Search: “maki”

I passed by the Skate Park today while I was on my way to Maki. There was a guy in charge there and I asked him a couple of questions. I found out that it costs KD1.5 per hour to skate, rollerblade or bike in the park. They don’t rent out the gear nor do they have any gear to rent out. What they will provide you with though is the safety equipment like a helmet and elbow and knee guards. For more pictures click [Here]

Wow, if I had the free time I would definitely attempt making this. I don’t think I have ever seen a cooler Halloween pumpkin. [Link]

This is why they are giving tons of donuts away for free at Marina Mall. The employees are currently training on how to make the donuts. In the picture above the employees are watching the donuts roll out of the machine while their trainer explains to them the process.

While driving to Maki yesterday at Marina Waves I noticed the Skate Park at the side of the parking lot was open. I had passed it a few times before but the lights were always off but yesterday they were open and some kids were riding their BMX bikes up and down the ramps. On the way out I got a better look (while still driving by in the car) and I noticed the two kids had similar blue helmets and bikes. This is why I am guessing that the park actually rents out bikes, boards, blades and gear. I should probably pass by another day and try to get more details unless a reader already has more details and can share it with us. It looks wayyyy better then the one that used to be located in the basement of the Salmiya palace Hotel.

update: here are some better pictures taken by Yo Ghurt [1] [2] [3]

Today I met up with Marzouq again to go riding. We met in front of Galleria 2000 like yesterday and we headed off onto the Gulf road. As we were getting onto the gulf road from Salmiya I fucked up and ended up crashing onto the ground and sliding towards the curb.

I am still not sure exactly what happened. I have played the scene over and over in my head and my current conclusion is I was taking the curb at a speed faster than I was comfortable with and I stupidly pulled the brakes too hard and locked up the front wheel making it slide under me. I crashed on to the ground and me and the bike both slid towards the curb.

It all happened really fast except one part felt like it was in slow motion. The view suddenly shifted to inside the helmet and I was on the floor sliding towards the black and yellow curb and I can very clearly see my helmet visor getting scratched and finally I stopped.

I got up, and looked around to see if any cars were coming. I saw Marzouq had already stopped his bike behind me so that the cars could drive around us. I then proceeded to lift my bike up when Marzouq came and took over and told me to go sit down. He asked me if I was hurt and I looked down and saw my jeans had torn at my knees and I was bleeding. I went sat down, took out my camera and started taking pictures of Marzouq moving my bike and then of my injuries.

My left knee was scraped, the left side of my waist also, I had a tiny scrape on my left elbow and another scratch on my right leg. Finally my left wrist was hurting me a bit.

We parked the bike and noticed the left foot rest had brkoen off so we called TriStar to come pick up the bike. They told us they already had found out about the crash and the bike truck was on its way. Talk about excellent customer service. Marzouq wanted to take me to the hospital but I told him to pass by my place first so I could change and take Nats car.

I got home, took off my watch (knew I needed to take it off for the xtray), got into shorts and a tshirt and left again with Nat and Marzouq. We got to the hospital and two hours later I left with bandages everywhere and my left hand in a cast. Yes, I have been typing this post with one hand, its a pain!

I am back home now. I am disappointed my hand is in a cast because it means I won’t be riding for a while. My favorite jeans are ripped which totally messed up my wardrobe. But, I am glad I came out of the fall with minor injuries. If I was an unsafe rider wearing shorts, tshirt and no helmet you can bet I wouldn’t be here typing this post. I regret not having gotten biking jeans. I was actually gonna post about Draggin Jeans the other day. If I was wearing them me knee wouldn’t have gotten messed up.

Here are some pictures, the ones marked GRAPHIC are you guessed it, graphic pictures.

Marzouq moving my bike
My busted knee (GRAPHIC)
My waist (GRAPHIC)
My leg (GRAPHIC)
My elbow (GRAPHIC)
My scratched helmet
Me waiting to have my cast put on

I have to end this post with a special thanks to Marzouq who was a true friend today. Thanks dude!

I don’t eat at home since I don’t know how to cook nor do I want to learn how to cook. I know how to make the basics which are sandwiches, omelets, burgers and cookies and I don’t see a need to learn how to make other dishes.

Since its ramadan all restaurants are closed till like 5:30PM, this means when I am done with work at 3 I have over 2 hours before I eat. The thing is I can’t go out to eat at 5:30 because my riding lessons are from like 5 to 6:30. Thats why I have to eat at home.

Yesterday while shopping at Sultan Center in Salmiya I decided to pick up 2 packs of Kobe Burger, I have been wanting to try it for a long time now but since I don’t eat at home I found no need to get it. After picking up the burgers I picked up a packet of sliced American white cheese loaves, 1 white onion, a bottle of Heinz Ketchup and some burger buns. Nat didn’t want Kobe Burgers since she doesn’t like thick burgers so I picked up a packet of regular frozen burgers for her.

I have a Kenwood grill at home and I use it mainly to grill my burgers on and this is how I do it:

– I grill the burger for 5 minutes, flip it, let it grill for another 5 minutes, flip it, let it grill for another 5 minutes and finally I flip it one last time for a final 5 minutes.

– Once I am done I put a slice of cheese on the burger, leave it on the grill for another minute then I take the burger with cheese and place it on the bottom half of my bun.

– I then place it in the microwave for 10 seconds so the cheese can melt.

– I then put some ketchup on the burger and top it off with diced white onions

– I cover my burger with the top half of the bun and my burger is ready to eat.

I am sure Gastronomica is better at making burgers then me since if you check out his website you will notice all his meals are very gourmet like. Hopefully he will be nice enough to share a tip or two in the comments below but until he does this is how I make my burgers.

How did the burgers come out? Fanfrigintastic! I like my burgers well done and I was expecting this burger to come out dry but it didn’t. It was soft, juicy and tasted like something you would find at a posh restaurant or hotel room service. It was surprisingly very good and it turned out to be the best burger I ever made.

Now the biggest problem with the Kobe Burger is the price. Each patty costs KD1.250 which isn’t cheap if you compare it to other frozen burgers. BUT without getting into the taste or quality of meat please look at the picture above of the burgers on the grill. Do you notice the 2 large patties on the left? Do you notice the tiny patty on the top right? Guess which patty is your average everyday frozen one? These kobe burgers are big and thick. Kobe beef also comes from Wagyu cattle which are “renowned for its flavor, tenderness, and fatty well-marbled texture”. So yes KD1.250 is worth it specially if you have a passion for burgers.

From now on if I ever need to make burgers at home this is the only burger I will get. I can no longer have those crappy frozen burgers that come 8 in a pack. I have been spoilt. Final score is a 4.5 out of 5. I would have given it a 5 but they are a lot messier to cook then the regular burgers because these are bigger and juicier so they spray more grease. This means more cleaning for me which always sucks.

I am a big shawerma fan and I really enjoy trying shawerma’s from new places. Shawerma is such a simple thing but its amazing how many different flavors and presentation styles there are. I rarely get disappointed when I have a shawerma because they are hard to fuck up. Somehow though the Mishref Coop Restaurant found the secret ingredient to making a crappy shawerma.

Tuesday night I had a recording in a studio in Mishref, once I was done I decided I would treat myself to a shawerma from the Mishref Coop Restaurant. The skewer looked very appetizing so I went ahead and ordered two chicken shawerma and a coke.

It sucked to summarize my experience. The chicken tasted weird, like nothing was added to it when cooked, no spices, no flavor no nothing. The chicken was also very oily and had a weird smell. The garlic was also non existent. I was very disappointed and I would never have shawerma there again.

Final score is a 1 out of 5. It gets a 1 because I ate it and didn’t die afterwards.

More info and pictures after the jump. [Link]

I passed by Dunkin Donuts earlier tonight. I wasn’t planning to since I imagined the place to be extremely packed as it was the opening night but as I was on my way to Sultan Center I decided to pass by and check it out. As I was walking towards Dunkin I was expecting to find a long queue outside the place of people wanting to get in. Surprisingly there was no queue, in fact, there was no queue inside even. I guess not many people care about it here in Kuwait which isn’t a good sign considering Dunkin Donuts opened up in the most jinxed place on that street. Tons of places ranging from restaurants to a music shop opened and closed in that location numerous times giving it the jinxed title.

First the good news, the donuts taste great, they taste exactly like Dunkin Donuts anywhere else. Thats the only thing positive I could think of, so lets get started with the negatives. I go to Dunkin Donuts not for their donuts but for their amazing sandwiches, my favorite being the egg, cheese and ham in croissant heated up in the microwave. They don’t have it here! Its probably not a big deal for like 99% of their customers but I was really disappointed, its the only thing I used to have there. Other then that the Pepsi comes in cans which sucks, not only that but its the small 250ml cans even! They also had a DJ for some odd reason and he was playing Arabic music! Finally probably the worst thing is that they are not open 24 hours! They open from 7AM to 1AM meaning no passing by at 2:48AM for late night munchies.

So for first impression it wasn’t very positive but they did just open today so I am sure they are still working on stuff like buying a regular coke machine. Price for a donut is 350fils. For 1KD you get 2 donuts and a coffee. I am definitely going back there again and I hope in the future they do start making the egg cheese and ham sandwich.

He is so lame that even CNN are making fun out of him..

Federline stalked about the stage with attitude as he rapped about his bling, popping Cristal (obviously oblivious of the whole hip-hop Cristal boycott) and his amazing rhyming skills.

Check out the article [Link]

Jimi Hendrix is arguably the best rock guitarist of all time. He was also an amazing performer, something which is often overlooked. This site is dedicated to the stage banter Jimi Hendrix would often engage in, making his live performances truly unique [Link]

From the cast list I was expecting this movie to be great and after watching it I have to say it was. The Sentinel stars Michael Douglas, Kiefer Sutherland, Eva Longoria, Kim Basinger and David Rasche (Sledge Hammer). Its a really fucking cool cast and they all play cool roles, for example you have Jack Bauer playing an investigator in the secret service, David Rasche playing the president, Kim Basinger the presidents wife and Eva Longoria a secret service rookie. Last time I saw David Rasche play a president it was on the comedy show DAG along side one of my favorite comedians David Alan Grier (In Living Color). When I found out he was playing the president in this movie I was like how the fuck could he pull it off without making us laugh. It must be his more mature aged look now because David Rasche was just fucking amazing. Actually, everyone was, this movie brought out the best in everyone. Like Eva Longoria, no way on earth did I think she would ever be able to pull off the role of a secret service agent, but not only did she pull it off, the role actually suited her a lot. Jack Bauer was naturally incredible, he was born to play the role of a special agent. Kim Basinger was also the perfect presidents wife and Michael Douglas who I haven’t liked since his last good movie The Game, fit his part like a glove.

The movie is about an assassination attempt on the president which is always an exciting plot. The movie was fast paced and never dragged or felt slow or boring. The only thing I would change would be the ending, I felt it finished to quickly and was a bit on the weak side. The whole thing felt like an episode of 24, which is a very good thing. This is why I give this movie a 4 out 5. The reason I didn’t give it anything higher is because I don’t think this movie will be a classic in the same way Clint Eastwoods “In the Line of Fire” is. Although I prefer The Sentinel, the assassination plot isn’t as deep and important to the movie the same way as it was in In the Line of Fire. Never the less, this is a really fucking great movie to watch.

I passed by Badar Al Badoor yesterday. They supposingly make the best shawerma in Kuwait but when I passed by they still hadn’t started making shawermas so I couldn’t try them out. Will try to pass by tonight.

To get to Badar Al Badoor you take the Gulf Road as if going from the Kuwait Towers toward Salmiya. Once you pass Fuddruckers on your left and Safir Hotel on your right you take a right following the Commercial Bank of Kuwait signage. Once you take the right (Safir Hotel is now still on your right hand like this) you take your first right again and you will spot Badar Al Badoor in front of you.

update: here is it on google maps [Link]

Hard Candy was one of the movies I was looking forward to watch this year but sadly it disappointed me. Going into the movie I really didn’t know what it was about. All I knew was what I got from the trailer and that is a young girl meets an old guy over the Internet and then they meet up and things go wrong. Based on what I knew and what I was expecting, fifteen minutes into the movie and the whole thing takes a surprising 180 degree turn which was probably the coolest part in the movie. After that things just dragged for me.

One thing I have to say, the movie is visually stunning. The colors and styling in the house where most of the story takes place is really cool. The movie on the other-hand I felt was too long although the ending was very short. The movie finished and I was still trying to figure out what had happened and making sure I understood things correctly. Anyway I really can’t say much about the movie because I wouldn’t want to ruin any surprises. I am also going to advise you NOT to read the plot summary or ask questions about the movie and just watch it knowing very little. That way you will be in for a nice shock. For me the movie didn’t live up to my expectations and thats why I am giving it a 3.5 out of 5.

Kleio posted the following comment under the Kuwaitis Stuck in Damascus post:

I was one of those people who was lied to by the Kuwaiti Embassy. They told us all to go up to the Safir hotel in Bhamdoun and that we would be able to catch buses out from there, so we did (two of us) on Friday morning. Once we got there, it was pure chaos. The embassy was totally unorganized and only had about three employees there at the hotel. Why tell all the Kuwaitis to go there if you don’t know how to deal with that many people? The embassy staff (consul and ambassador included) were unhelpful and rude. We couldn’t get on a bus that day because they were giving priority to people with children and elderly. We were told to wait for a phone call telling us when we were assigned to a bus. We naively believed that that would really happen. We missed like 8 buses out merely because we were following the “rules” that turned out to be complete bull. Then, the embassy didn’t offer to pay for the hotel room we had to reserve for the night (even though they had told me when I called that morning that we would “certainly” get a bus out that day).

Next morning, we were told that every single person who was put on a bus to Syria would be guaranteed a seat on a flight out that day. They also told us there would be embassy officials accompanying us to the border, more officials at the border, and then officials from the Kuwaiti embassy in Syria would be there to greet us at the airport. All B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. Nobody accompanied us – our Lebanese bus driver and one guy on our bus who volunteered to take charge took care of things at the border. Then once we got to the airport, there was no trace of the embassy. It was each man for himself. Went up to the Kuwait Airways office and it was chaos with an enormous waiting list. Guaranteed a seat, my a@@! Luckily, like Nat, we had our tickets booked for Sunday night on Jazeera from Beirut anyway (same flight as Nat, turns out), and so we were confirmed on the replacement flight leaving from Damascus on Sunday. However, we arrived at the airport on Saturday, thinking we had a Kuwait Airways guarnateed ticket out. Of course, all hotels in Damascus were fully booked, and the embassy did nothing to help us find accomodation (I never saw anyone from the embassy in the two days I was in Syria). We had to find our own shelter.

I’m not saying the embassy has to pamper us and do everything for us – quite the contrary, we were perfectly capable of making our own arrangements. All I’m saying is, don’t bloody lie to us and hundreds of others! I would rather they had told us up front: “Look, we’ll try to get you out but there are thousands of you and only a few buses at a time, so we don’t know how long before we can get you across the border. And all we’re doing is getting you to Damascus – from that point on, you have to make your own arrangements. We have extra Kuwait Airways flights arranged, but it’s up to you to get yourself on one of them.” Was that so hard? Why make empty promises and “guarantees” to people who YOU told to come to YOU for help?!

Kleio also has pictures and a video from her evacuation.