Search: “kuwait”

Third Steep is a new tea house that opened this past week. And yes, tea, this isn’t just another matcha spot.

The owner of Third Steep has always been a tea lover, and even took courses and workshops to deepen her knowledge. Last year she decided to quit her job and open her own tea spot after noticing a gap in the market. While there are plenty of places for coffee and matcha, she found it difficult to find a good tea-focused spot. Since she already worked in the food and beverage field, she decided to use that experience to create her own space.

I passed by a couple of days ago and found the spot really cute. It’s small but feels trendy without looking too Pinteresty. The colors and materials are mostly earth tones, with pops of green and mustard yellow that bring the space to life and give it a bit of a twist. There are also some nice material details that help give it a unique look.

The menu has a large selection of tea drinks without feeling overwhelming. There are currently 8 artisanal teas, two cold brews, and the option to build your own latte. There’s no coffee on the menu, and just one matcha drink. I was actually surprised that cold brew tea was a thing since I was only familiar with cold brew coffee before. In addition to the drinks, there are a few cakes and sandos to choose from.

From what I tried, I really liked the Milk Oolong Cold Brew, the Egg Mayo Sando and the Olive Oil Lemon Zest cake. Next time I’d try the build my own latte option and order the Banana Choco Mousse cake since I want to try that as well.

If you’re into tea or just want to try a new spot, Third Steep is located in Ahmadi Tower in Kuwait City on Sour Street (Google Maps). There’s plenty of parking across the street, and they’re currently open from 10AM to 10PM, daily except Sundays. @third.steep

Around 10 years ago I was invited to visit the Gulf Cooperation Council Joint Program Production Institution, or GCC JPPI for short. It’s a super long name, but if you grew up in Kuwait during the 80s, all it takes is one look at their logo to recognize who they are. They were behind some of the most memorable and iconic shows on television back then from popular Arabized cartoons to their own shows like Salamatak (سلامتك), Quff (قف) and of course, the Middle East version of Sesame Street, Iftah Ya Simsim (افتح ياسمسم).

The GCC JJPPI was created to strengthen the cultural, historical, and traditional connections between the GCC member states. They also wanted to create shows that reflected the Gulf spirit starting in 1977 with the iconic educational children’s program Open Sesame (Iftah Ya Simsim).

Before visiting their facilities located in Salmiya, I had assumed all their archive had been lost during the 1990 invasion, but turned out they still had copies of everything. When I visited back then they had just started digitizing their whole archive, and I recently found out that their archive was now mostly all online and available to stream for free.

If you go to YouTube and search for the user “Barameji”, you’ll find that they’ve uploaded over 3,000 videos. Thankfully, they’ve also organized them into different playlists and include the following shows:

Bombo (بومبو)
Flona (فلونة)
Jazora (جازورا)
Iftah Ya Simsim (افتح ياسمسم)
Quff (قف)
Tom Sawyer (توم سوير)
Salamatak (سلامتك)

For me, Salamatak and Quff were probably the most impactful shows growing up. They were public information programs for both children and adults, teaching things like not littering, not smoking while filling up fuel, or not talking while eating. Random educational lessons that have mostly stuck with me, and I’m sure with others as well. I mean even the opening theme songs are still stuck in my head to this day.

If you want to check all the playlists, here is the link.

I’ve been meaning to check out Farida’s breakfast menu for a while now, and I finally got the chance to try it a few days ago. If you don’t already know it, Farida is a small Persian restaurant with a cozy, home-like feel. It’s named after the owner, Farida (@faridah88), a Kuwaiti nutritionist with a passion for cooking.

I usually sit inside when I have lunch at Farida. The interior feels like an old family home, with nostalgic diamond-shaped ceiling moldings and crochet tablecloths with grandma-style dinnerware. This time I ended up sitting outside since the weather was nice and I wanted the sunlight for my breakfast shots.

Similar to the all day menu, Farida’s breakfast menu is made up of some of her favorite things she likes to cook for her family. The food is casual and welcoming, but still manages to look beautifully put together. Farida also focuses on using locally sourced ingredients, supporting local producers whenever possible. I ended up eating a lot of good food since, besides the set menu, I also had a couple of other dishes.

My favorite items were the whipped rose butter and jam, the khameh asal (cream and honey), the Omelette Irani, which is scrambled eggs with tomato paste and turmeric, and finally the Persian Love Toast, which is similar to French toast but with a Persian twist.

Overall, it’s a really nice breakfast experience, especially if you’re looking for something a bit different. The outdoor seating is also great, with shaded tables and greenery all around, giving it a nice, tucked away feel. Farida is located in Al Khalid Complex in Salmiya, and breakfast is served daily from 8:00 AM to 12:30 PM. For more photos, head over to @farida.kwt

In January I posted that the Thunayan Al Ghanim building was being restored, and yesterday I was able to find out a lot more about the project. The building is considered an important part of Kuwait’s architectural history since when it was constructed in the 1950s, it was one of the most advanced buildings in the country with a lot of firsts. It was designed by the renowned architect Sayed Karim, who later worked on other projects in Kuwait including the Ahmadi Cinema.

Yesterday I got a walkthrough of the building, where they took me through the restoration process and explained the plan. Spoiler, it’s all good news.

The thing I was most concerned about was the facade. I was worried they might cover it with alucobond panels or modernize it with glass, but that’s not the plan. In fact, it’s the opposite. The family has been digging through archives, looking for original drawings and plans, and investigating on site to understand how the building originally looked so they can restore it as closely as possible. They’re even trying to match details like the exact color of the window frames and the tiny mosaics that sit under each window.

Over the past 70 years or so, the building has gone through a lot of changes. Some were destructive, but most were superficial, like painting over original mosaics or covering walls with plasterboard. Once restoration began, they started uncovering remnants of the original building hidden beneath, almost like discovering artifacts at an archaeological site.

One of my favorite parts of the tour was hearing about the investigative work they’ve been doing to understand how the building evolved. For example, it was originally meant to have three additional floors, but that plan was canceled late into construction. That ended up working in its favor, since the structure was built to support a taller, heavier building, which likely helped it survive this long. They also found plans showing the building was meant to have adjustable directional louvers on the facade for shading, and even indications that the building may have originally been designed to include residential apartments.

It’s pretty fascinating how much they’ve been able to uncover, and eventually all of their findings will be shared with the public.

I really wish more people cared about restoring old buildings like this. Although, over the past few years I have started to see more old buildings being restored. Some are doing the bare minimum, but at least they aren’t being demolished and replaced with generic, soulless buildings.

I was at Sultan yesterday picking up a few things when I spotted different shelves that had Japanese products and a label saying “Flavors from Japan”. They mostly look like products that weren’t available in Kuwait previously.

I think they even tried to make the store background music sound like something you’d hear in a Japanese supermarket.

Other than the Pocky and Meiji products I didn’t recognize anything else, but I also wasn’t going through all the aisles looking for any of the Japanese stuff.

According to their instagram the items are available at their Salmiya, Mishref, Salwa, Adailiya and Jabriya branches.

A few days ago I decided since I now have a proper gaming PC, I might as well take advantage of it and not just use it for my racing rig. I figured I’d get a small desk, monitor, keyboard and mouse and set it up right next to my rig. Trying to find these simple things turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected.

Finding a monitor was probably the hardest mostly due to the costs involved. Keyboard and mouse if you make a mistake you’re not out much, but with a monitor you’re stuck with it. I flip flopped a lot from budget to premium, from IPS to OLED and in the end, after a lot of research I narrowed it down to two options not he opposite end of the spectrum:

Asus ROG Strix OLED XG27UCDMG 27″ 4K QD-OLED, 240 Hz
Price: KD 311

LG 27G810A-B 27″ UltraGear™ 4K UHD IPS 180Hz
Price: KD 135

At one point I was looking at 32″ screens but based on the size of table I was looking to get it would have been too big. Plus they’re more expensive.

In the end I decided to go with the Asus. I figured I spent all this money getting a high end gaming PC it didn’t make sense to cheapen out on the screen now. The fact I only found one piece in the market helped create a sense of urgency to get it as well. The only place that still had one left from all the online stores was Blink, so I ordered it from them and it got delivered a few hours later.

Next step was picking a mouse and keyboard. 25 years ago picking a keyboard and mouse was pretty easy, you just went Microsoft or Logitech. My favorite used to be the ergonomic keyboard pictured above my Microsoft, it was ground breaking when it was released. Now the number of options is crazy. especially if you search for gaming gear. Suddenly new terms started popping up like hall effect, rapid trigger, DPI, polling rate etc.. when back then all I had to pick from was either a trackball or optical mouse and either use a random keyboard I had or get a Microsoft one. The fact that people also care if the mouse weighs 60g or 84g or whatever is also such a new concept to me. But it goes to show how seriously gaming is being taken, it’s fascinating, I love it, but it’s also so overwhelming.

I’m still trying to figure out what keyboard and mouse to go with. I think with the keyboard I’m going to go with looks. I found the Redragon K681 Cyrus PRO locally which looks good, is mechanical and should be good for casual gaming. It’s wireless and costs KD22, plus I might swap out the AWSD keys with some pink ones to give it a 90s vibe. Game Store also have some cute stuff, but most are out of stock.

The last time I passed by Blink they had keyboards on display so might pass by and check them out as well. It needs to be a keyboard with no Arabic, so Keychron or Ducky our out of the question since the ones in Kuwait are bilingual.

For the mouse I’m also thinking of going with the HyperX PulseFire Haste 2 Core because of the color combination that gives it a 90s vibe. It’s KD15 so not expensive and should be ok for casual gaming. Second option is possibly the white colored Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro since it’s a bit larger and so I think better for my wrists. But looks a bit too boring.

Back in the 90s Case Logic used to make these really great mouse pads that had a gel wrist rest and similar one for keyboards. They were life savers. I noticed some brands have similar ones now and mouse/desktops pads are a big thing as well. So might pick up a SteelSeries desk pad with RGB while I’m at it.

If you guys have any recommendations on keyboards and mice you’ve used let me know. Oh and if there is a store you know of that has a large selection also let me know. At the moment I’ve just been searching online but I’m sure there are a few shops that don’t have a website but have a good selection of stuff.

Yesterday, in a now deleted video posted on @jazeeraairways, their CEO Barathan Pasupathi shared that his team had been working hard to get their terminal ready (T5), and as of 3PM yesterday, the terminal would be ready to operate as soon as Kuwait’s airspace reopens.

I posted that on instagram since it was a nice feel good story. But, either people didn’t watch the video till the end, or maybe due to a language issue, it turned out a lot understood the video as Jazeera was opening the airport and flights would be resuming. That was obviously not true so the Civil Aviation had to issue a statement stating that the rumors of the airspace reopening was not true.

Again, either people didn’t read the statement right, or maybe due to a language issue, but they started accusing Jazeera of fake news and obviously me as well because I posted Jazeera’s story as well. Jazeera Airways must have gotten a lot of heat for their video because they ended up removing it, even though they didn’t state anything untrue or wrong or even misleading. There was meant to be a Jazeera Airways online media briefing yesterday to discuss their readiness to operate flights from Kuwait, but even that got postponed till next week. So much drama.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about the fact that I was thinking of building a gaming PC for my sim racing needs. After a lot of flip flopping on the idea because of the high cost involved, I finally pulled the trigger.

I was put off by the idea of spending so much on a PC since it was just going to be used for gaming, and my Mac mini which I use to earn a living cost me way less. But after going back and forth in my head and reading about how prices were just going to go up, I decided if I could build a PC for 1,250 I’d get it. So I headed to Hawally to see what the prices were like since up till that point I was just checking local stores that had websites.

99% of the shops were selling everything for the exact same price as the ones online, so that wasn’t helpful. But then on my way to PCkuwait which up to that point had the best prices, I decided to pass by Limra Computers.

I posted about Limra all the way back in 2012, they’ve always been my go to place mostly for hard drives and other computer accessories. But for some reason I forgot that they carry everything in that tiny shop. So I passed by and gave him the full list of items I wanted and he quoted me a 1,300 KD. I still needed a way to drop it down to 1,250 so I decided to swap the motherboard from the Asus TUF B870E to the TUF B850Plus since it wasn’t going to make a difference for my use. That reduced the price considerably and I left to sleep on it and then came back the next day to buy it.

This was my final build:

CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 9850X3D – 180 KD

Motherboard
ASUS TUF Gaming B850-Plus WiFi7 – 82 KD

RAM
Kingston Fury Beast RGB 32GB DDR5 6000MHz CL30 – 145 KD

SSD
Samsung 9100 Pro 2TB PCIe 5.0 – 135 KD

GPU
ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 5080 OC 16GB – 570 KD

Cooler
ASUS TUF Gaming LC III 360 ARGB LCD – 58 KD

PSU
ASUS TUF Gaming 1000W Gold ATX 3.1 – 58 KD

Case
ASUS TUF Gaming GT302 ARGB – 40 KD

Total
1,268 KD including a Windows 11 Pro license

I compared my total price to NewEgg.com and surprisingly it was exactly the same. The different items varied in cost, like some things are cheaper in Kuwait, some cheaper on NewEgg, but the total still came out to be the same thing. That made me feel a bit better. So far though my experience has been a bit of a mess… on the software side.

I built the PC myself which was easy and the fun part. It’s been 25 years since I put a PC together and surprisingly nothing has changed, it’s still the exact same process. I’m glad I stuck to the Asus TUF ecosystem for everything since visually everything just looks good together.

But when it came to software, thats where things got mess.

I ran into issues installing Windows 11 since the installer couldn’t see my hard drive. Online I read that because its a new Gen 5 drive that some motherboards had trouble reading it, and after hours of trying different workarounds in the BIOS to get Windows to read my drive, it turned out the issue was with the Windows 11 boot drive I had made.

The first Windows 11 boot drive I made was using the Mac software called balenaEtcher.
The second one I did I used another software called Win Disk Writer. This worked. Hours wasted for nothing.

After installing Windows I then had to spend a couple of hours downloading and installing all the drivers. I didn’t know you guys still had to do this in 2026. Windows 11 couldn’t even read my built in wifi without installing a driver, wtf?

Currently, my computer looks like a Christmas tree with all these colorful LED’s. I have 8 fans, 7 of which have brights LEDs that are cycling through the rainbow. I have an LCD screen on my cooler for some reason that is playing an animation but can actually play videos as well. Even when the computer is in sleep I have some part of the motherboard glowing rainbow colors from the back. And why RAM sticks need brights LEDs?

This whole obsession with lights and screens INSIDE the PC is really bizarre, but whats weirder is I’m kinda liking it. I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few months I didn’t end up getting more screens and LEDs to put inside the case.

I also have a bunch of technical issues I’m trying to solve at the moment. My TV is 120hz but when I set the PC to 120hz the screen starts to flicker every few seconds, so I’m forced to keep it at 60hz for now. The ASUS software that controls the LED’s also doesn’t recognize the case or the cooler so I can’t control those LEDs yet. My first experience running Assetto Corsa Rally and Dirt Rally 2.0 didn’t result in graphics that much better than my Xbox. But I guess I knew that would be the case already, Dirt Rally 2.0 isn’t a new game and runs in ultra settings on a lot weaker GPUs perfectly fine. But it’s all about the mods, and I think once I get all the technical stuff out of the way I can focus on gaming and downloading ultra realistic graphics mods to really get the GPU working.

So far I’m obviously regretting this purchase. It was 100% stupid and knowing me I’ll end up installing Duke 3D, Red Alert Aftermath or the original Theme Park and end up just playing those. But in the long run, at least I’ll have a good PC to run GTA6 if it comes out this year. Also maybe down the line I can get a second screen and set it up for flight simulation. I don’t know, I’m just trying to convince myself I didn’t make an expensive mistake.

Last week I posted about a very cool initiative called Al-Arfaj where they created a badge of gratitude and recognition for those on the frontlines. The initiative quickly took off beyond their expectations, and demand for the badge exceeded production by a huge margin.

Since that post, I’ve been getting messages and comments asking where to get a badge, so I decided to compile the places into a list. There are now a lot of people producing these badges to help meet demand, but the list below is of the companies who first adopted the initiative, so these come from the initial batches produced by @alarfajflower. All available for free and include the information card.

% Arabica
Available at almost all branches to customers who make a purchase, though they go fast, so if they’re out just check back another day.

Crown Dental
Available to their patients for now until they get more stock.

Dabdoub
Included with every purchase.

Elevation Burger
They are available at different branches which change daily. They announce the locations on their Instagram and no purchase is necessary.

Jibla Dental Center
Available to anyone who wants one, not only patients.

Pret A Manger
Available at their branches in Hamra, Sabah Al salem, Assima, and Messilah. No purchase necessary.

Rainforest Park Spa
Available to their customers for now until they get more stock.

Stock Room Coffee
Due to limited quantities they’re only giving them to their loyalty program customers at the moment.

Vol.1
Limited quantity available to customers at their branches in Downtown, Mishref, Salmiya, and Shuwaikh.

There are a couple more spots as well, I’m just waiting to hear back from them before adding them to the list.

Update: If you want to print it out yourself with a 3D printer, you can download the file from MakerWorld.

Joe & The Juice is opening their new Hessah District location today. The branch is in the Hessah Hub area and features a large dine in space along with a drive thru. (Google Maps)

Hessah District is one of the hottest spots in Kuwait right now, and their location is right at the start of the district, making it easy to get to. I also like that this branch has a drive thru since I pass by the area after the gym, so I’ll definitely be using it to grab lunch on my way home.

This new location will also help speed up delivery to nearby neighborhoods. And if you want to pick up breakfast on your way to work, they open early at 6AM and close late at midnight.

To stay up to date on any new menu items or locations, head over to @joeandthejuicekuwait

This is a great initiative by a group who created a badge of gratitude and recognition for those on the frontlines, symbolized by Kuwait’s national flower, the Al Arfaj.

The Al Arfaj blooms in harsh conditions, which makes it a symbol of resilience and the ability to rise under pressure. It reflects the people on the frontlines who protect Kuwait and continue to give it strength, so that like the flower, the country comes back stronger.

The badge is meant as a simple expression of appreciation for those who sacrifice for Kuwait’s security, safety and stability.

It will be available for free to anyone who wants to wear one as a sign of support. Right now it’s being shared organically, but in a few days it will be available to pick up from different locations around Kuwait. If you want one, they’ll be announcing the locations soon on @alarfajflower

The Ministry of Interior has announced an update to the notification mechanism in the National Alert System on smart devices, in coordination with the activation of warning sirens across the country.

Under the new system, alerts issued between 10:00 PM and 8:00 AM will be delivered with a standard message tone, while notifications from 8:00 AM to 10:00 PM will use a high-alert tone.

The ministry said the update aims to enhance the efficiency of the alert system, take into account public rest periods, and ensure timely and effective delivery of emergency warnings when required. Arab Times

I kinda had a feeling something would change after the first night. Glad they made this decision, I guess we don’t need to put our phone on airplane mode anymore.

I came across this photo in my stories earlier today that captured a small moment after the firefighters had extinguished the fuel tank fire at the airport. It was taken by the Kuwait Fire Force’s photographer and I got the high resolution photo from one of the firefighters who took part in the operation (@ponato). I thought I would share it because it’s genuinely uplifting and they definitely deserve the attention.

Back in the 90s I used to really love PC gaming and was constantly upgrading my computer to be able to run different games. When Doom came out my 33mhz PC couldn’t run it (pictured above) but our “family computer”, a Pentium 60 could so I used to get permission from my dad to play on it. Eventually I took over that computer since nobody at home really knew how to use it except me (pictured below).

When I moved to uni in 96 I used to spend all my money on CDs and upgrading my computer. I remember the first legit gaming card I got was the Matrox Mystique. But then a new brand launched called Nvidia and I got their Riva 128 card which was great until 3DFX came out with their Voodoo cards. Games that were optimized for 3DFX looked so much better so got that but I remember I used to have a lot of compatibility issues so got the Nvidia TNT and then later got the TNT 2 Ultra. I think the last decent card I got was the original Geforce 256 before I stopped PC gaming.

Recently I’ve gotten into sim racing and was considering building a gaming PC for it. My Xbox Series X is great but some games like Assetto Corsa Evo, Assetto Corsa Rally and iRacing aren’t available on the Xbox while other games like Dirty Rally 2.0 have ultra realism graphic mods that the Xbox version doesn’t have. It was pretty hard to get a grasp on whats considered good or not good nowadays since I haven’t had a Windows PC in over 20 years, but with the help of Ai I think I kinda started understanding things and managed to build a really good gaming PC, but wtf is up with these crazy prices??

This is the build I managed to put together based on parts currently available locally, I think memory is the hardest thing to get right now:

CPU
AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D Gaming Processor — 179 KD

Motherboard
Asus TUF GAMING X870E-PLUS Motherboard — 129 KD

RAM
Kingston Fury Beast RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR5 6000MHz CL30 — 145 KD

Graphics
ASUS TUF GAMING GeForce RTX 5080 16GB GDDR7 OC — 580 KD

Storage
Samsung 2TB 9100 Pro NVMe M.2 SSD PCIe 5.0 — 117 KD

Cooling
Asus TUF Gaming LC III 360 Liquid CPU Cooler — 62 KD

PSU
Asus TUF Gaming 1000W Gold ATX 3.1 Power Supply — 58 KD

Case
Asus TUF Gaming GT502 — 54 KD

Total: 1,324 KD

That seems really insane, I thought I was going to end up paying like 500-600KD for a high end gaming PC but this is more than double that. I thought this might just be the usual Kuwait over inflated prices but seems to be pretty much the same even in the US. Crazy! How are you guys doing this?

Most people know Shaab Park from the late 90s, but back in the 80s it looked completely different. I’ve been looking for photos of what Shaab Park used to look like in the early days what seems like forever, but I’ve never been able to find any… other than my own personal family photos.

Since I used to (and still do) live in Salmiya, my mum would take me and my siblings to Shaab Park to meet up with our friends since it was close by. Back then the park wasn’t fenced up, and it was a large green field and looked pretty vast in the photos. There was a sandy area with some slides, swings and toys, and there was also an area with a small rollercoaster, bumper cars and other rides.

Some of the residential buildings in the background I think are still there today. You can also see the Al-Muzaini Mosque in one of the photos and the Abdullah Al-Salem School. The Abdullah Al-Salem School is where the Abdullah Al-Salem Cultural Center is today. When the school was demolished in 2014, it wasn’t operational but Al-Maidan Cultural Centre was located there. Al-Maidan was part of Dar al Athar al Islamiyyah and used to hold various performances and musical events.

Based on how old I look in the photos, the fact that my younger brother isn’t in any of them (he was born in 1985) and the different outfits I’m wearing, my best guess is these photos were taken between 1983 and 1985. Check out all the photos here.