Search: “maki”

As we’ve been going manaeesh crazy over in the PantryBee kitchen we thought we’d share a super simple manaeesh dough recipe that you can make to enjoy at home. For those who don’t know manaeesh, or manaakish, or the singular manoushe, it’s a popular levantine dish consisting of flattened dough topped with a variety of toppings ranging from za’atar to minced meat, cheese and more.

This recipe yields enough dough to make 8 manaeesh and is from our Chef friend Khaled AlBaker chief manaeesh maker over at Meem Cafe.

1 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tsp sugar
3 cups flour
1 cup water

Mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add wet ingredients and knead for 15-20 mins continuously (work them arms out!). Roll into a ball and cover to rest for 1 hour at room temperature. Use it straight after resting or leave it overnight in the fridge for later use.

Note: If you use dry yeast 1/2 tsp will do. To activate the yeast add it to the sugar and water and stir. Wait approximately 10 mins until the mixture starts to bubble then it will be ready to use.

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

Four guys have taken it upon themselves to try and make sense of the local public transportation system by mapping the bus network in Kuwait. Wilfred Waters, Jake Massoth, David Uzoni and Wael El-Ahmady are aiming to get complete stop positions, schedules and 360 imagery of the entire bus network in Kuwait and they’re pretty much on track.

According to Wil, the schedule data is the most frustrating aspect of the project due to lack of driver discipline. Drivers stop between formal stops so a proper schedule can’t be kept but they’re trying their best to get at least a rough estimate. In regards to imagery they’re halfway done (similar to google street view but for the bus routes) but they’re trying to prioritize the schedule data for now since thats the information people are after the most.

The overall problem they’re trying to solve with this project is unnecessary car trips, privately or in taxis. By collecting all this data, they’re hoping to eventually create a Bus Routing App that would provide people with easy to access and understand bus routes and scheduling information. And I think they’re onto something here.

Looking through their map data (embedded above) I was able to spot a number of bus stops near my apartment building as well as see the whole route the bus would take. Turns out the bus stop next to my apartment could take me all the way to my office in the city, and even though I wouldn’t take the bus (I love driving), I did consider it for a second. I’m sure a lot more people would use the bus if they had route and schedule information on their phones.

Back in the early 90s when I was in Canada, I used to call the bus stop near my apartment building and an automated service would let me know how many minutes till the next bus arrived. That way I didn’t have to wait out in -30°C weather freezing my ass off. Kuwait needs to upgrade the whole bus network and make it more usable, if you could track busses in Canada back in the early 90s, I’m sure Kuwait can manage the same today. Kuwait is hoping the metro project will help solve traffic issues but it might be easier right now to get the bus system sorted out right. How difficult would it be to tell drivers to let people on and off only at formal stops? Or to make sure bus stops are shaded, and to create an app that would help people plot their trips and get accurate scheduling information. I don’t think it would be that hard, easier than building a metro system from the ground up thats for sure.

For more information on the busKW project, check out their website [Here]

Whenever I meet people, a common question I’m usually asked is how I find stuff to write about every day. There really isn’t that much generally going on in Kuwait so it’s hard to imagine how I could find content on a daily basis to write about. Up until a few years ago I used to think I was just getting lucky everyday finding content but then someone made me realize that after all these years its probably a skill and not luck. I guess my curious and nosy nature combined with my obsessive tendencies turned out to be a perfect combo to run a blog.

There are generally two main ways I find things to write about:

1) People email me or tell me about something
2) I discover things myself while going about my day to day routine

The first thing I do when I find a topic to write about is enter it into Evernote. My memory is terrible and my blog is very important for me so I can’t risk forgetting a topic. I like Evernote because I have it open on all my computers at home and work as well as on my phone. Anytime I add a topic to my list it synchronizes across all my computers and phone. I took a screenshot of part of my current Evernote list (pictured below) to give you an idea of how it looks like. It might look vague but I just need a word or two to remind me of the topic.

Every morning I get up around 8-9 and open my list and decide what I am going to write about. Usually the further down the list the item is the less important it is or the less time sensitive it is. If its not time sensitive like the note “salmiya 1976” which is a video from 1976 that shows old Salmiya, then I just leave it for a slow news day. A slow news day is a day when I don’t have much to post about either because I’m still waiting on some info or because I don’t think I have a quality post for the day.

Today for example I want to post about two things, “CRL Bar” which is a new cereal bar that opened up in Kuwait and “wifi kuwait” which is a project to provide wifi all over Kuwait. For both of these posts I’m still waiting on some information so they’re not ready hence why I am here writing this post which is sort of a blog filler. I came up with this post idea to keep things moving along on the blog until I get the information I need for the other two posts.

Another popular question I get is how do I decide what restaurants to write about or what event to go to. The events part is pretty easy, if I think it’s going to be fun for me or if the subject interests me then I’ll go. 99% of the time I don’t go to any event. With restaurants, its more tricky. I get emailed by restaurant owners all the time asking me to come by and try their place but unless its an interesting or new concept, I tend not be interested. I also go to restaurants based on word of mouth or the chef behind the concept. So for example when I heard Faisal Al Nashmi was opening a new restaurant called Table Otto, I wanted to go try it out because I love his other concept Street. But with HABRA for example, I wasn’t interested in trying it out until I started hearing how great it was from all my friends.

Time wise I generally don’t spend a lot of it writing. I kinda pre-write posts in my head and then sit down on the computer in the morning and type them out. I always feel like I’m working against the clock so I’m always rushing my posts out and generally spend anywhere from 15 to 60 minutes writing them up. I don’t feel like I have the luxury of sitting and perfecting a post because I need to have content out every single day. I run the blog as if I am competing with other hundreds of other blogs and I need to get my posts out right away before they do. Even though there aren’t any other blogs around today anymore, I still blog as if there so I stay on my toes. I still go by the idiom “You snooze you lose” since it used to happen before where I’d sleep on a post and then another blogger would write about it before me.

So there you have it, a behind the scenes look into the making of my posts. If you have any questions, let me know in the comments below.

If you’re into How It’s Made style documentaries then you’ll appreciate this video on the making of the Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City Marina. The most interesting part for me is the fact that you can take Styrofoam, cover it with cement and then end up with a 20ton floating concrete deck. It’s only 11 minutes long so check it out. [YouTube]

Early on in the month graffiti artists Monstariam and Bufifty spray painted a gigantic spaceman mural outside Al Khaled Complex in Salmiya. It’s the same complex where Gia and Lorenzo are located and it right away became my favorite Monstariam graffiti work yet. Now TJC Films has uploaded a video of the making of so if you’re curious to see how the spaceman came to be check it out above. [YouTube]

Deera is an iPhone app which allows you to report issues with public services. The way it works is very simple, you snap a photo of the problem, specify what the issue is along with the location and then submit it. According to a reader who emailed me about this last night, he tried it by reporting waste left on an empty plot next to his house and the next day he received a notification that the problem was fixed. I haven’t tried it yet myself but I’m going to later today.

If you want try this app you can download it from the Apple Store either by searching for Deera or by clicking [Here]

[YouTube]

The company Parente Fireworks who were part of the Kuwait Fireworks Guinness World Record have uploaded two “making of” videos onto YouTube. The first video on top contains some behind the scene shots including ones from the control room during the event. The video below on the other hand summarizes that actual fireworks event down to around 5 minutes.

[YouTube]

I don’t think there is anybody who doesn’t like soft serve ice cream which is why setting up your own machine at home, diwaniya or chalet is such a great idea and one that turns out isn’t too expensive.

There are just three things you need, the soft serve machine, the ice cream flavors and the biscuit cones.

I’ll start with the machines since this is where most of the investment is. I passed by two locations, a small store in Dajeej and the Mabrook store in Shuwaikh. I’m sure there are other stores as well but those are two I was told about. The small store in Dajeej had only one machine and was selling it for KD4,000. Mabrook on the other hand a around 4 or 5 different machines with the most affordable starting at KD500. It’s the Italian made Ugolini mini gel and it holds only one flavor. They also had other machines that were more expensive including the Taylor branded one pictured above which is the same brand Pinkberry uses. Obviously that’s overkill for home use but in case you have around KD5,000 to splurge that’s the Rolls Royce of these machines.

The second thing you need to make your soft serve ice cream is the actual product mix which you’ll have to fill the machine with. KDD sells them and they had two sizes to choose from. The picture above is of their 1 liter pack and you can get it in either vanilla or chocolate flavor. Each pack should be enough for around 6 to 9 cones. The 1 liter pack costs 575 fils and this is the size I would recommend getting for home use or small diwaniyas. But, they also sell 12 liter packs. The 12 liter packs cost KD6.5 each and can make around 80 cones. They also have an offer now where if you buy 5 packs they give you one free. Finally you need cones. KDD also sell the biscuit cones and a pack of 800 costs KD4.860.

So to summarize the post it’s going to cost you around KD500 to set up a small soft serve station at home, diwaniya or chalet. Depending on how often it’s used it could be pretty feasible.

[YouTube]

I found the video above of the making of Fires of Kuwait on YouTube. If you didn’t already know Fires of Kuwait is an Academy Award winning nominated documentary from 1992 on the oil well fires that were lit up by the retreating Iraqi forces at the end of the 1990 invasion. The video above is a behind the scenes look into what went into the making of this documentary and I thought it was pretty interesting. In case you haven’t watched this IMAX documentary yet it’s currently showing every Friday at the Scientific Center IMAX theater. For details click [Here]

If you look carefully at the 2:24 mark you can see the Big Wind (pictured below) in action.

I remember Tommy being open in Marina Mall around 7 years back but they weren’t doing good (I heard) and they shut down. Now it looks like they’re reopening again but this time at 360 Mall. Their new location is right next to Signor Sassi in place of Yo Sushi! and also right next to Mango.

Interestingly the brand doesn’t seem to be owned by Alshaya anymore. When Tommy was previously open in Kuwait Alshaya had the brand but, I just checked out the Alshaya website and there is no sign of Tommy Hilfiger so it looks like it’s opening under new ownership.

A reader shared a link to pictures of the making of the Kiswah (the cloth that covers the Kaaba) which I hadn’t seen before. You can check out those pictures by clicking [Here]

Here is also bit of info I found on Wikipedia on the Kiswah:

Every year the old Kiswa is removed, cut into small pieces and gifted to certain individuals, visiting foreign Muslim dignitaries and organizations. Some of them sell their share as souvenirs of Haj. Earlier Umar bin al-Khattab would cut it in to pieces and distribute them among the pilgrims who used them as shelter from the heat of Makkah. The present cost of making the kiswa amounts to SR 17 million [U.S. dollar = 3.75 riyals]. The cover is 658 sq. metres long and is made of 670 kgs of pure silk. For embroidery 15 kilos of gold threads are used. It consists of 47 pieces of cloth and each piece is 14 Mts. long and 101 cms broad. The kiswa is wrapped around the Kaaba and fixed to the ground with copper rings. [Source]

Thanks t-num

[Link]

This is how pancake junkies get their fix. [Link]

“Watch as the voices of Family Guy create an episode.” I thought Cleveland was black! [Video]

After my post on hot dogs, Equalizer from Gastronomica recommended I try the following:

you seriously want the best hot dogs that u can prepare in 5 minutes?

Wrangler smoked hotdogs
Bun
Relish
Saurkraut
Brown Mustard
Ketchup (optional)
Chopped Onions

those are available in Sultan Center ready made except the chopped onions

Pan grill the hot dogs in butter. Place in bun wrap in paper towel and microwave for 30 seconds. Add condiments and enjoy!

So I went to Sultan Center, I couldn’t find Wrangler hot dogs but I found Eckrich Jumbo Franks. I also got brown mustard, hot dog buns and onions. I don’t like relish or saurkraut.

I tried to pan grill the hot dog in butter which I figured meant heat a pan, put some butter in it and then put the hot dogs. I think I messed up because I ended up burning the hot dogs nearly instantly.

Three hot dogs gone to waste but I still had more in the pack. I decided to play it safe. I ended up boiling water in a pot, then throwing in three more hot dogs, closed the cover and then removed the pot from the heat and left it for 9 minutes. When it was done I took the hot dogs, placed them in the buns and then put the mustard and onions on them.

The result? BORING! The hotdogs tasted average, the buns were dry, I think I put too much onions and maybe not enough mustard. In Conclusion… I am going to stick to eating hot dogs in restaurants because I can’t cook to save my life.