Search: “kuwait”

Since I had a lot of free time over Eid I decided to do a hotdog comparison. My go-to place usually is Shake Shack but decided to try out the Five Guys hotdog and the Johnny Rockets one which I hadn’t had in years. Here are the results:

#1 Shake Shack (KD1.000)
Bun: ⭐⭐⭐
Hotdog: ⭐⭐⭐
Looks: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Price: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

#2 Five Guys (KD1.750)
Bun: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Hotdog: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Looks: ⭐⭐
Price: ⭐⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

#3 Johnny Rockets (KD1.700)
Bun: ⭐
Hotdog: ⭐⭐
Looks: ⭐⭐
Price: ⭐⭐
Overall: ⭐⭐

I had all three hotdogs with just ketchup and mustard. My favorite tasting one ended up being the Five Guys hotdog but in the end, Shake Shack ended up slightly edging out because of the price. Johnny Rockets was easily the worst of the three, the bun to hotdog ratio was completely off and I also thought it was the greasiest of the three.

What’s your favorite hotdog place in Kuwait?

Update: The Shake Shack hotdog is no longer being sold for KD1 and instead now costs KD1.5

I spotted the very cool Stranger Things The Upside Down LEGO set being sold at the LEGO store in Avenues last week. They’re selling it for KD80 which surprisingly is cheaper than the price on Amazon (KD100). I guess the whole selling sets for double the price of Amazon didn’t work for them.

Found this photo on a twitter account with the caption “First elephant in Kuwait for the zoo – Kuwait 1952”. I’m not sure which zoo though since the current one opened up in 1968, so could be some other zoo that was open back then (did Ahmadi have a zoo?) or maybe it was part of a traveling circus? Still cute though.

via Bader AlRoudan

Update: Supposedly there was a zoo called the Salwa Garden, and it was the first zoo in Kuwait and the GCC. Trying to get more info on this now.

Update2: Check out the snippet below

Not many visitors to the Zoo at Omariya know that Kuwait was the first country in the Gulf where a zoo was established، in 1955. And even less people will remember that it was Shaikh Jabir Al Abdullah Al Jabir Al Sabah who set up the region’s first zoo known as Salwa garden، after which the place Salwa was so named subsequently. He purchased animals، with his own money and eventually transferred his collection in 1965 to form the nucleus of Umariya Zoo.

The long and moving story has been told in the book titled “Salwa Garden: the first zoo in Kuwait and the Arabian Gulf” written and published by his daughter Shaikha Mona Jabir Al Abdullah Al Jabir Al Sabah، Assistant Undersecretary of Al Diwan Al Amiri and author of several research-oriented books on Kuwait and the Gulf. Source

Update3: How am I just finding out about this? The picture below is of the entrance to the zoo and you can see a couple of more photos here.

Screenshot from Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Dora and the Lost City of Gold (5.9)
Master Z: Ip Man Legacy (6.5)
Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (8.4)
The Current War (6.2)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Bring The Soul: The Movie (7.7)
Crawl (6.6)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (7.5)
Night Hunter (7.0)
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (7.1)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (6.8)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (7.2)
The Boat (6.3)
The Kitchen (5.8)
The Lion King (6.2)
The Queen’s Corgi (4.7)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Backyard Wilderness 3D (8.4)
Great White Shark 3D (7.3)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
The Lion King – 1994 (8.5)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Screenshot from The Kitchen

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Bring The Soul: The Movie (7.7)
Night Hunter (7.0)
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (7.1)
The Angry Birds Movie 2 (6.8)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (7.2)
The Boat (6.3)
The Kitchen (5.8)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Crawl (6.6)
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (7.5)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
The Lion King (6.2)
The Queen’s Corgi (4.7)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Great White Shark 3D (7.3)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
The Lion King – 1994 (8.5)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Back in 2014, I found out about a bookstore located inside the Al Bahhar Entertainment Village (Youm Al Bahar) called the Kuwait Heritage Library. I never went back to it after my initial trip but decided to do so this past Friday to see if it was still there. It was!

Since my last visit, the place has changed quite a bit, the shelves now reach the ceiling and the tiny shop was even more packed with books. It’s pretty hard to move around inside the shop now because there are books everywhere.

What I loved about the bookshop is the vast amount of old books it contained in both English and Arabic. I found a ton of stuff I wanted but they were sadly all overpriced. For example, they had an original copy of the Sons of Sinbad book by Alan Villiers priced at KD150 when similar condition books can be found online for around 40-50KD. They also had The Kuwait Urbanization book listed for KD170 when better condition copies can also be found online for around KD100 (I got mine for KD50).

BUT, if you love digging through piles of old books and flipping through pages of vintage books on Kuwait then you’re gonna really love this place. They’re open in the evening from around 6PM to 10PM but their AC isn’t working really well right now so its SUPER HOT inside. So if you pass by make sure you’re in your gym gear or something you don’t mind sweating in. If you don’t know where Youm Al Bahar is, here is the location on Google Maps. They’re also on Instagram @kuwait.heritage.library

Last Thursday I was at the National Library looking for a specific book related to the Iraq invasion when I found a book called “Kuwaiti Resistance as Revealed by Iraqi Documents“. From the cover, it didn’t look like much but after flipping a few pages I was hooked. I knew I wanted that book so I went online to buy one from Amazon or eBay when I noticed the book was published by the Center for Research and Studies on Kuwait. The center was located next to my office so after work I decided to head to their small bookshop to see if they had it. They did, in fact, they had the book in English, Arabic, and French and for just KD3!

I’ve been meaning to post about the place for some time now ever since I found out they had a book shop. It was a small shop with just their publications so didn’t think it would be an interesting post but then on Thursday I also found out they had a library with a lot of interesting books and it was open to the public!

The Center for Research and Studies on Kuwait was established in 1992 with a number of objectives but mainly to collect various documents and studies relating to the Iraqi aggression against Kuwait. The book I purchased is one of many books the center has published on the invasion but they also have a wide range of books on Kuwait (history, environment, wildlife, etc).

The center has a library which although not as big as the National Library at least is open in the afternoon so people with jobs can pass by after work. The library is mostly filled with Arabic books but they did have a pretty decently sized section filled with English books as well as an archive of researches and presentations including proposals on the Kuwait Water Front Project (the Gulf Road basically) and original plans for the Kuwait Radion Television Centre which I had never seen before. They also had an archive of LIFE magazine issues dating from 1956 to 1963, two copies of the Saba Shiber book The Kuwait Urbanization and another book by Saba I didn’t know existed called Recent Arab City Growth (also dating back to the 60s and there is a copy on eBay for $375 so someone, please buy it right now because I can’t afford to buy all the rare books on Kuwait by myself).

If you’re looking to buy some books or spend some time in a library flipping through old books on Kuwait this is the place. Like I said it’s nowhere near as big as the Nationa Library but at least they have better opening hours. The center is open from 8AM to 1:30PM and then again from 5PM to 7:30PM. Here is their location on Google Maps.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the 1990 Kuwait Invasion, and every year on the anniversary, I like to share some links related to the war. This year though I noticed two of my favorite websites related to the invasion are no longer up and running, Free Kuwait and The Evidence.

Both those website contained a large archive of photos related to the invasion and I’m pretty upset that they’re both no longer working. I’ve already emailed the people behind those two websites to see what the issue is, hopefully, it’s just a technical hiccup but in any case, below are the rest of the links.

Free Kuwait
This is a website that focuses on the campaign that was led by Kuwaitis in exile and is loaded with photos and information.

Kuwait Invasion – The Evidence
This is a website that contains over 1,200 pictures taken right after the 1990 invasion as photographic evidence to all the destruction caused by Iraq.

Short movie: Hearts of Palm
Hearts of Palm is a short movie set in August 2nd 1990 and deals with Kuwaiti students living in Miami Florida during the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait.

The Class of 1990
This is a short documentary about reuniting class mates years after the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

Homemade video from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait
Video clips taken by a Kuwaiti family during the Iraqi invasion

Desert Storm Photos
Photos taken by soldiers during Desert Storm.

Short Animation: Sandarah
A captivating story based on true events that took place during the 1990 Iraqi invasion.

First Account of Iraq’s Invasion of Kuwait
Interviews with various Kuwaitis that were in Kuwait during the 1990 invasion.

Iraqi Invasion Pictures
Photos of the Gulf War aftermath.

Politics of Wor
A tumblr account with some not so commonly seen photos from the Gulf War. (Warning some are graphic)

Magnum Photos
A gallery of images taken during the Gulf War by some great photographers. (Warning some are graphic)

BBC Documentary: The Last Flight to Kuwait
A series of documentaries on Iraq begins with a look at the fate of British Airways flight BA149 to the Far East in 1990. As the plane landed in Kuwait, Saddam Hussein invaded, capturing its crew and passengers.

Photos in this post are by Bruno Barbey

Update: I just bought a hard copy of the books The Evidence and Evidence II which is what the website The Evidence is based off. Now looking for “A Testimony from London” which the Free Kuwait website is based on. If you know where I can find it let me know.

Screenshot from Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

New This Weekend:
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (7.5)
The Devil’s Doorway (5.2)
The Queen’s Corgi (4.7)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
xEscape Plan: The Extractors (4.4)
Lying and Stealing (5.1)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
Skin (6.6)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
Stuber (5.7)
The Lion King (6.2)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

New This Weekend:
Great White Shark 3D (7.3)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
The Lion King – 1994 (8.5)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

According to a recent article on Tennis World, the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy will be opening up in Kuwait at the new tennis complex that’s part of the 360 Mall expansion. It had been previously announced that Serena Williams coach would be opening up a tennis academy in Kuwait, but either that plan fell through, or we’re now getting two world-renowned academies opening up.

The tennis complex once open will have a combined stadium seating for over 7,600 people across two main arenas, each with the capacity to hold 4,000 and 1,600 people respectively. There will also be eight indoor courts with over 500 seats, and eight outdoor courts with 1,500 seats. It’s expected to open January of next year.

Yesterday I passed by the newly opened Momo Zaa for a late lunch. I nearly bailed out since I was starving and when I’m starving I generally don’t like trying anything new just in case the food turns out to be crap. But, I was having lunch with my brother and he wanted to try it so he convinced me to try it and I’m glad I did.

Beef, chicken and vegetable momo’s

Momo Zaa is a small hole in the wall opposite Boulevard Park in Salmiya. There were around four tables inside and the place felt cozy with pictures up on one wall and Ashtamangala symbols up on the other. Momo Zaa describes themselves as the first Bhutanese restaurant in Kuwait and I heard the place belongs to the daughter of the Bhutanese ambassador (Update: Turns out it doesn’t). It was my first time experiencing Bhutanese food and I honestly didn’t know much about it, just that they had dumplings which I never say no to.

The menu had a variety of options including noodles, momo’s (dumplings) and curries. I took pictures of the menu and you can check out the front page here and the back here. We decided to go with three kinds of dumplings (beef, chicken and vegetables), a dry chili and cheese curry, Wai Wai Chow fried noodles and the crispy chili potatoes. Everything was pretty good except for the steam vegetable dumplings, I didn’t like it much but I did like the steamed beef and fried chicken dumplings. My favorite item though had to be the crispy chili potatoes.

Crispy Chili Potatoes

If you’re looking for a new place to try or want to experience a new cuisine then you can’t really go wrong with Momo Zaa. The service needs a bit of work since the waiter wasn’t very knowledgable, but the chef was super helpful and took our order while explaining all the dishes to us. Their prices are really reasonable and if you like dumplings then you should definitely check them out. They’re open from 11AM to 11PM but closed on Sundays (but they will be open today from 6PM). Here is their location on Google Maps and they’re also on instagram @momozaa.kwt

It’s a tiny list but there are some pretty cool things happening this weekend. Check out the list below and if I missed anything let me know.

Thursday
Al3ab Village
Cultural Festival – South Korea

Friday
Al3ab Village
Cultural Festival – South Korea
O I Summer Residency featuring Kade B.
Vi by Vogularity x Bunka Pop-up

Saturday
Al3ab Village
Cultural Festival – South Korea

If you’d like to share an event on the blog [Email Me]
For a full list of upcoming events click [Here]

Sometimes events get canceled or have details changed so always double-check with the organizers.

Screenshot from Skin

The movies below are now showing at Cinescape, Grand Cinemas and VOX:

Advanced Booking:
Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw

New This Weekend:
Axel 2: Adventures of the Spacekids (6.9)
Lying and Stealing (5.1)
River Runs Red (4.9)
Skin (6.6)

Other Movies Showing Now:
Aladdin (6.5)
Annabelle Comes Home (7.0)
Avengers: Endgame (9.2)
Crawl (7.1)
Escape Plan: The Extractors (4.4)
Finding Steve McQueen (6.3)
Spider-Man: Far from Home (8.2)
Stuber (5.7)
The Lion King (6.2)
Toy Story 4 (9.0)

The movies below are also now showing at the Scientific Center IMAX theater:

Amazon Adventure 3D (6.6)
Fly Me to the Moon (4.5)
Galapagos 3D (8.6)
The Lion King – 1994 (8.5)
Oceans: Our Blue Planet (7.4)
Volcanoes 3D (6.6)

Numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at time of publishing.

Flying cars could be taking to the skies of Kuwait by 2021.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) has been signed between Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) and the Dutch firm Personal Air Land Vehicle (PAL-V) flying cars company, where KAC will provide maintenance for the vehicles in the Middle East. Source

That’s one way of not having to deal with the crappy roads…

TASCHEN are mostly known for their architecture, art and design books and I usually pass by their stores when on vacation but rarely ever buy anything since their books are usually large and heavy. But, this weekend I found out that we now have a TASCHEN Books dealer in Kuwait.

The dealer is located in Life Center in Shuwaikh, the same complex that houses the Contemporary Art Platform. They have a main store on the top floor next to CAP and another pop-up store on the outside called Stall 78. According to the dealer, they’re trying to match Amazon’s prices as close as possible which is great for us. I picked up the book “Food & Drink Infographics.” for KD22 while the retail price in the US is around KD21 (although Amazon currently has it discounted at KD17).

If you want to check the place out, here is the location of Life Center on Google Maps.