2:48AM - Entertaining Kuwait since 2003

The new Steven Spielberg movie War of the Worlds comes out on Wednesday in the States. In Kuwait its coming out on Tuesday. I love it how recently movies are being released in Kuwait before they hit the theaters in the States. The movie experience has changed a lot since my highschool days in Kuwait. No people talking out loud and shouting, no laser pointers, and no waiting a year after the movie comes out in the States to get to Kuwait. Plus the fact you can order your tickets and seats from the web is really cool.

Over 10 years ago, me and my family went to this restaurant called Baba Taher. None of us had heard about it before but one my dads clients who was Iranian recommended it to us. He told us Baba Taher was one of the best Iranian restaurants in town and with that in mind we decided to check it out. We were expecting a lavish restaurant in a nice building but when we got to the location we were like WTF? The location turned out to be bad but the food turned out to be extremely good, 10 years later and I am still going back.

Baba Taher is located in a rundown probably soon to be demolished building in Kuwait City, near Arraya Centre opposite the fire station. Once you go up to the mezzanine floor and enter the restaurant, things get better. The place is clean and comfortable but nothing fancy, but then again its not a fancy place anyway, its more like a family owned business.

When you first sit down they bring you a freshly baked basket of Irani bread and a plate which includes slices of white cheese, a large white onion cut in half and some greenery (probably mint or something). I just love having Irani bread with white cheese and onions. The main menu includes soup, salads, appetizers, plat du jour, grills, a handful of traditional plates and dessert. I usually only have the grills and dessert but Nat sometimes has the salad.

I haven’t try that much from their menu, I have been ordering the same plate for years now, Kebab with rice. Its the best, its juicy, it smells good, it tastes good, and the meat is sooooo soft. I also used to hate rice until I started having it at Baba Taher, its wonderful. They use Basmeti or something similar I guess and its usually white except for a small amount of yellow colored rice. The 2 Kebab sticks and the large portion of rice are enough to fill you. Incase you have enough room for dessert, Baba Taher has a special ice cream called Falooda. Falooda looks like very thin noodles chopped up and tastes like nothing I know of. Its very refreshing and they provide you with lime and rose water syrup if you need more flavor.

The place doesn’t except Knet nor Visa card so make sure you bring cash, and don’t worry, you won’t be needing a lot of it. Baba Taher is very affordable, the plate of Kebab with rice costs KD2.500, the Falooda dessert costs only 500 fils. When me and Nat visit our bill comes out to be around KD8 with tip. The only downside to Baba Taher is the service, its very cold. I have been visiting for a long time now and I don’t know anyone’s name and they don’t know mine. Every time I visit they welcome me with the same cold “hello nod”. The waiters are very quiet, very cold, and they look grumpy most of the time. The service is basically unemotional and slow at times. That drops them a point and thats why they get a total score of 4 out of 5. If you are interested to find out where exactly they are located you can call them on 2456140 or 2456241.

Beck – Guero
Coldplay – Live 2003
Coldplay – Parachutes
Coldplay – X&Y
Dave Navarro – Trust No One
Foo Fighters – Foo Fighters
Foo Fighters – One By One
Foo Fighters – The Colour and the Shape
Foo Fighters – There Is Nothing Left to Lose
Garbage – BeautifulGarbage
Garbage – Bleed Like Me
Garbage – Garbage
Garbage – Version 2.0
Incubus – Morning View
Pearl Jam – Binaural
Pearl Jam – Live – 29-5-00 Wembley Arena
Pearl Jam – Live on Two Legs
Pearl Jam – No Code
Pearl Jam – Riot Act
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
Pearl Jam – Vs.
Pearl Jam – Yield
Placebo – Black Market Music
Placebo – Without You I’m Nothing
Sonic Youth – Sonic Nurse
The White Stripes – Get Behind Me Satan

Yesterday I found out a friend of a friend of mine gets paid $25,000 a month working for a US company here in Kuwait. His job is basic accounting and every so often he gets sent to Iraq to a heavily protected military base in the middle of no where. When he gets sent to Iraq his salary increases. Another friend of mine, his dads secretary used to get paid KD100 a month, she then left to go work for the Americans. She now averages a salary of KD900 to KD1100 depending on how much overtime she does. She barely speaks English, she doesn’t have any special skills, she is also flat out ugly.

Now I feel like I am in the wrong field or atleast getting under paid. How can I hook myself up with one of those high paying jobs here??

I think I am going to get me one of these foofpod ipod sleeves. They look very cozy and snugly, just need to figure out which color goes better with my blue mini.. or maybe it doesn’t have to match.. [Link]

How does a 4 billion mega pixel picture taken by a digital camera look like? Unbelievable, check this link out. [Link]

This is the picture of the fake Hungry Bunny that I spoke about a few days ago thats opening on the 4th ring road. As you can see, although they are using a similar typeface and color scheme as the official Hungry Bunny, the main visual of the bunny rabbit is different.

Pepsi have a promotion going on where if you send them an SMS you have a chance to win an iPod shuffle. When I first saw the ad I thought they had a Pepsi iTunes promotion going on like the one in the States.

I found this under my building.

Just yesterday I posted about the end of the Sub Club here in Kuwait but when I went to Sbarro for lunch they gave me their own version! Its only valid at Sbarro, Hardees, KFC and Baskin Robbins.. but the Fashionway branch. Order anything over KD1.200 from these 4 restaurants and they will give you a sticker. After 4 stickers you get your choice of either a Hardees or KFC combo for free! Offer valid till August 10th.

Was playing around with Google maps when I decided to check out Kuwait. It’s amazing! I didn’t think they would have Kuwait but they do. Now for some reason half of Salmiya is NOT available on Google and that half includes my house but a lot of other landmarks are available to spy on from above. Check out the Kuwait Towers and the Amirs house! [Link]

Update: Here is the link for an overhead shot of the airport. [Link]

This site has some classic arcade games as flash, my favorite is Space Invaders followed closely by Moon Patrol. [Link]

It’s official now here in Kuwait also. No more Sub Club, no more stamps. When I asked the guy why they stopped them he told me because some kids in the States made copies and sold them on eBay. I was surprised to know the guy knew the full story. Now I have a whole bunch of Subway cards that are full and I can’t use them. SUCKS!

Thank God my university didn’t have rules like this, I would have gone broke!

– Students of the opposite sex visiting alone at an off-campus residence ($50 Fine)

– Attendance at, possession or viewing of, an “R,” “NC-17” or “X”-rated movie ($50 Fine)

– Entering bedroom of the opposite sex on/off campus or allowing the same ($250 Fine)

– Possession or consumption of alcoholic beverages ($500 Fine)

– Spending the night with a person of the opposite sex ($500 Fine)

There are a lot more stupid rules like this at Liberty University, check them out. [Link]

It seems Flickr got banned yesterday in UAE. According to this discussion, Flickr got banned because of the nudity found on it. This said, the UAE users are blamming the people who are shooting nudes for the ban when they should be blaming their government.

Update: According to a comment left in this post the UAE flickr community will be moving to UAEflickr.com

Update 2: Can’t find nudes on Flickr? Try this link, followed by this link and then this link.