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Earlier tonight I passed by Ubon, the new trendy Thai restaurant that opened up in Kuwait City. I’m not a big fan of Thai food but the place is located in my office tower and the interior looks amazing so I had to try it. Below is what I ended up ordering.

Tom Yum Goong Soup (KD2.400) It’s a hot and sour prawn soup with mushroom and vegetables. I asked mine to be made medium spicy which turned out to be too spicy for my liking.

Chicken Satay Sticks (KD2.200) These were really great. I kinda wish the peanut sauce was a bit thicker but that’s an issue I have with Thai food in general.

Green Curry Chicken (KD3.000) + Jasmine Steamed Rice (KD1.000) I loved this dish but next time I’m ordering it without the veggies.

Sticky Rice with Mango (KD2.800) This was the biggest surprise. I ordered it unwillingly since I didn’t find anything else on the small dessert list. It didn’t sound great (rice dessert?) and when it came it didn’t look that appetizing either. But after scooping up a bit of rice with mango and taking a bite I fell in love with it. 99% of the desserts I have involve chocolate so it was extremely refreshing to finally find a chocolate free dessert that I can really enjoy.

Fried Banana with Honey (complimentary) I originally wanted to order this for dessert but was told it wasn’t available. After my Sticky Rice with Mango arrived they told me that the Fried Banana was available and they would serve it to me after the Sticky Rice. I’m honestly glad they had originally told me it wasn’t available or else I wouldn’t have discovered the Sticky Rice. The Fried Banana is a very safe option and wasn’t that exciting. My recommendation would be to go with the Sticky Rice.

I had a good experience tonight and I can’t wait until they start opening for lunch since it would be very convenient for me. Right now they’re open from 6 to 11pm. Price wise they’re very reasonable and the portions are pretty good. I’m glad someone decided to open something other than a burger or frozen yogurt place. Now if someone would open a small trendy Chinese restaurant.

To find out more about Ubon visit their website [Here]

[YouTube]

Cosplay, short for “costume play”, is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea.

If you’re interested in joining them they’ve got a Facebook page [Here]

This new school is designed to promote experimental teaching, to branch away from the rote memorization model of learning that ensures that most Kuwaitis have zero knowledge of their agricultural history. To implement a more hands on approach, the designer created plenty of outdoor space at grade and even on the school’s roof.

An interesting project designed by Perkins + Will but like all the other cool projects popping up I hope this one gets built as well. Note the sheep on the roof. [Link]

Run Kuwait is a 240KM run from the very north of Kuwait to the very south. It’s taking place on the 25th of this month and is estimated to take 50 hours. Six runners are taking part an effort to promote the Aymstrong message of empowerment by creating a sense of determination, and unity within local society and amongst Kuwait’s youth. For more information click [Here]

Yesterday there was a very depressing article in Kuwait Times about how dogs are being poisoned to death in Kuwait deliberately. The poison isn’t killing only stray dogs but it’s also killing peoples pets since the poison is being placed all around the parks without any warning to pet owners. Here are some excerpts from the article:

“After a walk in the local park, my dog began foaming at the mouth and shaking. I remembered that he had run towards something that had taken his interest in the park, and realized he had ingested poison,” recalls a French expatriate. “His legs were dragging on the way home and for once he was not pulling on the leash, but I did not realize what was wrong. By the time we realized it was too late, but there is no emergency animal hospital here so there was nothing I could do but watch him die,” she added.

“I cannot let my dog run freely around the park anymore because of this. I caught him eating a pellet of poisoned food, and luckily it was not enough to harm him,” said Khaldi. “Since they are unwilling to stop placing poison in the parks, I asked that they at least put up signs to warn pet owners. They even refused that, insisting that it would be too much effort to place a sign every time they planted poison.” Unknowing pet owners have suffered the consequences as a result. “My friend’s dog ate the poisoned food and died because of it. It’s not even humane euthanasia: the dog died over the period of an hour, foaming at the mouth. It is a slow, painful death.”

You can read the full article [Here]

I find this news extremely disturbing. I have a dog myself which I take to the park every so often but there is no way on earth I would take him again. The fact they’re placing poison in parks without any warning is very dangerous. How safe is it to come in contact with these poisons considering people have picnics there? I’m gonna end this rant with a video of a puppy being saved after being trapped in a pipe overnight. Hopefully someone from the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resources watches it.

[YouTube]

Blogger Qabaq was at last night’s Zagato worldwide launch event which was held at the Salwa Al Sabah Hall. Only 150 Zagato’s will be made and each will be priced at KD175,000 which is around $650,000. He took some pictures two of which I’ve posted but you can check out the rest on his twitter page [Here]

The Zagato will be on display at the Concours d’Elegance that’s taking place in Marina Crescent starting today.

Concours d’Elegance will start tomorrow and last for the next four days. I passed by tonight for a peek and it just looks amazing. Aston Martin have a HUGE display which will house the Zagato which was launched earlier tonight at the Salwa Al Sabah Hall. They have a ton of race cars this year including the Ayrton Senna Williams car.

I’m going back tomorrow since everything should be up and ready by then. Below is some information on the event:

Date: February 15th to the 18th
Time: 10:00AM – 10:00PM
Location: Marina Mall interior, Marina Crescent and Marina Lawn

Daily Events
15th – Muscle & Classic
16th – Supercars
17th – Kuwait Bike Show
18th – Enzo Ferrari Birthday (see below)

Muscle Cars Section
69 Dodge Daytona
70 Plymouth Superbird
71 Plymouth ‘Cuda 340 Convertible
67 Mustang Shelby GT500
74 Trans-Am SD
69 Shelby GT500 owned by Carroll Shelby him self!
and many many more.

Hollywood Cars
This year they’re bringing real life sized Pixar/Disney cars including Lighting McQueen, Finn and Mater. They will be on display inside Marina Mall.

Enzo Ferrari Birthday
On the last day of the event, Leonardo Fioravanti the designer behind some legendary Ferrari’s including the 365 GTB 4 “Daytona”, 365 GT4 Berlinetta Boxer, the 308 GTB and GTS as well as the 288 GTO and the F40 will be giving a lecture at the Concours. His lecture will be on the Ferrari F40 since it’s the F40′s 25th anniversary. The F40 is the last Ferrari he designed and a car many believe to be one of the greatest super cars ever made. Obviously there will also be a Ferrari F40 on display.

– The F40′s nemesis, the Porsche 959 will also be on display at the Concours.

– The first day of the event they’ll be displaying old government vehicles like the old police cars and ambulances etc..

– The last day of the Concours on the occasion of Enzo Ferrari’s birthday, over 150 Ferrari’s will get together at Marina Crescent and then drive towards the Kuwait Towers.

– The Alfa Romeo Bat 11 will be on display.

Now that’s a lucky person. All I wanted was a 1984 factory sealed Voltron set and Nat refused to get me it.

Thanks MSM

Just read on Gulf News that “Kuwait has banned smoking and shisha in all public places, including airports, cafes, restaurants, shopping centres and recreational areas.” I thought at first the law was against shisha only but it seems it’s against both smoking and shisha.

Now what’s confusing me is that in the same article it states that “Under the ban, cafes, restaurants and hotels have to allocate a secluded area for smokers.” Isn’t that basically how things are right now? [Source]

The team behind photo documentary Kuwait Invasion: The Evidence is now in the process of putting together another project but this time on the Free Kuwait Campaign and they need your help.

In the coming weeks freekuwait.org.kw is going to be launched and they would like to hear from people who have videos of the Free Kuwait Campaign events that took place in London from August 1990 through February 1991. If you have anything please contact them on [email protected]

This is another important archiving project and whatever you have will prove to be very valuable in preserving this period of Kuwait’s history.

The video above is from Redbull’s event yesterday. The Subaru is being driven by Lebanese champion rally driver, Abdo Feghali. [YouTube]

The winner of the event was Mubarak Al-Rumaidhi, the co-founder of Slide N’ Glide. He’ll now be going to Lebanon this summer representing Kuwait against other competitors from the region. You can watch one of his runs from yesterday in the video below.

[YouTube]

Update: Here are some photos taken by Hassan Raza [Link]

You can now view the entire collection of winning images from the 55th World Press Photo contest [Here]. There are a ton of great shots but below you can find some of my favorites:

Lucha libre at La Loba
15 June 2011
Masked luchadores at La Loba in the Chimalhuacán neighborhood of Mexico City. Lucha libre, the Mexican version of free wrestling, is probably only rivaled by soccer in popularity among Mexican people, and its cultural impact may be even greater.

Cliff-Climbing Polar Bear Attempting to Eat Seabird Eggs
30 July 2011

A male polar bear climbs precariously on the face of a cliff above the ocean at Ostrova Oranskie in northern Novaya Zemlya, attempting to feed on seabird eggs. This bear was marooned on land and unable to feed on seals–its normal prey–because sea ice had melted throughout the region and receded far to the north as a result of climate change.

North Korea
05 October 2011

A picture of North Korea’s founder, Kim Il-sung, decorates a building in the capital Pyongyang.

Occupy Wall Street
21 October 2011

Arrest of protesters in Harlem, New York, during a demonstration against police tactics and income inequality.

Here is a link to all the winning photos [Link]

According to the Kuwait Time’s photo the guys sister is Britney Spears. I’ve noticed they’ve been using random pictures off the internet for their articles. Below are two more:

Funny. You can check some more out [Here]

Update: Looks like Kuwait Times read this post and have corrected their mistake. They’ve now removed the Britney Spears photo and instead replaced it with Natalie Portman’s…

I finally got my GX1 camera. I originally ordered it at the beginning of December but the camera with the specific lens I wanted started shipping end of January and Aramex just dropped it off to my office earlier today. The GX1 is a replacement for my Panasonic GF1 which was (and still is) one of the most enjoyable cameras I’ve ever used. So far the GX1 seems exactly like the GF1 except better although it’s still too early to get a first impression. I’ll be posting my view on it after using it for awhile.

I ordered the Panasonic GX1 with the 14-42mm x power lens from [Amazon]

A classical piano concert will take place next week featuring Kuwaiti pianist Faisal Al-Bahairi who is a winner of numerous piano competitions as well as two up and coming pianist Lulwa Al-Shamlan and Abdul-Aziz Al-Abwa. The concert will include works by Mozart, Beethoven, and Chopin and will be taking place at the Abdul-Aziz Hussien Theater “Library” in Mishref’s Co-op on Tuesday, February 14th at 7:00pm. Entrance is free but seats are limited. For more information visit their Facebook page [Here]