Danderma's Blog, page 2

Recipe: Lime-Marinated Giant Mushroom Fajitas

Fan of Mexican food? I absolutely am, in fact Mexican ranks second as my favourite cuisine of all times. Whenever I crave a fajita, a sizzling one with all the works, I usually head to one of the American franchises around Kuwait. However, since I’m trying to live a healthier life sans the excess salt, fat, and surprise spice that attacks my stomach mercileccily I began to make mine at home. This recipe must be the easiest, lightest, and quickest way to get a guiltless fajita fix.

All you need for this recipe to work is a bit of prep, 30 minutes or one hour before cooking time would do. I had one giant mushroom in my fridge so I sliced it alongside some green and red bell peppers (capsicums) then mixed them up with the official fajita spices: smoked paprika, salt, pepper, cumin, and a generous dose of freshly squeeze lime juice -2 or 3 limes would do-. If you can tolerate heat then you must add cayenne pepper to the mix. Keep aside for 30 minutes until the flavours come together and start to prepare your tortillas and the rest of the ingredients.

Yes, you read that right, tortillas. I’ve come across the recipe for homemade wholewheat tortillas in Jamie Oliver’s latest cook book “Everyday Superfood” and made them one day and since then I’ve never looked back, nor bought another plastic tasting tortillas from the supermarket again. They are so easy and quick to make and so wholesome and delicious. Simply mix 80g self-raising flour with 50ml water and some salt, knead a bit, then spread as thin as you can go and place on a hot griddle. I use my pancake pan.

By the time you get out your ingredients and set the table, your dough is ready and your veggies will be marinated. What’s next? Grill of course! Get yourself one of those grilling skillets, spray with some water and lemon juice -no need for oil to be frank but its up to you of course-, place your veggies on top, and grill away! Imagine if it was winter time, and you were outside in a family BBQ? This would be the perfect vegetarian mix for your vegetarian friends who always feel left out at BBQ’s!

If your grill becomes too hot and you need a bit of moisture, you can always add more lime or lemon juice. That way you can insure your fajita mix is as tangy as you’d like. Yum! Those bubbles below are lemon juice bubbles btw.

Meanwhile, the tortillas are cooking. Simply place them on the griddle or pan and watch them bubble and rise. Flip once, and then place on a plate, ready to be decorated with all the goods that make a fajita.

I realise the concept of fajita includes a sizzling skillet served at the table with the works, but frankly I didn’t have the patience, hunger-wise and washing-after wise, so I simply assembled mine at the stove! First, I spread a generous amount of low fat labna on top of my tortilla. Yes, I use labna, and low fat, it tastes even better than sour cream and packs a quarter of the calories!

Top with the grilled lime-marinated veggies, if only there was a way to blog the heavenly smells of that dish. To turn this recipe vegan, ditch the labna and spread guacamole instead. To make this gluten free simply swap the wholewheat self raising flour with any gluten free flour of your choice.

What to add next as a topping? Well, personally I’d usually add black beans -from a can-, grilled corn, some salsa, veggies, and cheese but I was out of the corn, beans, and salsa. It didn’t stop me one bit and the end result turned out both delicious tasting and lower in calories! I did add plenty of cheddar cheese, chopped tomatoes and lettuce, and instead of the traditional coriander I added parsley because, well, I cannot stand the taste of coriander. Growing up being forced to taste fish stew made with coriander put me off its taste for good.

Et voila! My only regret is that I was to hungry and impatient to properly spread the tortilla dough until it was half as thick. It did taste good though. I also miss having some guacamole on top or as a dip. Sadly, I can no longer eat avocados anymore, thank’s to some strange after-30 stomach allergy. I’d have made fresh and killer guac to go with these lovelies :'(

All lime-y and tangy and crispy and extremely fresh, it cannot get any fresher than this!

The burnt flavours of the veggies mixed in with the tang of the lime. How can anyone resist a fajita?

Can you see the crispy edge of the giant mushroom?

The entire thing will take you around 30 minutes max to cook an assemble, and five minutes to eat, not counting the marination time of course. You can prepare the veggies overnight, I think they might turn out even better if you do. You can use regular mushrooms -not canned!- but after grilling them you might end up with tiny slivers of cooked mushrooms, the giant ones will hold their shape and size and make the perfect veggie fajita stuffing. Now, excuse me as I prepare my lunch for tomorrow, any wild guesses on what it’ll be? :p

Book Review: Six Years by Harlan Coben

The mysterious Six Years by Harlan Coben started off by a man sitting in a church watching the love of his life marry someone else. As heart breaking as you’d imagine, especially with the bride’s parting request, you flip a page and now you are given new hope for the doomed lovers as the bride is now a widow. As the professor, the hero of this novel, cannot resist the urge to go and pay his respect at the funeral of the man who stole the love of his life, he finds his life turned upside down and everything he once believe shattered in one single life, its fair to say he never seemed to recover from the side effects of that trip.

It is mysterious indeed, quite gruesome at some points, and no matter how many times I’ve had a go guessing at the solution of the mystery in the plot, I’m left surprised each and every time and with each chapter, revelations and surprises just keep piling up. At one point I even gasped out loud and had to take a five minute break just to ponder what I’ve just witnessed -actually read- and get my head around it.

I however would have enjoyed a little bit of a stretch to the ending, a little bit more details, but I cannot fault this read. I actually found out I have two copies of it on my shelves and whatever made me buy this book twice, most likely some very sound recommendation, I am really thankful I did. If you decided to pick it up you are in for a thrilling read indeed.

Trying the Gluten-Free Cauliflower Pizza Crust

Let me start by stating the fact that I do not like cauliflowers.

In fact, I loathe them.

The smell, the taste, the texture. I’m a vegetable loving vegetarian who actually does crave broccoli but never could stand to be within a metre of cauliflower in any shape or form including the very famous fried cauliflower and eggplant sandwich we call Meshakkal in Kuwait. Never was a fan. The same goes for sweet potatoes, I just could never understand their over-sweetened taste nor embrace it as a vegetable. 

Now that being said, I’ve been swamped by vegans and their recipes lately and one thing that kept popping in my face is the “Cauliflower Pizza”. At first I was repulsed, why would anyone subject themselves to such torture? The more I tried to ignore its existence, the more it seemed to pop up everywhere and there must be something about this pizza crust that’s causing all these vegans to go to the trouble of making, styling, shooting, posting, and eating those pizzas over and over again. Obviously something good that you couldn’t get from a box of gluten-free pizza flour, so why resist it? Why not take a leap of faith and try it?

That being said, I’ve looked over so many cauliflower pizza recipes online and in several vegan cookbooks I have, I could recite the instructions in my sleep. What’s certain for sure is that its gluten free but there are so many variations: with eggs, without eggs, with apple sauce, with cheese, without cheese, each variation swings the pizza base’s description between veganism and vegetarianism. Is veganism even a word? I’m not sure. In any case, I finally was sold out by the dairy-free recipe of this cauliflower pizza base from The Lucky Penny blog, the pictures were just too delicious to resist.

A small head of cauliflower, emphasis on small since I wanted an individual pizza and had no one willing to try it on a Friday afternoon with me. Washed and florets cut and dropped in a food processor then processed until it resembles a fine snow-like powder.

The fine snow-like powder isn’t ready to use yet, it smells like cauliflower obviously, and if you follow the recipe you’d need to microwave the cauliflower -which will violently release its beautiful smell and spread it around the kitchen-.

And its still not ready, you will need to wait for the cauli-flour to lose a bit of its microwaved heat, then place it on a clean piece of cloth -I used an old, clean, ghetra- and squeeze the life out of the surprisingly juicy microwaved and heated cauli snow!

You squeeze and squeeze and end up with a rather good amount of liquid, and by this time you yourself will smell like cauliflower, and you will start to think that perhaps its time to make your own vegetable stock with all the vitamin-laden water you managed to squeeze out. It was turned into soup, I can assure you it wasn’t wasted.

Now, the cauli-flour is ready to be mixed into a dough. You add the remaining ingredients: Almond meal, herbs, salt and pepper, and one egg –do refer to the original recipe for exact ingredients– then mix it up and voila, you have a tad-runny albeit ready to bake dough.

Next you need to oil a sheet of baking paper and place it on the oven tray you are baking with, then you place your cauliflower dough on top after shaping it like a pizza disc. That part was easy and quick.

Off to the hot over it goes, and you sit there and wait for the dough to firm up into a pizza base, fingers crossed of course. I personally couldn’t believe it would come together.

Now, throughout the preparation process I was almost suffocated by the smell of cauliflower but once it started baking, the smell was changed 180 degrees! By the time I got it out, it smelled like something smothered in bread crumbs and deep fried, like veal escalope, a good smell if you’ve grown up in the 80’s and a fancy lunch meant escalope paneeh especially in the movies -you know what I’m talking about-. What I’m trying to say, is that once the pizza base was out of the over it was firm, golden, and smelled absolutely great!

I used my trustworthy pizza sauce receip to make the sauce while I was waiting for the pizza base to bake. I then spread a generous amount on top and was happy to find that the base didn’t crumble nor sag when met by the moisture of the tomato sauce.

Added all my favourite toppings, good quality mozzarella cheese chunk, a bit of cheddar, read basil, and off to the oven it went.

It didn’t take long for the pizza to come together! As it baked, the kitchen was filled with the warm aroma of baked pizza and I had no patience left in me anymore, I wanted to lift the entire thing up and bite into it like one big pizza slice. It is a plant-based pizza after all!

Tell me that doesn’t look good!

I was a bit afraid for my pizza. I knew it held well by this point, but would I be able to cut it? Would I be able to lift it without it falling apart? Would I be able to bite into it and wave it around and pretend I was having a takeaway pizza as I park on my favourite chair watching my current favourite sitcom? -I’m re-watching Smallville these days if you are wondering-

Only one way to find out. I took out my trusty pizza cutter, this lady and I have cut through many a-pizzas in her time serving alongside my cravings. She, from the first roll, would be able to tell me exactly what to expect from this gluten-free cauliflower based pizza.

And it cut through, like a dream! Easily, nicely, resisting a bit on the edge and smoothly running through the pizza. I knew then that the base was a success. I didn’t hesitate as I lifted up my first slice, even held down by the protesting strings of cheese, it was still intact as my first slice was finally set free.

Now for the moment of truth, how did it taste?

Texture wise, you wouldn’t know it was made from anything not flour related. Taste wise, there was no trace of the cauliflower whatsoever and not bad at all. However, because I am very sensitive towards the taste of eggs, I could detect a faint hint of them in my pizza and I knew, should I decide bake this again, I would opt for the vegan option of using apple sauce instead. The only thing I did miss as I chomped away on my surprisingly perfect base was the pizza edges, not everyone is a fan of those but I am, a big one, and I think is the best part of any pizza. You don’t get those round doughy edges but then again it is supposed to be a healthy alternative to traditional pizzas, you could at least sacrifice those for a trimmer waist and a healthier craving-satisfaction!

It is, however, not as quick and straightforward as measuring and mixing flour, but who wouldn’t mind the extra exercise? Excellent recipe, Lucky Penny, thank you for posting the how to in details!

Now, there is another way of making a gluten-free pizza base that I found on a video on instagram that I cannot seem to find anymore. It simply mixed a sweet potato with oats and eggs and then baked them the same way the cauliflower pizza was baked. I did have a go at it two days after the cauliflower pizza, and I even made it cedars-pizza style sauce, cheese, and ketchup on top style. Alas, the dough was no where near as round, firm, or perfect as the cauliflower one and in the end it tasted like baked and extremely-sweet potatoes topped with cheese and ketchup so I mashed it all up and ate it as such. I couldn’t even lift one slice, so as far as gluten-free plant-based pizza basis go, it is the cauliflower that is a winner.

Now while I wouldn’t personally bake the cauliflower pizza everyday, nor particularly crave it over a big fat bubbling pie from Dominos, I wouldn’t mind baking it again when I’m -eternally- dieting and trying to cut down on my carbs. Perhaps one day there will even be a box of ready-made dry cauli-flour dust, already prepared and ready to be mixed with the rest of the ingredients to make the base, you never know!

Have you guys tasted cauliflower pizza before? Do you have any tips on making an even more awesome pizza base? Or are you hesitant still and not sure whether its for you or not. Personally, I wouldn’t mind swapping the cauliflower for broccoli but I’m not too keen on having a green-hued pizza base nor am I sure it will yield the same result so I’ll be sticking to cauliflower for now.

Book Review: The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango

A deceptive husband and respectable novelist, whose entire life is built on a web of lies, is basking in his own fictitious success and leading a double life without a care in the world. It is only when his affair doesn’t go according to plan and he decides to take matters into his own hand that his lies start unravelling one by one, for he made a terrible and grave mistake that cannot be undone no matter how hard he tries. 

The story is fast paced, there is not much an introduction nor dragging around to lay the bricks of the story. You open the first page and you are there with Herr Henry, almost running over the pages trying to keep up and learning about his past and what lead to his disastrous decision as you go along. One action pulls another, and somewhere in the mess that is Herr Henry’s current life situation you realise that he would stop at nothing, absolutely nothing, to keep the stream of secrets from spilling out and spreading.

Interesting and fast paced, if a tad heavy with too many unnecessary details. I didn’t care much for the ending though, it left with too many loose ends and too many questions unanswered. A BBC sticker on the cover said it was a “Book at Bedtime” and it was indeed the one very memorable companion during the week I’ve read it through.

The @f2odesigns Colouring Books

If you’ve been around my blog for a while then you’ll know how much I love and admire f2o’s artistic talent and designs, so much that my book cover is actually illustrated by f2o

The colouring books arrived in the bag above, the bag itself is very cute, showcasing f2o’s family of characters gathered around a tea tray and looking like they were having a blast of a good time! The idea, well originally what I thought I would do, is to hold a competition on my social media account for followers with children and have them win the colouring books. That being said, I now have only a couple of colouring books left on me and they are reserved for a friend’s children already so, sorry no competition but I’ve sure made a few friends/parents happy!

 Now that the colouring book trend/craze is in full swing and this generation’s children seem to never want to tear themselves away fro the iPads those colouring books would make a good educational top, teaching children as they colour about Kuwaiti words in both English and Arabic. Not any Kuwaiti, really old Kuwaiti, some words I didn’t even know myself like bayenbagh and teena!

Tha2, TH, comes with the word thoub and I was relieved! I know thoub! Really cute illustration too.

No I’m not going to go through the entire Alpahbet but, will you look at that! D! Danderma! Me! Danderma and its meaning “ice cream”! That word I for sure knew and, obviously, adore! Now you have no excuse guys, you should know what danderma means by now :p

Really cute, lovely f2o! Thank you for the colouring books! My favourite page was the one with the letter D obviously but overall I think this colouring book is a brilliant idea for a both a fun and educational time for the kids. It would make an excellent gift or a birthday giveaway or a school prize for doing well from teachers for example. Now my dear f2o, how about colouring books for adults? Or even your very own illustrated app for children to play with?

f2o designs have recently moved shop from Burj Jassim to their new location in Symphony Mall, Salmiya and if you happen to visit Kuwait you must got and visit, they’d make a great souvenir for back home! f2o can customise your own characters and have them designed and printed in every single way you can think of and comes complete with an online shop for everything they have to sell! I’m not sure if the colouring books are available online yet or not but you can check for yourself. For more information you can visit the f2o shop, call +(965) 98750412, email f2o@f2odesigns.com, check the website (link), follow them on Twitter (@f2oDesigns), or Instagram (@f2oDesigns).

Trying Triangles Restaurant’s New Menu

A few days back I was invited by Triangle restaurant to try their new and different menu. I like triangle a lot and have seen pictures of their “new” items so needless to say I made sure to go with a good hungry appetite knowing exactly what I wanted to try. Lets say I was not disappointed at all and I’m warning you, dangerous pictures are awaiting you below.

Lucky for me, I arrived on a Saturday during a lull in the lunch service. It was between lunch and dinner and so I had the place to myself and took as many pictures as I’ve liked without bothering other diners. By the time I got to my main course though, the restaurant had filled up and there was a waiting list! So if my colourful pictures make you want to have your next meal over at Triangle, make sure to call before you go to make sure there are available tables. Waiting list I tell you! 

The moment I was handed the new menu I’ve asked about their “freakshake”, which is the colourful messy medley in a jar you’ve seen above. Yes, people do enjoy such messy colourful concoctions especially if they had a free day from their diet and let me tell you, it was cold and sweet and good and the colours alone made me giddy with happiness, it induces the same feeling you once got as a child going to a fun fair and having a big pink puff of cotton candy to tear and chomp on. My only regret is that I didn’t get to drink it all, and most of the cream and sweets were wasted. I did suggest they make it on a much smaller portion.

The volcano of cheese and potatoes? From the very beginning of the post? Yes, well, it was the second thing I’ve chosen off the new menu. Its called the “Smoked Jar Fries” and its, well, a jar of matchstick fries swimming with two kinds of cheese alongside smoked chill beef and spicy sauce. I don’t do spicy, I don’t do beef, but there was nothing on earth powerful or spicy enough to keep me from digging my fork into the top of the cheesy starchy mess and pulling out forkfuls of fries, hiding them away in my happy stomach. The very top of the jar had no chilli nor spices, lucky me. I managed to stop myself before both made an appearance that made me regret my lunch. That dish is a MUST.

The next dish from the new menu’s appetisers, the mushroom pillows, gave me mixed feelings. The cheese sauce was really similar to the one from the smoked fries jar so it was a bit on the redundant side and the parcels of the filo with Shitake mushrooms were nice but overshadowed by the lovely matchstick fries. If you decide to order it, either make sure you are a big table ordering dishes to share or don’t order the jar of fries with it otherwise it won’t do it justice.

When I informed the restaurant manager that I was a vegetarian, I found this tower of eggplants landing on my table. It is very similar to a melanzane parmigiana, with discs of crumbly fried eggplant coated with a delicious tomato-y sauce and cheese. There is a reason only one lone picture of this dish managed to survive and that is because, well, I was too busy attacking it to take any pictures. If you are looking for a nice vegetarian main or appetiser, this is the one.

My original main dish was the mushroom risotto. It was very nicely done indeed and hit all the right spots: mushroomy, warm, wholesome, creamy, and with plenty of parmesan and what I suspect is crispy kale as a garnish.

The mike is now handed to my carnivore of a husband, who decided that for main dish he is going with a dish called “Shot the ribs”. The word shot come from the Espresso shot this piece of rib meat was marinated in before being cooked to order and served. Coffee-loving carnivores would love this dish.

Well, my husband adored his piece of meat and even I could see that the meat was falling off with a touch of fork and disappearing before I could blink twice. My only comment would be it would have been nice if the dish was accompanied with something other that the two slices of grilled baguette slices but no one is stopping you from ordering that jar of smokey cheesy fries on the side to go with it, which is what I’m planning to order the next time I’m there for the other carnivore in my life, my sister who loves meat so much she must have inherited my missing meat eating genes.

Dessert time! Believe it or not, we tried to object to dessert because we were already too full from lunch. The generous management of Triangle wouldn’t take no for an answer and not only did they serve us dessert, but another new milkshake concoction as fun and colourful as the first!

There I was thinking about cotton candy and et voila! Mini marshmallows and cotton candy made an appearance together alongside pieces of candy cane! This shake gave another day-out-in-the-fair feeling when I saw it and I did manage to finish off the piece of cotton candy on top but I have to say, the first milkshake was tastier. These two milkshakes are not to be taken lightly, they could be a meal on their own and a very naughty one indeed.

Behind the mounds of whipped cream and mini marshmallows, this plate of chocolaty dessert was placed.

First came the plate with two pieces of brownie and burned meringue on top. Next, a bottle of chocolate sauce was conjured up from no where, and the sweet chocolate sauce was flowing freely all around the brownies, bathing them, soaking them, and making my mouth water despite my protesting stomach.

Should you have enough room left in your stomach, try this chocolatey dessert and you won’t be sorry.

After a couple of hours and what seemed like the entire menu, we looked around and realised we had an excellent time. The place was buzzing with diners and people were waiting to be seated. You know when you have a meal at a restaurant and you are enjoying your times to the point of being too relaxed and reluctant to leave? I didn’t want to leave. I wanted to order a big fat mug of American coffee and nurse it till closing time while nibbling away at the chocolate brownie above. Alas, it was time to go and time to give my feedback on the new menu items I’ve tried.

Thank you Triangle Restaurant for the delicious lunch. Excellent food, gorgeous interior, cool soundtrack, perfect atmosphere, and really good service. We enjoyed every bite and we will be coming back for sure to try more dishes from the new and quite fun menu. Triangle Restaurant is located in Kuwait City, Ali Al-Salem street. For more information, pictures, and directions check out their Instagram account (@Trianglekw) or give them a call at +965-50838483.

Do you Guys Recycle in Kuwait?

And why not?

I’m assuming that quite a large percentage of people in normal households of Kuwait would say no. After all, should they even consider recycling, where would they take their recycled garbage to anyway? Garbage sorting and collecting isn’t that exciting nor that maintained in  households where house help exists. Sure, when we travel and we are forced by the laws of the country we are in we do indeed recycle, as painful sometimes as it seems, and they say its better for the environment and I’m not negating that for it must have a tangible effect on the planet of entire countries enforce them, so why not here in Kuwait? 

Personally, I’ve wanted to recycle ever since I’ve read about the word in the 90’s. It wasn’t until our work place enforced the three-bin policy in every cubicle that I did actually, and religiously, recycle everyday. Some nay sayers would laugh and say who really does recycle and do you expect anyone to actually collect the recycled garbage separately and deliver them to where they’re supposed to be delivered? I always reply that I don’t really care, our role as humans is to develop the habit of recycling, the role of whomever enforces and collects the recycled trash is to make sure it is processed in the correct way. So, I recycle when I travel, I recycle when I’m at work, what really bothered me is that I didn’t recycle at home because I never knew where to take my recycling should I decide to recycle.

Then one day I was driving around Ahmadi, I love to drive between the teeny tiny slanted red-roofed houses and the little alleyways in between. I adore Ahmadi and it is always a pleasure to be there. In any case, I was driving around one day last October when I realised that, in front of each and every house there is not one, not two, but four garbage canisters! Gathered together with the KOC logo and the words recycle! Lucky Ahmadi dwellers have their very own recycling garbage bins right at their doorsteps! I couldn’t resist taking the snapshot of one of the houses above!

Now tell me, why would the governance or municipality or whomever is responsible for Ahmadi houses welfare go through the trouble of providing recycling bins to each and every house if there wasn’t real and actual recycling schemes going on in Kuwait? Somewhere? I’ve asked this many times before, in fact during one of my early years of blogging back in 2010 I did post a questions about recycling in Kuwait but now, in 2016, I’m glad to say I am indeed now recycling at home as well as in my office. How am I recycling at home?

Well, since I’m moving house again and I have no time to buy unnecessary household items I’ve resorted to allocating big sturdy bags to keep -clean- separate recyclables in, each to its own category. One for plastics, one for magazines and newspapers, one for glass jars, and one for cans. Garbage garbage -like food waste- can go into the old style garbage but anything can, plastic, paper, or jar gets cleaned first if it was dirty and then put in its own bag for collection. It wasn’t easy in the first couple of weeks, especially since I couldn’t get my husband on board and more often than not I found him throwing the “wrong” kind of garbage in the old garbage can absentmindedly. Now, I often find glass or plastic packaging kept aside for collection by myself to put into the recycling bags.

Because those recyclables are clean, we can keep them for longer than the average garbage that rots away -which we can make into compost for gardening but we might want to have a garden to start with, perhaps in a few years time!-. Anyway, once we gather up a good amount of things, we take them away to a collection of big blue recycling canisters that can be found across several residential areas in Kuwait and then we throw away the recycled items, each in its own category as you can see from the picture above. It is not easy locating those big blue recycling cans, the ones in Zahraa area I found by mistake in the parking lot of a school, believe it or not, and not near the co-op for example and I don’t know why but since I’ve decided to commit to recycling schemes I am willing to drive there and do my part for the environment.

So, do I recycle in Kuwait? Yes I do. I wish one day we will have separate garbage cans in front of each house or at least in each neighbourhood for everyone to do their part and recycle, and I do have faith that once these items are collected they will not be mixed together in one big garbage haul and are actually processed right, but for now I have no excuse not to recycle. It is not easy, especially in big households with busy families and house help but with a little bit of patience and practise and easy facilitation of recycling, it is indeed doable and I think its about time, don’t you think?

So what about you? Do you recycle in Kuwait? And how?

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the long awaited 8th book!

I’m writing this post with a head buzzing with thoughts, heart fluttering with feelings, and eyes brimming with tears as I’m in a roller coaster of emotions that’s been tumbling since I returned home from work and sat with my iBook copy of the long awaited 8th book of Harry Potter, the one with the Cursed Child.

Is it really an 8th book? A proper sequel to the battle of Hogwarts set 19 years later? I couldn’t allow myself to get too attached the the book nor let myself believe it was a “real” or “100% authentic” new Harry Potter book. I was afraid. I didn’t want to be let down by it, I know its based on a sold out play and its not only J. K. Rowling’s name on the cover, I’m not sure what to expect and I had a feeling that… well.. this story is only make belief and this Harry book is a fraud. 

That being said, my fear didn’t stop me searching for the book ever since it went up for pre-order. I tried to be there in the UK for the book release but my plans fell through. Thank god for ebooks, for I woke up in the morning and downloaded and read an entire 10 pages before I even made it to my desk t work! Good news for people living in Kuwait: a physical copy is to be found in That Al-Salsil in the avenues.

So? so so so? Was it Harry Potter?

Again let me tell you, if you are looking for a good old all-narrated by Harry long novel with exceptional details and endless characters and creatures with names you cannot even pronounce, then you will be disappointed. This book is actually a “script”. It’s the offical script of the new Harry Potter play that is shown currently in London and is sold out until summer 2017 -tickets for my next birthday as a gift will be much appreciated by yours truly, just hinting-. So when you open the first page, you’ll realise its arranged in Acts and Scenes and not in chapters and the index is just like that, acts and scenes and if should you lose your place without bookmarking it then tough luck. It is not being narrated by anybody, it is a description of the play and the lines of each character. It might be a tad annoying and unusual, but eventually you get over it and start to enjoy it. It also means that the 420 pages fly by in a glance and it flows easily and -sadly, quickly.

Will it quench your thirst for Harry?

Well, I am reading, thirsty for Harry and his adult married life, early on as the time flies too quickly you give out a couple of real loud gasps -plot surprises, no spoilers!- yet you are interrupted by by Albus Severus Potter, the sultry teenage son of Harry who is moping and moaning, trying to shrug out from under his father’s famous and not so invisible clock. Sometimes, I wanted to reach out and give him quite a smack on the head on Harry’s behalf and ask him to stop giving his father a hard time and let us catch up! Please! I mean, there are interesting things happening like everyone addressing Professor McGonagall as simply Minerva and Draco exclaiming about a Farmer’s Market -yes, imagine, epic! No spoilers-. I just wish Ms. Rowling would do us all a favour and re-write a much detailed and a longer, much longer, version of this story and perhaps 2 more in between, one for each decade we’ve missed from Harry’s life.

Another thing, a lot of the characters we love and miss don’t even get a mention in the play. I understand you cannot squeeze the entire world of Harry Potter in one play -actually two plays in two days- but, well, WHERE IS HAGRID! WHAT HAPPENS TO HAGRID? WE WANT HAGRID UPDATES! Ehem…

At the very heart of the story, its the values of loyalty and friendship that stand out and make the biggest appearance. It always has been, no? Harry’s storey is not really just about magic, its about being lonely and finding in friendship a home away from home. This story is no different, it clearly about how far would you go to battle loneliness, would you stay true to yourself at the risk of being left all alone? Or would you surround yourself with people you don’t even like, become a copy of what they expect you to be, forsaking loneliness and as collateral damage your sense of true self? Which one would you choose? How loyal can you be, should you find friendship along the way?

You don’t really get to know where J. K. Rowling Starts and where the other writers end, but I promise you that the more you read the less you will care about that. By the time you reach the end you will forget that you are reading a play script, it will be a story, a much shorter and less concentrated story of Harry yes but it is about Harry. You will laugh, and cry, and gasp, and cry some more, and I assure you had I not looked like a dement or I would have posted my picture cloaked with my blanket and tears streaming down my face reading this book. I will leave you now with two of my favourite quotes from the book, again no spoilers, and I will wait for you to finish it up and come join me, for I’m bursting for someone to discuss this one with.

“I am no fit person to love… I have never loved without causing harm” ˜Albus Dumbledore.

“In every shining moment of happiness is that drop of poison: the knowledge that pain will come again. Be honest to those you love, show your pain. To suffer is as human as to breather”. ˜Albus Dumbledore.

Dumbledore always has the wisest quotes now, hasn’t he?

Oh and one last quote, my favourite Potter quote of all time: “I solemnly swear I am up to no good” ˜Professor McGonagall.

P.S. Dear J. K. Rowling, please some more?

P.S. 2. Happy 36th Birthday Harry, you’ve been missed

The Alphonso Mangoes from Wafra, Kuwait

Yes, the title is correct. This post and these pictures are telling the story of an Indian Alphonso mango tree, planted in a farm in Wafra area on the soil of Kuwait. The tree felt at home enough to bear not only regular Alphonso mangoes, no no, JUMBO alphonso mango fruits and there were enough of them to make it into a carton and arrive at my doorsteps about ten days ago! 

When I heard about an Alphonso mango tree in Kuwait I was skeptical. I’ve heard about attempts to grow mango trees here and they’d grow all right but our desert climate meant it might never bear any fruit. When I posted about receiving the box of mangoes on my Instagram account I was mocked, for apparently a mango grown in Kuwait must taste like acid.

Well guess what, mangoes need patience. They need to be kept in a nice lonely place and left alone to develop their taste. I smelled them and they did smell like Alphonsoes, albeit a bit less fragrant than the ones flown from India. As I picked them up one by one I noticed some had a layer of sand on them and as I puffed it away I was almost in tears. This sand comes from Kuwaiti soil -or perhaps one of those lovely sandstorms we are used to- this is Kuwaiti sand, this is a little fellow Kuwaiti fruit now and it was grown on a Kuwaiti farm! I couldn’t have been any prouder

The size is jumbo, they were bigger than my palm -check the picture below-! You know these jumbo ones are really hard to come by. You have to place your name in a waiting list at one of those local suppliers and you can wait an entire season and your turn wouldn’t come still. I once, after waiting forever, got a carton of the supposedly jumbo sized mangoes and they were only 150% bigger than the usual ones we got. These? I’ve never had one of those, they are as big as the Pakistani mangoes my parents are so fond of that arrive after the Alphonso season is over.

I waited patiently, patiently, until the time has come to cut one up and face the truth of the fruit. Was it fully developed in taste the was it was in size? Was it juicy or did it take after our lovely dessert weather and decided to be dry? How did it fare on an Alphonso mango scale of authenticity?

Juicy? Check! It was quite juicy and once cut up the lovely aroma of mangoes wafted up. There was juice everywhere! A diamond cut ensured I had nice good chunks of mangoes to sink my teeth into and check how it tasted.

My husband can verify this, but on my first encounter with my first bite of the Kuwaiti Alphonso mango, I closed my eyes and mumbled “Oh my god”. 100% pure Alphonso, taste, aroma, and juice. And despite the negative attitude predicting it was sour, it was as sweet as honey or maple syrup. It was GOOD, as good as a proper Alphonso should be

The only thing that was missing was the bright orange colour you sometimes -and not always- get with Indian Alphonsoes. Our Kuwaiti was was two or three shades paler but who cares as long as it tastes the part!

Now, who planted those golden babies and from which farm did they come from? The name is Home & Garden Nursery (@HomeAndGarden) and I believe many of you guys living locally are pretty familiar with their name for they are very popular landscape and garden designers in Kuwait. They are the very ones who gave me my favourite The Tickle Me plant almost two years ago! The plant is alive, well, flourishing, and still shy to my or anyone’s touch and I love it to bits!

Thank you Home & Garden, I’m so proud

The Key Hunt for Parker’s Restaurant, Dubai

I’ve been bored by, well everything really. Do you ever seem to think that everything in life is the same? Same activities, same faces, same places, same routine, same old and nothing is new happening anymore?

Enter the key hunt for the By Parker’s restaurant!

You see, there is something about having to earn your entry into a new food establishment. I recall once reading something like that in a magazine about a spot in a trendy hipster part of London, that unless you answer the gatekeeper’s riddle you won’t be allowed to climb through the wall into the restaurant or something. I loved the intrigue, the being there but out of reach except for the worthy kind of attitude. Of course its also fun, that’s why I’ve been following the SnapChat of by Parker’s in Dubai forever and deciding that the moment I set foot in Dubai, on the very night I do, I’m not going to rest until I do hunt for the key and actually claim it for myself.

And that’s exactly what happened on the last night of Ramadan 1437/2016. I was trying to locate the key all night, I nip into the cinema because I’ve given up. I get out of the movie and on the way to my hotel decided just to double check because you know know and lo and behold, they key location was right below us and I ran and looked around and didn’t see the key and then this guy on a bench tells me if you’re looking for the key the key guys have just left and I sigh in despair and it turns out he is the elusive key guy and I got a key I got a KEY I GOT A KEY!

Adrenaline pumping fun. How thrilling! We have a million restaurants in Kuwait, entry is always either boring and people always overdress to mark how new and hip and new the restaurant is and that’s about as exciting as it gets! When I open my new cafe, I’m going to have a key hunt or an entry hunt for a bit of exclusivity and fun, mark my words.

Now that I got the key, I did make it through the doors of parker’s for lunch, I think it was the second day of eid and if you are wondering whether or not its worth all this fuss, I assure you it is. I was lucky to go at just before the lunch rush started, when I sat down and took those few -horrible, sorry- pictures with my iPhone the restaurant was virtually empty. By the time we left not one single table was free and, as you can see in the picture above, there was a long winding waiting line sneaking out the door. Quite busy for a restaurant that you need key to access.

The interior is lovely! All concrete and high exposed ceilings and modern detailing. There is one side of the restaurant that overlooks the fountain but perhaps its only a couple of table with the view. Now even though you get seated and handed a menu, you are expected to go to the cashier and place your order. We didn’t know and no one told us, so we waited a while but then we figured it out on our own. That was perhaps the only glitch in our dining experience at Parker’s.

Since we took our time looking at the menu we decided to order half of it initially, for every other dish is delicious and vegetarian friendly, something I totally appreciated it! We then realised that we were going to end up with too much food and though we were hungry -it was the lunch of the 2nd day of Eid-, we had to make the hard choice of ordering half what we wanted to order. The fries alone came in four or five varieties! We placed our orders at the friendly cashier’s, took our number 6 marker, and headed back to our table to wait.

May we take a moment to talk about the table decoration? Very minimal, napkins in an Abo Qoos milk cans and black bottles that double as vases. Very cute.

The good think about Parker’s service is that it was indeed fast. We didn’t have to wait long for our food and when it came out, it came out at once. Sometimes I like it when my appetisers come and I get to enjoy them before the main dish but most of the time I ask for my food to come on a first done first serve basis especially when I’ve skipped breakfast and dinner before and it was time to dig in. Will you look at those delicious dishes?

Let’s go through them one by one now, shall we?

Black lemonade, which seems to be all the rage these days. Whether it is regular lemonade with ash added to it or the “loomi” which is the dry blackened lemons used as herbs in the Gulf kitchens for stews, I’m not sure but it did taste like the loomi the dry herb and not something with ash on it. Quite interesting.

Chicken strips coated with pretzels, these are supposedly one of the best sellers of Parker’s menu. According to my husband it was a delicious yet messy dish to have. Next? Those mac n cheese fried balls.

Good, where they? Personally I had higher expectations for them, perhaps if the cheese was a bit tangier, but they weren’t bad at all and quite naughty. But it was Eid lunch so I allowed myself to get away with it.

Behind the Mac n Cheese you see the grilled corn, once I squeezed that wedge of lime it was only a matter of minutes before the dish was all but gone. What I’m thankful for? The dish, the sauce, the sprinkle on top, non of it had chili or was spicy. Unlike many other restaurants who think that its OK adding fiery spices to every dish without announcement or warning, none of the dishes was spicy -aside from one- and when I left, I left with a perfectly fine stomach that didn’t wince in pain and ruin my day! Thank you Parker’s for easing up on the chili.

The picture below of the next dish DOES NOT DO IT JUSTICE, I’m sorry I didn’t have my camera on me or I’d have taken much better pictures. This is a waguy slider, marinated in coffee and chocolate and was the only dish with a hint of spice. I wanted to try and take a better picture, but it was my husband’s favourite and highly recommended dish and it was munched away in under 60 seconds!

Burgers come with fries, and we had a hard time choosing one kind of fries to share and in the end it was the truffle ones that one -I wanted the Zaatar fries, I will get those next time by god’s will-. These creamy truffle smothers golden crunches hit all the right spots, hit them all indeed.

Speaking of truffles, here is my dish! I’m not normally a fan of cream-based pastas and I almost didn’t order this one but I love truffle too much and, well, it was Eid so I went for it. Creamy yes, heavy? Not at all. It was excellent! Penne? Good. Truffles? good. Cheese? Good. Sauce? Good. Basil? Good. Price wise, it was not too expensive considering it was laced with truffles all the way.

Was the pasta really that good? I’ve taken the picture below as I imagined writing this particular line in my blog, told you my blog posts where always writing themselves in my mind didn’t I? This was the truffle pasta and I can very well taste every delicious truffle-y creamy morsel all the way on my couch in Kuwait.

Was it worth the hunt and the fuss? Absolutely! The rush, the food, the interior, the friendly waiters, and most importantly the crowd and ambience made it the perfect dining spot for the 2nd day of Eid lunch! Almost all the diners were young emirates, young girls, young couples, young families out for a spot of lunch, happy and chatting away, and it really did feel like we were in Dubai and travelling but at the same time it felt familiar like dining at home and not abroad, if you understand what I mean. Overall, it is now ranking very high on my favourite restaurants in Dubai and I cannot wait for my next visit so I could dine there and try their desserts which am told is fabulous.

By Parker’s is located at Dubai Mall. For more information about the restaurant check the By Parker’s Instagram account and to join the hunt follow their SnapChat account. Happy hunting and happy dining