There is this little Korean store located in my building that I am in love with. They sadly don’t sell anything I could buy but I love visiting it every now and then just because it’s such a weird experience being inside. The store mostly sells headbands and hair bows and god damn they have so many packed into such a tiny store. All the items are imported directly from Korea and there is a very quiet Korean lady who runs the store and is usually sitting hidden behind the counter. I think all these hanging headbands sound proof the store because once you walk inside it becomes eerily quiet.
I’ve never seen any customer in the store so I have no idea if business is good or not but they’ve been open for a long time now so they must be doing ok I guess. If you’re interested in checking it out, the store is located on the Mezzanine floor of Anjari Complex in the old Salmiya. Once you go up the escalator the shop is located on the right hand side.
China Kitchen is another Chinese restaurant recommended by my readers to try out. They had an outdoor seating area and since the weather was good thats where I ended up sitting. When I got the menu I found it slightly confusing at first because they have the meats and sauces separate. So instead of having a chicken section with all the chicken dishes under it, they have a “Meats” section where you choose for example either chicken, beef, crab, prawns etc.. and then they have a “Sauces” section where you can choose the sauce you want like sweet & sour chicken, Mongolian, Schezwan, Manchurian etc.. I personally prefer it the old fashioned way.
We ended up ordering the following:
Chicken Spring Rolls KD1.000
Wanton Soup KD1.000
Crab Corn Soup KD1.000
Shrimp on Toast KD3.000
Shrimp Dumplings KD3.000
Vegetable Fried Rice KD1.250
Sweet & Sour Chicken KD2.250
Kindo Chicken KD2.250
Beef with Mushroom & Bamboo Shoots KD2.750
My friend had the Wanton Soup and liked it, I had the Crab Corn Soup and didn’t think much of it but that’s because I compare all Crab Soups to the one I have at Caesars and no one seems to do it better than them. The Spring Rolls were boring but the Shrimp on Toast was pretty good especially since they give you three different sauces for it. The Shrimp Dumplings were ok as well but what really stood out for me were the main courses. Both the Sweet & Sour Chicken and the Kindo Chicken were probably the best I’ve had. They were full of flavor and really really delicious. The Beef with Mushroom & Bamboo Shoots I didn’t like at all but I didn’t really care since I was more than satisfied with the two chicken dishes.
The service was good and friendly and I really liked the fact they had outdoor seating. I do think their shrimp dishes were a bit on the pricey side but everything else was priced reasonably. I’d definitely go back there again just for the Sweet & Sour and Kindo Chicken.
China Kitchen is located in Salmiya and their phone number is 25738756. Here is their location on [Google Maps]
Fitness First, the largest privately owned health club group in the world is opening soon at 360 Mall. They have another branch that supposed to open in Salmiya near my place but I guess the 360 Mall location is going to be their first.
Last week we were called out to the Chevron camp at Al Zour to help with a turtle found on the beach. A resident had found the turtle exhausted on the beach with fishing string wrapped around its flipper. We arrived very quickly as we had been working in the Chevron area all day. Since we have no experience with sea turtles, we went to the experts. First we paid a visit to Dr. Jill at Royal Animal Hospital. She gave the turtle a good prognosis since there was good movement, nothing broken, and just some minor bruising and swelling. An injection of antibiotics and a topical antibiotic were the only treatments and we were out the door in 20 minutes headed to our final stop: the Scientific Center in Salmiya. Those folks were amazing. They opened their doors late, took the turtle in, and gave me a behind the scenes tour of their tanks. They have an entire area dedicated to rehabilitation. The last clip in the video is from their green turtle rehab tank where you can see several healthy turtles ready for release. The Scientific Center will be doing all of the really hard work on this one. We are just happy we could help. Many thanks to everyone involved in helping this turtle get a new lease on life.
As always, please ‘like’ our Facebook page. Our sponsors want to see the support of our community. Your ‘likes’ save lives.
Post by John Peaveler Managing Director
Kuwait Society for the Protection of Animals and Their Habitat (K’S PATH)
Around a two weeks back Nat wanted us to go wakeboarding so I did a bit of research and found a group called Q8 Balance. For a fixed hourly rate they provide you with the gear, wakeboards and most importantly a boat. I ended up booking an hour for Nat and I this past Thursday but I ended up going alone since she got caught up with some work.
Balance do all their wakeboarding in Sabah Al-Ahmad Sea City down south since the water over there in the channels is very still. I hadn’t been there before just seen the Discovery Channel documentary on it but now that I’ve been there I’m definitely going back in the middle of the week to swim and chill out on the sand. It’s like virgin beaches all around with no trash and extremely clean water. I loved the place.
Balance sent me a map to the location of where they will be waiting for me. It took around 50 minutes from Salmiya to that location without any traffic. It’s pretty far. Once I got to the beach they picked me up and started explaining to me how everything will work since I hadn’t wakeboarded before (I’m not a sea person). They were very friendly and explained everything very clearly. I strapped on the gear and jumped in the water and the session began. Honestly for the first 15 minutes I didn’t think I’d ever be able to wakeboard since I kept falling down and drinking so much sea water. It was horrible but then gradually my body got used to it and I was finally able to stand and wakeboard. It’s really harder than it looks.
The guys were super friendly and helpful and I really had a lot of fun. The only downside really is the price. It’s KD35 an hour which isn’t so bad if you split it up between two or three people but since I did it alone it was a big chunk to pay. They’re also pretty popular so you’ve got to book ahead of time which means no spontaneous outings, you need to book a week or more in advance in most cases. I was actually considering not posting about them since I didn’t want to end up having trouble finding an empty time slot with them. If you’re interested in wakeboarding with Q8 Balance you can visit their website [Here] or their Facebook page [Here]
Doss and I love Kuwait. So to show our appreciation for a place that has opened up so many opportunities for us we decided to make Kuwait his dance floor. We hit Mahboula, Fintas, Hawalli, Salmiya and Shaab. So enjoy and a big thanks to you all of our friends and fans! tjcfilms.com
I had lunch with two high school friends today, one of which I hadn’t seen in 16 years. We were mostly reminiscing about the past and how lame everything was for us back then. Those of you in high school today don’t realize how lucky you are compared to us kids who grew up in Kuwait back in the old days. I graduated in 1996 and back then we didn’t have any malls or restaurant chains or anything like that. For entertainment we just had a few options.
The only mall in Salmiya was Laila Gallery but we weren’t allowed in on weekends since it was families only. That was pretty common back in the day.
Even Sultan Center wouldn’t let guys in alone on weekends. It was really embarrassing. Until today whenever I go to the Sultan Center in Salmiya and I see a security guy standing outside I wonder if he’s going to let me or not.
There was a cool Hardees where Starbucks is right now in front of Al Fanar. But then they demolished it.
The ice skating rink was pretty decent in the early 90s but started going downhill after that.
Fuddruckers was like the only restaurant open on the Gulf Road back then. The place used to get crazy packed and at one point was the coolest place to be.
Then Johnny Rockets in Salmiya opened and a lot of the crowd shifted there. Johnny used to get super packed as well but most of us would go and occupy a whole table and just order one tea or one shake. So, they introduced a minimum order charge of like KD1.5 per person so everyone shifted outside Johnny to the sidewalk corner and I never saw Johnny that packed again.
Oddly that sidewalk corner became a hot spot where everyone went to meet up with other friends. It used to get pretty crowded so the cops stopped allowing us to hang out there.
McDonalds opened at around the same time over Johnny so some people started hanging out there instead.
But mostly, we just hung out at each others houses listening to music and talking. Every now and then there was a house party but really that was it.
Kinda miss the simplicity of those days now that I think about it. No cellphone, no internet, no car and just enough money to make the difficult but important decision of buying a music tape from The Video Club or having dinner.
Kuwaits first MMA and K1 event will be taking place next month at Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref. The event will be organized by the kuwait kickboxing committee and tickets are currently on sale.
There will also be a superfight between Ray Elbe and Ahmed Aly. Ray was an Ultimate Fighter contestant and has a Jiujitsu black belt. He will be representing Combat Athletics, a new MMA focused gym that will be opening in Kuwait soon. On the other hand Ahmed fought in Cage Warriors and won a bronze medal in the World Combat Championship. Here are the details for the event:
Gladiator Fighting Championship
Date: September 30,2012
Location: Kuwait International Fairground in Mishref
Ticket available at the following outlets:
Health Fitness & Weight Loss
Tel 55329494
Wawan Protein Co
Salmiya behind Wataniya Complex
Tel 99239555
Jacket Potato Restaurant
Hawalli, Al-Mothnna Street opposite College of Commercial Studies
Tel 22650509
For more information you can visit the Kuwait Kickboxing Committee’s website [Here]
Update: Turns out this is NOT the first MMA event, check this [Post]
A few digitized 8mm clips taken in Kuwait back in the 70s. Not too exciting and the music is annoying but there is one scene where for a split second you can see the Al-Salam building in Salmiya (the circle green building that got demolished) while it was still under construction. There are also shots of some parks, a parade and random streets. [YouTube]
When I needed some grappling gloves I ended up ordering a pair online since I couldn’t find any locally. Go Sport used to carry the Venom brand but they ran out of stock ages ago and never restocked. Then Nat needed a pair of combat gloves and a friend of hers recommended Sportsline in Salmiya. I hadn’t heard of the place before but turns out they have a huge collection of training gloves.
They mostly carry gloves from the Everlast brand including grappling, training and boxing gloves as well as face protection and hand wraps. One wall in their store is just filled with different kinds of Everlast gear all organized very nicely.
They also have a good collection of boxing bags and gear from the Samurai brand.
Price wise I found them more expensive than Amazon even when including shipping. But if don’t want the hassle of ordering online then this is a good alternative. They’re located in the basement of Al Wataniya Complex in Salmiya. That’s the same building that has the bank CBK, right across the street from NBK and Eureka.
I passed by Bang & Olufsen recently to check out their computer speakers and although I didn’t end up getting anything I always love checking out their stuff.
They had the Beolit 12 (pictured above) which is their Airplay compatible portable music system. Design wise it looks very sharp and if I didn’t already have the BeoPlay A8 I would have considered getting this. Price wise it’s selling for KD250 which is very reasonable for a B&O product.
When it came to computer speakers they had two models available. The first I saw were the BeoLab 4 (pictured above). These speakers look very cool but at KD325 they were a lot more than what I wanted to pay.
They also had the BeoLab 3 on display which looked even cooler than the BeoLab 4 but these also cost nearly four times more coming in at over a thousand Dinars so I didn’t even consider them.
If you’re interested in passing by their store they located in Symphony Mall next to Missoni Hotel in Salmiya. They haven’t launched the new store officially but the shop is open if you want to pass by.
I passed by KIPCO Tower (formally known as United Tower) which is located on the same street as Al Hamra Tower and Arraya. The tower looks pretty cool and the mall inside although not big is very bright and nicely designed.
It’s not officially open yet but I did walk around just to see what kind of shops are opening up there and I’ve put together a list which you can see below. Majority of them seem to be restaurants:
Upper Crust Pizza
MEZO (a cafe or restaurant)
Cafe November
Dijon (a restaurant)
Bubbleology Tea (UK franchise)
Alpha Wellness (some kind of spa I’m guessing)
Johnny Rockets
KFH
With three malls on that short strip it’s starting to look like Salmiya… which I don’t mind of course. The tower was originally supposed to have residential space but I’m not sure if that happened.
Lulu are opening a new location in Dajeej Farwaniya right next to Sears. From the outside the location looks pretty huge although I’m not sure if it’s going to end up being their largest branch in Kuwait. What I like about the location though is that it’s closer to Salmiya than their Al Qurain branch which is currently my favorite. This would be their fourth location in Kuwait and according to a worker I spotted on site they should be opening right after Ramadan.
I passed by Symphony Mall to check out the new Bang & Olufsen store but found it closed so I decided to wonder around the mall to check out what other stores are open. The whole mall is pretty much vacant except for a new store in the basement called Destination XL. It’s a big and tall men’s store that opened up just two weeks back.
The place from the inside looks pretty nice with the layout looking very similar to a men’s section in a large department store like Macy’s. I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the inside but I spotted brands like Lacoste, Polo Ralph Lauren, Joseph Abboud and Calven Klein among others.
It’s too bad the store is just for the big and tall since I liked the fact they carried a bunch of brands all in one place. Symphony Mall is located in Salmiya right next to Missoni Hotel opposite American University of Kuwait. The entrance is from the back side and the mall looks like it’s still under construction but DXL are open in the basement.
