Search: “kuwait”

On tonights Mardi Gras event invite it says I should come in “Business Attire”. What the fuck is that? Nibaq and Stallion will both be wearing a suit but I used to think business attire meant shirt and pants. Also my business attire is jeans and tshirt so does that work?

There is a Hummer H3 Ride & Drive event on the 26th and 27th of this month. It’s an off-road event where people will be allowed to take the H3 out for a test drive on a professional course. The event is by invite only so I am once again trying to get myself an invite. The Mardi Gras event is tonight btw, hopefully I can take pictures. When I first saw the H3 last April at the showroom I thought it was ugly but now that I see it on the streets the design is growing on me. I think black is my favorite color on it.

Anyway I will try to get more info on this H3 event since I think its being organized by Alghanim Automotive who are my sponsors.

I tried Papa Johns pizza for the first time yesterday and it was really amazing. What everyone has been saying about Papa Johns is true, they do make the best pizza in Kuwait. I really really liked it a lot and I loved the pizza dips they gave with the pizza. They don’t deliver to Salmiya which sucks because it means I have to drive to Jabriya and pick it up but its worth it. If you want to try them out you can call them on 827272. I had the Little Italy pizza which has mushrooms, oregano, black olives, pepperoni and Italian sausages except I ordered it without the sausages.

My office is across the street from Muthana Complex in Kuwait City and I Have been working there for over a year now and I used to visit Muthana daily. Now I pass by there once or twice a week. You would think that after visiting Muthana a couple of hundreds times already that I would know it inside out, well thats what I figured until yesterday I found a store that I didn’t know existed.. the Universal Store.

My usual entrance into Muthana was closed so I had to walk around the building from the outside trying to find an open entrance. While walking around I found a store called Universal Store. From the outside I saw that the store sold movie related items but once I got closer I noticed they sold movie collectibles and props. So I go in and ask the saleslady how long the store has been open and she tells me 1 year! How the hell did I miss this shop? Anyway the shop is small but packed with goodies. You can check out most of their products by checking out their website. I don’t know and don’t think they are an official Universal Store but you never know. [Link]

I used to make these cookies back when I was in university. They used to come out really good and everyone always nagged me about when I would bake some more. I forgot what brand of brown sugar I used but for the actually chocolate chips I used to use the brand Baker. I haven’t made the cookies since I came back to Kuwait because I can’t find decent brown sugar and I can’t find Baker chocolate chips which sucks. Anyway here is the recipe, I forgot where I found it:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (150 grams) white sugar
1 1/4 cups (270 grams) firmly packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups (525 grams) all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons (10 grams) baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons (6 grams) baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups (375 grams) semisweet chocolate chips

————

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a mixing bowl cream the butter. Add the sugars and beat until well combined. Beat in eggs one at a time making sure to beat well after each addition. Add vanilla and beat until incorporated.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat until just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts, if using. The cookie mixture will be moist and hold together.

Using two tablespoons, drop about 2 tablespoons of dough (38 grams) on the prepared baking sheets. Do not flatten cookies. Bake on the center rack of oven for 12 minutes, or until golden brown and still soft when gently pressed.

Makes about 48 cookies.

In November I posted I wasn’t going to have Subway again because their sandwiches were starting to taste really weird and crappy. Well today I went back to Subway and I have to say it was my best experience with them in a long time. The sandwiches tasted really good and it looks like they started using their old ingredients again. They also started making chocolate chip cookies again, this time they are selling them 3 for 400 fils and they are a bit larger then they used to be. Sadly though their older cookies tasted better, the new ones although look and taste better then a lot of cookies (costa and breadz for example) are still not better then my current top 3 which are Choowy Goowy, Fuddruckers and Hardees.

My brother is coming to Kuwait this weekend for 10 days and since he really hasn’t watched that many Arrested Development episodes I have decided have an Arrested Development Fiesta. 3 seasons to watch in less then 10 days. I like watching funny shows with him since he laughs out loud like me. Anyway here are some Arrested Development clips I found on Google Video and YouTube, people who have watched the show will get them more then people who haven’t:

Gob Magic Show
Lindsey and Gob doing the chicken dance
Tobias Featherbottom
David Cross (Tobias) on being cancelled
Tony Wonder
A tribute to Gob
He’s your kid
Gob Stuttering
Gob office magic
When did you get a job?
Her?
Mr. Roboto (and this is the commercial they are talking about)
Tobiast Highlights

My favorite sushi place in Kuwait is Kei but honestly I hadn’t tried sushi anywhere else here until yesterday night. Once you get used to a sushi place its difficult to eat sushi somewhere else because the dishes differ and your favorites in one place might be a completely different experience in another. Thats mainly the reason I have been hesitant to try any other place. Another advantage of eating at the same sushi place all the time is the fact that you make friends with the people who work there and if you are like me and only sit at the bar then you get to make friends with the most important person at the sushi place.. the sushi chef or “my bartender” as I like to call him. Our bartender is always creating new and exciting dishes for us to try including my favorites so far a sushi pizza and most recently maki desert which involves banana, mango, crab and some other ingredients wrapped in rice and seaweed. Yesterday night though I was invited to Maki and I wasn’t expecting it to be any good since Nat had been there before and given it a rating of 1.5 out of 5. My own experience last night was on the other hand a very good one.

Maki is a very trendy looking place that feels like a pub minus the beer taps and whisky bottles. From the minute you walk in you forget you are in Kuwait, which is a good thing when you want to get away from things. The interior is very cozy and the tables are closely packed together, not as close as Al-Boom but still very close. We sat next to the door, which is probably the best location since you could see the people coming in. Our host was a regular at Maki and he ordered a very large assortment of appetizers for us. My favorites were the Negimayaki, which consists of sliced beef rolled with spring onions surrounded by teriyaki sauce. I think it looked very appetizing and interesting, kinda like tiny potted plants.. My other favorite was the deep friend chicken with plum sauce. For main course our host also ordered a wide range of dishes including a maki dish that was named after him called the Issa. My favorite dishes from the main course were the Fusion, the Fusion 2, Issa and Ghandour. They were all REALLY incredible dishes. The Fusion’s were sushi wraps, but the wrapping paper is their own creation and tasted really good. The Issa and Ghandour were maki dishes and they were really superb, maybe the best maki dishes I have ever had.

The service was good and very friendly. The owner of Maki is Lebanese and the manager and main waiters are also all Lebanese which is similar to how Casper&Gambini and Waterlemon are. The problem I had with the place is that near the end of our evening they started playing Arabic music really loud which I didn’t find cool at all. If it was a pub I would have finished my drink and walked out and down to the next pub, but in reality its a Sushi place and there is no pub anywhere near.

The pricing is decent and compared to Kei, Maki is more expensive but just by a tiny bit. You can check out their prices yourself and compare it to your favorite place by downloading the menu from their website. I also noticed that Maki isn’t what I would call an authentic Japanese experience. They do have your regular maki’s and sushi’s but the regular dish I tried which was the Crazy Maki tasted normal and bland. Its their special dishes with their secret sauces and ingredients that are exceptional but they are what I call modern sushi.

Maki is located in Salmiya behind Diva’s. Its easy to find and if you want to pass by make sure you reserve since I went there on a Sunday night and the place was fully packed. At the end of the month they are opening a new location in Marina World in that thing I don’t know what you call it.. you know when you stand outside at Marina Crescent and you look right you see that large structure with colorful lights? Its the thing located between Marina Crescent and Hard Rock Cafe. Anyway they were opening there which should be cool.

I really enjoyed Maki and I would definitely start going there but I also won’t be ditching Kei anytime soon. Both places offer completely different experiences and dishes and I would rather have both then to choose either one of them. I am going to give Maki a 4.5 out of 5. It lost points on the Arabic music. You can check out more pictures and details on Maki by visiting their website olivermaki.com. Next week I will try Edo since they tell me its really good and will post a review once I do.

I just came back from dinner at Maki. I was invited there by Issa, one of the owners of Choowy Goowy who I had been in contact with for some time now. It was my first time meeting him and he turned out to be a really cool guy. Maki was really amazing, I don’t have a clue how Nat gave it a 1.5 out of 5. I am going to counter her review with my own and never listen to her food reviews ever again.

Sigh, another logo crosses over to the 3D button style. Just barely over a month ago I posted about Quarks new logo which looks like a button and now Vodafone went ahead and did the same thing. The new redesign looks OK even though I don’t like the 3D effect in general. I also prefer the new typeface since I used to think having the logo in place of the O’s was a bit too repetetive in the old logo so thats cool. In general though, they don’t make logos like they used to.

KUWAIT CITY: A furore broke out at the Kazma Football Club recently following a football match between the Kazma and Qadsiya Clubs when some football fans mobbed two “provocatively” dressed women, reports Al-Watan daily. The scanty clothes of the two girls, who had reportedly come to watch the match, instigated some youth present there to molest them, say sources. It took the intervention of securitymen to bring the situation under control, they add, indicating “some of the youths were taken to the police station.” Many people, however, protested that the fault actually lay with the girls whose manner of dressing was “against custom and tradition and even against the Islamic sharia.” Questions now remain as to where the organizers were and why the girls were allowed to enter the stadium? – Arab Times

Here is a scan from an Arabic newspaper with 2 pictures. [Link]

Firstly I didn’t censor the pictures with a black marker, the newspaper did. Secondly I am curious to know what these two girls were thinking. You wouldn’t wear what they were wearing to Marina Mall yet alone a stadium filled with thousands of male teens. Even if the two girls were over dressed they would still have gotten harassed! Maybe they figured whatever, they were going to get harassed anyways so might as well make the most of it. You hear a lot about incidents like this that happening all over Kuwait but this is the first time I see pictures attached to a story.

Just got 2 invites for the Mardi Gras event that will be held at the US embassy on April 18th. It should turn out to be a lot of fun but what I am expecting will be even more fun is the dog show event at the British embassy tomorrow. I will take pictures and post them up when I get back home.

I just called the Kuwait Zoo to find out until what time they were open today and the guy was like 12PM. I figured that was because today is Thursday and maybe the Zoo have half day. So I asked the guy how about on usual days, till what time are you open? He was like 12PM, we are open till 12PM everyday except for Saturday when we are closed.

I find that a bit strange to be open till just 12PM, I know I have been there past 12 before like 5 or something. I guess this is their new summer time although I don’t count this weather summary yet..

Kuwait Zoo telephone: 24733389

Update: Here are pictures I took the last time I was at the zoo [Pictures]

Update2: Opening hours are now 8 to 12 and 4 to 8.

There is a Choowy Goowy review in Bazaar this month did anyone read it yet?

Note: If you read the article you will get my title

I don’t know about the rest of Kuwait but its raining hail like crazy here in Kuwait City. I called my mum and it still hasn’t rained in Salmiya.. weird.