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Not sure why, but it looks like the latest dessert trend in Kuwait is Japanese cheesecakes. I’m a fan of Japanese cheesecakes and if you like them as well, here are my favorite three places to get cheesecakes from:

The Cheezery
I’ve been getting Japanese cheesecakes from them for over a year now and they’re really good and the sizes of the cakes are fairly large so perfect for gatherings. They also have a location in Sharq for pick up across the street from Arraya.

Medium: KD14
Large: KD16

Here is their location on [Google Maps] and they’re on Carriage [Here].

Kotton
This is a new place that opened up recently and other than the fact their cakes are really good, they also come in a variety of sizes including mini ones. Their packaging is great and their cakes are the densest of the three here. They also opened up their physical location last week and you can pass by and have a mini cake with coffee if you don’t want it delivered.

Mini Cake (3pcs): KD4.5
Medium Cake: KD9
Large Cake: KD16

This is their location on [Google Maps] and they’re on Carriage [Here]

Japan Bakery
Finally, Japan Bakery is the most recent place I tried. Their cakes look the cutest and are fluffy but also are less cheesy tasting than the other two. They sell their cheesecakes on Carriage under the brand “Makers” which is a place that carries a bunch of different smaller locally created dessert brands. You can also pick up a cake from Hamra since there is a Makers kiosk there.

Medium Cake: KD8.5

Available in Hamra Tower or on Carriage [Here]

If you have another favorite place let me know in the comments below.

As I previously posted, starting January 1st, Al Mulla Group will be the new distributors for Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait. There has been a lot of talk on where their showroom will be but this current rumor seems to be the most plausible one.

Volkswagon just moved to a new showroom in Al Rai (pictured above), so the rumor is that the Acura dealership will now move into the old VW showroom, leaving the current Acura showroom for Mercedes to take over.

To me, this makes the most sense since the Acura lineup is fairly small, and I don’t think is doing so well in Kuwait, so the old VW location should help cut down on their overhead. The current Acura location is actually pretty nice and spacious so should be enough for the full Mercedes lineup, at least until they build them a new larger location.

Update: Looks like the above isn’t a rumor anymore. A short while ago Acura sent a message to their customers informing them that the dealership is moving to the old VW showroom (including their service center).

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A post shared by KUWAIT UPTO DATE (@kuwaitup2date) on Nov 9, 2018 at 9:29am PST

I was on the Kuwait sub on reddit and people were talking about the floods in Kuwait. I had no idea what they were talking about since I’ve been home all day so I popped open @kuwaitup2date and turns out Fahaheel got flooded earlier this evening from the rain. No idea how it happened but it’s horrible, it’s a legit flood.

They’re saying the weather is going to get worse so I decided not to risk it and moved my Lotus to a multistory lot next to my house so it would be parked a floor above ground. Although my building’s basement has never flooded, after watching the videos from Fahaheel I’m not risking it.

If you’re curious to know what has been happening in Fahaheel, check out @kuwaitup2date since he’s been posting a lot of videos.

Carriage updated their app today bringing with it two major changes:

1) The app no longer plays a video on launch
2) The app now saves your credit card details

The video on launch was super annoying so glad they got rid of it. The second update, on the other hand, is a pretty big one. If you go to your profile settings you can now add your credit card to the app. This also works with Knet even though the app will treat it as a Visa card. You add your Knet card to the app and when checking out, choose credit card as your payment method. If you added your card correctly, you should get a small pop up asking you to select the card you want to use to place your order. No more having to type out your card number again.

With Deliveroo launching really soon I’m guessing we’ll be seeing a bunch of new features and possibly promotions and an updated pricing system from Carriage. Should be fun!

The first batch of Suzuki Jimny’s sold out in Kuwait overnight so a lot of people missed out on them. But, I just found out the dealer is getting their second shipment at the beginning of next month. The manual gearbox version was priced at KD5,200 while the automatic version was KD5,500. If you really can’t wait till next month for some reason, there is a car dealer in Sharq selling the green one pictured above for KD6,700 which is over a thousand more than the dealership. Crazy..

PEKO PEKO is a new restaurant that opened up this past weekend and it’s one I had been waiting to open for a few months now. That’s because PEKO PEKO used to be called RAW before they closed down this past Ramadan for renovations. RAW was one of my favorite sushi places and so I was disappointed they had closed down but also curious to see what they were going to open up instead. The chef is the very talented Abdullah AlYaqout so I knew whatever he was cooking up was going to be interesting.

While RAW was a purely Japanese eatery, PEKO PEKO is a Japanese eatery but with East Asian influences. What this means is you’ll find more than just your typical sushi on the menu. With so many sushi places in Kuwait and some really good ones, they probably realized that they had to do something different to stick out and I think they did a pretty good job based on what I tried. The menu I had was the tasting menu and so was fairly limited and didn’t include the prices, but I pretty much liked 8 out of the 10 or so dishes I tried.

I’ll be heading back there this week again to try their full menu and maybe post about the place properly, but for now, if you’re looking for a new restaurant to try then check them out. They’re in their soft launch phase so they’re currently open only from 6PM to 10PM (but daily). For pictures and a link to their location, check out their instagram @eatpekopeko

When it comes to Ferrari convertibles, I’ve had a bit of bad luck. The first time I took out a Ferrari convertible to drive, it was the Ferrari 458 Spider, a beautiful car that I happened to take out during a terrible dust storm. I did end up with some eerie desert shots of the car, but still, I would have loved to have driven the car up and down the coastal road on a beautiful day. I was later offered the Ferrari California, but it was in the summer and I had to pass on it, then again this past summer I was offered the new and gorgeous Ferrari Portofino to test drive, again I was super tempted but had to pass since it was too hot to drive with the roof down.

But, recently while talking to the Ferrari team, I brought up the Portofino again. I really wanted to take the car out but turns out their test drive vehicle was in Oman for an event and wouldn’t be back in Kuwait for a couple of weeks. So we came up with a cool idea, I’d do a heritage drive of a sort. While waiting for the Portofino to arrive to Kuwait, I’d take out the older Ferrari California, and then the newer Ferrari California T before finally taking out the Ferrari Portofino. Three Ferraris, obviously I wasn’t going to say no.

I ended up picking up a red (Rosso Corsa) Ferrari California last week on a beautiful day. The sky was blue and the weather was cool so first thing I did was drop the roof before leaving the dealership to run a few errands. People have a love and hate relationship with the California with most of the hate coming from Ferrari enthusiasts. Now that I’ve driven a few Ferraris I can understand where the misunderstanding of the California comes from. While all the Ferraris I’ve driven have been pretty aggressive and intimidating, I found the California to be fairly chill. As soon as I sat in the car I felt comfortable, mostly because the controls were similar to other non-Ferrari cars. With the Ferrari’s I had previously driven, the steering wheel contained all the buttons for controlling things like turn signals, wipers, lights etc.. It’s a bit overwhelming at first to see all these buttons when you’re used to having levers behind the steering to control these things. It takes a bit of getting used to but the California had a fairly normal steering wheel with just a Start/Stop button and the ride control switch. It felt more like a normal car and I think it’s little things like this that put off the Ferrari enthusiasts.

Driving the California didn’t feel scary either. The California wasn’t crazy fast and felt very manageable and friendlier than say the Ferrari 488GTB. The ride wasn’t harsh, and the car didn’t look aggressive nor did it feel like it was trying to get your driving license revoked. It felt like a beginners Ferrari which is why the car appeals a lot more to women. In fact, when I posted pictures of the car on my instagram, all of the positive comments I got that included heart eyes emojis came from my female followers, while all the puke emojis came from guys.

The California is a car you could use daily, it clears speedbumps easily, it has back seats which are fairly usable and it has a folding hard top which I always prefer over the soft ones. Would I buy one? No I wouldn’t, if I was to buy a Ferrari it would for sure be the GTC4Lusso or the older FF. Actually, if we’re being hypothetical here and talking about convertibles, then the Ferrari convertible I’d want is the Ferrari 488 Pista Spider. But that’s not gonna happen.

The Ferrari California I drove was a 2014 model and is part of their pre-owned collection. All their pre-owned cars are approved and certified by the special Ferrari Approved Program so you’re pretty much buying a used car that’s as good as new.

The car I drove is listed on their website for KD35,000 and you can check it out along with the rest of their pre-owned cars [Here]

Luna & Beau is the hottest new pet store in Kuwait and I’ll be posting about them soon. But, for now, I do want to post about their Halloween party tonight. I passed by last night and saw them setting things up and it looks like it going to be a lot of fun. So if you have a pet and are looking to do something tonight then consider dropping by Luna & Beau. They’re holding the event in their cafe and its going to run from 7PM to 11PM.

Here is their location on [Google Maps] and their instagram account with more info is @luna_beau

I don’t know why it took so long but we finally have a dedicated cheese shop in Kuwait! La Maison Du Fromage is a new store that just opened up and specializes in everything cheese. Right now they have over 60 different kinds of cheeses but they’re expecting 40 more kinds to arrive soon with the majority not available in supermarkets.

The store is pretty cute but they’re still in their soft launch stage so they’re still stocking up on their products. They will soon have cold cuts, caviar, truffle and truffle oils as well as kitchen tools for cheese. Basically, they’ll be carrying everything you expect a cheese store to carry except for the wine.

La Maison Du Fromage is located in Salmiya near Gia. Their instagram account is @lmdfkw and will be active soon. If you want to check the place out they’re open from 10AM to 10PM and here is their location on [Google Maps]

Last week I posted about how the housekeepers category on the popular 4Sale website bothered me since they were basically allowing housekeepers to be sold like slaves (check the picture above). Someone at 4Sale definitely reads my blog since that same night they started cleaning up the housekeepers category. They removed all the posts where housekeepers were being sold in and introduced a new set of rules. When you now visit the housekeepers category on their website you get the popup below:

Roughly translated, the pop up says the following:

Dear customers, in accordance with the instructions from the cybercrime unit at the Ministry of Interior, please take into consideration the following points when posting advertisements in the housekeepers category:

– avoid posting pictures of the housekeepers or copies of their official documents
– avoid using the word maid and instead describe them as domestic workers
– you’re not allowed to mention their religion, skin color or price
– you’re not allowed to use the word for sale

Actually, now that I think about it, it’s possible that someone from the cybercrime unit actually reads my blog and not 4Sale. In any case, I still think more can be done by 4Sale. While browsing through the category I found a few posts that violated the new rules, but I personally think the whole category needs to be shut down anyway.

Yesterday I was in Rihab Complex looking for Red Dead Redemption 2 (FYI: Might be out today in Kuwait depending on customs but most likely tomorrow) when I decided to go to the retro gaming store upstairs to check out what they had. I’d posted about that store on the blog a few years ago, it was called Global Game and was just filled with old retro video game consoles. But, a couple of months back the store got a facelift, a name change and I’m assuming, a new owner.

The Global Game store is now called Retro Dungeon and looks a lot nicer and more organized than it did before. The store still specializes in vintage gaming consoles and while there I spotted a whole bunch of them including:

NEC PC-FX
NeoGeo AES
NeoGeo CD
Nintendo 64
Nintendo Entertainment System
Nintendo GameBoys
Super Nintendo
Panasonic 3DO
Sakhr MSX
Sakhr MSX2
Sega Dreamcast
Sega GameGear
Sega Genesis
Sega CD
Sega Saturn
Sony PlayStation 1
Sony PlayStation 1 Dev Kit
Sony PlayStation 2
Sony PlayStation 2 Dev Kit
And more…

They also had a whole bunch of games, all nicely organized and all wrapped in plastic. The whole place looks way better than it did before but the prices are also on the high side. Somethings made sense, like KD120 for a NeoGeo AES or KD150 for the NeoGeo CD, but KD35 for Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo and KD45 for Donkey Kong Country 2 just seemed over the top.

I used to have a pretty large collection of gaming consoles before I sold them all off (so much regret). But now I just have my Game & Watches and my SNES left which I pop out every so often to play on.

If you’re looking for vintage games or consoles, check Retro Dungeon out. They’re in an alleyway on the top floor of Rihab Complex, and their instagram account is @retro_dungeon

Not sure if you know this or not, but like watching people play video games is a huge thing, watching people eat is also a pretty huge, at least in Asia. The actual term for it is mukbang which is a combination of the Korean words for eating and broadcasting.

The first time I came across a video of someone eating was back in 2012 when I posted about Emmy who was sent a box filled with sweets and snacks from Kuwait to try. Nowadays though the videos I tend to watch don’t have any talking, they’re usually just of someone sitting in front of their phones and broadcasting themselves eating something. The only sound you’ll hear come from any crunching or slurping that’s taking place. An example is the video above which has 24 million views and is just of a guy eating some crispy fried chicken.

I’ve always found this fascinating so when a friend of mine called Fajer started doing something similar here in Kuwait I got super excited. I’ve known Fajer for years, she’s always been a big foodie and I always love going out to eat with her. Recently she started gaining popularity with her food eating videos. At first, she started posting them on her personal instagram account, but then she got invited by the popular local food account @q8food to do live broadcasts of herself eating there. That’s when she really started blowing up and now even has her own account @fajereats.

I honestly think its a brilliant idea and I’m not only saying that because she’s a friend. With every girl in Kuwait left and right trying to be a fashionista, I love how Fajer is having fun by just being herself in front of the camera, stuffing down a 5 patty burger because she feels like it.

So if you’re into mukbang or curious to check it out, she does a live broadcast a few times a week on @q8food and you can also check out some videos on her own account @fajereats.

Singarea, the popular Asian supermarket now carries live French oysters! They say they’re the first in Kuwait to carry live oysters but that can’t be true right? First or not first it doesn’t really matter though, if you want live oysters I don’t know of any other place you can get them. If you’ve never been or heard of Singarea then click [Here]