Search: “ace”

If I hadn’t taken this picture myself I would have definitely thought it was a fake because no way on earth would I have ever imagined that someone would call a juice shop “Love Life Boost”. The place is located in the Marina Mall food court.

I landed at the Qatar Airport awhile ago and since I had some free time before my connecting flight to Kuwait I decided I would walk around and check out the airport. While doing so I spotted A&W which is my favorite burger and root beer place and I automatically fell in love with the airport. Even though their duty free section is crap, even though the airport is small, even though its over crowded and even though the bathrooms are dirty as hell, they had A&W which quickly made everything better. So I quickly went and ordered a double cheese burger and root beer combo. Guess what? The place is a fake! It seems once upon a time maybe in the 80’s the place was an A&W but they left a long time ago and now all thats left is their A&W signage. I didn’t find out until I got my burger and it was wrapped up under a different brand. The burger turned out to be really nasty and I felt cheated. Whats worse is that I paid over $10 for this crappy combo which would have been worth it if it had been A&W but definitely not for this crap.

This airport has officially become my least favorite in the Gulf. Luckily my stop over is really short so I should be back in Kuwait very soon.

Someone should open a place like The Weiner Circle in Kuwait. Maybe a shawerma place where all the workers can insult the customers. Problem is someone will probably take it personally and then have everyone deported. [Link]

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I was just reading a post from a blogger in Beirut and I found out two interesting things about Sultan Center.

The first which was a surprise is that Sultan Center is now operating the large supermarket chain in Lebanon called Geant. Geant is a large French based supermarket chain like Carrefour which is why I found that interesting. Could Sultan possibly open Geant in Kuwait? Or will they rebrand Geant’s to Sultan Center in Lebanon? I don’t know if Sultan operating Geant in Lebanon will have any effect here in Kuwait but nevertheless a lot of interesting things could happen.

Now the second thing which I found funny actually is that it seems the problem Sultan has in Kuwait with expired produce has worn off onto Geant in Lebanon. The Lebanese blogger purchased rotten meat from the supermarket and had a bad experience with the management there which is why he posted about Sultan and Geant in the first place. This blog by the way is my favorite Lebanese blog so it has some pretty interesting stuff. [Link]

Update: I just found out about another local blogger who found expired food at Sultan Center and was able to document his finding with pictures. He took it up with management and when they found out about his blog they threatened to sue him if he didn’t remove the post. I think thats extremely bad for their image. Threatening a blogger for posting about expired food he found at their supermarket. If anything they should thank him for highlighting the problem. Here are his posts on his experience with Sultan Center…

Sultan center in trouble!
Sultan center did It AGAIN!!!!
Sultan center STRIKE 3!

Note: Please take into account that the above information might not be true. There is no way for us to verify that the bloggers above are telling the truth and we haven’t heard Sultan Center’s side of the story. I for one only shop at Sultan Center.

The stylish British cafe Napket is going to open at the Avenues phase 2 before the end of the year. I’ve never tried Napket but I passed by it a few times while in London and the place was packed. supposedly they’ve got amazing sandwiches. Now if only Pret a Manger would open up…

I am going to be in Thailand next week for work and there isn’t much I am looking forward to except for this burger I read about once that costs like KD50. Someone had a posted a link to it under my Slider Station burger review and ever since then I’ve been wanting to try it. So I was just checking online to see what place that burger was available in and to my surprise it turned out this special burger was being served at Trader Vic’s which is located in MY HOTEL! From all places in Bangkok that I could have stayed in I ended up staying at the exact same hotel where one of the most expensive burgers in the world is served. If that’s not a sign I don’t know what is.

Why is the burger so expensive? Well here is a run down of its ingredients:

Matsusaka beef (KD52 per KG)
Morel Mushroom (KD107 per KG)
Black Truffle (KD70 per KG)
Foie Gras (KD15 per KG)
Gold Leaf (KD2)

Only thing I am worried about is that I am a fast eater so paying KD50 for a burger I am going to gulp down in 5 minutes is a bit too much. Maybe this week I should start training myself to eat slower… [Link]

Update: I just called the hotel, the burger now costs around KD55. I guess even this burger is effected by inflation. I was also told I need to book the burger ahead of time which makes sense.

Ok if you are a Top Gear fan then you know who the Stig is and you know that every episode they race a car on the track and time it. Well supposedly in the upcoming episode, the Stig takes the Nissan GT-R around the track and the timing was leaked online. If you don’t want me to spoil it for you DON’T click on continue reading…

The shawerma place called Weekend that is located in front of AUK in Salmiya got demolished. Supposedly the owner of the building demolished it so that he could drive off the owners of the shop. You can read more about it on the Al Rai Alaam newspaper but its in Arabic. I wasn’t a fan of Weekend, I prefered Malek Al 3aseer which was right next to it but it still sucks. They are doing the same with the shops in old Salmiya. For example Family Bookshop is still open but you can barely get to it. The entrances are blocked by rocks and sand because the owner of the building is trying to drive them out. [Link]

Thanks LunarDream

I passed by Saso Lounge yesterday for lunch. They are going to be placing a banner on my blog soon so I figured I would pass by and check the place out. The place is located in a strategic location, during lunch while I was there the place was full of business people since its close to many offices. The food was also pretty good and very reasonably priced. Its an Italian Asian menu which although sounds strange made perfect sense to me since while I was in Lebanon I had a habit of ordering Sushi and Pizza for dinner. The dish pictured above is the Shrimp n’ Hammour which was great and a dish I would order again. Check out their website for more details and their location. If you work in Kuwait City you should pass and try it out for lunch. [Link]

Yesterday I passed by Ruby Tuesday to try their burger after some friends had recommended I try it. First off I have to say that I don’t like Ruby Tuesday. I’ve maybe had a good experience there only once and I hadn’t been to the place for maybe a year or more. The place hasn’t changed much since then, the menu has been updated and it seems they make better burgers now.

When I got the menu I knew what I was going to order, the Triple Prime Cheddar Burger which consists of a “blend” of certified Angus beef, lettuce, tomatoes, cheddar cheese and garlic mayonnaise sauce. It comes with fries usually but I told them to swap it for baked potato which they had no problem with.

Since I was there early the place was empty so my burger arrived quickly. At first glance the burger looked pretty good but I quickly found out that the bread was a problem but I will get to that in just a second. The beef patty itself was tasty although I originally found the “blend” word a bit iffy. Its like the fast food place Great Steak and Potato Company who have a large sign that proudly says their burgers are 98% pure beef. Its like o…k.. and whats the other 2% exactly? So that aside lets move on to the biggest problem in this burger, the bun. It looked more like a croissant than a bun which is ok but it was falling apart in my hands and I also found it too thin. That combination resulted in a very messy burger to eat, not good!

Overall though it was a good burger, I wouldn’t mind going back to Ruby Tuesday just for the Triple Prime. The patty had good flavor and the garlic mayonnaise went well with it but their bun left a lot to be desired. Thats why the final score is a 3 out of 5. You have the bun and you have the patty, its simple yet many places can’t seem to get it right.

Ruby Tuesday is located on th Gulf Road, Salmiya and Abu Halifa.
The cost of the Triple Prime Cheddar Burger was KD2.950

Update: I went back to Ruby Tuesday a few days ago and ordered the same burger, this time it was horrible. Presentation wise, taste wise, everything was just terrible. New score is a 1.5 out of 5.

I dropped off my Jeep at Auto Tech yesterday night so they could start installing my lift early today morning. I just passed by after work and they had practically finished the installation. They only have the motor mount spacers to install, a spare tire bracket to tweak and a test drive to make sure everything is fine. So I will passing by again tomorrow to pick up the Wrangler and then take better pictures. I managed to take a few shots now but there wasn’t much room to maneuver. They will also be flipping the tires inside out so that the white markings are facing the inside, that way the tires will be totally black matching the black rims.

I am not really a “lets save the world” type of guy but I don’t mind helping out by using less energy as long as it isn’t a hassle for me. With not enough electricity in Kuwait for everyone its even more important to try and save energy just so we don’t end up stuck in a 50 degree heat wave with no AC. Thats why I decided to finally try energy saving light bulbs. I used to hate them because I thought they all emitted white light which I don’t like but I just recently found out their are versions that emit warm colored light which matches regular light bulbs we are all used to. So, I passed by Ace Hardware today and picked up two 20w bulbs to try out. At KD1.050 a pop they are around 10 times more expensive than regular bulbs but they last 6 times longer and use around 4 times less energy. A 20watt energy saving light bulb is equivalent to an 85w Tungsten bulb.

First thing I did was try them out to see if the color of the light is fine and it is. It matches the color of regular light bulbs so I am now going to go back to Ace and buy a whole a bunch of these so I could start replacing all the bulbs in my house. If you’ve held back on buying these light bulbs there really isn’t a reason not to get them anymore unless its because of the price. But even the price shouldn’t be a factor, seriously how many bulbs do you have around the house? 10?

I passed by and picked up my Wranglers lift kit from DHL today. Yes they were open today, turns out they’re actually open 24 hours a day including Friday! My shipment got cleared from customs yesterday evening and I was planning on passing by them after leaving Marzouqs place but I was just really exhausted and actually ended up going to sleep at like 11. Anyway today morning I woke up and headed straight to DHL in my mums mini van. My shipment consisted of two large boxes weighing in total around 56KG. The total shipping cost came out to only KD125 which is around KD2.250 a KG which isn’t bad at all.

Now I am going to take an appointment with Auto Tech so that I can pass by them this week and install the lift on the Wrangler. They told me they would be able to finish it in a day if I bring them the Jeep early in the morning so I can’t wait! The picture above is of Geo posing next to all my parts which now include:

5 Hankook DynaPro 33×12.5 tires
5 steel Cragar wheels
4 Old Man Emu Coils
4 Old Man Emu Shocks
1 set of JKS disconnects
1 JKS 1.25″ Body Lift
1 JKS Motor Mount Spacers
1 JKS Adjustable Trackbar (front)
1 JKS Adjustable Trackbar (rear)
1 set of Old Man Emu bump stop spacers
1 set of bunp stop spacers (front and rear)
23 black power coated wheel nuts

I heard a lot of bad stuff about Toshiba hard drives yet somehow I ended up buying one. Back in February Nataly needed a larger drive for her MacBook and I ended up going to Red Star in Walla Complex in Hawalli to see what they had available. I usually buy my stuff from Red Star or SoftIsland across the street since they both usually give me the best prices. The largest drive they had in my budget was the 160GB Toshiba. I didn’t want to get it but the salesman there convinced me that unlike the old Toshiba drives that were made in China and were prone to failure, the new drives are now made in Philippines and were supposedly of much better quality. I bought into that and went ahead and purchased the drive.

Just before we sold her MacBook the drive ended up dying. Luckily she had everything backed up on her old drive and so was able to recover her work but the Toshiba drive was dead. I put it aside and forgot about it until a few days ago I accidentally found the original invoice. There in very clear hand writing it stated “6 months warranty”. I checked the date and realized it had only been 5 months since I bought the drive so I headed to Hawalli today and got the drive replaced. I wasn’t to sure if they would replace it for me or not since most of the places there are pretty shabby but Red Star were pretty cool and after testing it out told me I could come back tomorrow and get a replacement. Since I didn’t want to come back the next day and since I also didn’t want another Toshiba drive I ended up settling on a 120GB Seagate and a nice discount on a decent HDMI cable.

I just installed the drive in my PS3 and its working perfectly. I will never buy another Toshiba drive ever again and I would not recommend them to anyone. They are cheap which makes them tempting but you really should stay away from them.

I just found out that on July 26th a drifting competition is going to be held in an underground parking lot of a mall in Lebanon. The event sounds really cool and some Lebanese rally champions are going to be judges at the event. Hopefully Red Bull is going to bring the same event to Kuwait since I know that a lot of guys here would love to participate in that. Here is a link to the facebook group. [Link]