2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

I passed by Madison Square Garden around 3:30PM for lunch to try out Shake Shack. When I got there it turned out there was a very long line so I stood in it and waited. 40 minutes later I got to the front of the line and it was my turn to order. I decided to go with one single Shack Burger for Nat, a double Shack Burger for me, two fries and two cokes. The bill came out around $21 and I sat down at a table and waited again until it was my turn to pick up my order.

I picked up my order around 10 minutes after that and it looked delicious. I love the way they serve the food in a carton box. I took a few pictures quickly and started eating. The burger was delicious. But was it worth the 40 minute wait? Don’t think so. I mean its a good burger but 40 minutes just to order?? According to the person in line behind me their lines are usually even longer! I guess everyone here is used to waiting in line so 40 minutes is probably nothing to them. I waited 30 minutes at the Apple Store just to pay for some items and I saw people waiting in line outside Abercrombie & Fitch to get in as well. Lines are part of everyday life here.

Now the Shake Shack seating area is also as impressive as their burgers. Since it’s in the park, the seating area reminded me a lot of the beer gardens in Munich except here you had beer AND burgers, they’ve got the Germans beat with that. In any case I can’t wait for Shake Shack to open up in Kuwait. I just hope there won’t be a line like at Pinkberry…

Here is a picture of the line outside Abercrombie & Fitch.

Found this cute little diner near my hotel on Smith Street that serves a really fully breakfast called The Lumberjack. Three humongous pancakes, ham, bacon, sausage and two eggs. Delicious!

I flew over to New York via Qatar Airways. I didn’t have many options since I was looking for an airline that would fly non-stop from the GCC to New York. My two best options were Qatar Airways and Emirates with the later costing a lot more. The flight from Kuwait to Qatar was around and hour and it had to be on one of the worst planes ever. There was no legroom, I have no idea how I managed to fit in my seat. The legroom was so bad I couldn’t even put my small bottle of water in the seat pocket in front of me because I my knees were hitting it. The flight was packed but luckily it was just an hour. Once we landed to Qatar we had to go through airport security. Because it was nearly boarding time for my second flight they had a fast track lane for us which was great. Once done we got to our gate only to realize we had to go through a second more intense checkpoint but that was fine since we had plenty of time to spare.

The Doha-NY plane was a lot bigger off course and newer. Its the Boeing 777-330 ER and it was equipped with a pretty cool and fast entertainment system with USB ports on the seats. They had over 200 on demand movies ranging from new stuff like Avatar and The Book of Eli to classics like Bullitt, Raging Bull and North by Northwest. They also had over 200 episodes of various TV Shows. I didn’t watch anything on their entertainment system since I had my Archos 7 with me preloaded with over a months worth of my favorite shows (I stopped watching everything once I booked my tickets and have been saving them for this trip).

The legroom was pretty good and I never felt uncomfortable. The plane took off at 8AM and I was able to quickly fall asleep since I hadn’t slept all evening. I woke up at various times during the flight but overall it was a lot more comfortable than I was expecting my trip to be.

A reader made me realize something funny. In today’s Arab Times (21 May 2010) on page 30 there is a Pork recipe! [Link]

Thanks Ravi

I got to New York earlier today after a surprisingly comfortable 14 hour flight. The weather is great here and the hotel room turned out to be as big as in the pictures. I’ve got Arby’s, Wendy’s and White Castle just 5 minutes away which is going to prove to be a problem.

Had a large roast beef n’ cheddar from Arby’s today and it was great. Will post more details tomorrow since I’m currently extremely exhausted.

Great photos from the Boston Globe. [Link]

Not sure if this is a real movie or just a spoof but it was done locally. To me it looks like a spoof because of the way the music and sound effects are over exaggerated and because the English subtitles read funny with the music. [YouTube]

Thanks 3abood

The video above is one of Conan’s five favorite YouTube videos ever. [YouTube]

Update: Once you’re done with the video above, check out the one below

[YouTube]

Lots of rumors and scans circulating, it’s all not true. [Link]

Update: The letter from the US Embassy which I stated in the comments below was probably a fake forward being sent around was actually sent by the US Army to everyone on base. You can read the letter [Here].

I am just wondering now if this letter was a reaction to the other letters that have been floating around by email or if the US Embassy got confirmation regarding this from another source.

This is what you get when you combine Captain Majed with Speed Racer. [YouTube]

OK be prepared for the best post yet on this blog…

I was talking to a friend of mine about Salmiya in the 80s and one thing led to another and I was telling him how strong a brand Tikka was back then. I was telling him about the “I like it spicy” guy (pictured above) and the Tikka commercials and how if you asked anyone who grew up in Kuwait back in the 80s they would remember the commercial and even sing you the jingle. It became a classic like the Pizza Italia and Hungry Bunny commercials.

Anyway I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be cool to find out who the “I like it spicy” guy was, what happened to him and how he looked like today? Well guess what… After a bit of research and digging around I found out who he was.

The actor who played the “I like it spicy” character was Galal Zaki. He wasn’t an actor, he worked in the ad agency that came up with the idea. Like Alfred Hitchcock, Galal liked to star in his own work and that’s how he ended up becoming the Tikka guy. the picture below is of Galal Zaki which I found on Google and is dated 2007. Although a lot older now you can still see some resemblance.

Today Galal Zaki is the CEO of Perception Communication in Egypt. He was also recently awarded the Rameh IAA Lifetime Achievement Award.

Update: Here is an old Tikka commercial. It’s not the famous one but its better than nothing…

[YouTube]

Update2: And here is the more popular one…

[YouTube]

Blogger Mathai was at the Red Bull car park drift and took some cool pictures. You can check them out [Here]

I guess the gelatin issue isn’t really an issue.

Even though the weather was horrible on Friday the Red Bull drift challenge still took place and judging by the video it seemed pretty packed. [YouTube]

Over the weekend I found out about a cool real estate website called Masahati that actually works pretty well. There are a ton of websites dealing with real estate in Kuwait but the majority are either outdated, don’t work right or just too complicated to use. Masahati, although doesn’t contain a lot of apartments right now is actually very enjoyable and fun to use.

There are a variety of ways to use the site but I like using it with the map of Kuwait. You scroll around on the map and when there is an apartment for rent it shows up as a 3D icon which you can click and get more info. The search can be customizable and if you don’t like the map view you can flip through available apartments in a list view, thumbnails view or even a photo flow. Hopefully with more exposure they can get more popular and add more apartments. Check out the website [Here]

Update: Here is a link to their facebook group [Link]