Danderma's Blog, page 12

My Tickle Me Plant

Earlier this month I received a video on whatsapp about a tiny little plant that, when someone brushing their fingers gently against its leaves, the leaves would collapse promptly and close up as a reaction to the touch. I’ve played the video several times in disbelief, never in my life have I seen plants react that way when touched. Needless to say I’ve sent the video to almost everyone I know on my whatsapp list. One of my friends even told me that she saw the plant in Asia and it was indeed real and did react that way to touch. I wanted to see the plant for myself, silly you think? Perhaps, but I really, really, really wanted one to interact with! 

A couple of days later and it seems that my wish had been granted, for there was a knock on my door and a small potted plant with a message was delivered. Apparently Home & Garden nursery in Kuwait did have the plant and one thing led to another and there it was, with a message on my door step! I couldn’t believe my eyes at first! How come we have the plant in Kuwait but never ever heard about it before? The most action we got out of plants in Kuwait was by twisting the petals of the flower they call “Fish mouth” and pretending it was an actual fish-flower-mermaid hybrid playing with us when we where children but this little plant, called Touch Me Not or Tickle Me plant (official scientific name is Memosa Pudica), is in an entirely different league of her own!

When my tickle me plant arrived it was almost sundown and the leaves looked all weird and shrivelled. For a moment I thought it was sick or perhaps welting away in the dessert climate of Kuwait. You see that all the time, plump fresh plants and shrubs looking all healthy and happy in the nurseries then you bring them home and a couple of days later they’ve shrivelled up and passed on. Apparently, the tickle me plant does indeed go to sleep at sundown and this is her way of turning off the lights and calling it a day! She was only sleeping

I was still skeptic and to be frank a bit too impatient to wait until the next day for the plant to wake it. The next day, the leaves where all full and green and bursting with life!  I spent a good hour playing with my shy plant, an hour I was supposed to be cooking lunch for starving me, but I felt no hunger at all and no time passing! The picture doesn’t do the plant justice, keep your eye on the middle bottom leaf, untouched still.

Now you see me, now you don’t! How cool is that!

Not very clear? Wait I have a video! Would you look at that?

A couple of weeks of living with my cool plant and its still green and shy! As a matter of fact a few days back I passed by to find thorny-looking pink flowers sprouting between the leaves, I guess that means the plant is happy and thriving.

Oh I forgot to mention that when I posted about my plant on instagram I got a few comments from followers who had grown up in Kuwait and had the plant growing in their school gardens! I don’t even recall having a garden in the 12 years I’ve went to schools in Kuwait but there you go, it does indeed grown in Kuwait and will be surviving the desert after all!

One follower actually told me they learned about the plant in biology class! We didn’t, we only learned about the amoeba and the hydra and dissected a poor frog and saw a bloody egg with a half-grown baby chick inside that put me off all eggs for a couple of years and whenever the mental image plays again -like right now- I can swear off eggs for a good while until I forgot all about it again. Nothing about cool plants that reacted to your touch, shying away and proving that plants does indeed have feelings! In any case, the plant would make a great gift especially to households with children and needs little attention and care, abroad there are even kits that you can use to grow your own Tickle Me plant but, well, lets be thankful we have the plant in the first place. Look for it in the Nurseries overlooking fourth ring road, especially at Home & Garden Nursery who gave me my own plant as a gift, here is their instagram account (@homeandgarden). Thank you Home & Garden, you truly made my month!

Have you met the Tickle Me Plant before, in Kuwait or abroad? What did you think?

Is it OK to share recipes from cookbooks on your blog?

I was in a discussion the other day regarding this topic and I thought I would take the discussion to my blog and see what other readers think for I couldn’t exactly see my friend’s reasoning. You see, my friend was baffled when I posted a picture of a luscious chocolate cake I made from a recipe book and when she asked me to photocopy the recipe from the book, I refused because I was breaching the intellectual rights of the book author. She thought I was being a pest and didn’t want anyone to “make the cake” and that’s why I was such a bad person and a bad friend and “who would know?”.

I, however, stood my ground and began thinking about my decision for a moment. It is there, on the inside flap of the book and every book for that matter. No part of this book is to be photocopied etc. Up till now, I’ve tried my absolute best not to share something from a book, especially cookbooks. I have hundreds, if not thousands of recipes from numerous cookbooks lying around the house but never before had I thought of posting someone else’s recipe in full and I am now wondering if I’m the only stuck up person in this day and age who does that? Is it OK to share recipes from cookbooks on your blog? And by sharing I mean letting the internet know that this recipe is from so and so book by so and so chef and following afterwards with your own steps and pictures?

I’m not sure I have an answer for that question, and I myself I’m currently scoring other foodie blogs and trying to see how it is working out for them but until I get a decent answer then no, my dear friend, you cannot have a photocopy of the recipe but you are more than welcome to borrow my book and do as you please with it. Anyways, the recipe in question was that of a gooey, fudgy, luscious chocolate cake that is so moist it almost melted away as it arrived on your lips. I did add the frosting from a can, I was too knackered that day to bake a cake and prepare frosting and clean the kitchen afterwards so I took a short cut and that slice of cake, with that ice-cold cup of fresh milk and cup of bubbling hot tea, was the blissful comfort food that I was longing for but didn’t know I was, if that makes any sense at all?

And while we are on the subject, let me tell you about my first attempt at making cake pops. You must have come across cake pops in this day and age, no? Made popular by Bakerella’s blog, I’ve always thought to myself they looked easy to me. Just mix a cake with some frosting, then ball them up and dunk into some melted chocolate to cover. How hard can that be?

Apparently, very hard, bordering on impossible! The bloody cake/frosting balls were too sticky and when dunked in the chocolate they didn’t cooperate and when I took them out of the melted pool of chocolate splashing everywhere and put them on baking paper to cool and firm up they looked nothing like cake pops. If there were a frankenstein myth in the cake pops world, my cake pops would be it.  -btw both the new frankenstein and Dracula movies were banned in Kuwait, apparently mythical creatures are dangerous now so excuse me if I’ve mentioned frankenstein at all in my post-

Anyways after a lot of online browsing and numerous youtube video watching, I thought I’ve finally figured out what went wrong in my chocolate dunking “technique” and decided to give it another go with the leftover cake pops. I have to say that this time around my cake pops turned out much more appetising and less of a freak but those weren’t easy to make and I personally do not have the patience necessary to dunk sticky cake and frosting mush into liquid chocolate. I’ve hung my cake pop making apron and call it a day, for good.

Now what do you think? Would you share recipes from cookbooks with people you know? Would you give a person who wouldn’t share a recipe with you a hard time? Its not that I do not want to share the recipe in the first place -which some people actually do btw-, I’m just trying to be a law-abiding-citzen so why am I painted as the bad guy here? What do you think?

Book Review: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

A while back, and I believe its a year or two back, I’ve come across Gone Girl on my book shopping day in Waterstones UK and because I’ve been aware of the buzz surrounding it at the time I’ve picked it up, half enthusiastic for I wasn’t much drawn to the description on the back, and put it in my basket. Time passed, and I forgot all about the book until I was in the UK again and heard that it was being turned into a movie so I picked up a second copy, again reluctantly, convincing myself that I will be sorry if I saw the movie in the future and then wanted to read the book only to find it banned or unavailable in Kuwait. I forgot I had the first copy gathering dust on my bookshelf all together and when I returned home my two copies kept each other company, gathering dust together, and I told myself I will read one on the very week before the movie’s release in the cinema.

On the long vacation of Eid I checked the cinema listings and there it was, Gone Girl the movie starring Ben Affleck and Rosamond Pike. With endless stretches of time and wanting to read something I finally, albeit not that excited, I picked one of my two copies of Gone Girl and after finishing page one, I almost kicked myself for neglecting this book all these years just because I wan’t that intrigued by the description on the cover.

I lost myself in the pages of the book, I literally couldn’t put it down, and thankfully we were on vacation for I couldn’t sleep until my eyes forced themselves shut and I woke up with the book tangled in my bed sheets only to pick it up, give the rumbled pages a shake and a quick apology, and continue where I’ve stopped. It is really interesting, quite mysterious, and you are drawn in a certain direction with the tale when suddenly you are jerked back and in a totally different direction and all your feeling for the already interesting plot are turned upside down and if you couldn’t put it down before, now it was a matter of stopping yourself flipping to the very end and reading what’s going to happen! Its unbelievable!

Sadly I cannot elaborate on the story for fear of giving it away but you have to trust me when I tell you its worth the hours I’ve put in. The ending is quite, how can I put it? Creepy. Creepy is the word to describe it without giving too much but I’m all for unconventional endings, I hate nothing more than cheesy endings where all pieces fall down in place and everyone lives happily ever after and thankfully the ending was the cherry on top of a really good book that I’ve been looking to enjoy for a longest of times.

Sadly, I haven’t seen the movie. If you’ve read the book then you’d know there isn’t anything that is remotely censorship worthy, yet the movie was banned by the censorship in Kuwait. Its getting ridiculous, more and more movies are banned and those who are not are censored do badly you want to tear your hair out and hit the screen with your bucket of stale popcorn only that would be bordering on vandalism. I don’t understand why I wasn’t able to enjoy the movie like every other human being on the planet after I put down my book. If I had known I would have waited a few more months until the movie was out on DVD, how ironic that I had to wait in the end but at least I had such a good time reading the book that I really long for a sequel. Anyways, if you are lucky enough to have seen the movie, read the book at once. If you’ve done both then please let me know how the movie went, how it compared to the book without spoilers please! Thank you.

Stomp the Show Performance in Kuwait

I’m not sure how long its been since I’ve seen the ads for the show Stomp when travelling abroad, especially in London, but its always been there in the back of my mind and I’ve always, always, wanted to go watch it but never got around to doing so. If you’ve told me that I was destined to watch Stomp in Kuwait I would have laughed at loud and rolled my eyes in disbelief, what would Stomp be doing performing in Kuwait and where? But then dreams apparently do come true, for last week I held in my hand a VIP invitation to go and watch Stomp in Kuwait, yes Kuwait!

I’m liking this new streak of brining worldwide shows on tour to Kuwait. It started with children’s shows like sesame street but last November the organising company Event Mania did host Pilobolus Shadowland in Kuwait and though we only got to watch a glimpse of the real thing, it was quite refreshing and the future of shows in Kuwait seemed rife with possibilities. Almost a year later, there we were standing outside the dreadful venue, Kuwait’s Ice Skating Rink, to watch another world-class show, Stomp!

Why the ice skating rink, you say? Well, basically because the last time a decent theatre was built in Kuwait was in the 60’s or 70’s of the past century. However, there is a newly opened theatre in Salmiya and a couple more theatres -one rumoured to be an opera house!- being built around Kuwait so I’m hoping the next time we see an acclaimed show it would be in one of the newest venues. The ticket said the show starts at 7 and to be frank I didn’t even start driving towards the ice rink until after 7 because, well, nothing usually starts on time in Kuwait and the last time I was at the ice rink we waited over an hour, half of which outside the venue, fighting with the crowds to get inside. To my surprise, the event did start at 7 sharp which meant I was quite late but also didn’t fight anyone to get inside. Let that be a lesson to me, always assume the show will start on time from now on.

Hurrying through the gates of the ice rink I saw the sign for Starbucks coffees! Since when do they serve Starbucks in the ice rink? Also, judging by the litter left behind by the crowds after the show I could see empty Pinkberry frozen yoghurt cups and garrett’s popcorn bags so I guess the next time we go to see a show it will be well catered for with plenty of choise for things to munch on! When I got inside, there was a lady with a newborn baby still in his bed-like carry case we call “mhad” in Kuwait, the baby couldn’t be more than a month or two old, yet we were all led to our chairs quickly and swiftly without disturbing anyone.

It didn’t take us long after we sat down to join the general atmosphere. There isn’t a storyline per say, the performers where banging along anything and everything you could think of: trash cans, shopping trolleys, steel sinks, pipes, etc. and soon you found yourself clapping along or stomping your feet to the rhythm of their banging. Sometimes the lights went off and the banging was too loud, I felt sorry for the newborn baby resting in his mama’s arms. He must have been jolted awake with the sound, and some of the children -and there were many, many, MANY, children- who were afraid or crying or whining or simply didn’t get what was going on the stage, which was fun and quite entertaining by the way.

Then again you had to be over 8 or 9 years of old to actually appreciate it otherwise it would all be nothing but bangs and occasional darkness to you. I don’t understand why people in Kuwait assume that everything is suitable for their young children, horror movies included. The show, in case you will be catching it sometime in the future, is NOT for children. It DOES NOT say sesame street. There is nothing wrong with having a show that adults can enjoy, we need more of that actually, at least on monthly basis in Kuwait.

Sadly we are not allowed to show videos of the performance, and we did see a full almost two hours long performance this time. A video of any moment in the show would have you clapping and moving to the beat with a bit of comical situations thrown here and there. For a moment you forget where you are and all there is the music and the lights and the moment of fun. You could have been on the moon and you wouldn’t have paid attention.

When the show was over the cast of stomp greeted the show then we had the chance, bloggers and social media people, to meet with some members of the case for a quick Q&A and a photograph. Excellent show, stomp cast!

Thank you 7amad Qalam for your invitation and thank you Event mania for bringing in international shows, including Kuwait in their world wide tours! I can’t wait to see what show we will be performing next in Kuwait. Stomp was shown for five days from 22 – 25 October 2014 and all those who went had nothing but positive things to say about the show.

Did you see Stomp in Kuwait? How was it for you? Did you like it? I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.

Should Contagious People Go to Crowded Places?

The other day I was walking down the grand Avenues on a very busy weekend morning. There were about a hundred or so shoppers milling around, enjoying their time dining or shopping, sometimes getting in each other’s path or almost bumping into each other, but as far as I could see every one looked happy to be in the Avenues that morning.

Until I saw a child covered from head to toe with chicken pox, the cream thing used to treat it smeared all over his face and arms, walking with his family, closely surrounded by other children and shoppers, heading straight for my direction.

For a moment I panicked, I know chicken pox is contagious and that if you had it once, there is no guarantee you won’t get it again especially if your first time around was a mild one. If you’ve seen a picture of me or seen me in person then perhaps you couldn’t miss the huge carved white circle scar right between my eyebrows that draws everyone’s attention the moment they meet me, that’s the chicken pox doing and there are three more of these scattered around my face, albeit a bit smaller. My episode with the chicken pox at the age of six was a traumatic one and I can still remember the pain and obviously resent the scars.

So why on earth would you bring a child with a contagious disease to a crowded mall where there are children around? And elderly people? And pregnant women -which for some means chicken pox is really not a good reason-? I’ve once heard a woman say, matter of factly, that she was doing people a favour by sending her child sick with chicken pox to school so all the other children will get the disease when they are young and get it over with. I can’t even begin to explain my bewilderment at such reasoning.

I have a friend who never got chicken pox and is scared at the very mention of the word. Yes, sometimes people can totally avoid chicken pox and not get it ever and some can get it more than once. Who are you to say that because your child has the pox then its time for everyone else to get it as well? Was walking down the avenues a public service to all parents waiting for that emending doom to befall their child, like a right of passage for childhood or something?

Isn’t it bad enough that people sick with the flu or stomach bugs never seem to stay at home anymore? They go to work, school, university, mall, and even travel while couching and sneezing and spreading their germs everywhere and you can almost always guarantee that you are going to fall for it next! Whatever happened to bed rest? And keeping people with contagious diseases off crowded places?

What do you think? Would you take a sick child or go out while sick to a crowded place? What would you do if you were in a crowded place and the person next to you looked very sick and quite contagious? Would you flee or be OK with it?

Mexican Lunch at Adobo Burritos

A fan of Mexican food? Then you’d be happy to hear that there is a new Burrito place in Kuwait that’s opened  up about a fortnight ago. Last Friday I was at home, a bit restless for the weather was too good to hide inside but not in the mood to go anywhere, on the explore page of Instagram when I saw a picture of a burrito and, intrigued and a bit hungry, I started to browse the burrito restaurant’s account account only to realise it is indeed in Kuwait. Right then and there I knew that I was going to go there for my Friday lunch.

Adobo is located in a street between endless apartment buildings in Mahboula but it isn’t very hard to find if you follow the location map in their account. The restaurant itself is tiny, with a handful of tables at the front, two of which overlooking the big windows near the doorway, and at the very end the food preparation station and the cashier. Basically you choose your order, either a burrito, a fajita burrito, a burrito bowl or a salad then you proceed to choosing the filling and the toppings.

When we got there there were already a couple ordering and another two diners sitting down to eat. We didn’t wait long but because the weather was too good and the location was a bit stuffy with cooking fumes we opted to have our lunch to go. I’ve seen a video of their tortilla’s being made in house so we knew we wanted to have burritos. The tortilla is taken from a side bowl, heated a bit in the black round oven-like thing shown on the top right corner of the below picture, then is placed on a piece of foil paper, ready to accommodate your chosen toppings.

My husband ordered the chicken fajita while I ordered the vegetarian. I personally can never eat a burrito with rice inside so I opted for mine to be without, with pico de gallo, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, and black beans. The rice that was added to the chicken burrito looked like Indian basmati rather than Mexican rice but I’m sure the texture was lost in all the mess that is the big fat burrito.

Originally our order was two burritos with a salad but somehow the salad evolved into a bowl of nachos instead. I just had to try the nachos and I’m glad I did. We had the nachos with a side of pico de gallo, guacamole, and corn salsa. By the spice level of the pico de gallo was mild while the corn salsa was medium and there was a hot green salsa that I steered away from.

We also had to try their homemade horchata so we had an order to go. Our bill came to about 10.250 KD by the way. We took the food and drove to the beach at once, the sun was already setting when we got there hence why the pictures have a darkish hue.

The burrito was humongous! Enough to feed two to three people if cut into pieces and filled generously with the topping. I enjoyed mine very much, for the salsas and the guacamole were really fresh and tasty. I was also glad to discover that the “medium” and “mild” levels of heat were indeed quite mild with just the right burst of heat every now and them as you chew. Subtle and doesn’t overwhelm your palates, making everything taste the same as you run towards the nearest cold drink you can guzzle.

The chicken burrito I was told was so and so, probably because the chicken cubes were a bit cold when the burritos were assembled and so were the grilled vegetables and onions.

How do you photograph burritos? I don’t know the answer to that, I doubt they photograph well especially since they have a tendency to explode in every direction, the soft tortillas were good enough to hold the ingredients until the very end until this happened. Not the prettiest of sights but it was indeed delicious.

Personally I enjoyed the nachos the most, especially with the corn salsa. You know when you find a fried tortilla chip that is crinkled up? There were plenty of those, my absolute favourite, for when you dip them in the salsa they tend to hold the most liquid and have the crunchiest texture. You could also spot plenty of big sea salt rocks amongst the chips, quite delightful! If only Adobo had a mild tomato salsa that you could dip those crunchy salty chips into. The guacamole could also use a squeeze of lime but I like my guacamole sharp and really tangy. A lime wedge on the side would be perfect.

The horchata was lovely! Cool and refreshing and complements the sporadic bursts of heat in the food perfectly. Highly recommended.

Last but not least, we gathered up our food in the plastic bag they came in and threw our garbage with us in the nearest bin we could find. I’m sad to say that while enjoying the unbelievable cool breeze of October we were surrounded by garbage EVERYWHERE! I don’t understand how hard it is to pick up after your own self once you are done eating and enjoying the beach, please do not litter just because everyone else is doing so, thank you very much.

I’m glad more and more Mexican restaurants are popping up around Kuwait, about time to be frank! Who knows, it might be the next big thing after burgers and frozen yoghurt! If you are in Mahboula and are in the mood for burritos then check the place out, the location and all the information can be found in their instagram account (@AdoboBurritos).

Dinner at the All New Lenôtre

If you are a fan of Lenôtre and you’ve tried to dine there recently you might recall that the beach front restaurant was closed for renovations during the summer and the holy month of Ramadan period. Its not news that the main branch of Lenôtre changes its decor and theme every now and then, its been happening over the years and we all thought it was just another decor change. I’ve never been proven so wrong in my life, for when I passed through the doors of the just reopened Lenôtre earlier this September I was in for a totally different experience, decor and every thing else.

Frankly I’m not sure where to start this post. After dining there twice within a fortnight I was already preparing the pictures of my review when a knock came on the door and the loveliest invitation with the same spirit of the new Lenôtre. Should I write about the invitation first or the dinners? Let me start from the beginning, on the very first Thursday of September we went to Lenôtre for dinner and just as you park the car you’d notice the difference from a far, for the usually purple and white facade of the beautiful and already modern beach front branch is repainted in a charcoal grey shade with tiny white dots and a colourful LED display very reminiscent of Louboutin’ shop windows. As you get closer, you realise that that white dots are indeed orbs that remind me of robotic eyes and are dotted all over the facade! I love the orbs, very futuristic and quite fun indeed. Yes, they are the two eye-like sugar spheres that were stuck to the corner of the invitation cake!

As you make your way inside, your eyes will dart between the big mirror on the right reflecting the light fixtures plus the image of Kuwait towers and the the gorgeous flower display on the left with a florist arranging a bouquet standing in front of the big floor to ceiling window with a view of Kuwait Towers. I didn’t know it then but from the invitation I understood that the flower display is actually a new florist concept called Inside Lenotre and that you can ask them to provide you with flower arrangements for different occasions.

That’s me by the way, hello, smile for the camera!

Now lets me stop here and show you an example of Inside Lenotre floral arrangements, aka the invitation I received earlier this week from Lenotre to celebrate their opening. How gorgeous are these flowers?

The flowers were holding up the plastic wrapping of this big black box with a delicious cake.

Do you recognise the orbs? The very same ones from the restaurant’s new facade!

The inside was all chocolatey and crunchy as really, really delicious!

Thank you Lenôtre for the beautiful invitation. After two dinners I think I’d like to go for breakfast or lunch and see how the experience fairs especially during daylight. The interior of Lenotre is really lovely, with tones of gold and black and soft lightning to set the mood.

When we went there for the first dinner, most of the tables were already reserved already for other diners. Therefore when my mother informed me that they wanted to go for a first family dinner and a good bye dinner for my just married baby sister and her husband before they travel and that they really wanted to go to Lenôtre I made sure she made reservations for us beforehand.

Our table was ready when we arrived for the family dinner and we were seated promptly. I love the paper-like chandelier with the golden birds flying around it, a lot!

When you flip through the new menu you will realise you are in for a totally new dining experience, for the location might seem familiar but the menu is completely overhauled. There is no longer a salad buffet, something that took me by surprise at first and made my father really sad, for Lenôtre’s old salad buffet was really special. The idea of the menu is “sharing”, where you are supposed to order as many dishes as possible and share them with other, tapas-like, and you get to have a few bites of each dish. There are plenty of trendy super-food items on the different dishes, fans of kale and quinoa will have a hard time deciding on what to order and tasting the new dishes was an adventure on its own.

The first time we dined we were brought the most delicious bread basket ever! It involved my favourite, the olive bread which I always fight over with my sister -the bride- and I was happy to see it was there alongside a few new bread types. The bread basket was in the shape of a little paper boat and can I say it invoked a fun  -loving spirit? It did. It arrives with a tart green olive tapanade and a small butter disc.

The second time we dined there however the bread basket arrived a tad stale and my parents asked the waiters to change it because the bread was actually too hard. To their credit the waiters, after asking several times that is, did change the basket with a fresh one and we did fight over the olive bread.

Now what did we order? Someone started with a “pumpkin quinoa soup” that was poured right then and there on the table.

I didn’t try it myself but those who did reported that it was really good and really different. I’m not a pumpkin fan though so I won’t be trying it anytime soon.

A safer option was the good old mushroom soup, which was as warming and good as ever.

We also ordered the Rock Pop Prawns which were liked by the family, I wouldn’t know myself to be frank.

And a chicken Cesar’s salad that was reportedly very good and was gone in a blink.

I was craving a Buratta cheese and I have to say it was excellent. Very fresh, very simple, with an entire vine of luscious cherry tomatoes and a dusting of the below seeds, caraway are they called? The addition of the seeds reminded me so much of Ottolenghi’s Nopi which now I realise I’ve never posted about so I’m going to, very soon. Highly recommended.

On both dining occasions we ordered the breaded mozzarella bites which came with a side of sun dried tomato sauce. On both occasions the presentation, with the dusting of ground pistachios and the blue plate, was awesome and appetising but I’m sorry to say that on both occasions the taste was a tad blah. It wasn’t bad per say, it just wasn’t that special. I’d rather waste my calories on the buratta for sure.

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Also on our first dinner we tried the mushroom pie, again it was OK but too too heavy with the cream and the puff pastry and wasn’t that tasteful.

A really good dish was the beetroot and edamame salad which came with a pink flower and ticked all the right spots. Highly recommended. We also ordered the apple and lentil salad but it wasn’t that special, stick with the edamame and beetroot salad.

Before I talk about the main dish I have to bring up the subject of the service. After years and years of dining at Lenotre we trusted the service blindly. Never before did we complain for their servers were always polite, smiling, swift, and quick. With the new Lenotre the service level is quite different. In our first dining experience  with the restaurant half-empty there were two diners standing on either side of the table, watching us as we eat which is OK for some diners but to me is quite annoying. The moment you put your fork down you will find your plate swept away. However, when we dined with the family and the restaurant was full and busy the service was really slow, really bad, and we kept asking repeatedly for things that never arrived. Hopefully with time all the kinks would be smoothed over but if you are planning on dining there soon you might want to be a bit patient. Now for the main dishes…

The first time we dined there my eyes stopped at the “anger hair pasta braided in two sauces” and the vision I had in mind is a nice braid of pasta with a pink sauce and a pesto sauce, a great dish for someone who cannot make his mind on what sauce to have. Unfortunately, the angel hair pasta -which is my absolute favourite btw- was quite overcooked and both sauces were really oily and as a result weighed down the pasta and there was nothing braided about it. I wouldn’t recommend it to be frank. The second time we dined I tried the truffle pasta for my main dish and though it was much better than the first pasta dish, it wasn’t that special either, I’d rather fill up on the many appetisers on the menu instead.

On both dining occasions we ordered the sliders, some chicken and some beef, and reportedly they were quite good.

My father who was heartbroken for not being able to have the salad buffet decided to order a shrimp masala dish. The portion for a main dish was not that large and he didn’t enjoy it much so its not that recommended.

Then it was desserts time, and if you think the old dessert favourite were spared in the new urban Lenotre then you are in for a disappointment. What really made me sad was the absence of my beloved vermicelli creme brûlée, one of my top ten favourite desserts on earth. After sulking for a bit, I decided to go with the salted caramel tiramisu.

And I have to say the presentation of the tiramisu was awesome, probably the best I’ve seen yet! The tiramisu bowl was big and the portion is enough for the entire table. The tiramisu itself was quite good, especially that little good looking butterfly, but I have to say I couldn’t detect the salted caramel flavour at all.

Another dessert we ordered was a luscious raspberry and chocolate tart and this one was a winner and was gone in a blink.

Overall we had a memorable adventure in the new Lenotre restaurant. How did it fare? It depends on the diner. People who are going for the old favourite Lenotre might be in for a disappointment, all the favourite dishes are long gone along with the salad buffet. If you are going to dine in the new Lenotre please keep in mind that it is only the name and the old premises that remains, the rest is all new and hip and fun and I could see myself going there for different occasions rather than a noisy and busy meal like it used to recently. So make that reservation, dress up, and go with a group so you could order a lot of the new dishes and be brave in trying them all.

The new Lenotre is at the same original location overlooking the sea on Gulf Road. For reservations and more information you can contact them by called +(965)-1805050 or check their new instagram account (@LenotreKw).

A Visit to Omorfia Salon

Earlier this month I received quite an intriguing private invitation to visit the just opened Omorfia beauty salon.  I wasn’t sure what to expect really but I liked the distinguished invitation with the pebbly sand, sea shells, and tiny jars of face masks and rose water and even though I haven’t set foot in Jabriya area for a while -I cannot tolerate the traffic!- I braved it that day and arrived almost an hour late to my appointment. 

You know you are in the right place when you arrive at Omorfia’s startling, unapologetic blue door and stark white walls, a recurring theme throughout the salon that is meant to remind you of the Greek island of Mykonos. I’ve never been there personally, I was told I’d be bored out of my mind if I didn’t swim, but I’ve seen plenty of travellers pictures and indeed the blue shutters and doors with the white and grey hues and the pictures of the pink majnoona flowers all around brought back memories of what I’ve seen in pictures and I’ve instantly began to hum the tune of the song Mykonos by the Fleet Foxes.

The moment you arrive at the door and just past the reception you are greeted with a curaçao blue, yes, blue is a theme. What I like about Omorfia is the big and comfortable waiting area with two plush sofas that you could sink into and wait for your turn while sipping on your drink. Not that we had long to wait for I had an appointment and I think you need to have an appointment before you go but I’m not entirely sure, its advisable to reserve one just in case.

I was also presented with a jar filled with little papers and I got to draw one with a name of a treatment written on it. Mine was the Dancoly Argan hair mask.

I wasn’t in the mood to get anything done that day but I joined my friends who were all having manis and hair treatments and hovered over them a bit. There was an ice cream mask one of my friends was having and it looked yummy!

And while the girls were getting pampered they were also served chilled melon balls and caramel lattes! A beauty salon and a cafe in one, I like that!

Now lets have a tour around Omorfia, this is the washing station.

And this is the makeup station, I know where I’m going for my next party makeup application.

And this cosy woody corner is setup for one of the most popular beauty treatment of all time, the manicure.

I had a great time at Omorfia the other day, something that doesn’t usually happen in beauty salons around Kuwait who are either too crowded, too hectic, or never respect your appointments. If you are looking for a beauty treatment in peace and quite then check Omorfia out. The one downside to Omorfia’s location is that its located in a very busy street in Jabriya with barely any parking spaces but if you are willing to walk a bit or have someone who can drop you and go back then you won’t it wouldn’t be much of an issue.

Thank you Abrar and Anwar from Omorfia salon for your invitation and hospitality, I will be coming back soon for my treatment Omorfia Beauty Salon is Located in Jabriya, block 3, street 111 above Al-Kandy pharmacy. For more information and to make an appointment you can contact them by checking their instagram account (@Omorfia) or give them a call at +(965)-25335956.

Book Review: Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Once I put down my copy of “Americanah” by Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie I didn’t waste anytime reaching for her other best seller now turned into a movie “Half of a Yellow Sun”. I expected nothing less of a novel than Americanah and I was happy, a few days of nesting and not putting the novel down later, to find that Half of a Yellow Sun had exceeded my expectations. 

Half of a Yellow Sun is set at the sixties, right after the independence of Nigeria and just before a part of Nigeria had become the Republic of Biafra, something I’ve never known or heard of before. You start the story by following the arrival of a houseboy, Ugwu, in the house of a revolutionary university professor who welcomes the young kid and treats him in the best way possible, even enrolling him in school so he could continue his education. The revolutionary professor is soon joined by his lover Olannah and soon together they will face the ups and downs, the pains and grief, brought on by a heart wrenching civil war in Nigeria.

The novel is gripping, you are amused by Ugwu’s introduction into the new world and moved by his loyalty and dedication, even though at one point I actually started to loathe him. You are touched by Olannah and Odinegbo’s love and want them to have their happily ever after so badly, I personally had a soft spot of the poet who would recite his poetry every night, but you will have to read the novel to know what I mean, and be warned that if you do you will find yourself laughing out loud at one moment then tearing at your hair and crying your eyes out at another, specifically at page 149.

Reading Half of a Yellow Sun is like watching a news broadcast of war, you are left with this deep sense of helplessness, you wonder how is it that history seems to teach us nothing and keeps repeating itself, its ugly wars and vicious inhumane acts, all over again. Why do humans keep fighting wars? This novel could very well describe the current state of the world, nothing has changed much I’m afraid. In any case, do pickup Half a Yellow Sun and you will be introduced to an entire new world, yet not so different humans.

P.S. Don’t bother with the movie, I rented it as soon as I put down the book and it was neither good nor that good of an adaptation, almost the entire ending of the book wasn’t there!

Lunch at Eataly Dubai Mall

On the day I arrived in Dubai on my last trip for the Eid holiday I found myself dashing through Dubai Mall trying to reach Wafi Gourmet before they closed down for the day and while on the go I couldn’t help but notice the newly opened huge new Deli/Restaurant Eataly. At first I thought it was Dean & Deluca but when I passed by again -now well fed and at a much slower pace- I realised it was a similar style place with an entire different look and feel and the name says it all… Eat and Italy really spells out Italian food and there is nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing, that I love more than Italian food, or everything Italian really.

Because I already had a list of places I was going to dine in during my three-day Dubai stay I wasn’t that sure I’d get to try Eataly and for all I knew the place was just a big grocery store and didn’t offer any dishes lunch or dinner. Every time I passed by the windows, the big floor to ceiling windows that displays all the hubbub inside, I found happy diners eating and laughing and each time the diners looked like they were having the time of their lives. Also, every time I passed by a huge tub of Nutella chocolate spread -which I don’t like btw- was quite visible from a distance and I guess that’s why so many of my fellow Kuwaiti followers on instagram kept urging me to go and try Eataly so one day for lunch we just decided to stop by.

To get into the dining area you have to go through endless rows of merchandise, and to shop you can use the awesome lime green hued trollies above! How beautiful! I wanted one of those trollies for my own to shop with! Why can’t we shop with foldable trollies and decorate them as we like? The old plain trollies are quite boring! Anyways, as I said above, there are endless shelves and rows of neatly stocked Italian merchandise that covers almost everything, ranging from freshly made gelatos to bottled sauces and herbs.

The bakery, which I didn’t photograph, was actually a diet-disaster zone and I soon found out that Eataly not only make their own fresh pasta but also their buratta cheese, in store! How yum!

Why can’t we have our own made in Kuwait buratta cheese? I adore buratta!

After walking through Eataly we didn’t waste much time asking for a table. Eataly is huge, with endless seating areas all over the place, and a large amount of happy diners yet there still were space for many more to dine. I suppose its one place you can almost always guarantee you’ll find a table without having to wait.

The range of dishes available? Simply dizzying! I reckon there were more than five different ways to order and indulge in the fresh cheese. If you are a cheese lover you don’t want to miss Eataly.

It took a while for us to place our orders, we just had to make up our minds, yet it didn’t take long for the drinks, the bread, and the Evoo with Balsamic to arrive at the table. The bread was really fresh and delicious.

For starters we went with a salad that is tossed in Evoo and had potatoes in it.

If I’m not mistaken it was a lightly tossed baby spinach salad with pitted olives, boiled potatoes, walnuts, and shavings of parmesan cheese. The salad was so light and fresh, the flavours comforting and familiar yet together different and exciting. Highly recommended.

And of course we had to try the fresh buratta! There was no question about that!

It doesn’t get any fresher than this! Unbelievable.

For our main dishes we tried the margarita pizza, made the Napolitana way using a wood-fired oven. The pizza was good but it lacked that oomph taste that you’d usually find in the pizzerias of Italy, I’m not sure why.

And the spaghetti pomodoro for me. It was also good but I did hate the extra thick spaghetti, I personally prefer angel hair pasta or No 3 spaghetti at most but the spaghetti served at Eataly was a 5, perhaps a 7, and too thick for my liking.

Overall we had an amazing time at Eataly. There is something about being surrounded with the freshest produce and ingredients possible and knowing that you are going to have a hearty meal in a good relaxed atmosphere. Comfort food at its best I’d say, I know understand why everyone is raving about Eataly and though I was disappointed by the pasta and the pizza, I know I’d stop by again for sure. I also loved their motto, its difficult to be simple, exactly! I cannot wait to go back to Dubai and pass by again for lunch and perhaps try their breakfast.

Eataly is located at the lower grand floor level of Dubai Mall. I’m not sure if they have any local social media presence but you can check their website for more information (link).