Danderma's Blog, page 43

Movie Review: White House Down

I was invited by Cincescape to attend an advanced screening of “White House Down” yesterday. I’ve been wanting to watch White House Down for while so the invitation came in the most perfect time especially since Cinescape informed us we are at the first screening worldwide and not only in Kuwait.

White House Down, starring Channing Tatum, Jamie Foxx, and Maggie Gyllenhaal is a movie about a group of Terrorist who seize the White House on an just another ordinary day and taking the President, Jamie Foxx, hostage to insure their demands are met while ex-soldier Channing Tatum, who happened to be visiting the White House that very same day on a job interview, tries to save the day and bring down the Terrorists while saving both the president and the soldier’s own daughter who is held hostage in the White House as well.

Does the plot sound familiar? It is almost like watching Olympus has fallen with a different cast, a different hero, a different child, and local terrorists instead of foreign ones. How do they compare? Well, Olympus has fallen is more serious and the president was a hostage, in White House Down the president is wearing his Nike Air Jordans and joining in the action hence the movie is definitely more humorous at the expense being a tad less serious.

It is a good movie nonetheless, with bombs fires fights blood and explosions everywhere. I wonder why Hollywood has moved on from obsessing about natural disasters levelling NYC with the ground to obsessing about the White House being seized, but if you had seen and liked Olympus has fallen and liked it you will like this one as well.

The movie is cut at vital scenes of course, mainly because the attack is triggered by the US withdrawing all armed forces from the Middle East and how Arabs are not happy, I think they are not happy I’m not sure because the Arab’s opinion was of course chopped off and I wouldn’t know what I missed until I get the DVD, which is definitely joining on my DVD shelves when its out.

Thank you Cinescape for extending the invitation, I had a great time yesterday

Good Bye Alphonso Mangoes :(

The time has come to bid my favourite fruit ever, the Alphonso Mangoes, adieu. After an exceptionally long season where I’ve devoured every single golden mango that passed through my threshold, at last I can sit back and wave good bye for the imported cartons of mangoes. There are still a alphonso mangoes around but the taste has changed a bit, you know it’s time to let go. I’m also not interested in any other kind of mango, for once you taste the Alphonsos then that’s that.

I decided to celebrate the last of the Alphonsos by documenting their beauty using my camera. Each one as juicy, chunky, and so sweet you’d gladly give up chocolate for as long as the Alphonsos are around.

I usually suck the mango pulp by biting into the flesh and not bother with cutting it but for the sake of photography I cut one in two halves. Above is the half filled with the freshest mango juice ever, the below is all the half with the chunky goodness.

Then there is always the diamond cut mango flesh, which I personally don’t care for but they look good on camera. It’s also my husband’s favourite way of eating Alphonsos.

Good bye, my beloved Alphonsoes. Until we meet again next year by god’s will. I wish the next season is even longer than this year’s season.

Did you have enough Alphonso mangoes to last you until the next season? I certainly did!

New and Unique Ramadan Trays from f2o Designs

I’m still in Ramadan preparation mode, I can’t wait till the Holy month of Ramadan is here and I usually celebrate by buying new set of tableware, trays, and tea servers. I’m always  searching for funky tableware and tea/coffee sets that are not overpriced or too fancy for daily use. Lately I’ve had a sneak peek of very different, very funky, quirky, and durable colourful acrylic trays designed for the very first time by f2o designs and I just had to share my finds. There are trays, sugar boxes, tea bag boxes, and espresso/Turkish coffee cups and they will all be on sale in the f2o shop next Saturday.

The first tray I saw was the chwaiha tray in pink, chwaiha means a little cup of tea in Kuwaiti dialect. The pink set is one of my favourites.

The matching sugar box, very cute!

Next the white tray and tea box, with a very cute old man drinking tea in front of a dowwa (coal burner) and a popular song about tea. Whenever I see the tray I start to sing. I’m singing the song now.

Next, the old lady having afternoon tea! I laughed for a long time at afternoon tea spelled out in Arabic!

Also, on the sugar box the word sugar is spelled out in Arabic as well. Cute old lady is adorable!

The cute old man is back, this time on an orange acrylic tray! This might very well be my next Ramadan tray.

Last but least, the Kuwaiti man asking for tea from the tea boy and on the sugar box it says where is the sugar?

I can’t wait to see the coffee cups! f2o you should have made matching tea estekana’s as well! Also, new T-Shirt designs are out for the summer. The are oversized so they would be perfect over a pair of jeans plus they are about ice cream! I got me two, this is the first one.

And this is the famous ice cream selling guy screaming bareed in the neighbourhood. Bareed means ice cream. Whenever we were children and we would here the ice cream man screaming bareeed in the middle of the afternoon outside our house, we’d run out to get ourself some. The word bareeed alone elevates my mood these days.

Thank you lovely Fatima Al-Othman for the sneak peek! I love the trays, I love the acrylic, the colours, and the illustrations and I cannot wait for the moment I get my hands on my very own tray. My Ramadan coffee table will be brighter and funnier thanks to you. If you are looking for fun, unique, humorous, and lovely Ramadan tea/coffee sets and tray for this Ramadan, I’d recommend the f2o ones as I’m taking one for myself.

The trays and sets will be on sale starting next Saturday 29 June 2013. f2o designs can customise your own characters and have them designed and printed in every single way you can think of. For more information you can visit the f2o shop located in Burj Jassim Kuwait City, call +(965) 22960092, email f2o@f2odesigns.com, check the website (link), follow on Twitter (@f2oDesigns), or Instagram (@f2oDesigns).

Out with Google Reader… In with feedly

Every morning when I open up my Google Reader, the message that it will not be in use by the 1st of July greets me. It’s beyond me why successful and popular application would get the axe. Just like that favourite TV show with so much potential that gets axed just as you are getting addicted to it. C’est la vie, life goes on and as much as it saddens me, I feel like I’ve been evicted from my own home or something, have had to search for an alternative.

No one likes change, but if you change to something good it would lessen the impact and make the process easier. I’ve searched high and low on the internet looking for an alternative and realised that manyt fellow Google reader mourners are switching to feedly, so I decided to try it first and the transition was as quick as a blink! feedly encourages you to use them by having a one click google reader importer button on their website, two clicks later and you’d think you are indeed in Google reader! No mess, no fuss, business as usual. If anything, feedly looks and feels more organised than the legacy Google reader.

You might want to check out the alternatives before you commit to feedly, but I personally wouldn’t bother. Now that the matter is sorted out I can say good bye Google Reader, thank you for the memories. It was good while it lasted, and hello feedly!

Why Can’t an Adult order from the Children’s Restaurant Menu?

The other day I was out for lunch and I wasn’t feeling very hungry. When we were seated I asked for the children’s menu, only to be met by the waitress’s refusal to hand me one. Why? You cannot order a children’s meal for yourself if you are an adult.

Excuse me? I am well aware I am not a child, thank you very much. I’m just not that interested in buying a heap of fat-laden oversized meal portions when I want to consume two bites only! Why am I not allowed to order whatever I want in a restaurant? I know many girls who are on a diet, or who don’t eat big meals in restaurants, or girls who actually have the appetitie of a child. Are we supposed to consume more than we need or let the food go to waste just because of a menu title “techinicality”?

I’d understand the dilemma if the restaurant was a fancy one or had a minimum charge set and needs to meet it’s quota. I would have gladly ordered enough smaller appetisers or perhaps coffee and dessert instead. But not in the case of that restaurant I was in. I could have sat there, happily sipping from an overpriced bottle of mineral water from the menu and consumed nothing else, but they still wouldn’t budge and bring me the children’s menu. I should have said I had an invisible child joining us soon, perhaps that would have persuaded her!

Have you ever been unable to order from the children’s menu in a restaurant before? I have had some snickering from different restaurants when I asked about a children’s menu before but I always did end up ordering from it except for that last time. I wonder why that rule exists!

The Making of Ramadan’s Samboosa

It’s time again to bring out the samboosa dough, for my Ramadan iftar table is never complete without a plate of hot bubbling baked samboosa (samoosa) in the very centre! With fourteen days to go until the start of the Holy Month of Ramadan where muslims fast all day long and break their fast at sunset. A favourite Ramadan preparation activity of mine is wrapping the Samboosa’s myself at home using my own filling mixes.

The only thing I don’t make at home is the samboosa dough. I always buy the dough by the kilo from the Indian Samboosa shop in Qadsiya Co-Op. In my humble opinion it is the best in Kuwait. The sheets always come fresh, bubbling hot, and the doughy smell is so maddeningly good you cannot help but eat a few uncooked sheets of samboosa. Especially the ones with the creases. Yummy!

The samboosa sheets are best used on the day of purchase while still hot and pliable. If you keep them in the fridge for a day or two they will be OK as long as you get them out a few hours before wrapping time and let them thaw to room temperature. Sometimes, the sheets are so thing you can go a bit cross eyed trying to pry them off each other without breaking them but overall the process is very smooth.

What to do with the sheets? Well, you turn the dough into triangles as I will show you and fill them with whatever you want. Traditionally it’s either filled with minted feta cheese, Kraft’s canned cheddar cheese, or a vegetarian mix of peas potatoes and carrots. The world is your oyster though, I’ve filled them with everything you can think of!

This year the traditional canned Kraft cheddar cheese got a makeover! No longer do you have to pry open the can with a can opener, I found the new cheese container int he refrigerator section of the co-op so I’m guessing it won’t be as long lived as the old canned cheese. I used one can and chopped it up into small cubes – it goes great with red grapes and pecans for a quick snack btw-.

I also use a carton of Al-Maraei’s low fat low sodium white feta cheese and mix it up with a spoonful of dry mint. This is my second favourite samboosa mix ever.

I also use Kraft cheese as a samboosa filling. The Kraft Cheese and Kiri Cheese samboosa’s are my husband’s favourites. My absolute favourite, however, is the herbed Halloumi and Akawi cheese filling. I make mine using low fat halloumi, akawi cheese, black seeds, chopped fresh parsley, and chopped fresh mint.

Putting together the ingredients necessary to make the little baked triangular delights couldn’t be faster or easier. Purchase a kilo -or more- of fresh Samboosa dough, bring out whatever cheese you have in the fridge, and a little bowl of white flour mixed with warm water to use as a glue, and wrap away to your heart’s content.

How to wrap a samosa? Here is how…

These pictures might be more helpful, I made them last year (post).

If the filling is a soft cheese one, like the Kiri or the feta, it is easier to wrap.

Once wrapped, you can place them on trays, tupperware boxes, or big plastic bags. If I’m going to use them immediately I’d place them on a baking tray but for freezing I place them in big plastic tupperware boxes and freeze them to use throughout the holy month of Ramadan.

Samboosa’s are usually deep fried in oil but I can’t eat them that way anymore. I place them on a baking tray or a piece of aluminium foil and bake them in a 180 C over for about 8 to 10 minutes. Some people brush them with olive oil before baking but I don’t think that’s necessary. The moment you sit on the iftar table, after a long day of fasting, and break a bubbling hot samboosa, the cheese filling all fragrant oozing everywhere, it’s heavenly!

Other fillings you can use for your samboosa’s are pizza mix (tomato sauce, mozzarella, oregano, and olives), Mexican Fajita mix (salsa, refried beans, chopped jalapeños, and Monterey jack cheese), chocolate and harda spread, Nutella, Chocolate flavoured Philadelphia cheese, and this year I’m contemplating using the crunchy lotus biscuit spread as a filling for the second phase of Samboosa wrapping, perhaps with blueberries. If it works I will post about it

So, how do you like your Samboosa during Ramadan and what’s your favourite samboosa filling?

The Old Amiri Hospital is Being Preserved

While I was walking on foot after parking my car to get into Tijariya tower under the scorching June summer sun, I passed by a very spooky and run down building that looks like it was a hospital. I thought this might be the infamous old Amiri hospital where numerous photographers had taken gorgeous yet sad pictures inside, but I’m not 100% sure since there is another site overlooking Gulf Road that I always thought was the Amiri Hospital.

According to the internet maps it is indeed the Old Amiri Hospital and the good new is that it was surrounded by a big white construction barrier with the sentence “Preserving Historical Projects” written all across it in Arabic. Good news I suppose, for you can see the beauty of the place despite the layers of neglect, peeling paint, and vandalising graffiti.

I’m waiting for the renovations to start and perhaps one day I will go back and do a before and after photo posts especially if it’s turned into a museum for the public. I wanted to go inside but the sand that filled the entrance was too hot from the sun it burned through my shows! Plus, I expected to find a ghostly apparition greeting me the moment I ventured in, not something I wanted to risk meeting all alone. Have you ever been inside the old Amiri hospital, if it is indeed the old Amiri hospital? Where you ever really spooked?

Tea at The Dessert Bakery

On instagram a picture of a bird cage caught my attention. It wasn’t any old bird cage, mind you, it was a half bird cage half a tiered serving platter laden with goodies and sandwiches. The pictures was an announcement of a daily afternoon tea from 3 until 8 P.M. in Desserts Bakery, one which I’ve never been to before. 

When I couldn’t get the picture of the bird cage afternoon tea platter out of my mind, I took my car keys and my camera and headed at 4 P.M. to the location of Desserts Bakery, which happens to be inside the new section of 52 Degrees. The place is cosey and designed in a rustic whimsical style with plenty of things on display for sale.

Check out the little coloured doilies! Cute!

They also stock those German hot chocolate stick dippers brand I once got from the German Market in the UK (post)!

Now for the food, I went to Desserts bakery because of the afternoon tea but I was told it takes about 40 minutes to make after placing the order because it’s fresh. I had skipped lunch that day and I couldn’t afford to wait 40 minutes so I, with a heavy heart, turned to the mouthwatering display and decided to just have tea with something sweet instead.

We chose two mini truffles (red velvet and chocolate), a caramel cheesecake and a kanafa cheese cake. I wanted to have Earl Grey tea but they only had two kinds of tea, black or green so I chose black. We also ordered a salted caramel latte.

We placed our order and sat on the long table laden with jugs filled with flowers, anticipating a quiet time with our hot beverages.

The desserts were nice although the kunafa cheesecake didn’t taste much like kunafa. I liked the red velvet truffle the most. The service was very quick and cheerful although I’ve been asked if I needed anything else more times than necessary. Our bill came to about 5 KD which isn’t bad for an afternoon break. Desserts bakery is lovely for a quiet gateway or to grab a cup of coffee with friends and chat and if you want to try the afternoon tea perhaps you can give them a call before you head there so they can prepare it in advance.

Desserts Bakery is located in the new section of 52 Degrees and they are available on Talabat.com as well. For more information regarding Dessert Bakery you can contact them by phone +(965) 99577693 or follow them on instagram (@DessertBakery).

ASAMA Perfumes Store in Al-Tijaria Tower

I received a very elegant invitation from the owners of a newly opened Asama perfumes store in Tijaria tower to visit their store. Inside the invitation was a white rose, my favourite flower, and a perfume bottle.

Last weekend I had the chance to pass by Tijaria tower, in case you don’t know which one it is, it’s the striking twisted building in Kuwait City.

ASAMA perfumes shop is located in the M2 near the very end. They have a very nice collection of perfumes, bukhoor (incence), and marshoosh (home fragrances), and gift boxes to fill with a mix of perfumes and bukhoor of your choice.

Even though I had made a vow not to buy any more perfumes until I finish some of my stock, I couldn’t go out buying myself a bottle, breaking my promise in return.

Thank you ASAMA perfumes for the lovely invitation. It was my pleasure to visit your store and be introduced to your collection. Wishing you the best of luck.

ASAMA Perfumes is located in Al-Tijaria Tower, Mezzanine 2. For more information you can contact them by +(965) 96927262, check their website (link), or follow them on Instagram (@AsamaPerfumes).

Arabella Restaurants Complex is now Open

Erecting big restaurant complexes with outdoors seating is the latest it trend or habba in Kuwait. I’m not complaining, more places to hang out and eat out for us, and the latest of which is the just opened Arabella complex in Al-Bidaa.

Two things that stand out about Arabella: 1- It’s designed like an traditional European town, I’d expect Spanish cities to look this way and 2- It actually has a sea view and you can see it the moment you step out of your car in the parking.

Arabella is huge! Two restaurants were already open for customers, The Olive Garden and Entercote. The Red Lobster looks like it will be opening any day now and there are many other restaurants and cafe’s including Altissimo and The Cheesecake Factory.

When I passed by yesterday the heat was unbearable and there was no shade so I couldn’t stay long or venture more into Arabella. It would be better to visit at night time during the summer months and an excellent location for spending a lovely weather day in Kuwait sitting outdoors and watching people pass by. I know by the time the good weather is here and more stores and restaurants have opened, it would be the next it Bidaa place to be.

Arabella is located right next to The Palms and Sas hotel in Al-Bidaa coast strip. You can’t miss it, the big clock tower is overlooking the street.