2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

A few days ago a news clipping circulated on social media about an Italian woman who lost her cat and is offering a reward of €120,000 to whomever finds it. The article seemed fishy since the lady mentions that she had read a lot of good stuff about animal rights in Kuwait so that should have been a big clue. Well turns out the whole thing was not real and it was actually a marketing stunt for the hilarious Instagrammer @instasayood.

Sayood is joining SHASHA TV and will be launching a new animated show called ‘Fabio’ which like his previous animations will be dealing with local issues. The trailer is out now and you can check it out below. It’s in Arabic so if you were thinking about learning the language, now you have an incentive to do so.

I was just informed by a reliable source that Beefbar, the popular meat focused restaurant originally from Montecarlo is coming to Kuwait. I don’t have a location or date yet, only that they have now signed with a local partner.

Beefbar is already available in Dubai and Riyadh so we aren’t going to have the first location in the Gulf but, it’s pretty cool that restaurants like Roka and now Beefbar are entering the market.

I was going to go try this out before posting about it, but then I found out the place was located in Khiran so that’s not gonna happen. But, if you don’t mind driving to Khiran with friends, there is a place there called Nomad that has Blacklight Minigolf. I’ve tried it in Dubai before and it was super fun although me and my friend were pretty drunk when playing and she hilariously ended up breaking her pinky finger when she tripped and fell over one of the holes. But even if no alcohol is involved miniature golf is always a fun activity.

Nomad also has laser tag although that’s not something I care for but you might. Check out their Instagram account @nomad.kw and their website for booking is nomadkw.com

The new Netflix series starring comedian Mo Amer was released a few days ago and has been getting great reviews. You might know Mo from the popular Hulu series ‘Ramy‘ who is also a creator of this show.

A few months ago I discovered Mo was actually born in Kuwait and lived here till the age of 9. I only found out when he brought it up during an interview with Jimmy Kimmel (embedded below). The only reason Mo left Kuwait was because of the 1990 Iraq invasion.

If you have Netflix and are looking for a new funny show to watch, here is the Netflix page for Mo.

Below is the list of things you can do this weekend. As usual, if I missed anything please let me know in the comments:

Thursday
Back to School at The Avenues
Gate Mall Expo
IFK Cinema Night: Illusions Perdues
Kuwait 2022 Open Championship for Ice Hockey
Glass Art: Hot Shop Live Demo

Friday
Back to School at The Avenues
Gate Mall Expo
JACC Concert: Face2Face
Afrobeats Painting Experience

Saturday
Back to School at The Avenues
Gate Mall Expo
Come Play with Us! (Chess, Backgammon and/or Scrabble)
ASCC: Giant Mammals Tour
Trash Tag Beach Cleanup
Qesati: The Science Behind Design
Florist 101 Masterclass
Ceramics Workshop: Qahwa Cups
Cooking Class: Learn How to Make Dumplings

Activities:
Ascend Rock Climbing
Cable Park
Ice Skating at the Winter Games Club
Indoor Karting
Movement Classes at Omni Studio
Roller Blade at Roller Hub
Try Windsurfing
Yoga at Darātma

Museums to Visit:
Abdullah Salem Cultural Center (ASCC)
Amricani Cultural Center Museum
Bait Al Othman Museum
Tareq Rajab Museum

Exhibitions:
Exhibition: Sanad at ASCC
Exhibition: I Am Here – Manuella Guiragossian
Exhibition: My Name Is Woman – Maha AlAsaker
Exhibition: Deconstructed Phyche – Sheikha Al Habishi

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

New This Weekend:
Last Journey of Paul W.R. (5.2)
Nope (7.3)
Tad the Lost Explorer and the Emerald Tablet (4.7)
Where the Crawdads Sing (7.1)

Other Movies Showing:
Beast (7.7)
Bullet Proof (6.8)
Bullet Train (7.5)
Fall (6.5)
Jurassic World Dominion (6.2)
DC League of Super-Pets (7.9)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (7.4)
Orphan: First Kill (6.0)
Top Gun: Maverick (8.7)

Classic Movies Showing:
Goodfellas – 1990 (8.7)

The films below are also showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

IMAX Movies Showing:
Antarctica
Ocean Odyssey
Wings Over Water 3D

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

The luxury hotel Waldorf Astoria will be opening today at The Avenues. It will be the second hotel at The Avenues and the mall entrance is in the Prestige area near the curved escalators. There aren’t any photos of the hotel online other than renderings, but if you want to check them out here is the link.

If you’re a fan of Tampopo then you’ve probably seen Chef Rashid AlSaif there working behind the bar. This coming Saturday he’s holding a cooking class at OFF THE MENU in 360 Mall where he will teach you how to make dumplings from scratch.

There are limited spots available so if this interests you, here is the link to book.

Yesterday the Dubai-based developer URB unveiled plans for XZERO CITY, a net zero carbon destination for 100,000 population that is planned for Southern Kuwait.

XZERO is a planned sustainable community, providing a net zero carbon lifestyle for 100,000 residents, in balance with nature. The city will provide food & energy security whilst promoting a green circular economy in an eco-friendly live, work & visit destination.

The development will provide 30,000 residential units and 30,000 jobs as well as tourism through its various eco-friendly hospitality assets, including a 5-star eco-resort and eco-lodges.

Sounds too good to be true?

I hadn’t heard of the developer URB until last night and looking through their Instagram and website it seems none of the projects they’ve proposed have actually been approved yet. So sadly this looks like a nice presentation but I don’t think anything will come of it.

For more details on the proposed project, click here.

Thanks Hind

A friend just sent me the video above he took of 360 Mall on fire. Looks like it’s in the new extension near IKEA but hard to tell from the video if its the mall parking that’s on fire or the actual mall. Will post an update once I get more details.

Thanks @nibaq

Update: Looks like fire was put out and doesn’t seem to have been any serious damage.

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan then you probably already know that yesterday the first episode of the GOT prequel House of the Dragon was released. I watched the first episode last night and it was amazing and I can’t wait for the rest of the season to play out. If you haven’t watched Game of Thrones that’s fine, you can still watch House of the Dragon since it’s a prequel and so you don’t need to have watched GOT to understand whats going on.

I watched House of the Dragon on HBO Max on my AppleTV using a smart DNS service. I’ve posted about this service before but I’ll explain it again for those of you who missed my previous posts. Smart DNS works like a VPN into making the streaming services think you’re living in the US. But, unlike VPNs, setting up a smart DNS service is easier and it’s not something you need to turn on and off all the time. It also doesn’t slow down your internet connection.

You need two things to start streaming House of the Dragon, a smart DNS, and a HBO Max subscription.

Smart DNS
If you have an Apple TV or a Smart TV, setting up smart DNS is as simple as going into your settings menu and adding some numbers. I use a DNS service from Smart DNS Proxy (affiliate link) and it allows me to stream from any of the services including Showtime, HBO, Huly, Paramount, Dinsney and more. They also provide easy step by step guides on how to set up the DNS service on your Apple TV and other devices. I’ve been using them for a few years and never ran into issues with them. A full year subscription costs my $18. Link

HBO Max Subscription
Subscribing to HBO Max or other US streaming services is also really simple as long as you do it through your Apple device. If you have an iPhone you might also have a US Apple Store account. An easy way to know if you have a US or Kuwait Apple Store account is how you pay for your apps and subscriptions. Is your Kuwaiti credit card connected to your Apple account? Or do you buy Apple cards and recharge your account that way? If it’s the latter then you probably have a US account. In that case, you need to subscribe to the streaming services either through your phone or other iOS devices. That way the subscription will be deducted from your Apple account and you won’t have to use a US credit card to pay.

That’s pretty much it. If you have any questions let me know in the comments.

I’ve noticed that as I’ve gotten older, I rarely eat at new places anymore. Well, that’s not completely true, I’ve just gotten a lot pickier with where I eat. I have my goto places that’s for sure, and Cocoa Room is my favorite breakfast spot. Earlier this year Cocoa Room launched a dinner menu and yesterday I decided to pass by and try it for the first time as part of my new goal to try a new place once a week.

The Cocoa Room dinner menu is Mediterranean influenced and so the mains section has lots of pasta, a couple of steaks, one seafood dish, and a burger. Not a big variety to pick from, and nothing really interesting but that’s because their starters section is where all the exciting dishes are. Thankfully they had an iPad with photos of all their items because all the dishes were in French and I had a difficult time visualizing what they were (You can check out the full menu here). I ended up ordering the following items:

Milefeuille D’avocat
Brioche De Champignons Crémeuse
Carpaccio De Boeuf
Spaghetti De Capri
Gratin de Maiz

Picking just three starters was difficult and if I had to pick again I’d probably go with the seabass carpaccio instead of the beef only because it’s not something I’d find elsewhere. For the pasta, I decided on the Capri because I wanted to try a new flavor and I never had a zesty spaghetti before (it was pretty ok).

Overall everything I had was good, the avocado millefeuille was probably my favorite dish while the mushroom brioche my least favorite (not enough mushrooms). The only complaints I have with the menu is the item names being in French and the lack of interesting mains. Lots of places in Kuwait have pastas and steaks so I was looking for something a bit more different to try. Also the desserts section wasn’t that appetizing but you can always head to Burger Boutique after dinner for their chocolate brownie pudding.

The total bill came to KD27.500 so expect to pay around KD15 per person. I had to reserve before heading there although there were empty tables so you could probably just walk in. Cocoa Room is definitely my favorite breakfast spot in Kuwait, but not sure I’d go back as often for their dinner.

To celebrate World Photography Day, Apple shared some of the most impressive photographs from their #shotoniPhone campaign from around the world and one of those photos was by local photographer Rashed Alajmi (@irashedc). The photo was taken in the Salmi Desert and uses a long exposure to capture the milky way. Rashed posted the photo on his account back in October so I assume that’s when it was taken. To see the rest of the photos Apple shared from around the world, check out this article on fstoppers.com

Thanks Raoul

A video started circulating this morning of a Bugatti in London that was getting attacked by a Deliveroo rider. Turns out that Bugatti was owned by a Kuwaiti and the rider was trying to steal his Rolex watch. The Daily Mail picked up on the story hence the hilariously long clickbait title of this post and you can read their article by clicking here.

If you haven’t watched the video of the attack yet, watch it here.

I assumed everyone already knew about this place since they’ve been open for a while now but recently I realized that wasn’t the case. There is a little bagel shop in Kuwait City next to Solo Pizza called While I’m Baked. If you head there in the morning before they sell out, you can get some of the best bagel sandwiches in Kuwait. I always order either their Turkey Avo Boi or the Kramer, and now while I’m typing this out I’m craving a sandwich so I’ll probably pick one up on my way into work this morning.

If you want to check them out, here is their location on Google Maps and they’re on Instagram @whileimbaked