first bite. Two things grabbed my attention. The first thing is, I liked the beef patty with the stuffed cheese inside. Because the cheese was all soft and gooey it made the beef patty very juicy. The second thing that grabbed my attention is the bun, it was cold and cracking. That meant the bun wasn’t fresh and was refrigerated. Cold bread + hot beef patty = Doesn’t work. Their sauce also wasn’t anything to write home about since although the description in the menu said grainy mustard mayo sauce, what I tasted was mostly just plain mayo.

For the final score I’m giving it a 2.5 out of 5. The patty was fine but they need to fix the bun issue, it shouldn’t be too hard to get fresh buns every morning delivered. They also really need to cut down on the mayo, not only is it not an important element in a good burger… it shouldn’t be on a burger in the first place. Period.

Let’s Burger is located at 360 Mall.
The cost of the Stuffed Cheeseburger was KD3.450

Here are the burger places I’ve reviewed so far:
Applebee’s
Bredz
Burger Boutique
Eighty 6 Bistro
Fauchon
Fuddruckers
Hashi
Gaucho Gril
Gourmet Burger Kitchen
Johnny Rockets
Munch
Napket
Nino
Papa John’s Burgers
Prime & Toast
Ruby Tuesday
Slider Station
Sheraton Hotel
Smoke House
The Burger Hub
The Butcher Shop
The Little Oven
The Meat Co.
Wimpy

Recently I noticed that when I sleep for over 9 hours I wake up with neck cramps and a sore ear. It turned out my pillow had become too hard and with the way I sleep was causing me neck pains. Nat suggested I get Tempur pillows so I did a quick google to find a local dealer and landed on Some Contrast’s blog. He had found and gotten Tempur pillows from a place called The Bed Boutique in Tilal Complex. Since I was planning to pass by the Tamiya dealer there anyway, I decided to drop by and see what they had.

The shop has pillows, quilts and mattresses. They had a few brands the most popular being Tempur and Temprakon. Now one reason I felt like coming to this store was because Some Contrast posted they had a small private room (pictured above) in which you could try the pillows which is what I ended up doing. I got around 4 different types of pillows and tried them while lying down which is much better than just trying to feel the stuff in your hands. In the end I ended up getting the Temprakon Ergomagic which is a very comfy pillow (picture and details on their website). It’s a down pillow with a three layered core, one layer is a comfort foam which provides support for the head and neck, the other two layers are foam inserts which are used to control the height of the pillow. If the three layers combined are too high for you, you remove one of the inserts. If it’s still too high you remove another insert. Very practical.

Nat on the other hand got the same pillow as Yousef from Some Contrast which is the Tempur Symphony (pictured above). I tried it and also it was very comfy I didn’t think it was high enough for me since I like high pillows. The Tempur material feels very organic since it takes your shape and molds around it. I tried the Tempur mattress and it felt like the bed was alive since however you moved it slowly takes your form.

Anyway if you’re interested, The Bed Boutique is located at Tilal Complex. Their phone number is 22256171.

Update: Was just reading about the brand Temprakon on their website and it’s even better than I had thought. Their pillows and quilts are made with NASA’s OUTLAST material which is used in the NASA space suits. They’re the only manufacturer in the world allowed to use the OUTLAST material to make pillows and quilts.

Does anyone know where the indoor RC track in the video above is located and is it open to the public? [YouTube]

Update: Here is some more information about the track provided by Nawaf from the Kuwait Science Club.

The track is located at the Yousef Bin Eissa School in Tha7yat Abdullah Al Salem area, the track is for members of the Kuwait Science Club, you pay 20KD and year unless you are still a student then you pay 10KD a year.

To use the indoor track you only need to be a member of the Kuwait Science Club, though this is our first year in Kuwait to have something like this so we are still testing the grounds to see the feedback. More information can be found on https://www.rccck.org about the rules and regulations of these events.

In terms of the track costs the Kuwait Science Club has undertaken the costs and not the members, yes the members have paid in advance so as to speed up the track building process but they are returned the investment by the club once completed.

Track timings can be checked on the official club website https://www.rccck.org