2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

For lunch I passed by Shatea Al Watyia, a small Kuwaiti restaurant located behind Casper & Gambini in Kuwait city. The restaurant is in an old Kuwaiti style home which goes well with the menu which is based on traditional Kuwaiti food.

The inside of the restaurant is divided by regions, since we were a large group we sat in Fintas which was a private room with enough seating for 8 people. Flipping through the menu there are a lot of dishes to choose from ranging from machboos to grills. I decided to go with the Mourabian which is a rice and shrimps dish.

We first got the starters which were made up of a variety of dishes including sambousak, yerish and a lentil soup. The sambousak was so so, but the yerish was pretty cool. It was my first time trying it and I honestly forgot whats it made from but to me it tasted like a chilidog’s chili which is pretty cool. The lentil soup was also really great.

The main course arrived soon after that and the quantity was huge. Last week I was in Ta’al and ordered the shrimp curry which disappointingly came with 8 pieces of tiny shrimps. In comparison at Oum Habib the Mourabian had at least two dozen tiny shrimps and the rice portion was gigantic!

The general atmosphere of the place was quiet and the staff friendly and fast. I don’t know how packed the place gets in the evening but I imagine its even cooler when filled with a lot more people. The prices are also really cheap. The soup was KD1, the appetizers around KD1.500 and my main dish was just KD3.500. Thats a really good deal for what you are getting in return. The shrimp curry at Ta’al for example was KD5.500 without rice. Good food, great prices and good service, final score is a 4.5 out of 5. I would definitely go back there again.

update: Erzulie decided to edit my review since my vocabulary is limited to three words “good” “cool” and “amazing”. If you want to check out her interpretation of my review [click here]

A reader sent me the following email:

Dear Mark,
I am personally aware of a very sad story about an American teacher in Kuwait. The teacher, Katherine Phillips, is an Al-Bayan Bilingual School Middle School Deputy Principal. She is the victim of an influential parent who has effectively detained her in Kuwait. Her only crime was to suspend the influential parent’s son for fighting! This is a normal procedure but the parent threatened her and is carrying out his threat. Her full story can be found in International Schools Review site.

She is crying for help. It would be great if you mentioned it.

Regards,
bu ziyad

You can read her story by clicking [Here]

The baby on the Nirvana’s Nevermind album is now 17!

via del.icio.us

During lunch I went with a bunch of coworkers to the ice skating rink. I was expecting the place to be packed with kids since school is out and the weather is extremely hot but instead the place was deserted! I am such a bad skater but I love the place since its freezing cold and in this heat I can’t think of any place I would rather be except for the frozen isle section at Sultan Center but thats about it.

For people who haven’t been there before the entrance is KD1.500 and that includes entrance and rental of the skates. Its also easy to find, look for a yellow building in Kuwait City.

If you are going to copy paste articles from blogs and put them on your website at least have the courtesy to link the original blog properly. Gulfnews had no problem copying and pasting my Faloda post onto their website but when it came to copying and pasting my blogs website address they misspelled it and it ended up as 248.am.com!

Its cool they are into blogs and actually publishing them on their website BUT I would do things differently. For one thing I would make the url’s for the blogs at the very least clickable. That way their readers could just click on the links and be taken to our sites helping us get more traffic.

The second thing is I wouldn’t copy and paste blog posts word for word and publish them like that on the site. Instead I would actually get one of the writers to summarize the articles (like we bloggers do) and then provide links to the original posts in case their readers want to read more. That way they would be supporting bloggers again by sending traffic their way.

The way Gulfnews has things set up now they aren’t sending any traffic to the blogs and instead are just using blogs to add more content to their own website. Thats basically stealing since they are taking articles without permission and then not giving anything back in return.

As I said its cool that they are into blogs but I would take things a step further and actually try to support bloggers by sending traffic to them.

Make sure you check their blogs section at gu.lf.news.com

As a Nutella freak I found this recipe on how to make Nutella ice cream interesting. Although I was expecting the process to be easier, like just shoving a Nutella jar into the freezer but it urns out its more complicated then that. Still if someone has the time this might be a worth while project. Step by step instructions plus a full list of items needed are listed. [Link]

Over 80 intros to cartoons from the 80’s including Gummi Bears, My Little Pony, Rainbow Brite, Snorks, Bionic Six (my fav), Care Bears and more. [Link]

15 different ways to set up your shoe laces. My favorite is the one above called the N Lattice. If you are into sneakers you should probably also bookmark the site. [Link ]

The best thing about summer is KDD Silver ice cream.
The second best thing about summer is Faloda sorbet.
The third best thing about summer is Sunkist orange drink.

Faloda, also spelt Faloodeh or Faludeh and is a Persian sorbet made of thin frozen noodles. Its pretty strange but tastes amazing. Really refreshing plus you can add either lemon or rose water to it for extra flavor.

The place I get my Faloda from is located in Kuwait City, opposite Al Rayya mall and under the Baba Taher Iranian restaurant. I think the place that sells it is called Marafie. A small sized portion will set you back 250fils which is the same cost as regular ice cream.

According to Wikipedia, Faloda is one of the earliest forms of frozen desserts, existing as early as 400 BCE.

I could watch the “Worst Stunt” Indian movie over and over!!

[YouTube]

note: Seems Shark Attack 3 has a cult status! [Link]

note2: Here is the clip of the Indian movie by itself [YouTube]
The movie is called Alluda Majaka and stars Chiranjeevi.
I am sure this movie is available in Kuwait. Hopefully it has English subtitles.

“One day your computer will be a big ass table”

[YouTube]

note: this video is a parody of this [Link]

Today I had a flat tire AND a flat spare! The worst part though was trying to find four tires for my car. I went to the Canada Dry street and went to all the main dealers and they were mostly out of stock with the good stuff. In the end I managed to get the last two Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 available and I reserved two more that should arrive to Kuwait sometime in July. I reserved two tires, thats like the most ridiculous thing!

A while back I noticed some girls were wearing their hijab in a way that makes them look like coneheads. A friend told me it was a new trend and that the way the girls got their “conehead look” was by using cans of Pringles and toilet paper rolls.

Today while browsing I found this funny post on Erzulie’s blog where she drew a girl in hijab and lets us guess whats under it. I guessed option (D). [Link]

A silly video thats being passed about by bluetooth.. and now YouTube. By the way whats up with all the secret service lookalike security guards at Virgin? First time I saw them I thought there was a VIP in the store.

[YouTube]

This video is like plastered all over the web today. They say its “the best 5 second video ever” and I would have to agree. Make sure you have sound.

[YouTube]