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Since summer is knocking on our doorsteps this is the perfect time to post about the Cuisinart ice cream maker I recently purchased (the Cuisinart ICE-30BC).

I’ve recently been trying out the ketogenic diet after hearing about it on one of the podcasts I listen to and the main principle of the diet is you’re not supposed to consume any sugar or any carbs but you’re supposed to have lots of fat. Avocados are one great way of introducing a lot of fat into your diet but I personally don’t like the way they taste. So I was looking for a simple keto recipe that involved avocados and I found one for an avocado chocolate chunk ice cream that sounded delicious. I had honestly been looking for an excuse to buy an ice cream maker for a while so as soon as I found the recipe I decided to get one.

I kinda already knew what I wanted a Cuisinart ice cream maker since I’m fond of the brand and I knew I had seen them in Kuwait. So I did my research and the only places that carried the ice cream maker were Lakeland, Williams-Sonoma and Tavola (the Cuisinart dealer). Williams-Sonoma only had the dual ice cream maker which I wasn’t interested in since it was too big, Lakeland had the model I wanted but they were selling it for KD42 while Tavola were selling the exact same one for KD32.350. So I ended up picking it up from Tavola and since I was already in Shuwaikh, I decided to pass by Williams-Sonoma to pick up the best ice cream scoop you can buy, the Zeroll 1020.

The way the ice cream maker works is very simple. There are two main parts, the bowl and the main unit. You take the bowl and stick it in the freezer for 12+ hours and only take it out when you want to make ice cream. When your mixture is ready and the bowl frozen, you take the bowl from the freezer and place it in the main unit. You then pour your mixed ingredients into the bowl and let the ice cream maker churn your mixture for around 20 minutes until it turns into ice cream. Thats all there is to it.

I have to say, my avocado chocolate chunk ice cream has been turning out really delicious. And because I am buying the ingredients, I can control how healthy my ice cream is and so I’m having it guilt free. At KD32 this really is a no brainer impulse buy. So if you feel like making your own ice cream this summer, get this. Here is the map to Tavola [Google Maps] and you could call them on 24825761.

With all the creative agencies available in Dubai, the Dubai based telecom operator Etisalat ended up going with a Kuwaiti one called Caviar for their latest series of commercials called “No More Drama”. You’ve probably seen some of Caviars work since they’ve done most of the NBK Ramadan commercials as well as a few old MTC (now called Zain) ones. Personally I didn’t like these Etisalat commercials but I still think its impressive how they were able to beat Dubai agencies to get this project. The video above is one of three “No More Drama” commercials, the other two are linked below.

No Drama Network – The Operator
No Drama Network – Mission Improbable

Another busy weekend and the weather looks like it will be nice and sunny. The biggest event taking place this weekend is the HVOB concert but there are a bunch of other musical events taking place as well. If you’re a car fanatic then you might want to pass by Murouj this weekend since the Gulf Run car show is taking place there. Finally on Saturday there is the charity Sport Relief Mile in the morning which should be fun, if you’re interested in participating in that don’t forget to register.

Check out the list below for this weekends events:

Thursday
Exhibition: Edge by Abdulrahim Sharif
Gulf Run Car Show
Ecco Pop Up Event
ADASA Festival
Rooftop Movie: Breathless
Concert: Dorsaf Hamdani

Friday
Gulf Run Car Show
Ecco Pop Up Event
ADASA Festival
Taichi in the Park
Red Bull Music Academy Presents Kuwait Rising
Pop Up Movie Night

Saturday
Gulf Run Car Show
Ecco Pop Up Event
ADASA Festival
Sport Relief Mile 2016
Yoga at the Park (Vinyasa Flow – Women Only)
Bait Al Arab: Kuwait State Stud
Yoga at the Park (Men & Women)
5:46 Light A Candle For Bayt Lothan
Rooftop Movie: Theeb

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 double check info with organizers.

Yesterday the Kuwait Towers officially opened to the public for the first time in over 4 years. Here is everything you need to know in case you’re planning to visit it.

Entrance Fee
There are two main areas in the Kuwait Towers, the restaurant’s sphere and the viewing sphere. If you want to go to the viewing sphere it’s KD3 per person. If you want to go to the restaurants there is no entrance fee. If you eat at the restaurant then you can go to the viewing deck for free as long as you keep your meal receipt. Children under 4 go in for free. If you’re going to the restaurants you can also park inside the Kuwait Towers parking lot.

The Viewing Sphere
This sphere is located in the top most part of the Kuwait Towers. It’s split into two floors with the top floor having a rotating platform and a small food stand. It’s open from 9AM to 11:30PM.

The view from the top is spectacular and better than before since we now have a beautiful city skyline because of all the new skyscrapers like Hamra Tower.

For a closer look, they’ve kept the original coin-operated binoculars.

The only issue I had with the viewing deck is that it smelled of popcorn because of the food stand. The food stand really should have been a Starbucks since right now it reminds me of those small dodgy food stalls located under the stairs in old Salmiya. They have drinks, a few cold sandwiches, soft serve ice cream and popcorn.

The Restaurant Sphere
There are two restaurants and a lounge in the restaurant sphere which is also divided into two floors. The first restaurant is called Horizon (pictured above) and is located on the top floor of the sphere. It’s an open buffet and they’re open from breakfast to dinner, here are the details:

Breakfast Buffet 8AM to 11:30AM for KD7.5
Lunch Buffet: 12:30PM to 4PM for KD14
Dinner Buffet: 7PM to 11:30PM for KD14

For reservations, you can contact them on 22081999 or 1806806

There is a second restaurant (pictured above) which as of this post hasn’t opened yet. Its located on the lower floor of the sphere and it’s called Le Cafe (but it’s going to be a steakhouse). It looks slightly more fancier and instead of being a buffet it will have an à la carte menu. Once it’s open the timings will be 8AM to 12AM (midnight).

Right outside the second restaurant on the lower floor is a small lounge. You can order beverages there but it’s a fairly small lounge with only three seating areas similar to the one pictured above so good luck trying to find an empty one.

Finally, if you’re taking a guest to the Kuwait Towers and they were hoping to leave with a souvenir well they’re going to be disappointed. According to an employee at the Kuwait Towers, the souvenirs shop that was originally located on the ground floor has been closed down and will be converted to a prayer room.

If you’ve never been to the Kuwait Towers I would highly recommend going. If you’ve been to it before I’d also recommend passing by just for the nostalgia. It’s still by far one of my favorite places to take visitors who come to Kuwait.

Update: I added a bit more information to the post, specifically the reservation numbers and information regarding souvenirs.

Update2: Le café Steak House doesn’t exist anymore, the restaurant is now Japanese instead and called Amimoto. The gift shop was also not converted to a prayer area, it remained a gift shop.

Incase you missed the biggest cat event in the Middle East that was held in Kuwait last month, someone uploaded a video of it onto YouTube. It’s a pretty long 18 minute video though so you probably might just want to just skim through it. [YouTube]

Update: Video is back up so reposting this.

TEDxAlShuwaikh is taking place this month on March 24th under the theme of “greater than me”. The list of speakers for this event is finally out and I’ve shared it below. If you’re interested in attending TEDx, tickets are free but you need to apply for them on the TEDx website [Here]

The Speakers:

Ali Hussain Al-Youha
Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters (NCCAL)
Ali Al Youha is the Secretary General of the National Council for Culture, Arts and Letters in Kuwait. Ali is a Kuwaiti who has invested his life and energy is promoting and highlighting art and culture, locally, regionally and globally. He believes strongly in bridging communication gaps through the promotion of cultural and media cooperation. Ali is at the helm of an ambitious cultural movement in Kuwait to create spaces for collaboration and cooperation.

Balsam AlAyoub
Social Entrepeneur
Balsam grew up in an athletic family that believed in sports as tool for self development. Balsam was a professional fencer and champion, and today has turned her energy towards being a ‘human investor’ empowering young people in the Gulf region- especially young women.

Catherine Silliman
International Relations
Catherine is an American born in New York City. She spent her childhood moving around the USA, and also lived in Vicenza, Italy while her father served as a medical doctor in the U.S. Army. Her family eventually settled in the small town of Harvard, Massachusetts. Her horizons were further expanded after she participated in a high school summer exchange program in Turkey in 1976. She studied International Relations at Tufts University, and obtained a Masters degree in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. She worked as a reporter for the Saudi newspapers Arab News and Asharq Al-Awsat. After more than 30 years with the U.S. State Department, as a diplomat and diplomatic family member, she has lived in seven predominantly Muslim countries, and is writing a book about her experiences. She and her husband have raised two remarkable young men who share an openness to learn about the world and understand global perspectives.

Fatemah AlMosawi
Sustainability, Youth Development, Growing Communities
Fatemah AlMosawi is a community investor and has earned her doctorate in the genetics of familiar intellectual disability. She grew up in London, and returned to Kuwait bringing with her a passion for connecting people to things they are passionate about. She established Spread the Passion, a non profit organization that connects volunteers to opportunities while developing their skills in serving the community. Her youth initiative entitled “Spread the Passion Ambassador” won her the first prize with the National Youth Project in 2012 and a position in the executive office where she was recruited to manage volunteers and mentor the preparatory youth council to out reach to other youth in Kuwait. She received the first class distinction medal from His Highness the Amir of Kuwait in 2014 for youth care.

Hilal Al-Sayer
President of Kuwait Red Crescent Society & Chairperson and Medical Director of and Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice
Dr. Hilal Al-Sayer is the President of Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital (KACCH) and Chairperson and Medical Director of and Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice (BACH). He is a former Minister of Health, Dean of the Medical School in Kuwait, President of the Kuwait Red Crescent Society, and Chairperson of Dasman Diabetic Institute.

Margaret Al-Sayer
Director of the Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital and Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice
Margaret Al-Sayer is the Founding Director of the Kuwait Association for the Care of Children in Hospital (KACCH) and Bayt Abdullah Children’s Hospice (BACH). She is a former biology teacher and has devoted twenty-five years to raising awareness in Kuwait and the Middle East on the necessity of developing palliative care services for children.

Last April I managed to sneak in and get some photos of the Boulevard while it was still under construction but on Thursday I was given an official tour of the project along with some new information.

A couple of months back I posted that Boulevard in Salmiya was going to be opening up in 3 months time but that is no longer the case. Originally the plan was to open the park on National Day and the rest of the project (the mall and outdoor restaurants) would open by the end of the year. Now though the plan is to have the whole project open up at the same time around Q3 or Q4 of 2016.

While touring the mall I managed to find a list of all the stores that are currently due to open at Boulevard and I’ve listed them all down below. Some interesting ones to note are Sears, Sultan Center and Jarir Bookstore. Oh and the old school Iranian restaurant Baba Taher is planning to open there as well.

Check out the full list of stores below.

A reader emailed me this morning about a place called Star Fruit that were selling Archi.duc mushrooms. I had no idea what that was but turns out its a small bucket you buy which allows you to grow your own fresh white or brown mushrooms in. I watched the video and it looked pretty cool so I asked him what Star Fruit was and turns out they’re whole sellers for exotic fruits and veggies. They mostly cater to large hotels and restaurants as well as providing Dean & Deluca with their produce.

I passed by Star Fruit in the afternoon so I could see what they had. To be clear, Star Fruit isn’t a shop but a warehouse. I originally walked into the place looking for a shop but ended up walking into a large fridge full of veggies. After asking around turns out I was supposed to head to the sales office first to get a salesman to help me.

What did they have? All the regular items you’d find at a good supermarket like kale, packaged spinach, different kinds of asparagus, lettuce, beef tomatoes etc.. But, they also had harder to find stuff like baby kiwis, white and purple carrots, yellow and purple cauliflower, seedless watermelon, seedless lime and of course the Archi.duc mushrooms which I mentioned earlier amongst other things.

If you’re into cooking and are looking for difficult to find or really good quality ingredients then this place should be of interest to you. They’re open from 5AM to 3PM and I’d recommend you bring a light jacket if you’re planning to spend time going through all their fridges. Also bring cash since their KNET machine isn’t there all the time and also bring a tote bag since they don’t have plastic bags. Here is their location on [Google Maps]

Thanks Saba

Since summer is coming and a lot of people will be trying to lose weight for beach season, I figured it would be the perfect time to post about this subject. I recently started a Ketogenic diet and wanted to measure my body fat so I could compare it again a few months down the line and the most accurate way to get your body fat measured is with a Bod Pod.

A couple of years back I posted briefly about the Bod Pod when I passed by the then recently opened SPARK Athletic Center. The Bod Pod is much more accurate than biolectric anaylysis (the paddles you hold while standing on a scale) and much more accurate than skinfold calipers which a lot of people seem to think is very accurate. Recently I was made aware by a reader of a small nutrition center in Shaab that also has a Bod Pod and the best part is, it’s available for both men and women.

The picture on top is of the Bod Pod, you basically sit in it for a few seconds while the machine uses air pressure to calculate everything. Some of the information the Bod Pod will be able to provide you with is your body fat percentage, your fat mass, your lung capacity and your resting metabolic rate.

The whole process takes a few minutes and you could be in and out of there in less than 30 minutes. The cost of getting your measurements taken is KD20. If you’re interested the place is called Your Choice and they’re located next to where Edo used to in Shaab (Same building as Ryoog). You need to call for an appointment on 22621117 and here is the location on [Google Maps]

Henley & Partners released their Visa Restrictions Index for 2016 and the list hasn’t really changed much from last year with Kuwait still trailing behind UAE as the second best Arab passport with visa free access to 82 countries. Here are some highlights:

1 – Germany (177)
6 – Canada (172)
38 – United Arab Emirates (122)
57 – Kuwait (82)
60 – Qatar (79)
65 – Bahrain (73)
67 – Oman (71)
69 – Saudi Arabia (69)
85 – India (52)
88 – Egypt (49)
90 – Jordan (47)
96 – Lebanon (39)
104 – Afghanistan (25)

So glad I have the Canadian passport and not the Lebanese one! If you want to see how powerful your passport is, check out the full list [Here]

via Exotic Kuwait

It’s been just over two weeks since I started looking for a classic Datsun Z and what an experience it has been. I’ve been mostly using the 4Sale app to find a car and I’ve noticed a few things in common between all the sellers:

– None speak english no matter how basic I kept my language as you can see above. So, I resorted to installing the Arabic keyboard on my phone and with the help of Google Translate communicate with them. In the end I realized it’s just easier to call them since I talk better than I write Arabic.

– All the Z sellers I called up (and by all I mean ALL) had the Koran play when you called them up instead of the usual dial tone

– They all lived in areas I had never really been to like Omairiya, Dahar, Qurain etc..

Qurain is one of the areas I went to twice, first time to meet an owner of one of the cars I wanted to check out and the second time to the used car lots in “Aswaq Qurain”. Those car lots had a bunch of interesting cars for sale from the latest Range Rovers and Ferraris to classic 70s Porsches and 60s Stingray.

While there I spotted a like new condition red 1983 Datsun 280z with only 52km on the clock which is basically 0 mileage (pictured above). The price? KD7,000 which honestly isn’t THAT expensive for what is essentially a brand new car from the 80s.

But while I was originally looking for an 80s Z, during my search I started falling in love with the older 70s Z. The simple wooden steering wheel by itself was enough of a reason but combined with the much simpler interior with less electronics and what I now think is a nicer exterior, I knew thats what I wanted. But they’re also harder to find, I just found 4 over the past two weeks and neither one of them were in great condition with all needing a lot of work. I was actually pulling the trigger on the silver blue one pictured on top of this post but backed out an hour before I finalized the paperwork because I realized it would need a lot more work (aka $$$$) than I was willing to put into it.

So right now I’m going to continue looking for the perfect Z. I’ve heard their prices are going to increase since they recently allegedly got banned from being imported into Kuwait because of the shenanigans involved with the cars. But hopefully I’ll end up finding what I’m looking for.

I don’t post about food as much anymore since there rarely is anything that really sticks out for me but this caught my attention. The Fat Duck is a newly opened restaurant that makes one dish, Peking Duck. They don’t have dine in just delivery and they literally just have one dish which is pictured above.

Their speciality is Peking duck that comes along with its condiments including pancake bread, sliced cucumber, onions, hoisin sauce, a vegetable salad and spring rolls. The meal is enough for 5 people and costs KD30.

I haven’t tried them since I’m not a big duck fan but if you’re interested, check out their instagram account @thefatduck.kw

Update: There is another account that also just serves duck and for a more accessible price of KD15. Check it out @quack.kw

For many years we’ve heard our parents tell us to have our breakfast, because breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Don’t have dinner and sleep, you’ll get fat! Are all these claims really true? Well, that’s the beauty of research and science – we come to new conclusions everyday! The current research shows that when you choose to have your meals is not really correlated with your weight. I found that to be quite interesting because I, for one, hate having food when I wake up and could usually satisfy any hunger I may have with a coffee and banana.

So, you’re probably thinking what nutrient timing is really about? The idea really started with athletes and body builders to be more specific. Nutrient timing mostly referred to the anabolic window also known as the 15-30 minutes post workout where one could load on carbs and protein to replenish their muscle stores. Research has later on shown that we do not all need to be consuming a high carb high protein meal post workout to replenish our stores within 15-30 minutes, and we can actually do it within an hour or more. Again, this is RESEARCH and research is ongoing. As for consuming a meal before working out, that is only necessary depending on the intensity of your workout. Many research papers have shown that exercising in a semi-fasted state can actually help burn more fat. Again, timing your meals will all depend on what your goals are.

Let’s take a look at breakfast. Have people that changed their habits and consumed breakfast lost weight in comparison to those that opt not to have breakfast? The quick answer is it depends. The idea behind having a meal “breakfast” before lunch is to be able to better control your portion at lunch. If I choose to not have breakfast then by the time lunchtime comes around I will probably overeat and/or make wrong dietary choices. If you are not used to having a meal for breakfast and can somewhat control your hunger by lunchtime then having breakfast may lead to an over consumption of calories. Therefore you might not necessarily lose weight.

As for having dinner before going to sleep, no science has shown that it can lead to weight gain. While completely eliminating carbs at dinner or night time has not been associated with significant weight loss either. On the contrary, some research has shown that consuming carbs can actually help with relaxation and the release of serotonin at night.

So you’re probably thinking what could we further do to enhance our lifestyle and lose some weight? It all boils down to the number of calories you eat! Of course quality is important, but when it comes to weight control specifically, it doesn’t really matter when you have certain foods. As long as you stay within a certain caloric requirement for weight loss (food in is less than energy burnt) then you’ll be losing weight. Now, to stay on track and avoid falling of the bandwagon, it is important that you focus on whole grains and lean protein as well has healthy fats with lots of fruits and veggies to stay full all day! It’s not when you eat your food, it’s how much you choose to eat that will really make an impact.

Post by Hyatt Al Sayegh, a Clinical Dietitian and Dr. Sears Health Coach.
Founder of Fork Fed.

Image Source

The Red Bull Music Academy finally released their list of musicians who will be performing at the Kuwait Rising music festival next month and one of the artists coming will be HVOB. I got to watch them perform live in Beirut around 2 years back and they put on a great show so it’s pretty cool that they’re coming to Kuwait. Actually, just an odd tidbit, remember last week in my Tumi bag review I posted about seeing a beat up and dented aluminium Rimowa at an airport once and falling in love with it? Well that suitcase actually belonged to one of the band members of HVOB who I ended up running into at the airport the day after their performance. So pretty weird coincidence considering I posted that last week and now this. Details on the event are still being fizzled out but for now you can check out the latest info [Here]

Last week I had a disaster of an experience with Aramex since they had misplaced a package of mine. What actually pissed me off was the lack of transparency from their support team. My package was coming from Germany and like all Shop & Ship packages stop in Bahrain before heading to Kuwait. On February 13th my package left Bahrain and after no updates for a few days I decided to contact support via their live chat. According to Aramex, my package was clearing customs, no biggie so I continued to wait. By February 21st, over a week after my package left Bahrain my tracking number had still not been updated. So I contacted support again and they told me they’ll check on my package and have someone call me.

Since I was frustrated, I decided to vent my frustration to Aramex on their twitter account. They replied back telling me they had checked on my package and it was currently clearing customs. That didn’t help with my frustration since my package was just a pair of sneakers and I didn’t know why it needed 8 days to clear. Since it wasn’t urgent though I was like whatever. Then, a few minutes later I get a call from Aramex telling me that they can’t find my package and they needed a few days to try and figure out where it was. I was like WTF? You guys just told me on twitter that my package was in customs. The guy over the phone told me the people managing the twitter account didn’t have access to check my package status.

So I went back on twitter now noticeably upset since I couldn’t understand why they would tell me my package was in customs while I was also being told my package was lost. In the end though it looked like the twitter account people were right while the person that called me was wrong since my package ended up getting it’s status updated then then delivered the following day.

For some reason, Aramex have recently turned into a big mess and I just wish they were more transparent. Things happen and consumers are mostly understanding. When my internet connection at home is down, first thing I do when I call support up is ask them if the problem is from their side or mine. If they’re facing issues I just reply telling them ok just wanted to check and then hang up. If my package usually takes 3 days from Bahrain to arrive to my door in Kuwait and now suddenly it’s been 8 days and my package was still not delivered, something is clearly wrong so fill me in and don’t act like it’s business as usual. If you’re having issues with flights from Bahrain, local customs officials being lazy or whatever the reason, I’d like to know so I can be understanding.

In any case the reason I wanted to post about Aramex in the first place is that we can now finally pay online with Knet. You’d think this would have been their first feature on their website but up until now we could only pay by credit card or PayPal. Knet obviously makes things a lot more convenient.