Danderma's Blog, page 61

Magnolia Bakery’s Valentine Box

Magnolia Bakery sent me a tin box filled with their Valentine goodies all wrapped up in a pretty pink ribbon.

Inside, the good looking treats were wrapped up individually and surrounded with the tulle in the palest shade of pink. Very cute.

Inside the tin there are several types of three different meringue drops and a chocolate dipped cookie/shortbread covered in coloured sprinkles.

Yummy!

Thank you Magnolia Kuwait for sending this cute Valentine’s day tin box my way! The Valentine’s day tin box will be available in Magnolia’s Bakery starting 10 A. M. today and you can pass by their branch in Al-Hamra Mall and pick one to give to your loves ones. For more information you can contact Magnolia Bakery on 94969281, follow them on Twitter (@MagnoliaKuwait) or on instagram (@MagnoliaKuwait).

Lenôtre’s Valentines Day 2013 Cake

I come home from work today to find a big purple Lenôtre’s bag waiting for me. Inside was Lenôtre’s 2013 Valentines Day cake. Lenôtre always celebrate different occasions with a special cake but this time they have outdone themselves. The cake is gorgeous!

The real metal cage was a lovely touch and set the entire theme of the cake. Decorated with butterflies and flowers. I took endless photographs of it. So cute!

I love the cage’s details. Flowers and butterflies.

And through the cake you can see a “Love” banner. Time to lift the cage and look at the cake.

The banner is edible!

And the ripples of ombre sugar paste, so cute.

And now to the most important question, how did it taste like? Well, inside it was a moist rich chocolate cake with some caramel-y biscuit-y crunchy filling between the layer that is absolutely lip-smacking. Of all the different Lenôtre occasion cakes, this one is the best tasting, hands down.

Thank you Lenôtre for sending this gorgeous cake my way. The cake is available to order now and if you want one you can call Lenôtre at 1805050 extension 28 and place an order.

Espressamente illy Cafe’s Tiramisu

A few months back when Al-Hamra mall opened I began hearing -and seeing pictures- of a very delicious, if not the most delicious, Tiramisu in Kuwait served in the newly opened Espressamente cafe.

I’ve always wanted to go try that Tiramisu since everyone was raving about it, but I was told you had to go early in the morning for they make only a few Tiramisu pieces and by late morning it would be all gone, so I never go the chance to do so. A few weeks back Espressamente cafe opened its second branch in the new Mall section in the Avenues and last night I went to try their famous tiramisu.

The menu is a dream for coffee lovers: coffee, coffee, and more coffee! Since I went late at night and I cannot have any coffee after 12 P.M. if I wanted to sleep at night I asked if the Tiramisu can be with decaf coffee and they said yes. The thing about their  tiramisu is that you have to put it together which makes it even more fun to eat. The girls ordered this icy coffee drink that looked very delicious.

There is my long awaited tiramisu with the tiniest shots of decaf espresso to go with it. It looks good!

You pour the espresso on top of the mounds of cocoa-dusted cream and lady fingers…

And watch as the honey-like stream of coffee sneaks in between the goodness layers, trying to escape to the plate, soaking the lady fingers and colouring the cream in its path. Mamma mia this is fun!

Let it sit for a few minutes, soaking the espresso properly before you attack it.

You wouldn’t think this little pot of espresso would be enough, but it was more than enough espresso left on the plate after all the biscuits and cream were gone.

Now, attack! Very good indeed!

After we devoured our tiramisus and took our time drinking our beverages, I began to notice the beauty of the cafe surrounding me. The location is excellent: right besides Kidzania which should be open next month in March. Plenty of light, quiet and calm, and away from the hoopla of the grand avenues. You can sit for hours -which we did- and chat and no one would bother you.

And then you notice the beauty that is the coffee cups chandeliers and you leave your table and take your camera and take one picture after the other of the chandelier. This is gorgeous! I want this in my house one day!

How many cups and saucers are there?

Espressamente cafe, with their endless coffee concoctions, delicious tiramisu, mouthful of a name -we shortened to illy cafe!-, and amazing coffee cups chandelier is located in The New Mall section in the Avenues and in Al-Hamra mall. For more information you can check their facebook page (link).

Why Didn’t We Make it Into Mensa?

Ever since I was a child I’ve heard about fellow humans with super intelligence joining the Mensa That is, an organization whose members are people who scored a very high level in some IQ test. I always fantasied that I would one day take that test and discover I had a super human IQ too and be accepted too, but growing up, no one ever subjected me to any IQ test of any kind thus my IQ level remains unknown.

Yesterday I decided to check if any intelligent people from Kuwait, or the GCC region, or the Middle East, might have made the Mensa list. Surely we have some super intelligent individuals amongst us? Its not like you can teach a child from an early age to become clever with high IQ, its a gift and you can either be born with it or not. To my dismay, I found no one on the list! Now, is that because we had not one person with a high IQ born in the Middle East region? Or is it because we don’t really care?

All parent’s and teachers seem to only care about is to teach a child to collect half a grade here and quarter of a grade there to become “The first in class” with an average of 30 students per class! So academic achievement is the cutthroat in determining the level of intelligence per child. This child knows math, therefore he is intelligent. This child can’t do math, therefore he’s stupid. I don’t think that’s fair, or true, for there are different kinds of intelligences. Is intelligence the same thing as IQ? I don’t really know! I do hope so though.

Now I went to check on Mensa’s website to see if there are any Mensa chapters around and the nearest one is in Turkey. In Mensa‘s British chapter though, I found out you can take the Mensa IQ test at home and check if your level of IQ qualifies you to join Mensa! I also found an iPhone app for the Mensa IQ test which of course I downloaded right away. I will use it soon and check how I would do in the IQ test. Afterall, I might have a very high IQ and wouldn’t know about it because no one ever bothered to test my IQ!

Did you ever take an IQ test? What was your score?

Things to Do in London: Cantina Laredo

 

In my never ending search for a Mexican restaurant with great tasting Mexican food, I stumbled one cold winter night into Cantina Laredo, a US-Chain Mexican restaurant sporting the slogan “Gourmet Mexican Food” with menu prices to match that slogan. The restaurant was very busy, softly lit and buzzing with diner’s chatter and music but the waitress led us to a table by the window right away.

I took a look at the menu and as a Vegetarian tried to find myself something without meat to have for dinner, then when the waitress came back to take our orders I asked her what was “vegetarian” on the menu. She went away and came back with a vegetarian menu printed on its own and everything! Impressive, since many other restaurants adopt a pained expression upon hearing your vegetarian-compatible requests.

We started with a bowl of guacamole made fresh at the table while we munched on the Tortilla chips and salsa placed on the table after our arrival.

The guacamole was really good and quite fresh obviously. Personally I would have squeezed an extra lime in to give it an oomph tanginess but it was really good.

Our drinks arrived too. I had a virgin Mojito that was excellent!

We also ordered a mushroom and oaxaca cheese quesadillas topped with dollops of creama and guacamole for starters to share as well. They were very gooey but just OK. This was our least favorite dish that night.

Next came the main dishes. This is the first one. I think it was the enchilada if I remember correctly. It was very tasty.

My dish was the vegetarian Fajita which was excellent! .

What made this dish special is a grilled giant Portobello mushroom smothered in some green extremely tangy sauce and grilled to perfection. I can still feel the taste of that tangy grilled mushroom as I’m typing this. With a side of black beans, tortillas, and the rest of the gang, this was the most popular dish of the night.

I would go back to Cantina Laredo for that excellent vegetarian fajitas and the virgin mojitos. Plus, the restaurant is in a great location surrounded by the theatres of London, the waiters are very friendly, and it has a great cosey and relaxing atmosphere. The menu isn’t your usual Mexican menu and I expect if you are a meat eater you will find some interesting dishes in there. The prices of the dishes are definitely not on the cheap side.

Cantina Laredo is located in St. Martin’s Courtyard in Upper St. Martin’s Lane, Covent Garden. For directions and more information you can check their website (link), or follow them on Twitter (@CantinaLaredoUK).

Help: Can You Fix Scrambled Pictures?

One day you are sitting on your computer browsing through your data and then BAM something happens and your hard disk is busted. You take the device to a data recovery specialist, you pay money to have your data back, and most of it is indeed back. Now you plug your recovered data into the computer, from the file viewer you can see your precious pictures, the preview window shows it as it should be, but when you click on some of the pictures, it transforms right infront of your eyes into the scrambled mess you see in the picture at the begining of the post. What’s up with that?

Thankfully not all of the pictures are scrambled  but I have pretty good ones that I’d like to unscramble and have back! Is there anyway, any program, any service, that  would transform the scrambled pictures into their former glory? All smooth and nice? They look fine in the window view, why do they transform when I open them? Some of them transformed infront of my eyes right there in Picasa, one by one, slowly. It was like watching a flower wilting away in extra fast motion or something. Help!

Oh and so I don’t forget, always remember this: back up your files now, NOW. Back up back up back up BACK UP!

Bloggerettes Dinner at Le Sushi Bar

Last Wednesday we had the pleasure of being invited by blogger Marawi to have dinner with a group of bloggerette in Le Sushi Bar restaurant located in Al-Hamra Mall.

I arrived very late so I missed the appetisers and the guests were already having their main dishes but I managed to take some pictures on what the others were enjoying.

I did however order myself a Mojito and it was excellent. Really really good!

As we sat in the private room that is secluded yet partially overlooking the restaurant diners, I looked out the floor-to-ceiling window to see this lovely fountain.

When it was dessert time we received two different cakes: The first is a berries & ginger cheesecake. The ginger taste is very prominent so if you are not a fan of ginger you won’t like this one.

The other cake was a more subtle ginger and toffee cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream melting slowly on top. This one I liked.

To go with the desserts, plenty of different flavours of herb and green tea brewed right there at the table.

At the end of the meal each bloggerette was presented with two chopsticks engraved with her blog’s name. Very nice!

Thank you dear Marawi for the invitation and Le Sushi Bar for the hospitality, we had a great time

Le Sushi Bar is located in the second floor of Al-Hamra mall. For more information you can contact by calling 22270300, checking their website (link), or following them on instagram (@LeSushiBarKW).

Discovering Haya House

When I received an invitation to an afternoon tea at “Haya House” I thought I was in for another store opening with a few pretty items and a caterer providing tea treats. I didn’t expect that I’d stumble into a little shopping/design haven in the middle of residential houses.

The invitation was very sweet and feminine. Very useful and to the point too: A tea pot on top of a tea cup, an elegant envelope with my name on it, an invitation card with a tea bag.

What I didn’t realize when I actually arrived was how gorgeous and astonishing Haya House was! For one thing, the location is in a renovated oldie Arabic style house in Kaifan and I adore oldie houses from the 60′s era! How charming?

The facade of the house is untouched, only painted and dressed up a bit. Look at the retro railing on the balcony and the lovely glass windows! Why would anyone tear those houses down is beyond me!

Through the oldie door you go and find yourself in a small covered courtyard with garden furniture, big feather like chandeliers, plenty of knickknacks, and green plants everywhere! You spend a moment not knowing exactly where to look, so many pretty little things!

The afternoon tea is served in this courtyard every Wednesday only. You can relax with good food in excellent presentation, listen to good music, have a good chat with your friends over tea, all while sitting in a retro renovated charming house where you see beautifully retro details that melt your heart while imagining all the laughs, secrets, and tears spilled back in time within these walls and rooms, If you are affected by history in that way anyway.

Not only can you visit and enjoy the architecture, you can shop in Haya House too! The rooms of the house are actually turned into display rooms where you can check the interior design plus buy the pieces of furniture and home accessories on display. There are many rooms and I didn’t get to check them all but here are my favourites: the blue books room.

I love the black and white bookshelves wallpaper. I also love this clear backed chair! Yummy!

My second favourite rooms was the dining room. See the pictures, the tableware, the decor, the table setting. need I say more? You can buy everything by the way.

The crystal room with a huge crystal chandelier and mismatched colourful patterns on the wallpaper.

More items from different rooms in Haya House…

In the last room of the house your notice the “Interior Design” sign in Arabic and you realize its actually an office! Yes, you can shop for furniture and accessories, marvel at the charming house, drink afternoon tea, and also get some interior design done according to your taste and need. The impressive rooms in Haya House are an excellent example to what the interior designer can put together. 

I would definitely be going back to Haya House for some “nezaka” afternoon tea on a Wednesday and I know just the place to buy my next home warming gift or that extra special item you that just completes your own home collection. Thank you Ms. Deena Al-Anjari for the beautiful invitation and the warm hospitality. Keep up the good work!

Haya House is located in Kaifan, Block 5, Street 54, House 3. Afternoon teas are held every Wednesdays but you do need to make a reservation before hand by calling 24825950. For more information or to buy some of Haya House’s furniture and home accessories you can do so via their website which is also an online store (link),  you can Twitter (@HayaHouse_) or Instagram (@HayaHouse_).

Movie Review: Warm Bodies

It looks like 2013 is going to be a prosperous year for Hollywood! I’ve seen two movies so far and both of them I loved and left the cinema thinking to myself ‘Now that was a good movie!’. The first was Hansel & Gretel and the second is “Warm Bodies” which is currently grossing at number one in the USA’s box office! 

Warm Bodies starts as a classic post-disaster Zombie infested USA with survivors hiding behind a tall wall hunting out Zombies. Very 28 days later. However, the lead in the movie, the Zombie called R, meets a warm bodied human girls and in trying to keep her safe, he takes her back with the other Zombies to their whereabouts and keeps her there.

I won’t ruin the movie for you but its beautiful. It’s a mix of light horror/thriller/romance with a few moments of ironic comedy thrown in between. For once in Hollywood, disasters carry a message of hope and accepting the other, giving them a chance no matter how different or gruesome can they be because appearances can be deceiving instead of the usual message of humans living and ruining the planet and not caring until it’s too late now all humanity could go up in smoke be very sorry.

This movie is a must see! You might want to close your eyes at a few scenes in the beginning for it can be a bit disgusting when zombies eat human brains and such and it’s definitely not a movie to take a child to. But those scenes stop eventually which also leaves me wondering, what will they feed on then? That issue is not addressed though. Definitely going on my DVD shelf when it’s out and I can’t wait to watch it again.

A Gorgeous “Laila wel Theeb” Picnic Basket

The weather these days is gorgeous! Crisp, cool, light breeze, and sunny. It’s the perfect time in the year to do outdoors activities in Kuwait and one of them is having a picnic, I actually have a picnic basket at home that I fill with sandwiches or stuff whenever I want to and last week the number of picnic baskets at home had increased into two instead of one. Behold the Laila wel theeb picnic basket from 965 Flowers! Laila wel theeb in Kuwait is a popular story globally known as “Little Red Riding Hood”.

The basket I received was quite a treat! What made it even more special was that it started with gorgeous flowers, then held a lot of yummy looking goodies in different varieties, and finally ended with these two childhood relics that transformed the picnic basket from just another basket to a gorgeous nostalgic one: a Laila wel Theeb story and 80′s play DVD!

Why is it so special now, aside from being associated with little Red Riding Hood? Well, We’ve all heard -and read- the story growing up, but the 80′s children in Kuwait were treated with the play by our favourite childhood actress Huda Hussein. The play was obviously called “Laila wel Theeb” and we adored it. I can still remember where I sat -balcony-, the backstage picture we took, the play’s songs cassette we played over and over, and the play’s videotape which we saw for years and years to come. It is one of the most popular plays of our childhood if not the popular. Hence this basket hit right home!

I always wondered what goodies would Laila carry in her picnic basket, the song said “Cake and eggs” but I always imagined chocolate cake and cheese sandwiches for some reason. In 965 Flower’s version of the basket, it was a sugar feast! First there were cookies…

Then there was a jar of little brownie bites coated in chocolate and were very yummy. These were my favourite.

And these incredible muffins! The aroma of the freshly baked muffin made them irresistible and I had to have one to myself. Bad news for my waistline I know but they smelled so good!

Last but not least, a gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Roses are my favourite flowers and I loved them, so fresh and so so red!

The basket is gorgeous for a picnic or an 80′s child who had couldn’t get enough of Laila wel Theeb. It’s also a great idea for a themed birthday giveaway for example. I loved every thing about it.

Excellent job by 965 Flowers and Local Flavours Marketing! Thank you guys for making my day, I wish you all the best and keep up the good work. I’m already a faithful customer to 965 Flowers and most of my recent flowers/chocolate/hamper gifts were ordered via their website such as this bouquet (link).

For more information about the basket or if you want to have a similar idea with a different theme you can contact 965 Flowers by checking their website (link), following them on Twitter (@965Flowers) or on instagram (@965Flowers).