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]
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]
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.
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.
I’ve been interested in Podcasts for the longest time but I was always hesitant to get into it because I’m more of a writer than a speaker. But then I ended up meeting some of the guys from the LuckyGG Arabic gaming podcast who encouraged me to take a chance and start my own Podcast especially since there aren’t many English podcasts about video games in this region.
I co-created the podcast with Yaqoub Al- Hussaini who is one of the hosts of LuckyGG and we’re also joined by Abdullah Boushehri also from LuckyGG. The goal of Double Jump is to discuss games we’ve been playing, news that we find interesting and regional news that we feel like our listeners would be interested in. The goal is to record an episode a week and publish it every Wednesday. These episodes will be two hours long.
I’m also planning on recording Double Jump episodes where I’m on my own and some episodes with a different co-host each week but this is still a work in progress, hopefully I’ll be able to start publishing those episodes sometimes mid-March.
We recorded and published our first episode last week and I’ve linked to it at the end of this post. We’re learning as we go and I think Yaqoub and Abdullah both did a great job especially since English isn’t their first language. I also appreciate the fact that they’re willing to go out of their comfort zone for me. I’m learning a lot after listening to just this one episode and feedback is always welcomed so feel free to leave a comment with suggestions or thoughts.
In this first episode we discuss a variety of games, mainly The Division Beta and Street Fighter V. We also discuss some major news that came out these past few weeks like the pricing of the HTC Vive. Our first episode is available everywhere!
Mercer’s 2016 Quality of Living rankings were just released and it’s not that much different from last years. Nearly everyone in the region dropped a couple of spots but Kuwait managed to move up one point to 124th place world wide. Regionally though Kuwait still trails behind UAE, Oman and Qatar.
1 – Vienna, Austria
75 – Dubai, UAE (-1)
81 – Abu Dhabi, UAE (-4)
107 – Muscat, Oman (-3)
110 – Doha, Qatar (-2)
124 – Kuwait City, Kuwait (+1)
133 – Manama, Bahrain (-3)
164 – Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (+1)
165 – Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (+1)
230 – Baghdad, Iraq
So this past Friday (February 19th) was my blogs 11 year anniversary. I published my first post here back in February 19th 2005, a really odd post which I find hilarious now since my blog has become what it is today. If I had known my blog would end up here I would have probably posted something a bit less… crude.
But, what I just realized a few moments ago is that this February also marks the 13th anniversary of my first post on my first blog ever. Back in 2003 me and a few friends launch a blog called Qhate and my first post there was published on February 6th, 2003. At that time we were the first blog based in Kuwait and unlike my early posts on 248AM, I actually enjoy reading my old stuff on Qhate. For those of you who don’t know, Qhate started off as a war blog in which we were posting about life in Kuwait during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. So reading through my old posts there just takes me back in time during the volatile period. If you’ve never gone through some of the posts there you should, it’s like an untouched time capsule. [Link]
Someone put up a petition in a bid to stop the demolition of Bayt Lothan. Not being pessimistic here but I highly doubt a petition will make a difference, I mean when they were going to demolish the original Chamber of Commerce and Industry building two years ago, there were protests and it was all over the media yet the building still got demolished in the end. But I guess it doesn’t hurt to at least try so here is the link to the petition [Link]
I’ve had my Tumi suitcase for 6 or more years now and it just won’t die. Don’t get me wrong, I love my Tumi but I’ve also had my eye on an aluminium Rimowa for sometime now. I saw a badly beat up and dented one at an airport a few years ago and even though the suitcase wasn’t in its best shape of its life, it had a lot of character and I fell in love with it right away. I decided I would get one as soon as my Tumi fell apart but that day doesn’t seem like it will be coming anytime soon.
I travel a lot and my Tumi bag (pictured above) is my favorite and primary suitcase which I take with me wherever I go. I’m not very gentle with it, I’m abusive and I really throw it about and expect it to take my shit with no questions asked. The wheels have probably taken the most amount of abuse from me and yet they’re still in perfect condition. The suitcase is bullet proof (probably literally).
After all these years of my Tumi putting up with me, I figured it was time I’d be nice to it and show my appreciation with a post on the blog. So if you’re looking for a durable travel suitcase I can’t recommend Tumi enough.
Back in August Grand Cinemas gave me a “VIP Card” that would allow me to watch an unlimited number of movies with a friend for free and for a full year. Yesterday I finally got to use the card and it reminded me on why I hadn’t used it up until now.
Very Big Shot (or Film Kteer Kbeer in Arabic) is a Lebanese film I’ve been wanting to watch for awhile now since the plot involved drugs and I had never seen a drug related Lebanese film. It also seems I’m the only one who wanted to watch it since the movie theater last night was completely empty except for me and my friend. A private viewing I guess. The film is in Arabic with English subtitles and was really fun to watch, it had violence and lots of humor throughout and it never slowed down. The acting was fantastic and the plot absurd but realistic at the same time. Even the ending was great although I’m not sure if anyone other than Lebanese would get it.
My only issue with the film was the censorship. I mean if they were only cutting kissing scenes thats fine but now they’re cutting scenes leading up to the kiss? Why? And then they’re still censoring swear words? I don’t get that and they’re not even consistent with it. Anyway, I hate watching movies locally but this one wasn’t available to torrent the last time I checked. So if you’re looking for a good foreign movie to watch definitely check this one out.
Last week I got an email from the US Embassy asking me if I would be interested in a very exclusive one-day trip onboard a U.S. Navy Aircraft Carrier, the USS Harry S. Truman. The occasion? In celebration of Kuwait’s 25th Liberation Anniversary. I replied super excited right away saying yes and then spent the whole weekend snowboarding nervously hoping I wouldn’t fall and end up breaking anything so I wouldn’t miss out on this once in a life time opportunity.
Yesterday morning I woke up at 6:30AM and got all my stuff ready so I could be at the embassy before 8:15AM which was our departure time. I originally was planning on taking my big proper camera with a few lenses but last minute decided not to. Last year I decided I was going to spend less time worrying about capturing perfect shots and instead truly take in and enjoy whatever I was experiencing without having to share it with the world. So I decided to pack my small Sony RX1 (which is a legit camera anyway), my Kindle, a battery pack for my phone, motion sickness pills and a small bottle of water.
Once everyone had arrived to the embassy we took off to the military airbase located next to Sheikh Saad Terminal. After a quick safety briefing we headed onto the runway and got ready to board the Navy C-2 Aircraft that was waiting for us on the tarmac. We put on our lifejackets, helmets, ear protectors and goggles and then started boarding the super tiny plane. We were around 10 people in total including the US Ambassador, some members from the ministry of defence and ministry of interior, as well as a few civilians which included myself. We took off from the airbase and headed towards the aircraft carrier which was located somewhere in the Gulf between Kuwait and Qatar. It took us around 35 minutes to get to it and before we landed we were told to brace ourselves because the plane would hook onto the runway we would go from 240km/h to 0 in just two seconds. Thankfully the motion sickness pills worked and the landing wasn’t too dramatic.
Once onboard the aircraft carrier thats when everything became surreal. I grew up watching Top Gun and Hot Shots and wanting to be an air force pilot. I even wore my vintage Porsche Design watch for this trip, the same watch Tom Cruise wore in Top Gun. So walking on the flight deck being saluted by the sailors as we headed into the ship felt like I was on the set of a movie.
We were greeted inside by the commander and commanding officer of the carrier along with other members of the Navy. After a bit of mingling we were geared up again and taken back to the flight deck where we would watch fighter jets take off and land from up close. What a ridiculous experience that was, I was all over the place, I wanted to snapchat, shoot video, take photos and enjoy the moment all at the same time. I was on a flight deck of a US Navy aircraft carrier watching fighter jets take off right in front of me and I wanted that moment to stay with me forever. I don’t think I’ve even taken it all in yet and its been more than 24 hours already.
After watching planes take off and land and then walk around the flight deck a bit we were taken on a tour of the bridge, command center and the hanger bay. The carrier is obviously ginormous with over 5000 people onboard and everyone always referring to it as a floating city which it really is. I usually get sea sick on boats but because the carrier is so huge it doesn’t sway in the water at all, it’s pretty much like being on island. We were pretty much allowed to walk around all the spaces we were in pretty freely without any restrictions. I was told I could take as many photos as I wanted of anything I wanted without having to worry about anything. They were extremely professional so if there were screens with any classified information on them they would just swap them with non classified information before we walked in.
During the tour I tried my best to listen to all the interesting information that was being shared to us but honestly I spent most of the time just aimlessly walking around in awe or just starring out of the window watching fighter jets take off and land or watching the rainbow warriors (aka Skittles) work on the flight deck. It was all so mesmerizing.
For the final leg of the tour we were taken to the hanger bay which is basically their underground parking and garage for the jets. I was actually really looking forward to this part of the tour since I had never seen the hanger bay neither in pictures nor on TV.
You really get an idea of how freakin’ huge this ship is when you’re in the hanger bay, not only is it large enough to park plans on the flight deck, but it’s so large that it can park planes and helicopters below deck as well. Crazy shit.
Once our tour was over we were given some souvenirs to keep and then geared up again to fly back to Kuwait. The takeoff was horrifying, crazy fucking shit and holly fuck all at the same time. Because the aircraft carrier runway is so short, all planes use a catapult system to help them hit 0 to 270km/h in just 2 seconds. To give you an idea of how crazy fucking fast that is, the rollercoaster at Ferrari World which I thought was ridiculously fast hits 240km/h in 4.9 seconds. So I’m not even sure how to describe to you the feeling of being blasted off the carrier at a beyond insane speed while sitting on seats that face the back of the plane. I was wearing earplugs as well as an over the ear hearing protector but once the catapult launches it just sounds like a rocket taking off. For the couple of seconds in which you are accelerating at full speed you’re basically in complete shock at how anything could be so violently fast. And then you hit euphoria. There is a moment when you reach the end of the runway and fly off the edge, everything suddenly goes quiet and you feel like you’re floating in your seat. I swear this must be exactly how astronauts feel when they leave earths atmosphere and reach space. What a ride, it’s killed rollercoasters for me for the rest of my life.
You know, I blog for fun and for I blog a living, and because I’ve been doing it daily and for such a long time, I don’t really appreciate the blog sometimes. It’s just something I do. Then something big like this happens and it reminds me that what I do is somewhat meaningful and it reenergizes me all over again. Over the past 11 years I’ve experienced some ridiculous shit that I wouldn’t have ever dreamed of experiencing if it wasn’t for this blog. I got to spend a day on an aircraft carrier, thats just unreal. Friday is my blogs 11 year anniversary so this was an amazing way to celebrate. Definitely a big thank you to everyone at the US Embassy for hooking me up.
