Search: “maki”

The weekend is here and so are all the events. Make sure you drop by the Caffeine & Wheels event this Saturday, it should be fun! Check out the full list of events below:

Thursday
Exhibition: Abstraction by Farouk Hosny
La Selva Caliente
Korean Calligraphy – Making Christmas & New Year’s Card
Entertainment Con
Graduates of 2019: Moo Milk Bar

Friday
Entertainment Con
Christmas Extravaganza
Stargazing in AlSalmi Desert
Blues in the Night
Talentshop’s Funky Sweater Show

Saturday
Exhibition: Abstraction by Farouk Hosny
Entertainment Con
Qout Market
Caffeine & Wheels

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.

Here’s a good business opportunity if you’re looking for one, get the distribution rights for Element fire extinguishers! I first heard about these fire extinguishers on one of the Lotus car forums since guys there are always looking to try and save weight. But then Jay Leno had the Element guys on his YouTube show Jay Leno’s Garage and after watching it, I ended up buying two for myself. I would have actually bought more so I could give them to my friends but I wanted to see if PostaPlus would ship them first.

What makes these fire extinguishers so special is mainly the size and weight, they’re extremely small and lightweight and yet in most cases perform much better than the larger old-fashioned fire extinguishers that use compressed air canisters. Not only that but the Element is also non-toxic and doesn’t create a white mess. Since I’m pretty limited with space in my Lotus, I decided to get the Element so I can just velcro it under my dashboard.

The model I got from Element costs around KD20 and lasts for around 50 seconds. In comparison, an old-fashioned fire extinguisher (similar to the one you probably have in your car) costs approximately KD7, lasts around 15 seconds and is much larger and heavier than the Element.

Even though I managed to get my Element fire extinguishers shipped by PostaPlus, it did take around two months time. That mostly had to do with them researching the product and making sure it was safe to ship and wasn’t hazardous since they had never shipped them before. Theoretically, the next time anybody orders the Element they shouldn’t have to go through this long process, but I also don’t want to risk it. I still need to get a couple of more Elements so I can keep at home, so someone please get the distribution rights, I really think these would sell like hotcakes in Kuwait!

I was going through Kuwestions when I spotted a question by a reader who asked why taxis were so filthy? One person left a pretty interesting response which I’ve shared below (with minor editing):

Taxi drivers don’t have salaries (although on paper it says they do). The system works as follows:

a- The taxi company (most of the time it is just a small office with one owner) rents the taxi for the driver by day. According to the car, the condition of the driver (new in Kuwait or not) and how greedy the owner is, the rent can go from KD5 to KD7.5 per day.

b- The driver is responsible for everything in the car. The company doesn’t pay anything. If the car is hit, stolen, damaged or whatever, the driver pays for it and they have to keep paying the rent even if the car is in the garage being repaired.

c- The driver pays all the car registration fees, insurance fees, residency fees, etc.. usually the company should pay for these, at least the residency fees, but not in the case of the taxi drivers, they have to pay.

d- The drivers have to deal with greedy employees inside the taxi company as well. You want the mandoob to get your driving license so you can work today? Pay him KD5-KD10, otherwise just wait, maybe he will go there next week to get it for you while you are paying your daily taxi rental fees but not driving and making money.

As a result of all the above, the drivers get greedy as well and try to survive by any means. Another reason drivers don’t care about the cars is that most people here treat them extremely bad. So what is the point of cleaning the car, and wasting an hour or two when they can instead just rest, or try to find another customer who will eventually also leave their trash behind.

The taxis that are just plain white are “Call taxis”. These taxis are not permitted by law to stop and pick a customer off the street, they have to be ordered by phone. But, taxi companies just give these cars to drivers and let them go and pick customers off the street because the government stopped issuing “Gawwala” licenses (the licenses for the beige/white cars). These taxis get fined a lot because of that and they also have to pay these fines.

One more thing. Before the new taxi fares, taxis would not let you pay by the meter because the price of the meter was too low. And now after the new higher meter fares that were introduced, people are not willing to pay by the meter because its more expensive. So cab drivers are still stuck in the same place.

So basically unless major restructuring of the whole taxi system happens, things aren’t going to get any better.

The reader had gotten all this information from one of his best friends who is currently working as a taxi driver in Kuwait. You can check out the original thread on Kuwestions [Here]

Thanks Tarek!

When JACC first told me Herbie Hancock was coming to Kuwait, the name sounded familiar but it didn’t ring a bell until I was going through some of his songs and came across Cantaloupe Island and Rock It. That’s when I realized, I already knew his songs, I just never knew they were his!

Herbie Hancock is considered a jazz legend whos been making music since the early 60s. He’s won 14 Grammy Awards including album of the year as well as winning an Academy Award for original soundtrack. Next weekend, Herbie Hancock will be performing live over two nights, Friday October 5th and Saturday October 6th at the Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Cultural Centre. Tickets start at KD35 for the bronze and go up to KD75 for the VIP seats. Once again I’ve teamed up with JACC to giveaway 4 platinum seat tickets worth KD265 to two of my blog readers. So there will be two winners for this giveaway and each one will get two platinum tickets for the Saturday evening show!

To win tickets for this giveaway I’m trying something new this time. The previous method of leaving a comment was driving me insane because I’d get an email for every comment left here. So imagine getting over 400 emails in under a day, it made me hate holding giveaways. So for this one, I’m trying something new so check it out below.

[gleam url=”https://gleam.io/oZLw2/herbie-test”]Win Platinum Tickets to Jazz Legend Herbie Hancock![/gleam]

As usual, please make sure you use a working email since that’s how I will be contacting the winners. If a winner doesn’t respond within 24 hours, another winner will be randomly chosen. Good luck!

For more information on the concert, click [Here]

I love eating outside and I rarely eat home cooked meals, in fact, I don’t even remember the last time I ate a home-cooked meal. So, I’ve been wanting to put together a list of my favorite places and I finally got it done. I’ve divided my favorite places into categories, it wasn’t easy in some cases just choosing three, but I forced myself to do so to keep things consistent. Check out my favorites below and let me know what your favorite places are:

Restaurants
1- White Robata
2- Mana
3- Lavan

If I had to choose just one restaurant to eat at forever, it would probably be White Robata. I’m there usually once a week and would go more often if it wasn’t so freaking expensive. So much good food combined with incredible staff make this easily my favorite restaurant in Kuwait at the moment. Mana, on the other hand, is a lot more accessible and great for going to in groups. They’ve got the best guacamole in Kuwait and generally, everything I’ve tried there has been really good although the rosemary chicken is my goto dish. Finally, Lavan is my favorite Indian restaurant. I go there mostly for their tandoori grills since I’m always trying to eat healthy, but I always manage to convince myself to have one of their delicious biryanis as well.

Healthy
1- Super Foods
2- Leila
3- Little Rubys

There are a lot of healthy places nowadays but these three are my goto ones. Super Foods doesn’t need much of an introduction since I think they’re the most popular healthy food place. They’ve got great snacks, cold bowls, delicious sandwiches, and even healthy desserts. They also have a lot of drinks to choose from including my favorite, their Blue Majik. The next place would be the Lebanese restaurant Leila, like most Lebanese restaurants, it’s a great place for healthy options since they have salads and grills. But, what sets Leila apart is their light menu which contains food options with even lighter dressings and more healthier sides. I know Little Rubys might seem out of place on this list since they’ve got delicious burgers and crazy good fries, but they also have my favorite salad in Kuwait, their pumpkin salad. It’s a baby spinach salad which I usually have them add grilled chicken too, so delicious.

Breakfast
1- Cocoa Room
2- Lunch Room
3- Baker & Spice

I had difficulty deciding on the number one spot here, it should be Lunch Room but since it’s more convenient getting a table at Cocoa Room I chose them as number one. Lunch Room is my favorite breakfast spot at the moment but the place is small and so there is always a waiting list. And unlike Cocoa Room, you can’t call ahead and put your name on the list so you have to go there, put your name and then just sit in your car since there isn’t anything else around them to do. Cocoa Room is also always super busy but I tend to call them an hour before I plan to be there to put my name on the list. Then, usually by the time I get there, my table would be ready or I just have to wait for one or two tables before it’s my turn. Baker & Spice is my healthier choice here, but during the summer months, I tend not to go to Baker & Spice since I enjoy the place more sitting outdoors especially at their Souk Sharq location.

Delivery
1- Joa
2- SimSim
3- Clean Eats

Before Carriage came to be, I think I used to only ever order food from Hardees. Now I’ve got a whole list of places I order from but these are my favorite ones. JOA I love ordering from when binge watching a show with a friend or when I’m having movie nights. Their poke bowls are the best and they’ve also got affordable sushi rolls if I want. SimSim is a place I find delicious but I try not to order them a lot because they’re all carbs. SimSim easily have the best flatbreads in Kuwait (get the pumpkin or musakhan) as well as a delicious rose water flavored knafa for dessert. Finally, Clean Eats I heard about at first because of their delicious yoga bowl which is what I used to order all the time but then I started making my own bowls. Now I tend to mostly order their banana and chocolate chip overnight oats since its a great source of energy before I hit the gym.

Cheat Meals
1- CHKN
2- Arby’s
3- Eighty Six

This was another category I had trouble trying to pick a favorite place. Both CHKN and Arby’s have perfect cheat meals but I decided CHKN was slightly better because of their sides. I tend to order their Slaw CHKN sandwich with the original CHKN bites on the side. So soooo good, it’s like the best fried chicken burger ever. Arby’s on the other hand, I just order their Double Roast Beef N’ Cheddar sandwich but that’s all I really want from life sometimes. Full disclosure on the third spot which is Eighty Six, they’re one of the brands I work for at the moment so I literally go to sleep thinking about them. So although I might be a bit biased here, I’m really a huge fan of their Billie Jean burger as well as their Saku Saku chicken burger.

So there you have it, my favorite spots around Kuwait right now. I might more add categories to this if I think of anything but this should be good for now. Don’t forget to let me know your spots!

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.

Just when you think this whole situation with Sondos couldn’t get any worse, well guess what.. it does!

With all the backlash she has been getting in regards to her racist comments on domestic workers, you’d think she would issue an apology. But, instead of apologizing she published another video this time talking about how employers of domestic workers deserve rights.

The video starts of with her talking about how her story has hit the news and how she hopes the local authorities will take action on this and provide employers of domestic workers with rights. After rambling for a minute or so on how she wants rights, she ends the video by stating the subject is now closed and that there are more important matters in life, like the fact that she’s thinking of getting botox. I swear I’m not making this up!! Check out her video above.

I had heard of the store Arts & Craft awhile back but never passed by it until just last week. A friend of mine was looking for a linen canvas roll and after searching all the art shops in Dasman Complex to no avail, we decided to pass by Arts & Craft to see if they had it. They did… along with a ton of other stuff.

Arts & Craft is a huge two story shop carrying everything you could think of related to arts and crafts. There are of course a lot of places that sell arts and craft supplies in Kuwait for example, Dasman Complex has a bunch of stores, Jarir has a pretty decent section and then stationary shops like Mogahwi also sell arts and crafts supplies. But, what makes the store Arts & Craft so unique is the sheer amount of variety all in one place.

If you’re looking for any kind of art supplies related to painting, drawing, printmaking, calligraphy, various crafts and more, then they should be your go-to place. Their store is located in Shuwaikh on Canada Dry Street [Google Maps] but, they also have an online store you can check out at artsandcrafts-kw.com

If you’re not traveling this Eid and are looking for shows to binge watch, check out the list below and make sure to check out some of my previous recommendations [Here]

Fleabag
This show came out in 2016 but I just found out about it a couple of weeks back. It’s just one season with six episodes, and a second season is planned for 2019. It’s really funny and I wish there were more episodes. The show is available to watch on Amazon Videos.

Succession
This is a brand new show with just two episodes out. It might not be a show for everyone because of the business subject matter, but I guess if you love the show Billions you’ll probably like this show as well. Like I said, as of this post only two episodes are out and you can stream it on HBO NOW.

Corporate
I found out about this show yesterday after a clip from the first episode went viral on Reddit. It’s a new show that came out earlier this year and the first season is already done with 10 episodes. I’m only two episodes in and like it so far and I think you guys might like it as well. The only issue is its on Comedy Central which isn’t a network you can subscribe to. So you have two options to watch this, the first is to download the Comedy Central app on Apple TV and stream the first 3 or 4 episodes which are available for free. But, expect to watch 3 minutes of commercials every 5 minutes which is incredibly annoying. The other option is just to torrent the show.

Here are other some other shows I’m planning to watch soon:
A Very English Scandal
American Woman
Castle Rock
Condor
Jack Ryan
Making It
Patrick Melrose
Sharp Objects
Sweetbitter
Yellowstone

There have been rumors for some time now that Mercedes-Benz was planning to leave the current dealership in Kuwait and yesterday a letter started making its way around social media which confirms it. According to the letter which was sent to employees, the dealership agreement between Mercedez-Benz and Al Bisher & Al Kazemi Group of Companies will be terminating on December 31st, 2018.

I’ve already contacted my source at the dealership to confirm the authenticity of the letter and once they get back to me, I’ll post an update here. But, if it is actually true, then the next question is who will be taking over the brand? Currently, the rumors are pointing towards Al-Mulla Group who are also the dealers for Acura and Mitsubishi, but I had also heard that Al-Sayer were interested in acquiring the brand as well (but I’ve been told that’s not happening).

Al Bisher & Al Kazemi have been the dealers for Mercedes-Benz in Kuwait since the 1950s. The last time a big change like this took place in the local car market was when Arabian Motors Group lost the Ford and Lincoln dealership to Alghanim in 2016.

I wasn’t planning to post about this because:

a) Nothing is going to be done about it
b) A lot of people will probably think there isn’t anything wrong with this

But, I’m being bombarded by people on instagram to write about this so clearly, a lot of you do think what he did was wrong.

Last night a video and photo started making their rounds on social media showing a local influencer unlocking the trunk of his car revealing his Chow Chow dog inside. The video is also accompanied by a photo taken I’m assuming on a different day of the same dog dead in the bottom of a pool with the caption that he committed suicide. Stuffing a Chow Chow in the trunk of your car in this heat is obvious abuse and sharing a picture of your dog dead is just tasteless. What makes this situation critical is that he has nearly 700,000 followers. When his followers see that he stuffs his dog in trunk, they might think that’s something normal to do (which it’s not).

If you want to read more on this and check out the videos/pictures, you can do so [Here]

Update: I’m curious to see if there will be any repercussion from his advertisers. If something like this took place in the States, his advertisers would drop him. So I’d be interested to see if any of his current advertisers like Kuwait International Bank (KIB) will distance themselves from him.

The Ministry of Interior app wasn’t working for me for the longest time but they’ve finally gone and updated it and it now works with the latest version of iOS as well as making the app take advantage of iPhone X’s extra tall screen.

The app allows you to check a bunch of things including your traffic violations, driving license status, car registration status, travel bans etc.. as well as allowing you to pay any fines. If you don’t have the app you can download it from the Apple Store by clicking [Here]

Last week there was a slightly controversial post in the Kuwait sub on Reddit. Basically, a user wanted another user to stop sharing his gaming vlogs because he didn’t think anyone was interested in them. I personally wasn’t a fan of the videos, but I thought that request was pretty shitty. Just because I didn’t like the videos or the majority of people didn’t like the videos, I don’t think its fair to muzzle someone who is actually taking the time and making the effort to create content. Good or bad, at least they’re active and doing something.

So I decided I’d share the two local video game vloggers I’m aware of in this post. I’m not a fan of either of them but I do appreciate the fact they’re doing what they love to do and that deserves some recognition. So if you’re into video games, check out the two vloggers below:

DarkWolf80s
I find DarkWolf80s super cheesy and his video titles are 100% clickbait, but I have to give the guy credit, he does love his video games. DarkWolf80s has released 11 videos this year alone covering various topics, mostly super geeky ones which I like, it’s just the videos themselves I don’t like. So if you want to check out his channel, click [Here]

DarkraiQ8
If you’re into Pokemon then you’ll have to check DarkraiQ8’s YouTube channel so you’ll realize you’re really not into Pokemon. The guy is like Pokemon fan level 40 which is why I don’t watch any of his videos. I think they’re really boring but the guy is super dedicated publishing a new video every few days. It’s definitely for Arabic speaking die-hard Pokemon fans. So if you’re a Pokemon geek, check out his channel [Here]

Know of any other local video game vloggers? Let me know in the comments below.

Last month a blind reader sent me an email, I had changed one of the settings on my blog and it was affecting his ability to read my blog and he was wondering if I could change the settings back. I told him I definitely would but that I also had sooooo many questions! Firstly I was curious to how I could improve the accessibility of my blog even further for my blind readers, and secondly what he was using to read my blog. Turns out he was reading my blog using the iPhone app Newsify, and when on his computer the software called NVDA (NonVisual Desktop Access). For images, he was using this really fascinating application by Microsoft called Seeing AI. The app tries to describe the contents of a picture to a blind person which I think is such a feat I’m surprised I hadn’t heard of it before. We got to talking about accessibility in Kuwait vs accessibility in the US where he studied for a short period of time and I thought that might be an interesting subject to post about on the blog. So I asked him if he’d be interested in writing an article about it which he was and he did. It’s a great read so check it out below:

——————————-

Hi all,

When Mark told me to write an article on here, I was unsure about how I was going to start it. The beginning of most important things is always a challenge, and the beginning of my life was no different. I was born prematurely, and as a result, I was put in an incubator. The oxygen that was provided to me was more than the required amount and, subsequently, I lost my sight. Of course, it was hard on my family in the beginning to raise a blind child. They had to research and improvise new ways to teach me things that they already knew how to teach a sighted individual. I went into school, graduated from high school in 2013, joined university in the same year, and I graduated last semester. I won’t be talking about my life in this article. Instead, I’ll be talking about an experience that I had when I was in university.

Last summer, I had the chance to study a summer course in the US at the University of Missouri in St. Louis (UMSL), on scholarship. Of course, I was afraid in the beginning because I thought that my blindness would be an issue and that it would be an obstacle to my experience in the US. The Dean of Student Affairs at GUST here in Kuwait assured me that everything would be ok. Before going to UMSL, I was contacted by the International Liaison Specialist at UMSL to figure out what they can do for me in order for them to meet my needs as a blind person. I went to the US and my stay there was perfect. Learning how to depend on myself was hard in the beginning yet, it got easier as time went on. Moreover, the group that I traveled with was very helpful as well as the team that was working with us from UMSL.

Doing simple things such as learning how to use the microwave for the first time as well as making instant coffee felt amazing. You could say that for the first time in my life, I felt completely free. I felt like I could depend on myself completely. Thanks to the International Liaison Specialist, I was able to achieve one of my dreams while in the States, which was learning how to use the white cane. She got in contact with the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired and they put me in contact with a guy there who used to come to me twice a week to train me. The professors there were also very helpful, as well as my note taker in class who became a close friend of mine by the end of the trip. I felt like my blindness didn’t matter there. I did things that I didn’t expect myself to do, such as zip lining and fishing. If we compare this experience to my experience in Kuwait, I’d say that in my opinion, GUST compares to UMSL when it comes to providing assistance for people with disabilities. The professors and students that I’ve worked with at GUST were extremely helpful. However, when it comes to other amenities such as navigation, transportation, housing, entertainment, and others, unfortunately, Kuwait is very far behind.

First of all, there are no sidewalks that can assist the blind when walking from one place to another. Moreover, we don’t have people who can teach us orientation and mobility skills. I haven’t even heard of any houses that are accessible for wheelchair users. The education in Alnoor School for the Blind needs improving and we don’t have audio descriptions in cinemas. The list goes on and on. However, I have hope. There are organizations who are trying to advocate for our needs such as Training Gate International and KISR.

In conclusion, I’d like to thank Mark for giving me the opportunity to express myself on here, and I’ll leave you with a question. I believe that in order for us to contribute to the society, the society should change. Instead of viewing us as people with disabilities, why don’t they view us as a normal person like everyone else?

– Ahmad Albahar

Hey, this is your local film buff checking in on my yearly visit to this blog to spout out my favorite films of the year (because my opinion is right and everyone else is wrong). If this is your first time reading an article of mine, that’s normal cause I’ve written 5 over 6 years or so. My name is Tarek, I’m a filmmaker, ad director, and curator for Cinemagic rooftop cinema (I basically choose the films they show, so any complaints can come my way). Let’s get to the list!

Disclaimer: At the time of writing this article, I hadn’t seen the following highly acclaimed films that might have had a spot otherwise: Faces Places – Raw – The Square – Loveless.