The new redesigned CNN website is online and can be accessed by going to beta.cnn.com. As long as I can see a lot of stories on the first page I don’t care what they do.
I went to Biella at Marina crescent today for lunch when to my surprise I found it had closed. According to a Krispy Kreme employee, Biella closed down and will open up again in two months time under new management. I didn’t think there were any problems with the place while it was open. I was frequenting it on a weekly basis and its one of my favorite restaurants in Kuwait, their seafood dishes are extremely good and they aren’t stingy with their portions at all. Anyone know what went wrong?
Audi R8 Kuwait Launch
Marzouq was at the Audi R8 launch yesterday and he took some pictures. I heard the car is going to be priced around KD43,000. [Link]
I just bought two tickets for the Nine Inch Nails and Foo Fighters concert that will be held on August 22nd in Dublin. August 22nd is my birthday which is perfect timing plus I have never been to Ireland before so it should be fun.
Only thing I am worried about is getting the tickets. My shipping and billing address had to be the same while paying for the tickets so I used my regular unreliable Kuwait PO Box. I hope it doesn’t get lost in the mail…
update: I spoke to Ticket Master about my problem and they will now no longer mail me the tickets but instead I will be able to pick it up from the box office.
Currently listening to…
Nine Inch Nails – Right where it belongs [YouTube]
I was also listening to Nine Inch Nails – Beside you in time [YouTube]
This is the coolest song on their live concert DVD because near the end of it when the song builds up to the peak, Trent Reznor interacts with the huge projection display in what has to be one of the coolest moment in any live concert. If you don’t want to watch the whole song just forward to 3:30 and wait for him to smash the screen.
MTC and BlackBerry
K.thekuwaiti has a detailed write up on what is BlackBerry and the packages MTC are offering. If you are interested check out his blog. [Link]
I prefer passing by an actual supermarket to buy my groceries but this could be an attractive solution for people who don’t have the time to physically go and shop.
There are two local online grocery stores that I know of, taw9eel.com and foodkuwait.com. Foodkuwait.com requires you to sign up and login before you can do your shopping which is really stupid. Taw9eel.com on the other hand allows you to browse their products before you decide to sign up or order.
This is a cool feature. It seems you can now make Google Images search for pictures of just faces. There isn’t a command available yet in the user interface but if you append &imgtype=face to the end of your search result url, it will filter the images and just display the ones that are of faces.
For example try these two links:
A search for images of Kuwait
https://images.google.com/images?q=kuwait
Same search for images of Kuwait but with the faces filter
https://images.google.com/images?q=kuwait&imgtype=face
Its slightly geeky but still cool. Check out this site for more details. [Link]
An interesting article detailing the way The Pentagon (US Department of Defence) building became a pentagon. [Link]
Not going to spend to much time on this review since there isn’t much to talk about. I had lunch at the newly opened Noodle Factory in the Avenues and I really didn’t like it. Me and my friend ordered the following:
Cantonese Duck Roll (KD1.950)
Peking Fish Ravioli (KD2.250)
Malaysian Char Kuey Chow with Beef (KD2.900)
Kung Pao Chili Prawns (KD3.950)
Vegetable Rice (KD0.900)
Indonesian Nasi Goreng (KD2.500)
2 Pepsi (KD1.500)
7up (KD0.750)
—————
Total: KD16.700
Everything we had was bland and tasteless and there really wasn’t anything we ordered that I actually liked. The only thing that kept me going was the fact that I was planning on having a milkshake from D*lush when we were done.
Would I go back? No I won’t. Do I think it will be successful? No I don’t. Final score 2 out of 5. Two points because the location is good, waitress was friendly and the place is nicely designed.
BMW M1
Yesterday I dropped my car at the BMW dealer because some parts I had ordered arrived. While there I spotted a really cool looking car that looked like an old Lotus. Turned out it was a BMW M1. The car was made between 1978-1981 and it looked like it was in excellent condition. At that moment I was like I need to have that car. Of course I didn’t know how much a vintage car like that cost. I just checked online and the cheapest one I found was for $91,000. What a cool car though.
Ansam posted a letter someone had written to Carrefour management complaining about the shopping cart rules. The person was pissed because he wasn’t allowed to push his cart through the mall. Well yeah, I kinda understand why that rule is in place. Imagine everyone roaming around Avenues with a shopping cart, it would be total chaos. But, if I understood his letter correctly, you are also not allowed to push your cart in the parking lot outside the designated Carrefour area. That I think might cause a problem since when you enter the Avenues parking during peak hours its difficult to find an empty parking spot yet a lone one thats in the Carrefour area. Anyway you can read the letter on Ansams blog. [Link]
Review: Slider Station
Slider Station is a new restaurant that opened up around a month ago. Its a local creation by the same guys behind Burger Boutique. I passed by yesterday night with Nat and a friend for dinner and I left the place extremely impressed and I will tell you from now that I gave the place a full 5 out of 5 rating without the slightest hesitation.
Since the place is pretty small you need to call ahead to reserve a spot. We called on Friday to reserve 3 places at the bar for Sunday night. I had seen the actual location before it was built, I saw sketches on how it would end up looking like and I even so pictures of the interior taken by various other bloggers after Slider Station was launched but even though, when I got to the place I was astonished. Pictures really don’t do the place any justice. I think its currently one of the nicely designed places in Kuwait, everything about it from the walls, to the chairs to the food conveyor belt, everything was paid attention to.
The food conveyor belt, thats the reason we asked for the bar seats. One of the coolest things at Slider Station is the large u-shaped bar taking up the majority of the space on the ground floor. Its surrounded by very comfortable seating and the bar has a built in conveyor belt. Each group at the bar is assigned a number and they serve your food by rolling it out on the conveyor belt. For example our number was 1 so all the dishes that came out on the conveyor belt with the number 1 in front of it was ours. Its a nice gimmick that is both practical and fun. The music that was being played was really cool and their choice of plates, cutlery and glasses were just spot on.
I could talk more and more about the actual look of the place but it would all mean nothing if the food wasn’t any good. The most popular burgers at Burger Boutique are the sliders. Sliders are mini burgers simply put and what Slider Station did was take them to a different level. I don’t know exactly how many different sliders they have but I think they were over 15 variations ranging from beef, to chicken to fish. Unlike in Burger Boutique where sliders come in groups of 4, at Slider Station, each slider order is just a single slider. This makes things A LOT more fun since you could mix and match sliders as you wish. I personally ordered the Roast Beef slider, the Wagyu slider with mature english cheese, the Caribbean crab slider which is a crab burger with a delicious mango sauce, and finally a Hammour slider. For appetizer we had two types of fries, the regular and the extra thin and crispy one. We also had buffalo wings and duck quesadillas. Everything was just really good, the presentation, the flavor, the buns, it was just perfect. There wasn’t anything I could find wrong with the place but I hadn’t ordered the dessert yet so before I could give it a final score I had to try their chocolate pudding. As you could already guess, I must have liked the dessert or else I wouldn’t have given the place a full five out of five. Yes, the chocolate pudding rocked!
So, good food, good atmosphere, good variety and good prices. I don’t know of any other restaurant in Kuwait that deserves a better rating. Final score five out of five. To get reservations call 2465047. They are open from 7PM to 11PM. You can also check out their blog by going to www.sliderstation.com
Pictures taken from SliderStation.com
note: I forgot to mention, they are located on the Gulf Road between Seef Palace and the House of Parliament.
Screw Asylum
Arcade Machines
Does anyone know of a person or a place that sells old arcade machines in Kuwait? I knew a guy who had old arcade machines for sale but his number isn’t working anymore…