Search: “kuwait”

Negative Effect whom I’ve posted about a number of times before has started a cool new interesting project called The Hot Foot. It’s a blog that reviews “anything driven by fuel” which basically means cars, motorbikes, boats and more that are all available here in Kuwait. He’s already got a few posts up my favorite being his latest one about SeaBob which is pictured above. SeaBob is a cool new marine vehicle that can fit in the trunk of my FJ but that will never happen since I can’t afford the KD4,000 price tag. Looks really cool though and from what I read a lot of fun. Anyway check out his website and if you have any feedback leave it below. [Link]

Yesterday I had a meeting at Caribou Coffee in 360 Mall and while there I spotted a friend of mine from B+F. Since their new Open Flame Kitchen project is located right next to Caribou Coffee I practically held him at gun point and forced him to give me a sneak peek at the place. I had only seen a 3D rendering before of their pizza oven which they had accidentally published on their Facebook group but other than that I hadn’t seen much else.

Well I saw the place yesterday and I managed to snap two pictures which I’ve attached to this post. Keep in mind the place is currently under construction and there is no seating, lighting or anything of the sort in place yet. There are just four large projectors to provide enough light for the construction workers. But, with these pictures you can at least get a glimpse of the interesting forms and shapes that being developed for OFK.

There are two main attraction points you will spot when you first come in. On the right side of the restaurant is their grill area where they will be grilling their steaks and burgers (the picture above). On the left side of the restaurant is their pizza oven (first picture on top). Whats cool about the pizza oven is that its an unusual shape and is covered in real gold leafs. The pizza oven also has this black circular metallic bars revolving around it which they’ve nicknamed the tornado since it takes the form of one.

They will have two separate outdoor seating areas and also a VIP room. The whole restaurant was black with black floors, black walls and a black ceiling. It’s all still under major construction so by the time it launches it will look completely different.Which brings me to the the most important subject which is the launch date. The soft opening should be at the end of June or beginning of July while the tasting should start on the 21st of this month. I’ve been nagging Bassil (the owner) for the past year to invite me to the tasting and so far it looks like my persistence has paid off since I’ve been invited to the tasting! I will NOT be on a diet for the tasting although he assured me their new menu has a lot of healthy food. Taking one day off a month shouldn’t be a problem… I hope (Fahad??).

Note: I should have mentioned this for the people who don’t know but B+F Open Flame Kitchen is part of the bigger family B+F Burger Boutique, Slider Station and B+F Roadside Diner.

As part of my diet I need to have grilled food for dinner and since Turkish Grill belongs to a friend of a friend, I’ve been passing by there 90% of the time for my dinner. The problem is, 100 meters down the street from Turkish Grill lies Papa John’s. It’s extremely extremely difficult to choose grilled chicken over pizza and having Papa John’s right next to Turkish Grill is proving to be a test of my will EVERY DAY!

I enjoy staring at delicious chocolate muffins in the face and saying NO! I enjoy craving a molten chocolate cake from Chili’s and resisting it. But right after the gym when I am really hungry it’s not as easy. So far from the dozens and dozens of times I’ve passed by Turkish Grill I’ve only cheated once with a medium pizza all to myself. Today I cheated although not as badly, I had tabbouleh with the dressing and I loved it. After having tabbouleh and salad this whole week without any dressing at all (something which I do not recommend anyone trying), the tabbouleh tonight was the best tabbouleh I ever had in my life. I really miss the lemon and oil dressing.

Now to make things worse I was talking to Essa from Choowy Goowy earlier and told him to send over two jars of cookies, the original and the Mark & Nat since Nataly wanted to shoot the jars for her portfolio. I told him to shove the jars with date cookies since I hate date cookies and that way I don’t end up eating them. Guess what? I got home to find two jars stuffed with freshly made original chocolate chip cookies and the Mark & Nat Oreo cookies. I just spent the past 15 minutes swearing at him on BBM. Luckily Nat has hid the jars somewhere in the house and since I just got back from the gym I am too sore and exhausted to go look for them.

While in New York I picked up the Elgato video capture device for my Mac. Basically it allows me to connect regular RCA and S-Video cables to my Mac which I can then use to convert analogue video like old VHS and Betamax tapes to digital. I have a ton of old videos from the 80’s I want to start converting to digital and sharing on this blog. My issue is the Betamax tapes, does anyone know where I can get a hold of a Betamax player here in Kuwait?

Guess who made this list and coming in at #4?

4) Kuwait
Population: 2.8 million
Percentage of Millionaire Households: 8.2%

The rising price of oil has led to more millionaires in this tiny country. With some 100 billion barrels of crude, Kuwait has been growing rapidly. But the oil-dependent nation now plans to spend up to $140 billion over the next five years to diversify away from oil and to attract more investment — a move that could help it ascend this list’s ranks. Such a strategy may help billionaire Nasser Al Kharafi, chairman of one of the most diversified and largest conglomerates in the Arab world. His food division, Americana, has the Middle East franchise rights to KFC, Wimpy, TGI Fridays and Pizza Hut, among others.

They’ve messed up big time though by having a picture of the Babylon Gates from Iraq as a visual representing Kuwait. I guess the Kuwait Towers was just too cliche? Here is the link to the full [Article]

Thanks Zaid

My blog finally passed the 200 mark on Alexa.com. Last time I posted my Alexa ranking was back in January when I was ranked 260 in Kuwait. In case you haven’t heard of it before, Alexa is a website that tracks the popularity of websites around the web and in different countries. As of this post Alexa has me ranked at 192, meaning, there are 191 other websites that were being accessed from Kuwait more than mine. Google.com.kw is still the champion as the most popular site being accessed in Kuwait.

The coolest part is that the blog is now more popular than the 6alabat, Viva and Aramex websites which of course gives me a huge ego boost. The next stop is the top 100 list. Free burgers for everyone when that happens… not! [Link]

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

Did anyone ever notice how almost every aerobic/kick-boxing/gay dancing class has an instructor that’s out of shape and 20 other people that are also of round variety? I mean, how do you expect to get in shape if the instructor looks like he’s/she’s been eating sambosa for the past 20 years? To add insult to injury, the obese members are forced to perform high kicks. It’s like show girls, but with a lot less turn-on and a lot more LOL.

And what about those self-proclaimed gurus roaming around the gyms of Kuwait? I’ve researched on a couple of famous gurus to see what they were up to. One of them refuses to work with drug-free athletes; he won’t even turn to look at you if you approach him with the “I’d like to do this naturally” speech. The last guy that did ended up in the hospital urinating blood; due to 5 anabolic and androgenic compounds that he were recommended to take (this was partly the client’s fault since he didn’t know bodybuilding involves a nutritional plan and intense training). Another guy trains both naturals and chemically enhanced athletes, but fails to inform young amateurs of the consequences associated with early AAS drug use, which they subsequently fall victims too.

Awesome Super Friends
I’m here to discuss health and fitness professionals and practitioners in Kuwait who talk it and walk it. In the pursuit of spreading the influence of a healthier lifestyle, I’ll be providing information about competitors who I am more than glad to lose my business to. They all have the passion, the drive, the experience and the ability to motivate others in attaining a healthier lifestyle.

Consequently, I’m planning on crushing each and every one of them so by the time you read this, they might be dead. They also might end up in my belly. My 7% body fat belly.

As a gym owner, I constantly get asked by many people about what the right exercises are, what the right diet is and about how many freaking Pinkberry yogurts are acceptable. (Depends on what you’re trying to do; again, depends on what you want to do). Sometimes, I find I don’t have the time to answer questions in detail, and that makes me feel, as the self proclaimed Master of the Fitness Universe, like I have failed you. And I do not like to fail.

Here’s a list of people (in no particular order) you can consult about health and fitness in Kuwait, or as I like to call them, my awesome super-friends, who I don’t necessarily know personally. (You can call them people who are not quite as awesome as I am.)

If you think Kuwait is bad when it comes to censorship check out this list of movies and shows banned in Lebanon!

On the positive side at least they give reasons why. For example:

The West Wing (Season 1 & 2)
Reason: Offensive to Arabs

True Lies
Reason: Picturing Arabs as terrorists

The Nanny (TV Series)
Reason: Jew Content

The Great Escape
Reason: Produced by black listed company (MIRISH)

Jackass
Reason: Obscene contents

Monty Python fans will be disappointed with the list since a lot of their movies are banned. There are also some very strange reasons like “Jane Fonda” was counted as one reason why some movies were banned. I thought that was weird. Here is the link to the full list [PDF]

Thanks Alex

I am not a fan of Pinkberry, I actually only tried it once in Kuwait and couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about. It tasted too much like regular yogurt and I told Nat (who worships Pinkberry) that I would only have it again once they introduced chopped cucumber as a topping (yogurt + cucumber = delicious).

But while in New York I noticed Pinkberry had cones, like regular ice cream cones. Since it was really hot and I had been walking for ages I figured I would have a chocolate Pinkberry cone (guilt free). Turns out it was pretty good and actually tasted like regular chocolate soft ice cream. They had mango and coconut flavor as well which we don’t have here plus mini-cups which are around half the size of small cups. I didn’t taste the mango and coconut and not interested in the mini-cups either, what I want is for Pinkberry in Kuwait to introduce cones.

So if anyone is listening, please get us cones or else we will have to eat chocolate ice cream at McDonalds which I am guessing has more calories.

Update: I was told awhile back that they’re thinking of opening a second Pinkberry branch at the Avenues. I hope that’s true since I hate waiting in line (unless its for a burger).

The 13th International Music Festival started yesterday in Kuwait and ends on the 11th of June. The website is in Arabic so I couldn’t really understand much but it has a schedule and details of the event. If you can read Arabic here is the [Link]

I tried to use Google Translate to convert the page to English for me to read and ended up with a composer called Rashid Vegetables? Doesn’t sound quite right…

Thanks Dalal

Update: Dalal from 7achy.com was kind enough to translate the schedule, here it is:

Yesterday was Kuwaiti music night in the memory of the composer Rashed AlKhodhar, performed by:
Sahar
Mohammed AlBoloshi
Met’ab faraj
Sulaiman AlMulla

Here is the upcoming schedule:

Monday: Turkish music
Tuesday: Brazilian music
Wednesday: Egyptian music
Thursday: Russian music + Kuwaiti traditional music
Friday: Spanish music

Admission is free of charge.
Concerts start at 8:30PM and are performed at the Al Dasma Theater.

As most of you might have noticed, while in New York I ate a lot of burgers. Many people thought I was actually posting too many food posts but they would have been a lot more if I posted about all the burger places I went to. Before going to New York I had a list of around 60 burger places I wanted to try out which I got from the blog A Hamburger Today and even though I didn’t even get close to trying out 60 burger places I did have on average two burgers a day while in New York. And guess what? I lost weight!

Before I went on vacation I spoke to Fahad and I told him that there was no way I could eat healthy on my trip. It was New York and I wasn’t going to spend my time looking for something healthy to eat. He told me as long as I was going to do a lot of walking than I could eat whatever I wanted as long as the proportions weren’t too big. He told me I also had to have a meal every 3 hours. I could also have dessert if I wanted but it couldn’t be part of my main meal, it would have to be counted as a meal on its own. So if I had a burger at 12PM I could have an ice cream at 3PM. I thought that was fair and took his advice.

My morning started off either with a big breakfast from a cozy diner near my hotel or a McGriddle from McDonalds. I stuck to places near my hotel since I needed to have breakfast an hour after waking up. That would happen around 9 or 10am. Then, 3 hours later I would have a burger, 3 hours after that dessert (usually a chocolate cone from Pinkberry or a cookie from a bakery), 3 hours after that another burger and finally my last meal at night would be dinner at one of the trendy restaurants near my hotel.

I rarely had fries with my burger, I think I only had fries 3 times on my trip. I would also always order only 1 burger but sometimes it would be a double patty. One great thing (or it could be a bad thing) about New York is the fact I think by law they need to display the calorie count of everything on the menu. So one time I was at Wendy’s for example and I felt like a double bacon and cheese but then noticed the calorie count and decided to go with a regular double cheese burger instead. I think the calorie count helped me save a ton of calories. It was also one major reason I didn’t have french fries with my burgers since if I did the calorie count of my meal would double. I also went with Coke Zero over regular Coke since that was another easy 200-300 calorie saving.

I walked a lot, around 12 hours and the only time I took a cab was to and from the airport. I was using the subway mostly and it was mostly from Brooklyn where I was staying to Manhattan which is where everything was located. While there I walked everywhere and only took the subway if I was in a rush like to catch a store before they closed. One night I walked back to my hotel even which was around a 8-9KM walk according to Google Maps.

The result? I left Kuwait weighing 77KG and I came back weighing 76KG. I thought I had lost more weight but I am not disappointed losing only a KG with the food I was eating. Now that the vacation is over and I’ve returned to Kuwait I’m eating healthy again and today was my first time back at the gym since I left. Until my next burger rampage…

A reader emailed me an interesting question. Where can one get original local football team jerseys like Qadsia Club or Salmiya Club jerseys here in Kuwait?

I am sure most of you know the round green building at the corner of old Salmiya on Salem Mubarek Street. If you don’t its an old tall circular shaped building that is sadly being demolished. Now funny thing is how they’re demolishing it. It seems using a crane they lifted and placed a bulldozer on top of the building and that truck has been destroying the building bit by bit from the top to the bottom. That has to be more dangerous than crab fishing. Now the million dollar question is… how does the bulldozer driver get down at the end of the day?

I spotted another street fair today in New York and this time I told myself if I found fried Oreo cookies I would try it. After a bit of a walk I found a kiosk that was making them, 1$ per cookie. I decided to order two.

The things I do for this blog. The fried Oreo cookies looked gross and very greasy. I told Nat these will probably be the most disgusting thing I’ve ever eaten. Guess what? They weren’t. In fact, they were really good and I actually ate both cookies. They tasted like the Lebanese awamat (fried doughnut balls) except with Oreo as their filling.

I leave New York tomorrow and get back to Kuwait so everything should go back to normal then. Basically a lot less food posts.

This is the last of the 3 part series. In this video we travel from Fahaheel to Abu Halifa and then take a tour of a grocery store from the inside. What’s cool is you get to see some old packaging like the old Aero chocolate packs that used to be brown, some old KDD packs, and a brief glimpse at my favorite corn flakes, Country Corn Flakes. Good stuff. [YouTube]

In case you missed them here are the first two parts
Fahaheel 1988
Abu Halifa 1988

Thanks Simon