2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

Anyone who grew up in Kuwait during the 80s will fondly remember Pizza Italia. The owner of Pizza Italia was Mahmoud Alghanim who sadly passed away a couple of years ago. He was a pioneer in the local restaurant industry creating multiple food brands back before it was even a thing. Recently, a person called John Dade got in touch with me and shared with me the story of how Pizza Italia came to be.

John originally moved to the Middle East in the 70s working for Heublein who were the owners of Kentucky Fried Chicken back then. He was in charge of developing Kentucky Fried Chicken internationally and eventually came to Kuwait in 1977 working for Kuwait Food Company (Americana).

Kuwait Food Company initially started off with the brand Wimpy in 1970 which at that time was one of the first if not the first international fast food chains to enter the Middle East. In 1973 they brought KFC which is how John ended up in the region. John later helped Kuwait Food Company acquire the brands Hardees and Pizza Hut before his contract ended and he decided to move back to the States.

Before leaving back to the US, John got introduced to Mahmoud Alghanim through a mutual friend. Mahmoud was looking for help in developing a fast food concept similar to Mcdonald’s but with Arabic food and a mutual friend recommended he meet with John who he eventually hired.

John started work on the Arabic fast food concept but a year later it was still not done. John started to feel bad since he was getting his full salary but the company wasn’t generating any money at that point. So John approached Mahmoud with an idea, he wanted to open a pizza place for him since it would be easy and quick to set up and it would help them generate income while they continued work on the Arabic fast food concept. Mahmoud liked the idea and gave John a budget of $100,000 and a location in Bayan next to the coop which they opened up in 1980. Together they came up with a cool concept, a fixed price for the pizza no matter what toppings you had on it. They called it Pizza Italia.

Back then food delivery wasn’t a thing. Instead, parents would send their children with the driver to pick up the pizza from the store. Having a fixed price turned out to be incredibly convenient to the parents because no matter what toppings the kids chose, the price of the pizza was still the same.

With the success of the pizza, they realized they also needed ice cream to go along with it. So John and Mahmoud went to the US and did a road trip looking for an ice cream brand to bring to Kuwait. They eventually decided on Häagen-Dazs and brought the franchise to Kuwait. Keep in mind Häagen-Dazs had just opened their first store in 1976 and so were still very new and small back then. The novel introduction of banana splits was also very popular. It was almost impossible to keep up with requests on Friday after the noon prayer. Mahmoud and John were way ahead of their time.

Pizza Italia did so well that the Pizza Hut franchise in Kuwait ended up closing down (they were later brought back by Al Homaizi Group). John stayed on with Mahmoud till 1984 before leaving Kuwait for Saudi Arabia.

Pizza Italia continued operating until the mid-2000s before eventually closing down. I remember back in 2005 they were selling their large-sized pizza with all the toppings (the Godfather) for only KD1.500 and it was really good.

Like Hungry Bunny and Showbiz, Pizza Italia is a brand many will never forget.

CARI is a food delivery app that promises to deliver your food within 30 minutes. Since I first posted about them back in October, there have been significant changes to the app.

Firstly, many new restaurants have joined the platform and are now part of the 30-minute delivery guarantee. These include BBT, Chucks, RHS, Marble Slab Creamery, Arabica, Domino’s Pizza, Johnny Rockets, DOH, Vigonovo, and others.

CARI has also managed to secure some popular restaurants exclusively on its platform, such as BFTP, Shrimp Pot, Holy Katsu, and Bob’s. Additionally, CARI has introduced a new feature called the “Delivery Box,” which is a secure box installed outside your home to keep your food hot after delivery. If you’re interested in getting one of those, you can contact them through their DM.

It’s worth noting that all deliveries on CARI are free of charge.

Lastly, if you’re a fan of McDonald’s, you are in for a treat! McDonald’s is on CARI and for the first time ever, McDonald’s is free delivery!

If you want to find out more about CARI, their website is getcari.com and their Instagram is @get.cari

Surprisingly, there are a lot of things happening this weekend. Check out the list below and if I missed anything, let me know in the comments:

Thursday, May 4
The Perfume Exhibition
Safat Square Festival
Artistic Night with artist Marah
Jungle Treasure Hunt
SiK: Improv Comedy Night
Madang Day at the Korean Culture Center
Shlonik? Star Wars Edition

Friday, May 5
The Perfume Exhibition
Safat Square Festival
Workshop: Al-Hassala Design and Riso Printing
Jam Session 2.0

Saturday, May 6
The Perfume Exhibition
Safat Square Festival
Peak Race 2023
DAI Storytime: The Hugasaurus
Workshop: Screen Printing on Fabric
Workshop: Live Floral Drawing Session
Googoosh Live in Kuwait
From Planet to Table

Exhibitions:
Traces of Nostalgia
Wmdah

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Air (7.7)
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (8.3)
One Ranger (N/A)
Renfield (6.6)
The Black Demon (4.2)
To Catch a Killer (6.9)

Other Movies Showing:
Detective Chirp & the Golden Beehive (5.2)
Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (7.6)
Evil Dead Rise (7.7)
Guy Ritchie’s the Covenant (8.5)
John Wick: Chapter 4 (8.2)
The Big Punch (6.7)
The Challenge (6.5)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.4)
The Swiss Adventure (4.4)
The Tank (4.6)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Aladdin – 1992 (8.0)
Planes, Trains & Automobiles – 1987 (7.6)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Another day another new mall, I know we have too many already but this one at least looks visually interesting. The developer Tamdeen describes it as having a “rustic-industrial aesthetic” and it’s like a grittier or industrial-looking version of Avenues Phase III. They used lots of bricks everywhere, and the roof is covered in a steel structure that casts interesting shadows onto the floor. Plenty of daylight everywhere so it does feel like you’re walking down a street.

The largest IKEA in Kuwait and one of the biggest in the region will be opening there as well as Abyat’s second store so that’s a plus. The mall is located off Highway 40, where the old Ahmadi drive-in movie theater used to be. It’s catering to that area so the main competition is Kout Mall and Gate Mall.

They’re expecting to soft open the mall in mid-August with an official opening in September. Here is the location on Google Maps.

Back in 2018, I posted a list of suicide prevention hotlines in Kuwait. I updated the list again in 2020 with more numbers but today I realized those numbers not only no longer work but have rotated back into the public and are now owned by other people. I called the Kuwait Center For Mental Health and asked them if they had a suicide prevention hotline, that call turned out to be a joke.

The guy I spoke to didn’t understand how a hotline would help a suicidal person and told me the person needs to come to them. So after explaining to them the benefits of having a hotline, he said the person should seek help from his family who will then bring them to the center. I thanked him then hung up.

So now I need to update the list of numbers but I’m at a dead end, I think most of the information might be available online but in Arabic. In any case, if you can help me update the list of numbers, get in touch with me.

There are only two sports I watch, Formula 1 and UFC. Years ago I wanted to take mixed martial arts classes so I could have a better understanding of the sport but was very limited in options. Since then things have gotten better with more MMA gyms popping up but they’ve mostly focused on either jujitsu or kickboxing. UFC Gym will hopefully be encompassing all forms of MMA under one roof.

Located on the 5th and 6th floor of Assima Mall, the new UFC Gym is around 5,000sqm2 in size. Since there is a hotel connected to the mall the gym is going to be mixed but they do have a separate ladies-only floor for those who prefer not to train in a mixed environment. There is also a separate children’s area on the opposite end of the gym where children can train in mixed martial arts without disturbing or interacting with the adults.

The UFC Gym is targeting to have classes in multiple combat sports including:
– Boxing
– Kickboxing
– Brazilian Jiu-jitsu
– Judo
– Wrestling

UFC Gyms are meant to introduce combat sports to regular people as a means of exercise, so they’re meant to be similar to regular gyms but also provide MMA classes as an added value. The MMA section includes an official-sized octagon ring, a section with boxing bags and a large open mat area for jiujitsu and combat training. The fitness sections of the gym include a cardio machines area that overlooks the city skyline, resistance machines section filled with the latest equipment from Technogym, a free weights section, an area for HIIT classes, and a room for spinning and other activities like yoga and zumba.

The gym is targeting to soft open by the mid of this month with an official opening by the end of summer. They currently have special pre-opening rates which are 900KD a year for men, and 700KD a year for women. This includes full access to the gym and the classes.

For more information, you can contact them on 65107779 or visit @ufcgymkuwait

Speedtest.net, the popular website that provides Internet performance metrics also has a global index for internet speeds and Kuwait is currently ranked as having the 4th fastest mobile internet in the world. They have Kuwait listed with an average speed of 135.63Mbps while UAE tops the list with 178.55Mbps. Here are the current top 10:

1 UAE – 178.25Mbps
2 Qatar – 174.56Mbps
3 Norway – 143.55Mbps
4 Kuwait – 135.63Mbps
5 Denmark – 129.95Mbps
6 South Korea – 120.38Mbps
7 Netherlands – 114.19Mbps
8 China – 109.09Mbps
9 Bulgaria – 103.72Mbps
10 Bahrain – 102.45Mbps

I’ve ALWAYS had internet issues in Kuwait until 5G came along. My apartment building could never get DSL speeds higher than 2Mbps, LTE internet averaged around 4Mbps and my only better options were expensive internet services like B-Wireless (WiMD) and Zain Beam. With 5G for the first time in my life, I finally have above-average internet speeds.

Analysts at the website Picodi calculated how many years of work are required to make 1 million dollars in different countries while earning an average wage. According to their calculations, it would take you over 41 years to make $1M living in Kuwait. The fastest country to earn a million is Switzerland (14 years) while the slowest is Pakistan (621 years).

Switzerland 14 years
United States 20 years
Qatar 21 years
UAE 24 years
Oman 38 years
Kuwait 41 years
Saudi Arabia 42 years
India 148 years
Egypt 603 years
Pakistan 621 years

They got their average salary data for this analysis from the crowd-sourced database Numbeo. I downloaded the data to see what the average salary for Kuwait was and it turned out to be 622KD. So if you earn more than that, you’re on your way to hitting the $1M mark even quicker.

Click here for the full study.

The movies below are coming out during Eid at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (7.6)
Evil Dead Rise (7.7)
Guy Ritchie’s the Covenant (8.5)
John Wick: Chapter 4 (8.2)
Jumanji – 1995 (7.0)
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (7.4)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Back in December, I posted that starting in February regular mail would start being delivered to your door. February came and went with no sign of that happening. Actually, I personally had to drive to Sabah Al Ahmad last week which is an hour away because someone at the post office read my office building “Wafra Downtown Tower” on my package and thought I lived in Wafra. They sent my package to Sabah Al Ahmad which although the post office there was a much better experience than the Sideeq one, its pretty freakin far…

Anyway, it looks like the post office will start home delivery pretty much right after Eid. They have a new website up, kuwaitpost.moc.gov.kw and according to the website they’ve teamed u[p with a local company called “Sail Shipping & Logistics” to handle local deliveries.

Finally!

Last year I posted about the 1966 Kuwait Airways plane crash after finding a photo of it. You can check that post out here. Recently I came across more photos of the accident and so decided I’d share them here.

On 30 June 1966, the Trident 1E registration 9K-ACG was destroyed when it crashed 4KM short of the runway at Kuwait International. The plane was on its way back from Beirut when the plane descended at a high rate and the pilot didn’t follow the proper regulations. No lives were lost. Source

Yesterday while driving around futoor time, I randomly came across the largest wall I think I’ve ever come across. It was huge, really tall, and super long. Right away I saw an opportunity to take a photo so turned around and headed toward the wall.

I really have no idea why this wall is there. It’s not connected to any other structure, it’s just a wall.

If you’re looking for an interesting backdrop for your shoot and want to check this place out, here is the location on Google Maps.

With the long weekend approaching you might have considered traveling to Dubai but were put off by the high ticket prices. If you’re more than one person and like road trips, you should consider driving to Dubai. There are a number of benefits including:

• You leave and come back when you want
• You can purchase large items and bring them back
• No weight limit
• You don’t need to rent a car while there
• You can save quite a bit the more people in the car
• The long drive is therapeutic

I’ve previously done the trip and I’m planning to do it again this Eid since I need to bring back a bunch of things with me. Here is how much I paid for car insurance at the borders and for fuel. This is with a Toyota Hilux so depending on your car’s fuel economy, it could be a bit less:

Saudi to UAE Boarder
11 KD – Saudi car Insurance
22.500 KD – Fuel

UAE Border to Dubai
17.5 KD – UAE car Insurance
20 KD – Fuel

On the return:

Dubai to Saudi Border
40 KD – Fuel

Saudi Border to Kuwait
19 KD – Fuel

Total: 130 KD

Considering the cheapest airline ticket right now is around 150 KD, if you road trip with a friend, split the cost, and not have to pay for a rental or cab while in Dubai, the savings can be big. And then you have all the other benefits I mentioned earlier so it’s kinda a no brainer… if you’re fine driving for 12 hours that is.

For a more detailed write up about the drive, click here.

I know its counter-intuitive to ask this here but not sure how else to get this issue sorted.

Over the past 10 days I’ve gotten a number of comments asking me why I haven’t updated the website in a while or why I stopped posting when I haven’t. Turns out there is some sort of cache issue causing people not to see any of the new posts.

For me to solve this issue I need to try and understand it better. If you’re facing or faced the issue above could you let me know what browser and device you were using and which Internet provider? I want to see if there is a connection.