Search: “sti”

Backburner the coffeeshop quietly opened a new location last week in the old-school neighborhood of Souq Altujjar (the old traders market) across from the Grand Mosque and Seif Palace.

What’s very interesting about this location is they have a nostalgia room on their second floor. The room has shelves filled with a variety of old items from our childhood, some from the 80s, some much older. They have a Hungry Bunny section, a small Showbiz section, Sakhr (MSX), Ifta7 Ya Simsim and more items all from our past and all on display.

I actually sold them one of my very clean and copies of the 1955 Violet Dickson book “The Wild Flowers of Kuwait and Bahrain”. It’s a very rare book so if you’ve wanted to check it out, this is your chance.

If you want to check it out they open daily from 7AM to 10:30PM, and they’re located next to the Seif Palace roundabout in Block 4 of Souq Altujjar, the same block that has Starbucks. Google Maps

This is something I never thought I’d write about, Kuwait’s National Ski Team. Over the past few weeks, Kuwaiti athletes have been participating in competitions organized by the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS) and Ski Dubai.

Four Kuwaiti athletes took part in various competitions:

Salman Alkandari
Abdulwahab Almaatouq
Faris Alobaid
Abdulrahman Alwahibi

The journey to get to this point took Faris Alobaid (@therealcurator) nearly 5 years of intense lobbying to make it happen. The team eventually became fully affiliated with “Kuwait Winter Sports Club” which is how they were able to get an FIS seat and become the first athletes to compete under the Kuwait National Ski Team banner.

The athletes are now planning to compete extensively during the winter seasons to rack up as many points as possible with the aim to qualify Kuwait to enter the Winter Olympics 2026.

Training is going to be challenge for obvious reasons. To compete at an international level requires a lot of investment, correct gear and training, which they had none of. They just winged it with their own equipment because it was a last minute thing and they needed to desperately start collecting points.

Now that they’re back in Kuwait after taking part in the competitions, the ski team is hoping to get more financial and moral support from the Kuwait Olympic Committee.

They also want to start rallying the private and government sector to financially invest in winter sports to help put Kuwait on the international map. Both UAE and Saudi Arabia have made skiing a national priority by investing heavily in the sport. Saudi Arabia, for example, is set to host the 2029 Asian Winter Games in NEOM.

Most importantly though, the ski team right now needs investment in gear and the hiring of a coach. They really want to pave the way and inspire the next generation of Kuwaiti male and female skiers.

To stay updated on their progress and other winter teams and athletes, follow @kuwait_wgc and @fahad_alajmi_10

Below are some events taking place this weekend, as usual, let me know if I missed anything:

Thursday, November 9
Flare Fitness Festival 2023
ArtnDine x Barba
AIU Film Festival 2023

Friday, November 10
Flare Fitness Festival 2023
Story Telling with Mansoor AlMansoor
AIU Film Festival 2023

Saturday, November 11
Flare Fitness Festival 2023
RunKuwait 2023
Coming Renaissance Art Experience
Sadu House Guided Tour
Grand Mosque Tour
AIU Film Festival 2023

Exhibitions
Arabia Felix and Rome
Palestine Art Stands
The Eye of The Sky Drone Photography Exhibition
SIF, An Introduction by Mohammad Kassem

Cantina is a new restaurant that I’ve been looking forward to opening for a while now. It’s for Chef Basmah Marouf (@chefbasmah) who I’ve known since she got back to Kuwait from culinary school and was part of the Madison & Heig launch team. I’ve been a fan of her food and flavor profile ever since, and she’s now opening her own restaurant which she’s calling Cantina.

Cantina is a Mediterranean restaurant with heavy Italian influence. I first got to try a few items a couple of weeks ago when I passed by to see the progress of the space, and then last night I was invited along with some other close friends for a private tasting. Firstly, the space looks amazing, it has a very ‘Mad Men’ feel without being too retro. I love the colors used and I love the cafe curtains all around that help cozy up the place.

I got to try a lot of different things, but I already have my favorites. For starters, I highly recommend the ‘Whipped ricotta with crispy pasta sheets’ and the ‘Sea bass carpaccio with chili and coriander.’ For the main course, my favs were the ‘Chicken Milanese with preserved lemon aioli and radicchio salad’ and the ‘Ricotta Ravioli.’ The Ricotta Ravioli I first tried a couple of weeks ago when I passed by, and since then it’s become my favorite dish in life right at this moment. I’d go back just for this dish over and over again.

Basmah is set to launch Cantina next week and is currently accepting bookings, but due to limited staff, the seating capacity initially will be very limited. Cantina is located inside the new Lot90 complex in Shuwaikh which is right behind the restaurants Cure and Ovo. If you want to book a table, you need to DM her @cantina.kw

So it’s been around 1 year since I launched the @248am Instagram account, and I kinda wanted to do a year in review post. In summary, it’s been a pretty intense experience but one that I’m starting to enjoy a lot more.

First some interesting stats…

Posts with the highest number of likes
Photos from the 1976 National Day Parade – 9,280 Likes
Chipotle if Officially Coming to Kuwait – 6,414 Likes
New English School Photos 1974 – 5,093 Likes
1973 Fashion Shoot Around Kuwait – 5,020 Likes
The Sadu Brick Road – 3,791 Likes

Posts with the highest number of comments
How to Watch Barbie if you’re in Kuwait – 356 Comments
Chipotle if Officially Coming to Kuwait – 248 Comments
694KD for a T-shirt? – 234 Comments
Nando’s is Coming to Kuwait – 172 Comments
Do you Remember this Tree? – 170 Comments

Clearly people care a lot about food and nostalgia. Even though I know that, I actually do try to limit those number of posts since in the end, I don’t want to be categorized as a food blogger, nor do I want to turn into one of those accounts that just posts nostalgic content.

Posts that go viral are also a love and hate thing with me. I love it when my posts get attention, but I dislike some of the attention it brings. Posts that go viral tend to attract all sorts of random people and that mostly gets reflected in the comments section. I read and moderate my comments section, but trying to moderate a post that’s gone viral is not easy, especially since Instagrams comment management system isn’t great. Also those posts tend to attract a lot more non-English speakers who end up skipping my caption and then leave comments in Arabic which I have to try and read or translate to English to understand.

Oh, and I still have no idea what goes viral and what doesn’t. Whenever I think I’ve figured it out I get proven wrong. I’ve had posts I thought would blow up but nobody ended up caring for, then I had random posts like my Meteor Showers post that went viral for some reason with over 2,800 likes. That post going viral actually gave me anxiety because a meteor shower isn’t something I could control and I felt like it had to perform or else a lot of people would have been let down.

Generally though a year later I’m much more relaxed and comfortable with instagram and I’m starting to enjoy it more.

Financially the Instagram account has been great for me. I mark all my ads as a “Paid Promotion” and I also include the “Promoted” word in my post icon. I wasn’t sure how advertisers or readers would feel about this when I started, thankfully it’s been a positive experience from both sides. I think readers appreciate the fact that I’m not passing ads off as my real opinion which is what 99.9% of local influencers seem to do. On the other hand, advertisers have been supportive of this as well with only one that decided not to advertise with me because I wouldn’t agree to not mark the post as paid for.

So yeah that’s pretty much it, 1 year on instagram summarized.

Every Monday and Tuesday the Kuwait Motor Town racetrack is open to cyclist and it’s free.

The track is 5.6KM long but has 3 different configurations, each a different length so you can pick and choose which part of the track you want to ride on. The track isn’t flat but has uphills and downhills which makes for a more interesting ride (my Apple Watch recorded 14m of elevation).

I got there yesterday while the sun was setting, and it was such a chill experience riding around the track. Because the track is far off the main road and not surrounded by anything, it was very quiet with only my own bike making any sounds. There were less than a dozen other riders when I was there so the track was empty. But even if there were 30 or 40 riders, it would still feel empty because it’s such a large racetrack.

Riding around without having to worry about potholes, curbs or cars running you off the road is very calming especially with the beautiful backdrop of the sunset. Once the sun disappears the track lights come on for nighttime riding and that’s a completely different experience as well.

If you want to try riding at the track, they open to the public from 4PM to 8PM on Mondays and Tuesdays. You don’t need to pay anything or even register, just get to the track, park your car in the parking lot and then ride into the racetrack. There is a security guard there with a sign in sheet, just put your name and number and continue onto the track. You need a helmet but that’s the only requirement. You can’t bring rollerblades, scooters or skateboards onto the track, but if you want to walk, jog, or run around the track you can.

There is also plenty of security and even an ambulance on standby in case of any emergency or an injury, it’s all very professional.

The only downside really is that it’s around a 30-to-40-minute drive out depending on where you live. If you don’t know where the track is, here is the location on Google Maps.

Their website is kmt.kw and their instagram is @kmtkw

Below are some events taking place this weekend, as usual, let me know if I missed anything:

Thursday, November 2
The IMPROVengers Comedy Night
The Perfume Expo
Kuwait Outdoor Expo
AlSadu Museum Guided Tour

Friday, November 3
The Perfume Expo
Kuwait Outdoor Expo
AlSadu Museum Guided Tour
Alboyahra Farm Reopens
Eco Warriors Beach Clean Up

Saturday, November 4
The Perfume Expo
Kuwait Outdoor Expo
AlSadu Museum Guided Tour
Alboyahra Farm Reopens
Art N Dine: Weave of Cultures

Exhibitions
Arabia Felix and Rome
Palestine Art Stands
The Eye of The Sky Drone Photography Exhibition
Sacred I by Yasmine El Hazek
SIF, An Introduction by Mohammad Kassem

13 years ago I posted about a person called Sa’ad, a pizza fanatic who had submitted his pizza ingredients to Serious Eats and ended up getting featured there. The Serious Eats article is no longer up on their website but you can still access it through Web Archive by clicking here.

Fast forward to today and Sa’ad has finally opened up his own pizza place called What?izza. I haven’t tried it yet but it’s on my to do list since based on the photos on his instagram account, the pizzas look really appetizing and they sound like they have a very nice crisp to them. It’s a pretty cool story and he’s obviously still a pizza fanatic so check him out @whatpizza.kw

Turtle Park is a small artificial island on the Gulf Road located right behind Johnny Carino’s. It’s called Turtle Park on Google Maps because it has turtle sculptures scattered on it.

Unlike Duck Park which I posted about a couple of weeks ago and has real ducks, there are no real turtles in Turtle Park. It’s still really cute though.

Last month IKEA launched the cheapest falafel sandwich in Kuwait priced at just 50 fils. Initially, the post was going to be about that, but I just realized, this might actually be the cheapest sandwich in Kuwait. I can’t imagine any sandwich costing less than 50 fils and I think the cheapest I’ve ever come across is 100 fils.

If you know of a sandwich cheaper than 50 fils, let me know. Also, what other sandwich can I get in Kuwait for just 50 fils if any?

You might have noticed that Elevation Burger recently went through a major rebrand. The Elevation identity was given a much needed facelift by Farelo Studio, a design studio based in Portugal. The new look is not only cleaner visually, but also environmentally.

Pedro Farelo, the creative director of Farelo Studio, explains that the central idea was to take the Elevation Burger motto “ingredients matter” and expand it to “everything matters” encompassing health, the environment, and the community. This is because being a market leader comes with a responsibility of setting high standards for everyone else, which is why the new Elevation Burger packaging uses recycled paper, while the new minimalistic design helps reduce ink usage by up to 95%.

Farelo Studio aren’t strangers when it comes to Kuwait based projects, their first client in Kuwait was back in 2015 and since then have helped create several other local brands. If you’re looking for a talented and creative design studio with local experience, reach out to Farelo by sending them an email to [email protected] or check out their website farelo.com

This week I basically spent it binge watching the TV series 1923. It’s the prequel to Yellowstone and the sequel to the series 1883. It’s starring Harrison Ford and it’s really really good, like I think it’s my favorite of the three Yellowstone shows.

Other than that I rewatched the movie Se7en for the first time since the 90s. I originally watched it on VHS so rewatching it like 30 years later in HD was fun, and the movie has held up really well. A lot of now really famous people starred in the movie back then including Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, Kevin Spacey, and Gwyneth Paltrow. It was also started the career of David Fincher who’s behind movies such as Fight Club, The Social Network, The Girl and the Dragon Tattoo and the series Mindhunter. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t, it was pretty shocking when it came out in 1995 and still pretty dark today.

Let me know if you’ve watching anything new and interesting.

Movies at the Cinemas
The movies below are now showing at the local cinemas:

New This Weekend:
Butcher’s Crossing (6.1)
Five Nights at Freddy’s (6.2)
Freelance (5.3)
Headspace (5.4)
How to Save the Immortal (5.2)

Other Movies Showing:
57 Seconds (5.3)
Elevator Game (4.2)
Killers of the Flower Moon (8.6)
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (6.1)
Saw X (7.2)
The Canterville Ghost (7.6)
The Creator (7.3)
The Equalizer 3 (6.9)
The Exorcist: Believer (5.1)
The Island (4.3)
The Nun II (6.3)

The classic films below are currently showing at the 1954 Film House:
Coraline (7.7)
The Addams Family (6.9)

The numbers in brackets refer to the IMDB rating at the time of publishing.

Dubai’s beach-born concept SALT is coming to Kuwait next month and they’ll be popping up at the new Blajaat project in Salmiya.

Although SALT is mostly known for their iconic Airstream trailer, over the past few years their pop-ups have turned into beautiful and elaborate setups, so should be interesting what they’re planning for Kuwait.

The exact date hasn’t been finalized but they should be popping up the last week of November.

A few weeks ago I got a call asking me if I’d be interested in getting a sneak peek of a new Italian restaurant opening called Piatti. I was hesitant to check it out at first but the person over the phone told me it was a fine dining restaurant and was confident I’d be impressed with the space. Since it’s not everyday we get a fine dining concept opening in Kuwait, I was intrigued. Just a month ago, a video went viral of a Saudi personality stating that unlike Riyadh, Kuwait didn’t have fine dining or an even a fine dining culture. I guess that’s going to change now.

As soon as I walked into the space I realized it was going to be something special. I think it took the walk from the reception area to the waiting area for me to fall in love with the interior, so pretty much instantly. There were so many different layers of materials, textures and colors all somehow working together cohesively to create this visual eye candy. Wherever you looked you’d spot an interesting design detail or beautiful craftsmanship, even the wallpapers were hand painted for Piatti. It had a lot of classical elements, but yet still felt contemporary.

They had wanted me to take some sneak peek photos, but after seeing the place I told them I didn’t want to do that. I didn’t feel I’d be able to do the interior justice, so instead, I connected them with my favorite architectural photographer @mashkanani who was able to take these beautiful photos in this post.

I haven’t tasted or even seen the food yet and I’m already excited about the place. The average paycheck per person isn’t going to be over the top crazy, from what I understood it’s going to be similar to Cipriani, probably a bit less, so fairly reasonable in the scheme of things.

The restaurant location is interesting as well. It’s located across from Seef Palace, right above Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (Google Maps) and has a beautiful view of the sea and the palace. There will also be an outdoor terrace but it wasn’t ready when I passed by.

They’re starting private dinners tonight and then opening to the public on November 1st. If you’re interested in booking you can do so through their website piattiofficial.com starting October 31st. Their instagram is @piatti.official

Duck Park is a small public park located in Shaab that has a small pond and lots of ducks! I first found out about it last year but back then when I visited the park, there weren’t that many ducks and the pond had been drained. But, I passed by a couple of days ago and things have now changed.

The park is pretty nice, small but is being well taken care of and features a climbing rope section for kids along with some swings and toys.

Other than ducks you have a few other kinds of birds that roam around freely as well as the park cats. I call them the park cats since they seem to be chill with the ducks and aren’t trying to constantly chase them or eat them.

If you want to pass by and check out the park, here is the location on Google Maps.