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A bunch of things to do this weekend but I’m not going to be in Kuwait. This means I’ll be missing the very interesting sounding A Tour with Taste: The Flavor of the Coastline that is going to be held on Friday. Check out the full list of events taking place this weekend below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Al-Seef
Exhibition: The Replacement by Mahmoud Obaidi
Exhibition: Van Leo – Master Cairo Portrait Photographer
Auto Moto 15 – The Kuwait Motor Show
Marina Market
Traditional Kuwaiti Food and Dishdasha Night & Book Presentation
Rooftop Movie: Insomnia

Friday
Auto Moto 15 – The Kuwait Motor Show
Marina Market
Street Fest
A Tour with Taste: The Flavor of the Coastline

Saturday
Auto Moto 15 – The Kuwait Motor Show
Marina Market
Street Fest
Guided Tour: Old Kuwait City
Rooftop Movie: Lars and The Real Girl

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

The Time isn’t a new place, it’s actually been open for just over a year now but I just found out about it two days ago. I don’t drink coffee and there aren’t that many places that make good tea so I when discovered The Time was located in KIPCO Tower which is down the street from my office, I went there the following day.

The Time is an elegant looking but cozy place with a large variety of teas to choose from. They also have food but I had already eaten and was just there with a friend for some tea. The place was quiet, nicely lit with natural daylight and since they’re located on M2, the view was fairly decent while sitting by the window. The tea prices are very reasonable at KD1.5 and I loved their chinaware. Naf Noof’s Blog has a ton of beautiful shots of the place so if you want to find out more about the The Time click [Here]

Photo by Naf Noof

Anytime I need to get any paperwork from the government I cringe. In the past month I had two papers I needed to get sorted and in both cases things didn’t go so smoothly. I hate how I have to approach all the employees in a way where it’s like I am asking them for a favor.

The first paper is related to a business I’m launching. To setup a company I need a paper from my sponsor giving me permission to start a company. I got that paper from him and went to Government Mall (located under the Liberation Tower) to get it notarized. When I presented the document the government employee took a look at it and told me the format was all wrong, he wrote down the proper format, I went downstairs got it typed and came back to show him. He told me it was fine and I now needed to get it signed by my sponsor. So I left and came back two weeks later with the document signed. I went back to the same employee and handed him the signed document, he looked at it and was like what is this? I explained to him what it was and he once again told me it was in the wrong format. I was like what do you mean its the wrong format? You wrote it for me, I got it typed and approved by you and all you said I needed to do was get it signed which I did! He was like no this is the wrong format. I asked him if he could write down what I needed to change, he told me he won’t write anything and then shooed me away. I’m now getting someone to get this document sorted for me since I can’t deal with that crap again.

The second paper I needed to get was permission from the police to replace my damaged bumper. I headed to the Salmiya police station and walked up to the information desk and told them what paper I needed. They instructed me to go into the first office on the left. I went to the first office on the left and the police officer there told me to go upstairs. I went upstairs and there were three rooms but only one was occupied. So I walked in and waited until the two police there finished their conversation before I asked the cop seated at a desk about the paper. The cop told me to go to the office next door. I told him I did but there was nobody there. He then got agitated and told me obviously there isn’t anybody there since its his office and he can’t be in two places at once. As if I was somehow supposed to have know that was his office. So I go wait in his office for a few minutes and then he walks in. He’s like I need you to get me a photocopy of your license, car registration booklet and your civil ID. I thought to myself why couldn’t you have told me that earlier instead of making me wait here. So I leave the police station and drive to the nearest photocopy shop and then come back with the copies. I go upstairs again and this time the same cop is sitting at a desk in the third room. In my head I thought that was hilarious because it felt like the police station had only one employee who changes offices and pretends to be a different person every time. He ends up filling up the papers and then sends me down to the Salmiya area commander for one last signature.

How I hate this. I know a lot of people (mostly Kuwaitis) would disagree with me on this but I would rather they replaced all the ministry employees with expats. When was the last time you walked into McDonalds and was greeted by a grumpy employee who made you feel like he was doing you a favor?

Yesterday was the first day of Auto Moto 15 thats taking place at 360 Mall. I passed by awhile ago and although the selection of cars wasn’t that great, I did leave satisfied. For one thing they have the Alfa Romeo 4C on display, I hadn’t seen that car live before and damn it looks ridiculously cool in person. They also had the Volkswagen XL1 which I posted about last month on display plus the Porsche 918 Spyder.

For Toyota fans, there was a TRD display but all the cars on display just looked really really tacky. If that wasn’t bad enough, turns out all the cars only had TRD cosmetic kits with no engine performances available.

If you’re a car fan it’s worth passing by. For more information click [Here]

Another busy weekend this week. Only one market taking place this time around and it’s the Marina Market. I went to it last week and it was disappointing so I’m hoping its going to better this weekend. Anyway, here are my personal picks; Thursday I’d hit up the rooftop movie while on Friday I’d do the Two Chefs and a Waitress Brunch followed by the air show and then Marina Market. Saturday I would do the K’S PATH Shelter Open Day (it’s great if you have children) followed by the rooftop movie in the evening. There is supposedly an air show Check out the full list of events taking place this weekend below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Al-Seef
Exhibition: The Replacement by Mahmoud Obaidi
Torch Sport & Health Event
Marina Market
Rooftop Movie: Before Sunrise

Friday
Torch Sport & Health Event
Marina Market
Two Chefs and a Waitress Brunch
Hala February Air Show
Cozmo Cades: Fifa 15
K’S PATH Beach Cleanup

Saturday
Torch Sport & Health Event
Marina Market
The Secret Garden Project
K’S PATH Shelter Open Day
Rooftop Movie: Killing Them Softly
Madeenah Tour: Ahmed Aljaber St.

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

Update: Added the Madeenah Tour on Saturday

I found out about Torch today by coincidence from a friend who’s taking part in the exhibition. It’s being held at the Kuwait International Fairground starting from today until the 17th. I passed by the exhibition awhile ago and I’m not really sure what to make of it.

The hall the exhibition is being held in is fairly large but the majority of the space is taken up by a fake green field which none of the vendors I spoke to seemed to know what it was for.

Most of the vendors at the exhibition were for healthy food products and most were selling their products at retail cost. I just didn’t understand the purpose of it since you could find the same products at Sultan Center and SaveCo instead of driving all the way to the fairgrounds. At events like this food vendors should consider running some kind of promotion in a bid to gain new customers.

If you’re into fitness and sports then pass by the event like I did just to check it out. Just don’t go with high expectations.

Eight is a restaurant that is open across the street from Arraya Complex in Kuwait City. It opened up over a year ago but I never ate there because the design of the place looked so dark and gloomy. But, today while walking by it I noticed they’ve completely redecorated the place and it’s now so much more brighter and better looking. I still haven’t tried it out but I did quickly flip through the menu and I might end up going back for their sweet potato and brisket dish. For now I thought I’d just mention the facelift since it’s such a major improvement.

I’m a big fan of Qatar Airways for long haul flights and have used them previously to fly to New York, Tokyo and most recently Cape Town. So last week when Qatar Airways invited me to fly out to Qatar to check out their new plane, I jumped at the opportunity. I had never visited Qatar before (other than during transit) so I was as excited to check out the country as I was their new plane. Plus, I had some friends who I hadn’t seen since university that lived there and really wanted to see them as well.

I left Kuwait Tuesday night flying out first class but on one of their old planes which I’m not a fan of. I think they have six flights a day from Kuwait and I know at least one of those flights uses the much newer Boeing 787 Dreamliner which is a beautiful plane with a proper business class. As I mentioned in my previous post, the new Qatar airport is insane, probably one of the nicest airports I’ve been to and such a huge improvement over their older one. After landing and checking into the hotel I decided to head to Hakkasan for dinner at the beautiful St. Regis Hotel. Why don’t we have a hotel like that in Kuwait??? Anyway after somehow spending KD55 for an unimpressive dinner, I retreated back to my hotel for the night.

Wednesday morning I woke up early along with at least a hundred media people from all around the world and via shuttle busses we were all taken to the old Qatar airport for a press conference. Qatar Airways was the first airline in the world to receive the new A350 XWB plane which is why they made such a big deal about it. This is supposedly the last completely new plane that will be released for at least the next 10 years and so all eyes are on it. The actual press conference was pretty boring until the Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker started a Q&A session. God damn he’s impressive, not only does he know his airline inside out but personality wise he’s such a direct and blunt person. He was really inspiring and I was just sitting there thinking how I really need to be doing so much more with my life. After the Q&A was over we were invited to check out the new plane which was parked outside on the tarmac.

The A350 XWB is the successor to the A330 and the A340 (you’ve most likely flown on them before), it’s also Airbuses answer to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. XWB stands for extra wide body and allows the airline to fit an extra seat in economy creating a 3-3-3 seating formation. Most of the new features of the plane are under the hood but the ones we will notice the most are the larger windows and the quieter engines. The plane is also supposed to be very comfortable for long trips due to a number of other features like low cabin pressure, pure air inflight and precision air management. The first thing I wanted to do once I got onto the plane though was to check out the economy seats. I mostly fly economy so I really wanted to get a feel for it on this plane. The economy seats on the Qatar Airways A350 are pretty comfortable, the leg room fantastic (I’m 6’1) and the media system super responsive and a considerable upgrade over the system I recently used on the Dreamliner which was already great. Once done with Economy I walked into the business class cabin which was very familiar since I had just flown business from Cape Town to Doha on the Dreamliner. The A350 business class cabin looked practically the same since the seats are provided to Qatar Airways by a third party and they use the same ones on their different planes. But, because the A350 has an extra wide body, the seat manufacturer is able to make the seats slightly wider. One thing I loved is the window shades in business class although like on the Dreamliner they don’t completely block the sunlight which can be irritating if you’re trying to reduce glare on your laptop screen or just want complete darkness.

[YouTube]

After checking out the plane I decided to head out and explore Doha and meet up with my friends. I ended up going to Katara Village and The Pearl both beautiful places. I also ended up having dinner at Opal by Gordon Ramsay which I also thought was unimpressive (they couldn’t even cook the burger right and the bun was crumbling like it was 2 days old). Generally I thought some parts of Doha looked like a mini Dubai like their downtown area and parts of their coastal roads but the other parts of Doha looked like Farwaniya. You have this huge contrast between the different parts of the city and it just makes things confusing since I kept flip flopping between liking and not liking Doha. They don’t even have highways so every trip no matter how short it was would take 30 minutes. On the plus side they have Uber which I used throughout my whole stay.

It was a pretty cool and quick trip. They’re going to be receiving new A350s every month and hopefully I’ll get to fly on one soon. For now though their first route is from Doha to Frankfurt and that’s not a route I’ll be taking anytime in the near future. Kuwait Airways recently announced that they’ve ordered 25 of these new planes as well but it’s probably going to be awhile before they start receiving them. Anyway if you want to find out more about the plane check out this [Link]

Last week I passed by Rice to Riches in Avenues to check the place out. It’s a New York based dessert place that serve a variety of flavored rice puddings. A friend of mine who is friends with the owner wanted me to try the place out and then write a positive review of it on the blog. Obviously that’s not how this blog works and I explained to him that I hadn’t even tried rice pudding before so I’m not sure I’ll even like it. And that’s actually what made me want to pass by the place. I get invited to a lot of places all the time but unless it’s something different, I’m not gonna find it interesting and so I’m honestly not going to go and try it out (sorry burger joints).

So Thursday after coming back from Qatar I headed to Avenues to see what Rice to Riches was all about. The owner and the operation manager were there so they ended up showing me around the place before taking me to their kitchen and showed me how their rice pudding was made. After the little tour they brought out I think like 12 different flavors and wanted me blind taste them. So I started going through the flavors one by one guessing the flavors while giving them feedback on what I thought. I wasn’t really sure how rice pudding was going to taste, I just imagined the rice I make at home mixed with chocolate and figured it would taste really gross. Luckily, it didn’t taste like rice at all. The rice pudding is served cold and the hazelnut flavor for example to me tasted like chocolate mousse and was my favorite flavor alongside the cheesecake flavor which was just as good. My least favorite flavor was the old fashioned which didn’t have any flavor added at all.

I wasn’t expecting to like rice pudding but I did (at least some of the flavors). If you’re calorie counting though you’re going to have to leave that at the door since this isn’t some frozen yogurt alternative. They have random humorous signs hanging proudly with messages like “Eat what you want, you’re already fat”, “Think with your stomach” or “If you want to look young and thin, hang out with old fat people”. Rice to Riches is officially opening on January 15th in Avenues Phase III on the top floor next to Elevation Burger. They’re going to be soft launching before that date so check their instagram to stay posted.

The past couple of weekends were fairly quiet but this weekend the events have picked up once again. Lots of things to do this weekend but here are my personal picks: The GulfRun Car Show at 360 Mall for sure, if you pass by on Friday or Saturday the Snodrops Market will be taking place alongside it so you’ll hit two birds with one stone. I’m also curious to visit the Marina Market as well since it’s the first time they’re holding it. On Saturday I’d start off the day with the Secret Garden Brunch and follow it up with the Madeenah Tour. Oh and I’d also recommend the rooftop movie Man on Wire as well for Saturday. For the full list of events taking place this weekend check out the list below:

Thursday
GulfRun Car Show
Marina Market
Rooftop Movie: Rosemary’s Baby

Friday
GulfRun Car Show
Snodrops Market
Marina Market

Saturday
GulfRun Car Show
Snodrops Market
Marina Market
The Secret Garden Brunch
TICA Cat Show
Guided Tour: Grand Mosque
Character Design Workshop with Thuraya Lynn
Madeenah Tour: A Kuwaiti Haven – Reinvention of Bneid Al Gar
Rooftop Movie: Man on Wire

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]

The Qatar Digital Library have published an article about a scandal in Kuwait in the 1930s when one restaurant was accused of using cat meat instead of mutton. It’s an interesting read and it also sounds like an incident that could take place today. Kuwait really hasn’t changed much. [Link]

Dairy Queen is returning to Kuwait a decade after the Edina-based ice cream chain left the Middle East country.

The company plans to open 20 DQs in Kuwait over the next five years, according to Bloomberg . A franchisee had operated restaurants there from 1979 to 2003, but then the franchisee decided to leave the business.

Kuwait Dairy Queens will have a similar menu to U.S. locations, but will also have some different items, like a spicy Gyro sandwich. [Source]

My memories of Dairy Queen goes back to the mid 80s since there was a branch near my place in old Salmiya. Not that big a fan anymore though, would rather A&W be making a comeback.

I’m trying to put a list together of places that make turkey (to go) for Christmas, this is what I have so far:

Eedam Cafe (in Radisson Blu)
KD10.750 per KG
Order 48 hours in advance
Tel: 25673420

The Butcher’s Den
KD38 for around 5 to 6KG
Includes: Gravy, steamed vegetables, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, apple pie, dinner rolls, stuffing bread and corn or brown rice.
Order 24 hours in advance
Tel: 22263140

Dean & Deluca (unconfirmed)
KD6.950 per KG
Order 48 hours in advance
Tel: 22242224

If you know of any other places that make turkey let me know in the comments.

The people behind Qout Market are putting together two day trips this weekend. The day trips will involve a farm-to-table brunch, tour of the farm and greenhouses, a small produce market featuring neighboring farms, and watching the sunset while sipping on tea.

The two day trips are taking place on Friday 26 and Saturday 27. Friday features Caveboy Grubs, Saturday features #NourasKitchen.

Bring cash should you wish to buy produce from farms and bring your own bags. Transportation will be provided and is mandatory. For more info and to to book a seat at the table click [Here] (link only works on your phone)

Big Show, Vince McMahon, R-Truth, Summer Rae, and Alicia Fox all from the WWE were recently in Kuwait visiting the US troops. Other than Vince McMahon I have no clue who the others are but damn Summer Rae is pretty hot. [Link]

Thanks Tuan