Search: “kuwait”

If you’re looking for something to do this Eid, iLuminate are going to be in Kuwait to perform at JACC from August 22nd to the 25th. Tickets are reasonably priced starting from KD15 a person so it should be pretty accessible to a lot of people.

For more info, click [Here]

Over the years Cinescape has gotten multiple of new logos with the last one being in 2014. My first impression, I don’t think I like it. I think my biggest issue with the new logo is that it’s two different logos slapped together to make one.

The red icon with KNCC written under it is the logo of the Kuwait National Cinema Company. Then you have the Cinescape wording with its unique typeface and sideways letter A “<" forming a secondary logo. In usage, they're either using the wording Cinescape with the KNCC icon combined as above, or they're using the < as their icon by itself. So they're flip-flopping between two icons constantly and that seems messy. I also see the shape < in two places, the first in the Cinescape wording and in the second in the red KNCC icon which makes it repetitive.

Their previous logo didn’t have the KNCC logo attached to it so not sure why they’ve attaching it now in this one. Personally, I think I might have preferred it simpler like in my mockup above. That way they can use the < as their icon when they want to and not have a secondary confusing icon next to the brand. I'm curious to see how the brand will develop over the next few months once all their theaters get the new facelift.

We launched our PantryBee iOS app yesterday and Mark asked me to write about why we made that decision for our business. As a small business with limited cash reserves, it’s always hard to make the decision to invest in a new platform, and it was a year of back and forth before we decided to finally go ahead.

Why did we do it? Well, it’s obvious to everyone that mobile usage is super high in Kuwait, and that a lot of purchases are done through mobile. We knew that, but we also wanted to verify against our own traffic. So after a year of data collection, we did find that most of our users were indeed purchasing PantryBee meal kits from their phone and that the majority of those were iPhone users. Armed with that info we decided to go for it. The biggest hurdle, of course, was cost. We didn’t have thousands of KD to throw on something that might not be useful, so we went about it as economically as we could with the goal of making our customers experience better.

The first step to creating an app is setting up an account with the Apple Developer Program. This honestly wasn’t that difficult of a process, there’s just a bit of waiting time in order to be verified as a legitimate business. The second step for us was finding an appropriate third party to assist with the App creation process. Seeing as we already had an existing e-commerce backend (Shopify), we searched for companies that had an app that would integrate with the Shopify platform. The whole process from A-Z took about 3 months to get to the current app we have out right now.

Though our site is already mobile friendly, our new app allows a more seamless navigation of our offerings, including app-specific promos, notifications and more. It has all the info and products available on our site, just better suited to a mobile experience. So head to the app store and tell us what you think! You can download our app from this [Link]

If you have any specific comments or want to know more about the process for your own business, feel free to email us at [email protected] and we’ll try and help as much as we can.

Post by Hind
CoFounder of PantryBee where home cooking is made easy.

The Kind Ones is a local breakfast place located in Mangaf. I’ve never been to it because it’s so out of my way but I recently found out that they’re opening in LA. According to the website Eater LA, The Kind Ones is opening up in Beverly Hills this coming September. This would make them the second local restaurant after Rock House Sliders to open up in LA this year. Like RHS they’ll also have some pretty strong competition there so I’m curious to see how they’ll do.

Barakat is an old school store located in Salmiya that has been open since the early 80s. They sell supplies for knitting, crochet, embroidery, needlework, sewing, weaving, as well as hobby and crafting materials, and magazines relating to all these.

I thought they had closed down their old Salmiya location since they had opened a small shop in Al Bustan Mall, but turns out the original store is still alive and kicking.

I passed by with a friend the other night and it reminded me of when I was a kid and I would accompany my mum. When I was a kid I hated trips to Barakat since I used to get super bored, but now as an adult, I appreciate the place a lot more.

I was tempted to get something, so ended up leaving with a “My First Embroidery” kit of a cute cat. Since I’m always curious to try new things, I figured I could try embroidery for fun and this kit contained everything I needed to learn embroidery.

If you’ve never been to Barakat, you should pass by to check the place out especially if you’re looking for a new hobby to get into. They’re located on the first floor of a building near Beit Dickson Restaurant in Salmiya. Here is the building on [Google Maps]. They’re also on instagram @barakat_kuwait. If you do pass by, make sure you pick up some kunafa from Al Tibawi down the street before you leave the area.

Kuwait Airways launched an outdoor campaign last week to highlight the fact their new terminal is opening this month. One thing I don’t get is the date format they’re using on all their advertising material which is 08-08-08/018. The date doesn’t make any sense.

The new terminal is opening on August 8th with a limited number of flight routes which is already going to be confusing to travelers, and now you have this abstract date format they’re using.

Over the weekend I asked my followers on twitter if they could translate the Kuwait Airways date format and nobody could.

08-08-08
This date is August 8th, 2008.

08-08-08/018
This could be read as August 8th, 2008/2018 although it doesn’t make sense why they’re using 018 and not 18, and what does 2008 have to do with this?

08-08-18
This is the actual date they should be using.

A follower suggested the first 08 might mean represent that fact they’re opening at 8AM but it wouldn’t make sense to insert a time into a date format. IF they could do that it would have at least made more sense to have it 08/08-08-18 for example.

Even with the Kuwait Airways tweet above which says the terminal is opening on 08-08-18 at 8AM, and the first flight will be KU0808, it still doesn’t explain what 08-08-08/018 is. What a confusing mess.

The story with the Kuwaiti influencer @sondos_aq doesn’t look like its quieting down anytime soon, but, this will probably be the last time I post about her since I’m pretty much over the whole thing.

In one of her most recent videos (watch it above), instead of apologizing and putting all this behind her, Sondos is now claiming that she is being attacked by the foreign media because she is a Kuwaiti Muslim who wears hijab. She then ends the video by promising to reveal the brands that have cut ties with her so that her followers can boycott them.

Brands don’t seem to be affected by her threat, MAC Cosmetics, Anastasia Beverly Hills and Phyto were three more brands to announce that they will no longer be working with her.

I have no idea who is handling her public relations, but whomever it is they’re doing a terrible job…

This story broke out over the weekend and it’s been picking up A LOT of media traction internationally. Local Instagram celebrity @sondos_aq recently went on a rant on the new local regulations requiring a weekly day off for Filipino domestic workers. You can watch her rant in the video above. To summarize, she thinks its ridiculous that domestic workers have to get a day off every week and that she doesn’t believe domestic workers should be able to keep their passports. Pretty racial comments and the worst part is, she has over 2.3 million followers.

Last month the Instagram celebrity 3bodka was caught abusing his dog, and now we have another influencer posting racial comments. Looking at how this is blowing up I wouldn’t be surprised if local authorities decide to create new laws or regulations to prevent situations like this from occurring again.

If you want to read more about this incident, check out the articles on CNN, Independent and Buzzfeed amongst other.

I really hope the picture above isn’t really in Kuwait. Fake grass I kinda get but this is just silly.

Thanks Musaed

Update: It’s Saudi!

Until just recently, if you wanted good ramen in Kuwait you were basically out of luck. There weren’t many places that had ramen and the places that did usually had a pretty average bowl. But, last week a new ramen place opened up in Kuwait called Tampopo and it’s great!

The chef behind Tampopo is Maryam Alnusif (or Mimi), many of you might have heard of her since she is behind Shakshooka and The Secret Garden project. Tampopo is actually right next to the Secret Garden, it’s a small place with a main seating area composed of a bar running along the kitchen counter, as well as a bar facing the opposite wall and another bar stretching across the main storefront window. The menu is extremely simple with just three ramen dishes to choose from: Chicken, duck and vegan ramen. They also have a few cocktails and surprisingly, really great tasting non-alcholic Japanese Asahi beer.

I was there with some friends and so we ordered one of everything. My favorite ramen bowl was the vegan one followed by the duck and then the chicken. Because we got there early at around 6:30PM, we managed to find seating, but by the time we were done with our bowls, the place was already packed with people waiting to be seated. I loved the food, the atmosphere and all the people behind Tampopo so I’m definitely going back again this week. Plus its walking distance from my home which is pretty convenient.

Because Tampopo is still in a soft launch phase, they’re only open on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 6PM to 10PM. But, starting next week they might start opening on Mondays as well. They also right now only accept cash but should start accepting knet next week. For a map of the location and to stay up to date on their store timings, check out their instagram page @tampopo.ramenshop

So last week there was a case of mass food poisoning in Kuwait because of a falafel restaurant in Hawalli. Supposedly the former partner of the restaurant conspired with an employee to poison the falafel and today Kuwait Times mentions they found the food to be contaminated with salmonella and other types of bacteria. Around 300 customers got food poisoned and yet none of the newspapers or news outlets have mentioned which restaurant had their food contaminated (at least none of the English outlets). I really don’t understand why news media continue to shy away from posting the name of the restaurant especially in a case like this where many other people might be infected and not know they are.

When there was an E. coli outbreak at Chipotle in the States, all the news outlets wrote about it, but if the same outbreak had taken place in Kuwait they’d probably just describe Chipotle as an American franchise.

The local Acura dealer now has an NSX in stock. It’s by far the most interesting car in the Acura lineup but at the asking price, they just have too many great and more exciting competitors *cough* McLaren 570s *cough*.

The dealer is selling the NSX for KD65,000 and it’s just the one displayed above. They’ve only ever imported three to Kuwait, one was sold to someone in Dubai and the other two were sold locally.

There is an instagram account that sells VHS and Betamax players here in Kuwait but he’s selling the Betamax ones for around KD50. I just have this one cassette I want to see whats on it so I really don’t want to buy a whole player just to do that. So if any reader by odd chance has a Betamax player, please let me know!

Back in the 80s the British School of Kuwait used to be called Sunshine School. It started off as a nursery before eventually turning into a middle school. My class I believe was the second class to graduate from the school (Junior 4), but it was also the last class since the 1990 invasion happened and the school ended up closing down. Once the war was over it reopened again as BSK.

This past weekend while in Lebanon I found a bunch of photos, two of which I’m sharing here. The first one on top I believe was taken at Sunshine School when it was still a nursery, based on my age in that picture I’d say around 1980-1981.

The photo above was taken at their second campus. In total, Sunshine School had three campuses, the third one is still around but I think the first two were demolished ages ago.

If you’re in any of the photos by some weird chance let me know. I have another photo I scanned this weekend in which I found three current friends of mine in not knowing they were in my class back then.

Here are the photos above in full res [Picture 1] [Picture 2]