Danderma's Blog, page 64

Pick Yo’s New Hateen Branch

Last week Pick Yo restaurant opened its third branch in Hateen co-op and as I live nearby in Alzahraa I was planning on passing by to get my fix of frozen yogurt. Then I began hearing about their lovely outdoors seating area and how it feels like you are sitting in a garden abroad so yesterday on my way home I took a little detour with my camera and decided to check it out.

How to get there? If you arrive to Hateen co-op and see the building above, then you are in the right place. Just go straight to the right and Pick Yo should be right there with its garden like seating complete with artificial green grass and white picket fence.

Pick Yo has big glass windows over looking their make believe garden which makes it an ideal place to grab a cup of coffee with a view in the middle of Hiteen! Nice.

Inside the seating area is small and cosey with lots of plush purple cushions and two girls already huddled in the corner having a chat. The place was busy but not overly crowded. Ideal for a quite meal out.

As for the menu its as usual, with frozen yogurt, hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, salads, fresh fruit, and pastas than you can grab for a quick take away meal or to eat in, pret-a-manager style.

Pick Yo also have pancakes on their menu which I’ve never tried before but I’m going to insha2 Allah. Their mozzarella sandwich and Halloumi sandwich are killers and they also prepare an excellent hot chocolate. Their new Hateen branch would be an ideal place to sit outdoors sipping hot chocolate in today’s rainy weather as their seating area is covered yet outdoors.

For more information about Pick Yo you can check their website (link), facebook page (link), follow them on twitter (@Pick_Yo) or on instagram (@Pick_Kuwait).

Armani Caffé Kuwait

I’m a big fan of Armani Cafe and I couldn’t wait for it to open in Kuwait. The day it first opened I wanted to go right away but I was told that their menu wasn’t complete and that their pizza will be available in two week’s time so I waited for a few weeks and

finally last weekend I had the chance to try it for lunch.

Armani Cafe is located in the new luxurious Prestige section of the Avenues mall. A quite and secluded place away from the noisy crowds and surrounded by well known designer brands such as D&G, Armani, Harry Winston, and Chopard.

The cafe sits under the wavy glass ceiling so its best to visit during the day. I find the prestige section too dark and depressing with the dim lighting and the black marble walls during the night but during the day its very beautiful. When we arrived only one table was occupied but by the time we left most tables were full. The crowd is very calm and classy, no screaming children, no ogling adults, no rowdy teenagers.

We started with drinks, a virgin mojito for me which was excellent. My husband had a ginger and lemon drink that was too strong for my liking but it would be excellent to battle the flu.

Of course Armani’s breadbasket arrived with the drink with a side of spicy sauce, olive tapanade, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. The bread was nice but the focaccia pieces were excellent!

For appetizers we ordered breaded and fried porcini mushrooms on a bed of mashed potato with a side salad of rocket and parmesan salad. This dish was good and the mashed potatoes were very delicious.

For our main dishes I ordered the truffle pasta which I’ve been craving for a very long time. It was excellent with a generous amount of truffle shavings, double the amount of what I get in Dubai’s Armani Cafe.

My husband got the burger and even though it came with cucumber slices inside – a big no-no for burgers- he enjoyed it very much and said it was quite good and meaty.

Then we had to have dessert and I knew exactly what I wanted, the Armani Cafe Tiramisu. While we waited I took a look at spoon on the table and the trees and the ceiling were reflected on it. So nice.

Then arrived my dobbio espresso, which was perfect and honey-like.

Next came the tiramisu. It was good, sweet, and very creamy. Only it wasn’t tiramisu per-say. Too much cream and I couldn’t feel the coffee at all with very few lady fingers very deep inside. I wouldn’t recommend it if you are looking for a tiramisu but its good as a creamy dessert.

Over all I extremely enjoyed my lunch in Cafe Armani. It was very quite and serene, the food was good even if it was a bit less tasty than the food in Armani Cafe Dubai (post). The menu is still very limited and there is still no pizza or my favourite basil gnocchi though but I’m hoping with time these issues will be resolved. Its the perfect escape from shopping in the Avenues even during the weekend afternoons.

Armani Cafe is located in the far end of Prestige section in the Avenues Mall. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

McDonald’s Breakfast

Its Wednesday, the long weekend is here at last! To celebrate this occasion I’m going to post about one of my favorite breakfasts of all times which, surprisingly, seems to have not made it to the blog in the past five years I’ve been a blogger even though I’ve been a fan and a very loyal customer ever since Mcdonald’s introduced their breakfast in Kuwait . The one, the only, Mcdonald’s breakfast

My order is always an Egg McMuffin meal without the sausages, hashbrowns, orange juice, and black coffee. The Egg McMuffin is lip smackingly good and even though I’ve tried to recreate it at home several times, I never achieve the same amaizng taste. Chewy, melted cheese, fluffy eggs, a bit of the muffin is always charred and crunchy. I’ve also tried it in the UK but it didn’t taste as good as the one in Kuwait for some reason.

My favorite college days breakfast was ”two hashbrowns with ketchup and a hot chocolate”. Some people dunk their hashbrowns in maple syrup, others eat them plain, but I enjoy dunking mine in ketchup and someone once told me its a weird thing to do. Is it? I’m not sure and I really couldn’t care less.

I don’t usually order McDonald’s pancakes because the McMuffin meal is more than enough but when I do I tend to enjoy every single little bite. I love their pancakes, warm and fluffy. I sometimes slice a Banana and sprinkle it on top. Why go through the trouble of making your own pancakes when you can have order in some pretty good ones?

I have to say that I’ve tried most fast food joints breakfasts but none other that Mcd’s made an impressoin on me. I actually look forwards to Friday mornings where I get to have their breakfast. The only bad thing about McDonald’s breakfast? Its served until 11:00 AM only! Why! Why not serve it all day long? I’d love to have an Egg McMuffin for lunch or dinner.

Are you a fan of Mcdonald’s breakfast? If you are, what’s your favorite combination?

BooK Review: Men I’ve Loved Before by Adele Parks

The story in this novel started out brilliantly, Nat is preparing to celebrate her husband Neil’s 35th birthday with friends and family and a modern restaurant in King’s Road. Life is good for the couple, they live in a small house in London with decent jobs they love and are madly in love with each other. They both want the same things in life and one of the things they don’t want for sure is children cramping their style.

Then one day Neil changes his mind, he just springs it out of no where at Nat, he now wants children, no actually dying for children, and she refuses without giving a reason. What does Neil do? He sulks, he tries like a child to prove she can be a good mother, and Nat keeps silent and retaliates by calling up old her old lovers and meeting with them behind her husband’s back. Their relationship unravels until it goes to the point where it all falls apart.

I loved the begining of the story. I actually envied the couple the life they had in hip London. Then I couldn’t understand how two people so deeply in love and entertwined in each other’s lives suddenly stop talking and move away from each other. Neil’s idiotic, selfish, and quite childish actions made me want to reach inside the book and slap him to his senses. As for Nat, well, I thought I had found a good argument for why a female might choose NOT to bring a child of her own into this world without having to justify it as some deep hidden personal drama but I think I am wrong. All females want to have children apparently and if they don’t there is something not right with them.

The ending is quite cheesy and frankly, when Neil does two unforgivable things, the last of which is so unforgivable I wonder how Nat could stand be around him rather than forgive him and no its not OK and no its not the same as what the stripper did. Its simply unforgivable therefore you can’t chalk it up to a happy ending.

Would I recommend it? Well, why not? Its not a best seller’s material but its a quick and fun read if, say, you are on a plane or having trouble sleeping. Started out great, had a nice twist in the middle, though it flopped in the end.

Do You Think People Can Change?

We have a saying in Kuwait that roughly translates to “The tail of the dog can never go straight”. We also have another saying that also roughly translates to “A person with a habit can never shake it off”. Both saying basically state the obvious fact: a person cannot change, but is that necessarily true?

I personally believe people are capable of change. I personally am not the person I was as a child, nor the same teenager, or even twenty something girl I used to be. Time and different situations made me into another person. Not a better person, necessarily, but yes I’ve changed.

I used to torment myself about losing friends in my life. How can a person you’ve been so close to one day suddenly stop being friends and stop caring? The friendship no longer meaning anything to? If there was anything I could’ve done differently so we could stay friends but I deducted in the end that while the frienships were good at their prime time -hopefully- one or both parties in this frienship have changed and therefeore stopped being able to mainain the status quo. People grow up, get older, get tired, change interetsts, simply put: life happens and c’est la vie. We just move on.

Some, if not most people, are changed by life. Birth of a child, loss of a loved one, an illness, coming into too much money, gaining power, too many hardships and troubles, etc. Some changes are sudden and evident, others happen slowly overtime. Some people don’t want to change but the do, others desperately want to change but they can’t, not easily. Somethings are harder to change than others, the deeper and more engraved a trait is in a person’s soul the more work it takes to change it. In the end, everyone changes and I believe that each and every single person does indeed have the ability to change if they put their mind and soul into it. Plus, there is no guarantee that people surrounding you won’t change, again c’est la vie. We just move on.

What about you? Do you believe people can change? For better or worse?

Things 2 Do in London: Union Jacks by Jamie Oliver & Chris Bianco

It was a cold afternoon in London, we’ve been walking for hours on end, shopping and taking pictures, when we finally reached Covent Garden and decided to stop there for some lunch. We were heading in the direction of Laduree when I saw a new and unfamiliar steel and glass structure that looked like a cafe/restaurant smack in the middle of Covent Garden market.

Hello there, where did you come from? I didn’t see it before and I doubt its been there a year. Its name was Union Jacks. I almost decided to continue my way to Laduree when I saw the name the words “Jamie Oliver” and I knew I was sold. I had to try this new Jamie place!

Union Jacks by Jamie Oliver and Chris Bianco is a new British tapas bar meets wood-fired pizzeria meets Gastro pub! Lots of steel, modern looking, raging fires with pizzas preparing to go inside, full views of the Covent Garden market, and buzzing with diners! It didn’t take long to find us a table by the window panes.

As we sat down we noticed buttons by our table that said “Toasty Feet” which meant it turned on some kind of heating. Especially nice for the miserable December weather but it wasn’t that cold that day.

We took a look at the menu. Lots of different dishes with a British twist. Lots of fish dishes, plenty of salads and sides to choose from, plus the wood-fired pizzas!

It didn’t take us long to place our orders and there were plenty to choose from. We were very hungry but we wanted something light and not very heavy. After we placed our orders we kept gazing at the market shoppers while waiting for the food to arrive.

I also took a million pictures of the colorful tables and chairs. I loved how summery and colorful they were.

First our drinks arrived. They didn’t have the usual cola diet cola soft drinks. Instead they had their own sodas so I took an Apple and Cinammon one and my husband took the lemonade one.

Next came our salads: all fresh and crunchy and the portions were just right! Not too much, not too little, and ideal for sharing. The first was a very delicious cabbage salad.

The second was a baby gem lettuce salad with delicious dressing.

And of course we had to order potatoes! Delicious and warming potatoes

Our wood-fired pizza arrived with the salads at once. I think the name of the pizza we shared was woodland or something similar.

The woodland pizza was a mushrooms pizza with no tomato sauce. All mushrooms, earthy and tangy and lip smackingly delicious.

I’m imagining its taste as I’m typing up this post.

As far as Jamie Oliver’s restaurants goes, this one by far is my favorite. The location is excellent, its very airy and light with a retro modern feel, and the food is excellent. I can’t wait till I’m back in London for some more wood-fired pizzas and crunchy fresh salads. My only regret is that I didn’t try their special ice creams presented in retro golden bowls. Next time insha2 Allah!

Union Jacks is located in Covent Garden Market. For more infomation and locations you can check their website (link). The pizzas are highly recommended.

Sonic the Hedgehog 20 Years Ago…

On the night of 16 July 1992 I was on the phone talking to my cousin, cradling the phone speaker with my ear and shoulder while both hands were busy playing Sonic the Hedgehog on my Sega Genesis. I remember that clearly because when the clock struck 12 A.M. my cousin wished me happy birthday for I had officially turned into a thirteen-years-old teenager and I objected that I was still twelve until the exactly hour I was born.

This memory came to me as I was trying -and failing- helplessly to fall asleep in the wee hours of the morning yesterday so I began to play Sonic the Hedgehog on my iPhone. The very same one I played 21 years ago, the one I personally regard as the greatest Sonic game ever. Amused, I realized that what I needed to play the game 21 years ago was a big console, a full TV, and to make calls I had to use a telephone set as well while now I could play sonic with a push of a button on a tiny iPhone screen which is also a phone and I could take it anywhere with me. If someone had told me that this would be possible one day into the future on that night 21 years ago, could I have visualized it and believed it? It would have sounded like something out of a science fiction movie!

Very neat indeed. I wonder how technologically evolved we would be in the next 20 years? I wonder if by pushing a button on our future phones we would actually be able to travel to the past and tell ourselves that yes, indeed, in the next 20 years this and this would happen so be prepared? Its mind boggling to think of the possibilities and who knows? Maybe in 20 years I will still be a blogger and I will think about this post and then an updated post that materlized out of its own -surely typing out your thoughts would be obselete by then, no?- and it will compare and tell you yes 20 years later we have time travel and posts publishing themselves after thinking about them and phones that does everything for you including driving your car and brushing your teeth and dressing you automatically.

I wonder if I still would be playing Sonic the Hedhog then if god grants us to live that long insha2 Allah?

 

Good Morning… Good Breakfast

What better way to start a new week than to reflect on a memorable outdoorsy breakfast we’ve had at home a while ago in the cold weather? We had Bo Throos visit for the day and it was cold yet sunny so we took out our tea set and lit up the candle to make tea and have a traditional Kuwaiti breakfast.

No Kuwaiti breakfast is complete without darabeel “cinammon and sugar biscuits” to dunk in the hot tea and milk.

Cheeses and labna.

Kraft, nakhi and bajela “chickpeas and fava beans”.

And the guest of honor of course: Bo Thoroos

Wishing you a delicious start to the week and a fast approaching three day weekend

Preview: MUJI Store, Kuwait

I’ve never really expressed before how much I adore MUJI in my blog now, have I? On the Grand Avenues opening tour I almost jumped up and down in excitement over the discovery of the MUJI shop there (post). So imagine when you adore a store for years, visit it religiously, adore its compact minimalist modern Japanese merchandise, then learn its going to be open in your country and get an invitation to preview it before everyone else?

As I’m writing this post I’m trying to remember what do I usually buy from MUJI UK? Well, my jewellery box, my favourite ring box, my photo albums, clear acrylic poster sized photo frames, almost all my travel supplies, my clear rain coat that folds into a little bag, my travel candles in tin, my acrylic office desk accessories, and more that I can’t remember. Guess what? MUJI’s two stories of a store stocks them all and many more!

This is what I mean by MUJI’s cute compact minimalist designs, this T-Shirt for example is perfect for travelling!

The available range of products goes from little electronics and stationary to home furniture, accessories, and storage solutions.

And if you, like me, have a thing for acrylic boxes and storage items then MUJI is the ultimate acrylic destination.

Quality wise? Very good! I’ve been using my MUJI stuff for years and years now and they are still in the condition I’ve bought them in without a scratch on them.

MUJI Kuwait is the first MUJI branch in the Middle East and will be officially open tomorrow at 5:00 P.M. in the Grand Avenues. If you’re a fan of MUJI I know how you feel and if you haven’t been to MUJI before, take my word for it, you will LOVE IT!

Thank you MUJI Kuwait for your kind invitation and lovely giveaway with my blogs name on it. You truly made my day.

Flu…

You go to bed one Friday night with a head buzzing with your Saturday plans. You wake up happy and ready to start the day with breakfast outdoors. A few minutes after the sleep haze has lifted from your head you realise something is not right, there is a certain bad thing going on, and it hits you “I’ve got the flu, I feel bad, its going to get worse”.

From the moment you realise that all you feel is sore throat, headache, fever, chills, fatigue, pain, some more pain, food doesn’t taste right, shivers, tears streaming for no reason, water tastes funny, medicine that doesn’t seem to be working, the first lung rippling cough, more pain, trying to sleep, you can’t swallow, stomach pain, a haze, retching, more chills, needing sleep, a haze, a headache so bad you can knock your head against the wall to make it go away, you can’t stand the sight of food, sneezing your way into an entire box of kleenex, tears, sweating all the water in your body, headache, can’t open your eyes, fatigue, cough, vomit the bile of your empty stomach, fever again, and repeat.

Before you know it its Friday night again and you’re still coughing but you made it. You start to feel human again, slowly sipping your first cup of espresso in a week and trying to catch up on life. The bloody flu was the strongest I’ve ever, EVER had in my life and surprisingly all the polyclinic could get me was a one day off work paper because its not allowed to give out more than one days. Thank god I was given antibiotics.

Bundle up everyone and have plenty of vitamins and good wholesome food. The cold weather is not to be taken lightly.