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Dear Mark, Readers and Valued Kabab-ji Customers,

We would like to express our sincere respect and appreciation to the blog post comparing Kabab-ji with its competitors as well as the constructive feedback received by the blog readers.

At the start, the comparison shown within the initial blog post was misrepresented, we contacted Mark and he took the kind liberty to amend the post which is now accurate and resembles a fair comparison.

As mentioned within the amended blog post, it is true, we do focus and pride ourselves when it comes to high quality meats that are delivered to our customers at the highest quality standards.

We are passionate about our meat and care about where it comes from. We distinguish ourselves within Kuwait by utilizing Australian bobby veal meat which is an extremely tender & lean nutritious meat produced in South-Eastern Australia , inspected and certified for export by AQIS (Australian Government Quarantine and Inspection Service) and AUSMEAT (Meat-Standards Australia). No meat leaves Australia without accreditation and certification by the above bodies, on every shipment.

Being meticulously selected from Australia, our Hallal bobby veal meat is unbeatable in terms of quality. Most importantly, the animals used are growth hormone and antibiotic-free, are fed a vegetarian diet and of course, are humanely raised.

Furthermore, once the meat arrives to Kuwait, our production facility specialists handle it with utmost respect and attention to the BRC standards which is a leading global product safety and global certification program, which our production facilities strictly follow on a daily basis. You can read more about BRC on their website: https://www.brcglobalstandards.com/

In the end, yes, we may be a bit more expensive when it comes to our products, but our customers are also paying for unparalleled quality and flavour, with safety measures on a global standard.

Thank you once again for your initiative and we will do our best to continue offering our valued customers with the highest quality products and services.

We look forward to receiving feed forward from Kebab-ji fans and comments that can help us improve and better serve our valued customers.

Please do feel free to contact me directly on 97285651 or email me at [email protected]

Best Regards,

Miguel Angel Estevez- Gonzalez

KFG – Group
Director of Operations CD & IDD innovation Officer

We just had to evacuate our office building due to a fire on the 6th floor. We had to walk down from the 21st floor. Will post pics and more later.

Update: I’m back home now so I can post about what happened. Our office is on the 21st floor of Jawhara Tower behind NBK on Fahad Al Salem street. It was around 10:30 I think and I decided to go down to the grocery to get some water. I took the lift and when I got to the ground floor I noticed a small crowd of people gathered outside the lifts but I didn’t think much. I was on the phone with Nataly and when I walked out of the lift area into the main lobby I noticed more people gathered there and I started to hear the fire alarm. I didn’t know what was going so I told Nat I would call her back. I then called one of my workmates up in our office and told him it looks like there could be a fire in the building since the fire alarm is on and there are people downstairs. He asked me what we should do I told him I would come up and talk to him.

So I casually went back into the lift and headed back to the 21st floor. When I was passing the 9th floor I noticed it smelled like fire. I was like WTF? I got to our floor and I started to tell people there was a fire. We weren’t sure if we should evacuate because everything looked normal on our floor. No fire alarms, no smoke, no smell and nothing unusual. So we were thinking maybe it was just a false alarm when someone noticed the elevators area which I had just come up from was now starting to fill up with smoke. That’s when we started evacuating everyone.

The building isn’t fully occupied yet, I think out of the 26 floors only 10 are occupied. We started heading down the fire escape, it was a long way down and for most of it uneventful until we hit around the 10th floor. That’s when we started to notice a bit of smoke. When we got to the 7th 6th floor we noticed the smoke got a lot heavier and that on the fire was on the 6th 5th floor below us. I snapped the picture above which was of the poor building security guard trying to put out the fire.

We decided to cut across to the other side of the building and take the fire escape on the other side since I figured there should be less smoke and water there. When we crossed and got to the second fire escape we noticed it was filled with construction material. Large rocks, pieces of metal, foam, nylon bags… I wish I took a picture. We cleared some out of the way since there were people coming down that fire escape and the trash was slowing things down. There was a line of people going down the escape and it was moving pretty slow since there was a woman who seemed to be exhausted going down and we were all waiting behind her. Someone was helping her go down but it was still just very slow. By the time we got to the second floor I noticed one fireman coming up that fire escape and then finally we got out of the building.

Now that I am home I am thinking of all the mistakes that occurred like why didn’t the fire alarm go off in the whole building? If I hadn’t gone down to the ground floor by coincidence I wouldn’t have heard the fire alarm and I wouldn’t have been able to warn people upstairs. Also usually when there is a fire the elevators stop working and all automatically go down to the ground floor. The elevators in our building actually allowed me to go up to the 21st floor during a fire! Thirdly the fire escapes contained a lot of items in them which made our escape hazardous and slowed everything down. The security guards although were being brave to try and put out the fire shouldn’t have been doing that, if anything they should have been helping people get out. They didn’t have any masks on or proper gear and I am sure they are all now suffering from smoke inhalation. Hopefully they all made it out ok. I didn’t experience that much smoke and I am already blowing out black sooth from my nose. Because they also had the fire escape door open when they were trying to put out the fire, that resulted in the whole fire escape filling up with smoke and making things dangerous for the people escaping.

This all brings me to my final question. The other day the elevators weren’t working in my apartment building so I took the fire escape down. It was dark so I used my phone to light up the way and there were a ton of obstacles in the way which made it very difficult for me to go down. Who can I call to complain to so they can come and check our buildings fire safety? I am sure it’s illegal to fill up the fire escapes with garbage. Below are some pictures I took with my iPhone of the fire in our office building.

Update2: Sorry just proof read what I wrote and noticed a bunch of spelling mistakes and grammar errors. Didn’t have time to do that earlier. Also the fire turned out to be on the 5th floor not 6th.

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

I would first like to apologize for my long absence from the world of blogging and greatly appreciate all my supporting readers for being patient and understanding. Moreover, I’d also like to send my sincerest apologies to those of you who have emailed me but haven’t recieved a reply. I’d like to thank you all for putting up with my crap and style of writing, which by-the-way will only get worse. I’ve stated this a million times. If you’re not cool with my writing nature, then don’t read me. I should warn you, though; you’re going to miss out on some epic nutrition advice.

Before I begin preaching, I’d like to clarify how this guide will work:

1) I’ll list down all the basics of Ramadan eating and training to provide a brief understanding for the readers.

2) The reader will then post his/her goal, physical stats (height, weight, bf % if available) and Ramadan lifestyle (exercise timing, family gatherings, favorite/worst foods, etc).

3) I will then reply with a customized optimal plan for that reader’s goal

4) Other readers/haters who are too lazy to comment/hate can read/[go-kill-themselves] the Q&A’s below so that they may personally implement on their own.

The Q&A below will serve as a guide to unanswered questions anyone might have about Ramadan. Please refrain from emailing me since the goal of this post is to publicly educate through the written facts/opinions/experiences and the associated comments.

Credibility and Experience

It took me around 3 Ramadans to fully understand how my body works when it comes to losing fat and maintaining muscle when fasting. From eating small portions of food to indulging in every calorie dense food item, I’ve realized the only way to survive Ramadan is by doing the exact same thing.

1^st Attempt: I dieted in Ramadan, performing 30-60 minutes of cardio 2 hours prior to breaking my fast, and weight lifting 1 hour after a light futoor, followed by a light dinner and a light suhoor.

Result: Managed to lose 10kg in 1 month.

Damage: Managed to lose a lot of my hard earned muscle. Fail.

2^nd Attempt: I gorged on endless calories, weight-lifted with less intensity and did absolutely no cardio.

Result: Gained 5kg.

Damage: 5kg of fat; but I kept my muscle. Epic fail.

3^rd Attempt: Dieted 3 months prior to Ramadan (low calorie intake, 60 minutes of cardio, 30-45 minutes of weight-lifting). Stuck to the same level of calorie intake and workout-intensity in Ramadan, eliminated cardio completely.

Result: Nothing. Kept my muscle, maintained my superb condition.

Damage: Refer to the above. Boo-Yeah.

I got a forward in my email today that contained a picture I had taken at the Kuwait Airport back in 2005 (pictured above). I had spotted a sign that had been placed in front of a security camera and thought that was pretty stupid and took a picture of it. Now 5 years later, it’s become one of those “epic fail” kind of pictures that gets forwarded around. Pretty cool. [Link]

Ok so he got the Uruguay vs Germany game wrong but even psychic goats make mistakes (blame it on the humidity). For the final game he’s predicting Spain will win over Netherlands. [YouTube]

A reader sent me this article that appeared in The Guardian a few days ago about the state of Football in Kuwait and the UAE. The article talks about Kuwait’s football achievements in the 80s and the demise of it today.

While middle-aged Kuwaiti men are genuinely proud of the football team their country produced in the 1980s – champions of Asia in 1980, World Cup qualifiers in 1982 and Gulf Cup winners in 1982 and 1986 – the same cannot be said of the current crop of players. Dubbed the “gel team”, these shebab (young men) have been branded prima donnas by the older generation, more concerned with applying gel to their intricately styled coiffures and handing out their phone numbers to doe-eyed female admirers than with training and winning.

The article starts off with the question, “Is it because family riches spoil potential players that these countries’ sporting glories lie in the past?”. Personally I have no idea why football in Kuwait today is not as good as it was in the 80’s and early 90’s, but maybe someone else can answer that question. [Article]

Thanks Pureorama

My favorite mountain bike brand is Cannondale and I’ve posted about the local Cannondale dealer a few times including on my Miskan blog 5 years ago. Thing is since I first got my bike in the winter of 2004 until now the dealer really hasn’t expanded, improved or changed in any way. It’s very sad and not sure why specially since more people bike today than they did 5 years ago. Maybe the dealer doesn’t care about the brand anymore but it’s very disappointing. I passed by yesterday to get my bike and Nat’s serviced and they didn’t even have transmission cables available. Luckily GoSport has a good collection of Shimano bike parts and so was able to pick up some cables from there and dropped them off to the dealer. The dealer doesn’t have many Cannondale bikes for sale as well, they had only 2 models available. I guess thats a good thing since if I did see a bike I liked I might have ended up buying it.

On the bright side I’m glad that GoSport carry a good collection of bike accessories and parts. Nothing hard core like Fox shocks or disc brakes upgrade kits but still a lot better than nothing. For everything else there is Amazon.

The update for the Kuwait Blogs App is now available in the store. If it isn’t there yet give it a few hours while all the App stores world wide sync. Anyway it fixes the incompatibility issues with iOS4 and I’ve also added the Some Contrast blog back. Now someone this morning made me aware of the fact that the Some Contrast blog was actually loading the feeds of Tidbit Du Jour in the updated App. That’s my mistake, I was in such a rush to get out the update I didn’t test the App and this mix up slipped by. So, I just submitted update 1.21 which fixes their feed. That should be available sometime end of this week. [Link to App Store]

I found this local website by mistake and I’m actually impressed. Not at the design or anything like that but on the items that are listed… luxury watches! There seems to be a good range but I am struggling to find out whats used, whats new, whats from the local dealers and what’s gray market. I am guessing the Rolex Deep Sea for example is used since it’s listed for KD2,250 while it retails for KD3,250 locally before discount. They have the Audemars Piguet Offshore Diver listed for KD4,250 but it retails for KD4,500 at the dealer although they’re out of stock. The Panerai section is beautiful, they’ve got my favorite which is the very limited PAM 26. The Hublot section… lets not even go there. Basically I would have to agree with their tag line, it has to be Kuwait’s premier luxury site since I am not aware of any other one. [Link]

For those of you who’ve updated to iOS4 and noticed problems with the Kuwait Blogs App like the back button missing I am working on the fix right now. I should have checked and seen if there were any issues with the app and iOS4 earlier but I’ve been really busy. The update should be available in the app store in the next few days.

Update: Here is a quick temporary fix until the update is available in the App store. To see the back button again just click on Leave a comment at the end of the posts. Thanks Aziz for the tip.

As part of my diet I need to have grilled food for dinner and since Turkish Grill belongs to a friend of a friend, I’ve been passing by there 90% of the time for my dinner. The problem is, 100 meters down the street from Turkish Grill lies Papa John’s. It’s extremely extremely difficult to choose grilled chicken over pizza and having Papa John’s right next to Turkish Grill is proving to be a test of my will EVERY DAY!

I enjoy staring at delicious chocolate muffins in the face and saying NO! I enjoy craving a molten chocolate cake from Chili’s and resisting it. But right after the gym when I am really hungry it’s not as easy. So far from the dozens and dozens of times I’ve passed by Turkish Grill I’ve only cheated once with a medium pizza all to myself. Today I cheated although not as badly, I had tabbouleh with the dressing and I loved it. After having tabbouleh and salad this whole week without any dressing at all (something which I do not recommend anyone trying), the tabbouleh tonight was the best tabbouleh I ever had in my life. I really miss the lemon and oil dressing.

Now to make things worse I was talking to Essa from Choowy Goowy earlier and told him to send over two jars of cookies, the original and the Mark & Nat since Nataly wanted to shoot the jars for her portfolio. I told him to shove the jars with date cookies since I hate date cookies and that way I don’t end up eating them. Guess what? I got home to find two jars stuffed with freshly made original chocolate chip cookies and the Mark & Nat Oreo cookies. I just spent the past 15 minutes swearing at him on BBM. Luckily Nat has hid the jars somewhere in the house and since I just got back from the gym I am too sore and exhausted to go look for them.

Posted by Fahad AlYehya | Core Fitness – Kuwait

Did anyone ever notice how almost every aerobic/kick-boxing/gay dancing class has an instructor that’s out of shape and 20 other people that are also of round variety? I mean, how do you expect to get in shape if the instructor looks like he’s/she’s been eating sambosa for the past 20 years? To add insult to injury, the obese members are forced to perform high kicks. It’s like show girls, but with a lot less turn-on and a lot more LOL.

And what about those self-proclaimed gurus roaming around the gyms of Kuwait? I’ve researched on a couple of famous gurus to see what they were up to. One of them refuses to work with drug-free athletes; he won’t even turn to look at you if you approach him with the “I’d like to do this naturally” speech. The last guy that did ended up in the hospital urinating blood; due to 5 anabolic and androgenic compounds that he were recommended to take (this was partly the client’s fault since he didn’t know bodybuilding involves a nutritional plan and intense training). Another guy trains both naturals and chemically enhanced athletes, but fails to inform young amateurs of the consequences associated with early AAS drug use, which they subsequently fall victims too.

Awesome Super Friends
I’m here to discuss health and fitness professionals and practitioners in Kuwait who talk it and walk it. In the pursuit of spreading the influence of a healthier lifestyle, I’ll be providing information about competitors who I am more than glad to lose my business to. They all have the passion, the drive, the experience and the ability to motivate others in attaining a healthier lifestyle.

Consequently, I’m planning on crushing each and every one of them so by the time you read this, they might be dead. They also might end up in my belly. My 7% body fat belly.

As a gym owner, I constantly get asked by many people about what the right exercises are, what the right diet is and about how many freaking Pinkberry yogurts are acceptable. (Depends on what you’re trying to do; again, depends on what you want to do). Sometimes, I find I don’t have the time to answer questions in detail, and that makes me feel, as the self proclaimed Master of the Fitness Universe, like I have failed you. And I do not like to fail.

Here’s a list of people (in no particular order) you can consult about health and fitness in Kuwait, or as I like to call them, my awesome super-friends, who I don’t necessarily know personally. (You can call them people who are not quite as awesome as I am.)

The 13th International Music Festival started yesterday in Kuwait and ends on the 11th of June. The website is in Arabic so I couldn’t really understand much but it has a schedule and details of the event. If you can read Arabic here is the [Link]

I tried to use Google Translate to convert the page to English for me to read and ended up with a composer called Rashid Vegetables? Doesn’t sound quite right…

Thanks Dalal

Update: Dalal from 7achy.com was kind enough to translate the schedule, here it is:

Yesterday was Kuwaiti music night in the memory of the composer Rashed AlKhodhar, performed by:
Sahar
Mohammed AlBoloshi
Met’ab faraj
Sulaiman AlMulla

Here is the upcoming schedule:

Monday: Turkish music
Tuesday: Brazilian music
Wednesday: Egyptian music
Thursday: Russian music + Kuwaiti traditional music
Friday: Spanish music

Admission is free of charge.
Concerts start at 8:30PM and are performed at the Al Dasma Theater.

Here is the calendar for Cinemagic’s rooftop movie nights for June. This month they’ve got a wide array of thrilling, funny and chilling films. Check out the full list below:

Thursday, June 3rd at 07:00 PM
Paprika, Japan 2006
Director: Satoshi Kon
Genre: Animation | 90 min | English Subtitle
Rated: R

Saturday, June 5 at 07:00 PM
Eastern Promises, UK/Canada 2007
Director: David Cronenberg
Genre: Drama | 100 min | English Subtitle
Rated: 15

Thursday, June 10 at 07:00 PM
The Orphanage, Spain 2007
Director: Juan Antonio Bayona
Genre: Thriller | 105 min | English Subtitle
Rated: PG 13

Saturday, June 12 at 07:00 PM
Three Monkeys, Turkey 2008
Director: Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Genre: Drama | 109 min | English Subtitle
Rated: PG 15

Thursday, June 17 at 07:00 PM
Jar City, Iceland 2006
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Genre: Thriller | 93 min | English Subtitle
Rated: PG 15

Saturday, June 19 at 07:00 PM
Festen, Denmark 1998
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Genre: Drama | 105 min | English Subtitle
Rated: 15

Thursday, June 24 at 07:00 PM
Tears of the Black Tiger, Thailand 2000
Director: Wisit Sasanatieng
Genre: Action | Comedy | 110 min | English Subtitle
Rated: 15

Saturday, June 26 at 07:00 PM
The Unknown Woman, Italy 2006
Director: Guiseppe Tornatore
Genre: Drama | 118 min | English Subtitle
Rated: 15

Cinemagic movies are screened in the old Salmiya, on the roof on top of Alghanim Electronics and LG. There is a KD1 charge for the venue fees which includes refreshments, popcorn and much more. Here is a link to their facebook group [Link]

Just got back from New York earlier tonight. Nearly got a heart attack at the airport when picking up my luggage. I realized all my bags locks were missing and that my laptop which I had shoved between two pockets in one of my bags was gone. Turns out JFK security must have broken all the locks and searched through the bags because I found my laptop but it was placed in a different location. So far doesn’t look like anything is missing but that was pretty scary though.