Danderma's Blog, page 5

Book Review: The Thirteenth Tale By Diane Setterfield

So, I’ve just put down this book and I feel a bit sorry that I’ve done so. I have this new ritual of getting a bunch of books and reading the first chapter of each in order to decide which one to start reading next. In the 13th tale case, I knew from page two that I very much wanted to continue on reading until the very last page and that once I do reach it, I will be buzzing with what ever I’ve read. My hunch was spot on.

I find myself loving heroines who are bookworms like myself. I actually imagine myself spending my days at a library like Margaret did, and can imagine how it must have felt for her, being summoned by Vida Winter, a best-selling author whose days are limited and whose never-before told story needs to be penned down by Margaret. This is  book written by a book addict to book lovers everywhere and those are turning out to be the best reads so far. I loved the mystery surrounding Vida, the urgency in documenting what was past in what little time is left, and the different ways a tale is told. I actually found comfort in knowing the story was propelling in one direction and that everything is being revealed in its own proper time. I however am not convinced of why exactly Vida Winter chose Margaret, but the “twist” near the end of the book that explains everything is something you will not be seeing coming and will take you by surprise for sure.

The thing is, I am talking about a book that is published in 2006 so its not new. You might have already come across it for it was on New York Times best seller after it was published. There is also a BBC movie with the same name that is based upon this novel that aired in 2013 that I haven’t seen but will be looking out for and hopefully won’t be disappointed.

Now I must warn you, there is an air of despair lingering around the lines of the story and it might not be to everyone’s taste. Depressing or not, I wasn’t able to put it down and I wasn’t able to kick the characters out of my mind for a while. I’m only sorry it didn’t go on for a bit longer, somehow after the twist and the conclusions the story seemed to rush towards the ending but now with a movie available, it should be more than enough.

Recommended? You bet. Stories do end up on New York Times best seller’s list for a reason.

My First Package Delivered to My Local Post in Kuwait Ever!

What am I talking about? Receiving a package by the post? Is this really worth blogging about in 2015?

If you live in Kuwait then yes, it really is. Surprisingly, for a couple of decades the postal services in Kuwait have been really and truly unreliable in a way that broke your heart and left you scratching your head, it is the era of automated services after all. With the invention of online shopping, everyone had to find a way to shop and make sure their packages did arrive, enter Aramex mailboxes of 2003. For a while, Aramex provided a seamless splendid service with very reasonable prices, I even had magazine subscriptions delivered to my UK and US mailboxes and they’d arrive to Kuwait, censorship free, on a timely manner and would still cost less than their mutilated censored sisters that arrived midway through the month. 

Alas, as time went on I reached a point when I couldn’t use Aramex without pulling my hair out and paying an obscene amount of money for a shipment. Other shipping companies weren’t any better, they’d exploit all they can squeeze out of you, some even producing invoices with vague fees of their own and if you challenge them they’d miraculously disappear. Why invite a headache into my already hectic life? I stopped shopping online altogether, an activity that gave me immense joy in the past, and restricted my online shopping for the most urgent matters only.

So what is this Amazon package doing in the picture above? Well, here is the thing, I did go back and shop online but after I kept hearing, and reading on the Kuwaiti post twitter account, how people are ordering and receiving their shipments all the time. I didn’t believe it at first, I’ve heard horror stories of happy shipments disappearing into the basement of the post office in Kaifan and never making it back, and friend from neighbouring countries keep boasting about their online shopping arriving at their door step in a timely manner. One thing led to another, I found myself on Amazon gazing at a book I really really wanted, my fingers curled over the add to shopping cart button, but I decided to take the “reasonable” route first.

The reasonable route was to call all bookstores in Kuwait and ask about the book. I did. None stocked it even though it was November and the book was out since August. I checked Kinu, Dubai’s library that does deliver to your doorstep but the shipping fees were so high, they were twice as much as the full price of the book. In the end I decided to go back to Amazon, take a leap of faith and have the book sent to my home address, as in Block x street y house z. If it makes it then fine, if it doesn’t then I wouldn’t have lost much. I even chose the normal standard shipping of two weeks and not the fast one and I got a delivery date of 9 December.

So did the book make it? Of course it did! Can you see the stamp on the package? I live in Al-Zahraa and when we picked up the packaged it had a stamp of the exact delivery date specified by Amazon, 9 December, from Al-Zahraa post office! So packaged do get delivered! They aren’t lost in Kaifan, nor did I have to go into any extra lengths or move any mountains or search any haystacks of papers to get it. It did arrive on the 9th of December, but I only received it on the 16th but that was my mistake. Care to know why?

You see, when the package arrived to the local post office on time they tried to deliver it to the house. However, because the house we are in is not really a separate house but rather a block of apartments in an unusual numbering system, the post office did attempt to deliver it and couldn’t get to the house. They tried to contact me, only stupid me didn’t have a phone number listed on the package with the address so the package went back to the post office, waiting for me.

Meanwhile, and a week before its arrival time, I did attempt to find the package assuming the worst and that it was lost already. I went to Hateen’s express delivery centre one evening and they told me only shipments that are “express” with a certain letter, I think it was an e, in the tracking number -yes there is!- is available there and that if my shipment is missing I should check Kaifan. I did go to Kaifan one evening only to be told that packages and parcels are only delivered during the morning time and that I should check my local post office first. When I went to Al-Zahraa post office, they asked me to give them the shipment details and they’d look for it, the very next morning they pulled the shipment out of a huge back of unclaimed packages that was being sent back the airport because no one expected them to have indeed arrived on time and there was no phone numbers on the parcels to contact their owners.

Shipments stay in the local post office for one exact week before its sent back to the sender. Now, look at my book! All safe and sound and local post-office stamped and everything!

How much did the local post office charge me, for clearance and customs and handling and all other mumbo jumbo payments we are slapped with when we use the other shipping companies? Zero. Yes, you read that right, Z.E.R.O. Kuwaiti Dinar. They didn’t ask for a single fils! How much did I pay for my book? Well, the book is sold for £26 but I paid only 9 KD because it was on discount in Amazon, including the shipping fees of £8.48 which is almost four KD only.

Here is my tip for peace of mind when you shop online, try sending it to your home address if they offer international shipping and add your telephone number in the address fields, loud and clear like “Please call my phone at +965-xyxwxyzw” and when it arrives someone will call you. I believe that now, and I’m thankful for that leap of faith that I took because, as I was posting about my experience in SnapChat and Instagram many people living in Kuwait commented that they’ve been ordering online and sending their purchases to their local address directly and it arrives, it does indeed arrive, all the time!

Very encouraging, and I’m glad that I can say that in 2015 I’ve finally been able to receive something via the local post office in Kuwait in a reasonable manner. I did find an tracking code on my package, which makes me believe that perhaps one day we’ll be able to track out shipments online. I also think there is still so much work to be done, especially to the horrible postal website that is barely a website, but I’m keeping the faith. I’m that happy to be frank. From now on I’m resuming my shopping online and sending everything to my local post office, no one will exploit my shipments and squeeze me dry for fees anymore!

P.S. it seems that postals services differ per area. For example we have a post office box in Mishref and we tried sending documents and cards there before but nothing ever arrived. South Surra areas all seem to have perfect postal services, as well as Dhahiya where my father’s post office box is located. I’d say try your luck and see!

Hello?

It’s me…

Its been a while I know. I come in here often, open up the post publishers, compose something, quit midway and sigh deeply. Then I spend the time until the next time I log in thinking only about the post I haven’t completed. I’m simply at loss at what to see.

I’m lost. Ever since I’ve hit the 35-years-old mark and I’ve been in sort of a panic, something akin to an early mid-life crisis where I am truly observing what I’ve achieved so far and, deciding that I’ve achieved absolutely nothing, am at loss at where I’ve went wrong and what am I going to do.

Its very much possible that I’ve bypassed half of the years of my life already. In 15 years I might be retired, in 25, a decade less than my current age, I’m going to be considered a “senior” citizen. In five year’s time I will not be considered that young nor youthful anymore. You get the idea.

Yet me, the girl who wanted to do everything, try everything, be everything, fill her entire life and colour her days with activities, am sitting on my couch brooding my days away. I don’t know what I want to do with my life anymore. I seriously don’t.

I’ve been let down by many. I’m not exactly successful at anything I am either even though I can give 100% and be perfect. Why? Sometimes its laziness, sometimes its being in the wrong place at the wrong time, sometimes its because I don’t have what society requires of you to succeed, something other than your ability or ethics.

Who am I? What do I want to do? I’m a female, I’m Kuwaiti, I’m married, I’m a computer engineer, and what else? Should there be something else? Am I behind, am I ahead already? What do I want? How do I behave? Do I give up? Should I invest in some unwarranted hope?

I know I need a vacation, and that long-overdue promotion. I need new scenery! New things to do, new faces to smile at, new places to visit, new food to taste. I want life, a vibrant and colourful and exciting life. I’m not ready to settle to whatever it is I’m supposed to be settling at when you are 40. I want to be a pilot, an archaeologist, an artificial intelligence researcher, a painter, a chef, a chocolatier, a coffee barista, write the next groundbreaking captivating novel, a dj, play the piano, sing, travel the world! I want to be thin again, my god if I could only be as skinny as I was, then go shopping until I’m broke for six months straight!

I want to be alive, I need to be free.

Thank you for making it here, apologies for inflicting my insecurities at you. Hopefully this means I can get over this post now its published and get back to blogging normally. One day I hope I can look back at this post and laugh at how confused I was, little 35 years old Nadooya

P.S. Is it possible that I’m the only person on earth who doesn’t like Adele’s new hit song? Well, I don’t, I think its boring but that’s just me.

Book Review: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

In a change of all the war-related novels I’ve somehow found myself reading lately, I picked up this book with a bright-yellow cover and nothing historical or war related story line. It is an intriguing one, it seemed, for its supposed to tell the story of Rosemary, a girl who lost her sister Fern when they were little and when she grew up she finds out more about what happened to her sister, the plot played at a mystery surrounding the little girl’s disappearance and involving both girls father and an experiment he was conducting on his girls, the two children. 

Now, I don’t know how to review this without a spoiler, for if I let out the big plot twist surrounding this story it would mean I’ve let out the most shocking, eyebrow-raising, gasp out loud moment of the book that made it worth its while. You are in for a shocker about one third into the book and a real one as well. Now, if you reach that point or if you’ve been unfortunate to have read a review that spoiled it for you, you’d know the subject at the centre of this novel is a very humane, very important, and not that present in modern fiction. It is shocking, and extremely heartbreaking yet very important for it raises moral questions you might find yourself not asking before. The story is enjoyable indeed, had it followed a more traditional storyline that is.

What irritated me though is how the story reverbarates between past and present, memories and thoughts, now and then, scenes and tales. I was, at times, quite bored yet kept reading on because I really wanted to know what happened and then at one point in the end I began to skim some of the pages for the narrative got too-wordy for my liking. I also am quite frustrated with Rosemary, the main character who somehow was floating through college and let a drama-queen of the name Harlow overtake too much of her life, and our precious reading time as well, without even a pep on Rosemary’s end! The ending however wrapped up nicely, cozily, and it was as satisfactory as it could become under the circumstances of Rosemary and her family.

Would I recommend this? Yes I would, though I’d say if you reach page 77 and you don’t like the plot twist you’ve come upon then perhaps this book is not for you. I liked it very much though I don’t see myself reading it again anytime soon. It’s a one time read kinda of book.

Meet the Kiwi Berry!

How incredibly cute are those little green olive-like berries?

They don’t look like much now, do they? I myself wouldn’t have given them a second glance, they don’t strike me as that interesting or boring but this is one very fact-affirming moment in life where the inside is what indeed that matter and not the visible cover. Once you cut those little berries in half you will find a little teeny kiwi inside! Yes, kiwi, complete with miniature little black seeds and all! Don’t believe me? Look! This is the grape sized olive-like little green berry…

And when cut open, it is a kiwi! So tiny, it could be a Barbie’s kiwi rather than a human one! How do they taste like? 100% Kiwis, and I’m not a fan of kiwis, but these come in bite sized versions and would do wonders if used in canapés or for finger food presentations! You pop-them one by one because even though they resumble kiwis and do taste like kiwis, they don’t have than tangy kiwi pinch to your tongue that I dread when having kiwis and therefore they actually do taste better than kiwis!

Where did I get them from? If you are asking that question then you must really start following me outside of the blogsphere, for my followers on instagram and snapchat accounts already know the story. Last week I received a basket invitation from Dean & Deluca’s Kuwait branch in the Avenues Mall to their first ever indoors local market and in that market I came upon the Kiwi berries and the Pineberries.

Now Pine berries I’ve known about and looked for, the marriage between a strawberry and a pineapple that is white in colour yet sweet like pineapples. I actually couldn’t believe my eyes when I’ve seen the box of pine berries sitting there among the other fruit boxes, nonchalant, when I’ve been chasing them around the world looking for them! I grabbed them, excited, and noticed the tiny plastic box of kiwi berries next to them.

Apparently you can now ask Dean & Deluca to supply you with strange edible fruit from around the world and they, through a local company called Star Fruit Co., will try their best to source them out. According to the local supplier’s representative they even have edible flowers and had a kiwi that was yellow inside and tasted like another fruit. I’d share their information but I’ve lost their card and couldn’t find an instagram account for them so if you are interested you can pass by D&D and check them out.

Needless to say I wasted no time picking a box of kiwi berries and a box of pineberries to take home. I frankly took the kiwi berries because they looked cute but wasn’t that excited about them while the pineberries I’ve been pining for them, pun intended.

I’m sad to say I was really disappointed in the pineberries. They tasted sour and blah when I expected something sweet and luscious, something like a strawberry pineapple cocktails perhaps, weren’t they bred to do just that? I don’t think I will be trying them again to be frank but at least I got to tick them off my list of weird foods to try and I can chalk it off as a 2015 achievement.

Now, the kiwi berries that I wasn’t even keen to try in the first place turned out to be very addictive. They are tiny, and good tasting, and you put the little green fellas in a little bowl by your TV’s remote control while waiting for the horrible finale of CSI to come on and you mistake them for popcorn, one after the other they disappear, juicy and cute and sweet and delicious, and suddenly your fingers reach the cold bottom of the porcelain bowl and you realise with a start that you’ve gone through an entire box, which isn’t much btw, without even realising it! I thought the kiwi berries were a breed like the pineberries, perhaps the marriage of a kiwi and green grapes, but it turns out they have been there, growing on trees in Japan and other Asian countries and eaten since god created them on this planet! Interesting, no?

For more information about the kiwi berries, if you are the curious type like I am, check their wikipedia page (link) and if you haven’t tried them before and fancy trying some, I suggest you contact Dean and Deluca in the Avenues mall (@DeanDelucaMe) and, trust me, they are worth a try. Leave the pineberries, take the kiwi berries, and enjoy!

Book Review: Early One Morning by Virginia Baily

You read the cover of the book and you know you are in for a treat, for whatever words will come must tell a complex tale of love and loss. One day in Rome during WW2 young Chiara Ravello was about to flee the war only to come upon a family being hoarded for concentration camps. In one life-changing moment, Chiara manages to save the 7-years-old little David from the fate awaiting his family by claiming he was her nephew, and from that moment on her journey with the little boy begins. 

I personally thought the story would go on about how David, the little boy that was saved, manages to find his footing in the surrogate family that became his own and that much is true, but that’s not really the story. The plot flicks between past and present, between what happened and what is now happening. You want to read about David the little boy’s ordeal and how he came to terms with his situation in the dangerous circumstances of war. Then you are thrust into the present, where David is no longer in Chiara’s life for some reason but a little teenager, Maria, is trying to get hold of Chiara after finally discovering she was indeed David’s son. Chapter by chapter the story unfolds, and I have to say I was fighting the urger to sleep, forcing my eyes open just so I’d know what happens to David, to Maria, and of course to Chiara.

What didn’t I like about this book? The length. at only 300 something pages, it wasn’t enough to tell a complex story like that of Chiara’s and David. The ending, or the last chapter, somehow zoomed by and sentences were running after each other, each delivering a part of that could have been expanded on. I would have loved a few more chapters in between to tell the story more properly, sometimes there were too many descriptive details of surroundings but too few details regarding events. I’d also loved at least two more chapters in the end dedicated to what happened in the last two paragraphs, its what the story was leading to anyway. I am now hoping for a sequel, for I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the rich tale so much, I am left with the feeling of wanting to go back and reading more.

Would I recommend it? Of course I would, thankfully there isn’t much war details if that’s the thing that would puts you off a war-related novel. Its more of a tale that happens because of war and with a background of a war happening with less than a handful of war-related events in between. Its a story about sacrifice, dedication, and most importantly its the story about unconditional love which can arrive in the most unexpected way when you least expect it.

Somehow I seem to have been reading a lot of oldie and war-related novels lately. I didn’t mean to, but somehow this is how it came to be. I’m not sorry though, almost each novel I’ve read this year have been thoroughly enjoyable and worth being lost into. I might be looking for something different for the next book so if you have any recommendations you are more than welcome to share.

Lunch at Bao Kuwait

Have you been to Bao?

I have, and then I have again and again, and somehow even though there is one savoury bao that I can have on the menu I keep craving that bao, the pillow softness texture you bite into before you are met with the crunchy fried exterior of the mushroom. Bao, which my auto correct keeps correcting to Boa, is one of Kuwait’s hottest eateries right now and it does deserve all the attention indeed.

Located in the heart of Kuwait city, the building where Bao is located has plenty of parking besides it which, to me, makes the trips to Bao even more appealing. I don’t know about you, but every restaurant in Kuwait including the hip ones come with a lull-time where you are guaranteed a table. This wasn’t the case with Bao for every time I’ve been there, all during the off peak times of the dining rush hour time for the population of Kuwait, and I’ve had difficulty finding a table! The place is popular, I’ve yet to meet one person who didn’t enjoy the baos or didn’t go back for more, and I think its about time I tell you what a bao is now before I go on. I seem to be a bit rusty writing reviewing mo? My mind is scattered all over the place lately so you’ll have to excuse my ageing brain cells.

See the washed-out sad looking white bun in the picture above, that’s a bao! A bao is a piece of bread, a steamed bun actually hailing from the Asian cuisine. True, it is not baked golden the way other buns are but frankly who needs golden when you can have a sandwich inside a cloud! I know some people require their bread to be crunchy, but for a dough-lover like myself a bao is a dream come true, a piece of dough so soft, so pillowy, its almost magical. It tastes exactly how I think a cloud would taste if I could bite into it. I have this obsession with clouds, I want to own one and have it in my living room but that can be some other time’s post.

The first time I’ve tasted a bao was at brunch in St. Al-Makan, two open faced boa’s topped with scrambled eggs and sweet mushrooms. I swear I can taste those shrooms and eggs still. I’ve known of a bao in Soho, London but I’ve never been before, then in instagram I’ve noticed that Mariam Al-Jasser, the lady behind Maria Rustica’s bagels and fresh pasta maker from the days of Shakshoka Market was also behind the menu of Bao and I knew, just knew, that the food will be awesome! My hunch was right about the food, and the little nook of a place is also lovely!

Lots of wooden chairs, a long darkish mirror above the diners, teensy tiles, and a French soundtrack playing. No wonder you cannot find a table, the place is hip yet still friendly and relaxed. You sit and enjoy the food and the atmosphere and you keep wanting to order stuff off the menu because frankly you do not want to leave.

The menu isn’t that big, 3 salads, 3 appetisers, a few boa’s with only one that is vegetarian friendly, and two desserts. To some people -moi- one bao is quite enough even though I can easily have three but to other, especially men, three to four bao’s would do.  The salads are good and fresh, one of my favourites is the one with the pomeli fruit with pomegranates, and all the dishes come as fast as you can blink, a good thing if you are starving and cannot bear to wait.

There are fries as well, sweet potato or normal potato, matchstick thing and crunchy!

On my husband’s first visit he tried the brisket bao and he fell heads-over-heels in love with it and still raves about it till this day. On subsequent visits he tried other boas with different fillings but his first love is still the brisket bao so if you are a carnivore going for the first time he would recommend it for you to try.

In my case I order the kinoko or kipoco bao, I don’t recall the name exactly but its the one with the fried mushrooms and Japanese spicy mayo. I order it without chilli for I cannot have any and the bao is just splendid. All the ingredients complement each other perfectly!

There are fried onion strips which are a bit crispier than the outer flesh of the mushrooms so you have to levels of crunch that contrast nicely with the soft-bubbly texture of the bao. The mayo gives a nice subtle spicy kick to the bite as you chew and you end up craving the kikoko bao for days and days afterwards until you go back and meet with another of its siblings again. Look how soft it is

For desserts the first time around we tried both desserts available on the menu, the first one is a crunchier version of the bao, stuffed with a solid block of ice cream, drizzled with caramel sauce, and topped with pieces of pretzels.

The presentation of that sweet bao was mouthwatering, you wonder if you are able to share it with others on your table or simply grab it and run away with it, it looks that good! However, I somehow didn’t enjoy the crunchier version of the bao as much as I thought I would. Perhaps if I wasn’t in a hurry and had allowed the ice cream to melt a bit and seep into the bao, drenching it a bit, it would have tasted better. Let is melt a bit then try it.

The second one I almost didn’t order, a bao with a fried banana smothered in chocolate if I am not mistaken but it isn’t something I’d normally go. Surprisingly, it was the winning dessert even though it didn’t look as good as the first dessert!

Perhaps its because the bao was still soft and pillowy? Maybe its the chocolate? I don’t know but this bao we fought over, squeezing the life out of the banana and mashing it with the chocolate, mixing it with the soft dough and gobbling it up without blinking. It was that good, and it was gone in less than 60 seconds and I have to tell you, do not order it to share or you’ll be left with nothing to taste.

So today is Thursday, and all I can think about is having lunch at Bao! I’m a woman-obsessed and I suspect that’s the case with everyone whose been to Bao and liked it. If you haven’t been already, then I’m telling you that Bao will be the perfect spot to celebrate Thursday’s lunch today and I hope you enjoy your dining experience there as much as I did every time I was there. If you’ve been already, what is your favourite bao?

Bao is located in Kuwait City, Sharq, Khalid Bin Waleed Street. For more information you can check their instagram account @Bao_KW or give them a call on +965-51470344.

Making Zoodles Pasta with my new Spiralizer

Close your eyes for a moment after you read this paragraph andimagine a point far far away in the future when you are as old in age as you’d think you’d live to be, how about a 100-years-old? Everything is in the hands of god of course, but let’s imagine that somehow you did live to join the centenarian club. How do you think you will feel, health-wise, if Allah granted you to live that long? White hair and lots of wrinkles of course yes that’s a given, but what about your health?

I’m not trying to preach or anything, excuse me if this is coming across as a form of self-righteous preaching, but bear with me as I’m trying to make a humble point here. I’d love it if I could live forever but we can all agree that’s not possible so the next best thing is to hope and live for as long as humanely possible in this day and age and, this is very important, as healthy as possible. You cannot control what life throws at you, but you can aim towards keeping as healthy as possible and that’s why these days I’m cutting out a lot of things out of my life (food, negativity, etc.) and trying to find healthier alternatives to beloved dishes I’ve known and grown up with and since my number one favourite dish of all time is Spaghetti Pomodoro I wanted to experience a “healthier” alternative to it. Enter the Zoodles!

I think it was a couple of years back when people started to go crazy for Zoodles, which are spaghetti-like strings of finely cut zucchinis. I think I’ve seen them in one farmer’s market and in one too many instagram posts although I’m yet to come across them in a local restaurant. In my quest of going healthy, I invested in a “Vegetable Spiralizer” that I got from Lakeland. I saw it in the UK first but I thought why lung it all the way back to Kuwait when we have a Lakeland in Marina Mall and when I was back in Kuwait I went to Marina Mall and there it was. Very straightforward to use and comes with three different razor attachments for three difference spiral thickness cuts.

Next I needed zucchinis and for that I opted to choose the dark green ones sold in Sultan Centers rather than the small light green ones we usually find in local Co-ops. I read somewhere online that you should make your Zucchini pieces as straight as possible even if you have to cut them and so I did. One long Zucchini is enough for one portion by the way.

Simply attach each piece and whirl away!

You’ll be surprised at how neat the strings are! Don’t use the thinnest cutter, use the thick one as the strings of Zucchini tend to shrink after being cooked.

By the time I was done with the single Zucchini, my dish was overflowing with Zoodles!

I was also left with these weird end pieces, I chopped them up and added them to the tomato sauce I already made on the stove. The entire process of making the Zoodles took less than five minutes if you count washing and cutting up the Zucchini!

Now there is a debate amongst foodies on how to proceed with the Zoodles. Some people will eat them as-is, just mixing them with the sauce and calling it a day. I find the zoodles too crunchy and too raw for my taste that way. Others recommend them cooked, which I prefer, but how to cook them also differs. Apparently the way to make sure they are nicely cooked is to sprinkle them with a generous helping of sauce and leave them in a bowl for 15 minutes before thoroughly washing them and giving them a 1-2 minutes max stir in a pan. When you first cook them, if you do not salt them first, you’ll find out they emit quite an amount of water which can and will ruin the texture of your dish, rendering it too runny! I say salt them first.

My tomato sauce was already done and waiting on the stove, the Zoodles were seasoned with salt, pepper, oregano, and went for a quick 1-2 minutes dry-frying on my non-stick pan.

Then while they still looked firm I dropped them in my sauce, mixing for another minute or so.

10 minutes after I spun that Spiralizer handle, and I had this dish on my table waiting for me.

I served it with a side of a side of spinach, cherry tomatoes, and baby mozzarella salad. The dish is as light and vegetarian as it could get!

How does it look?

Stringy! The zoodles held up their shape nicely!

How did they taste? Quite good actually, I didn’t expect them to be that good! Almost like spaghetti!

How did they really taste? I’m going to be frank with you, I had two problems with the zoodles pomodoro dish. The first one is with the strands of zoodles that had the zucchini skin on them, they had a more crunchier texture than the skinned ones and felt a bit weird. I could overcome this by simply skinning my zucchini and texture-wise it will not feel that different from a spaghetti.

However, I do have one problem I cannot seem to avoid, the zoodles smelled strongly of, well, zucchinis! Real pasta, when boiled, give out a homey feel that make butterflies fly in my stomach. Zoodles have this zucchini stench that is too strong and I couldn’t overcome with the sauce. If you cannot stand the smell of zucchinis then you won’t enjoy this dish especially if you haven’t tried them before. Alas, I could overcome the zucchini smell if it meant I could have spaghetti pomodoro twice a day, every day, wheat-free.

While we are on the subject of Zoodles, I’ve had the chance to shoot a couple of pictures for another Chinese style noodles thing I made with pumpkins and carrots! Those were peeled, salted, then lightly tossed around with veggies, soya sauce, and sesame seeds in a wok! They were good and the pumpkins and carrots emitted no smells

Now why am I saying this is healthier? Well, we are swapping something manufactured for something natural. We are swapping wheat with vegetables, so its gluten free and you can eat as much as you want for fraction of the calories if, you are like me, have an insatiable appetite for pasta!

By the way I’ve been experimenting with the spiralizer and every time I am more than satisfied with my veggies! I’ve spiralled carrots, beetroots, cucumbers, pumpkins, potatoes, and made salads and baked dishes and each and every time I  thoroughly enjoyed my dish! You know how sometimes you buy a kitchen gadget at you’d use it once or twice only then keep it on a shelf to gather dust? Its not the case with this one, and in light of that I’m thinking of composing another post about my top ten favourite kitchen gadgets that actually work! What do you think?

Have you tried the Zoodles before? Do you have any tips/recommendations on how to prepare or cook them? What is your favourite recipe?

Book Review: The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Over a breakfast scented with the aromas of freshly brewed good coffee and just baked homemade baguettes, I found my fingers trailing the latest stack of books that I’ve brought from the UK and hovering several time over the “The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry”. Its not a new book per say, its been there for a few years and sold over 2 million copies apparently but its because of its sequel -that I also bought- that I found out about it and will review it here when I’m done. Let’s just say I was intrigued enough to choose this book from the more-than-few that I have in my bookshelves waiting to be read and I’m glad I did.

One day 65-years-old Harold Fry receives a letter from Queenie Hennessy, an ex-coworker and a friend he lost touch with 20-years-ago. Her letter stirs something in him and he replies immediately, only when he decides to post the letter to Queenie he finds himself walking, and walking. and when he finally realises what he is doing he is determined to walk from one end England to another for Queenie. Why? What he thinks he will achieve when he walks? That is what made me reach out for the book, and I loved it.

The pilgrimage is very simple really, Harold didn’t even intentionally make it out as one. It is Harold’s retirements, failures, and skeletons in his closet that he is setting free and shaking off, step by step, town by town, that seems to set Harold free. Frankly I was waiting for Harold to give up at every chapter, to simply hop on a car or a train and call it quits walk-wise, I am sorry to say I was a reader who doubted Harold, he is an old man after all. As Harold walks, you learn more and more about him and his life-journey and you come to understand the motive behind his journey and in a way it makes you take a look at your own life-journey and whatever you have buried in your closet.

Does Harold make it? Will he make peace with his past? Are Harold and Queenie really only friends or was there more to their relationship? These questions will hang over the pages until the very last page and in the end you’ll stumble in quite a twist on the road that you’ll be tempted to go back and read a bit more again. This is a story unlike anything that I’ve read before and it is quite intriguing, I’d highly recommend it but be warned, sometimes you’d be so frustrated with Harold you’d want to throw the book away, don’t give up on him, wait for him to finish his story.

Another reason to read this book? The sequel “The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy” which I’m loving even more. Though there are depressing bits for it takes place in a hospice, I’m quite enjoying Queenie’s end of the story to the point that I almost want to look Harold up and tell him everything myself, only of course Harold doesn’t exist really and we need to wait till the end of this book to see if Harold got to find out Queenie’s version of their story. If you decide to read the Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, I suggest you get both books and read them back to back.

One Birthday, Two Cameras

My 35th birthday was on the very first day of Eid! Therefore, I got a lot of people to celebrate with me :p Now I’ve received several nice gifts from friends and family and I thank each and everyone of them for their continuous love and support throughout the years, I’m blessed to have people who celebrate the day I was brought into their lives and this year the celebration yielded not one, but two different cameras as birthday gifts! You know how you don’t know you wanted something until you actually got it? That was the case with each camera, I never knew how much joy receiving the them brought me until they arrived! 

The first camera came camouflaged inside a Metropolian Museum of Art bag, a place I would love very much to visit one day, and because I love museums and art I thought whatever historical artefact from the gift shop brought to my by the Big Apple Girl Jacqui -new nickname, how do you like it?- from her recent trip to the city. Inside the bag was, as usual, a beautifully wrapped gift with a customised wrapping paper designed after my own blog colours! That’s something Jax is famous for, her awesome wrapping and the unbelievable lengths she’d take to make your gift pretty and personal, she puts you to shame and brings you to tears of gratitude when you receive the gift and you almost don’t want to open it up, almost. Needless to say all her previous-wrappings are kept safe and sound with me.

Look at the lovely barely/visible sultry figure on the birthday card! Sherlock, and if you know me you know I’m crazy for Sherlock and of course Jax knows me and for two years in a row she managed to incorporate one of my favourite TV and literature characters into into the intricate details of my birthday gifts! Haven’t I posted about last year’s birthday gift? The kindle? I hope its not too late to do so!

Now, carefully opening up the end of the my wrapped up gift yields… another layer of wrapping paper! Do you recognise the print? If you don’t, lift your head up and look at the wallpaper of the very blog you are reading, what do you see? Yes, double individually customised wrapping paper is not an alien thing in Jax’s gifts. Frankly I’m surprised I didn’t see 35 different wrappings, one day she’ll do it I tell you but please not on my 100th birthday insah2 Allah :p

Ta-da! What is it what is it? There is a butterfly on a screen but WHATISIT! You can understand the delimma of not wanting to ruin the wrapping paper but being intrigued so bad to the point of wanting to tear the wrapping paper(s) away. Patience is a virtue though, ta-da!

Its a green -my favourite color- cool modern device that looks like a kaleidoscope but is intact a camera! It is compact, light-weight, and connects directly to Facebook to post pictures -if I’m not mistaken that is-. Believe it or not I still didn’t get to use it, I’m waiting for the next big gathering/party/event to attend before I unleash its full potential. If you are wondering, not it wasn’t from the MET, that bag was just to lure me away from the nature of the gift. It worked, love you Jax, to the moon and back :*****

Now my second gift came from another friend and blogging-comrade Pink Girl and it was also a camera but not any camera! Its a teeny compact Sony, so tiny I actually thought it was a lens not a camera camera! Excuse the hazy picture but this is how big it is compared to my hand, it rests on 3/4 the length of my fingers only!

When you switch it on the lens actually extends and allows you to zoom! You view whatever you want to shoot by connecting the camera to your smart phone and whatever you capture is saved both on your iPhone and a memory card placed inside the tiny camera! Awesome! The video capability on this munchkin is simple inspiring, it makes you want to shoot videos all day long and of course it would fit into the tiniest of clutches therefore it is the perfect companion to any event/party/gathering you’d attend! I’m saving it for when the day comes.

Pink, I loved the camera and the card