Danderma's Blog, page 7

How To Celebrate Your 35th Birthday?

It feels like its only yesterday when I celebrated my 25th birthday and felt like I was a grown up mature adult. It also feels like five minutes ago when I turned 30 and was crying to anyone who would listen that I was now old and no longer in my twenties. In a few weeks, I will be turning 35 by god’s will! 35, half way through my thirties, the best decade anyone could live and the last where you could count yourself as “young” and “youthful”. The minute you turn 40 people would start to use phrases like “she looks young for 40″ instead of “she is still young, only 40″ but lets obsess about that when we are granted to live until then. Now, the truth remains that I’m turning 35 and I still cannot believe it. 

Now, I do not intend to let my 35th without a bang, and a bang I will allow myself. I’m not waiting on anyone to celebrate me, I want to celebrate myself and I’ve sat long and hard and thought on how I want to celebrate. 17th of July will also coincide with the first day of Eid, can it get any better? I feel compelled to celebrate twice and I am willing to give myself any thing I want that makes me happy.

First I wanted to fulfil my dream and visit Japan, I’ve been planning the trip for three decades now, I think its about time. I want to reserve a seat on the new train that goes all the way across Japan and though I feel I’m a bit too late -it has a six to nine months waiting list- I was willing to try my luck, but I was told the weather in Japan was extremely hot and humid in the summer months, not a good time for a first visit, so I guess that plan was out.

I want to go to Australia, visit the mountain again and lay in the pitch black darkness gazing at the stars, then visit Melbourne. But I want to do that after passing through Japan so I guess I will be putting that trip on hold.

I want to go to New Zealand after Australia and Japan, I want to visit Hobbiton, go on tour and take a photo inside Bilbo’s little house in the shire. However, Mr. Jackson ruined the third movie for me and by extension the entire Hobbit Trilogy therefore I need to recover from my disappointment first and perhaps attach that trip to my Japan, Australia, New Zealand trip route. A month’s vacation in the land down under would suffice hence I need to save up my vacation days in the future.

What do I want next? I wanted to have a cookie shot from Dominique Ansel’s bakery in New York for my birthday. Can you think of a better birthday celebration? Stand in line, get a cookie shot, I’m pining for one cookie shot and I am supposed to indulge in guilty dessert on my birthday. However, it would take a long time to get a US visa and even if I do, ticket prices to NYC are phenomenal! We are talking 1500 KD for one seat on economy class! I guess I should have planned that earlier and taken advantage of early bird booking offers.

Next on the list, Disney Land? Everyone wants to go to Disney Land on their birthday. I’ve never been to Disney in the USA but I actually celebrated my 19th birthday in Disney Land Paris, it was so much fun having Goofy sing me Happy Birthday over dinner, I think I have it on video tape somewhere, but I’ve been there and done that. I had a little green frog -stuffed- with me that I cannot recall his name and he celebrated with us. What was the bloody frog’s name? Starky? A sign of getting old is not being able to remember the name of the frog that waltzed the Champs Elysees poking from your back pack. I’ve always been a bit mental btw.

Next? Sacher Torte, Vienna! I’ve been to Vienna when I was ten and I remember my mother sitting us down in a cafe that sold a famous cake and there it was, a slice of chocolate cake with a layer of jam in between. By then it was 1990 and I had a glass doll I called Emily that I found in a small shop in an Alley Way in Vienna and she and I were inseparable, just like Sally the carton aka Little Princess Sarah.

I also want to go to Rome, have a good wood-fired oven pizza all to myself, then gobble up a big cone of Italian gelato and throw a coin in Trevi fountain, making a birthday wish. However, a trip to Europe requires a Schengen Visa and that would take forever to get and I’m not really in the mood to stand in long lines and suffer the horrid 50C summer heat of Kuwait for a visa I may or may not have enough time to get.

Which I suppose brings me back to square one. I want to celebrate my 35th, I want to provide myself with something special for that day, and yet I don’t really know what to do. I can dream, but I really don’t want to spend the day in bed with a box of mini pizzas and a good book, I’ve done that during my twenties when it was the Harry Potter era -the books came out around my birthday!-. And I really don’t want to go to Sheraton’s Ricardo and then perhaps a movie night in Grand Cinema’s VIP lounge, I do that for all other occasions we celebrate in Kuwait anyway!

What would you give yourself as the ultimate gift for a very special birthday? Have you celebrated a birthday to remember before, or have a perfect idea of a birthday you’d like to celebrate? What did you do?

Good bye May, Hello Ramadan!

I didn’t want an eventful May month to sneak away before I’ve had the chance to write something in my beloved blog. I am not stuck in a state with nothing to say, on the contrary, I am suffering from having just too much to say to the point that I’m not sure where to start!

I have two things to consider and finish up in the next couple of weeks, one is something I cannot wait to do and another is something I am reluctant to do but will open up quite a good path in life for me, I only wish I am considering because I really wanted to do it rather than being almost forced to do it. The moment I considered the latter decision, I felt a click and something fell into place, something that I didn’t know was missing for a decade or so, therefore I think its eventually going to be all right but both things will have a lot of paperwork involved and you know how hot it is outside and unbearable the paperwork chores are in Kuwait.

What’s up with the heat by the way? Why is it already 48C when its only May! I was on my way to visit my grandmother in the hospital, she’s been there for about a week now, and I almost melted in the heat! It doesn’t help that I’m trying to fast these days before the arrival of the holy month of Ramadan, which something I am really and truly looking forwards to. I only wish my grandmother is better and out of the hospital soon, pray with me if you could spare a minute please.

Speaking of the Holy month of Ramadan, preparations for its joyous arrival are on full gear! I’ve actually started a 30 days countdown on instagram and each day I post something I’m doing in preparations for the anticipated day, its the best time of the year and I cannot wait for it to be here. Did that rhyme? It wasn’t intended but it does sound a bit corny.

So what’s up with you? These days I’m relaxing at home during the weekends and experimenting a bit in the kitchen -hence the display picture- and with a little DIY project that I really wish would be completed in two weeks. I spent an hour yesterday in Shuwaikh trying to find something that would help me out but I couldn’t so I have to build the thing from scratch. The moment I’m done I promise I will share it with you, perhaps here before on any other social media outlet, so stay tuned!

P.S. Where did 2015 fly to! We are almost half way through! Phew!

Balsamic Pearls & Stracciatella for Lunch

Earlier last month I was browsing the aisles of Waitrose in London when I came upon a small jar or “Balsamic Pearls”. It was my first encounter with them, frankly I almost dismissed them as just another caviar pot, and I haven’t exactly seen or tasted them before so I decided to take them home with me and wait together until the perfect opportunity showed itself. A few weeks later and the perfect opportunity came galloping towards me in the form of a small Stracciatela Mozzarella jar, that is the creamy stringy kind, and I knew it was time.

I perfectly remember the weekend afternoon when I opened up the pearls jar, I’ve just baked a loaf of homemade bread and the apartment smelled of baked dough. I prepared a nice salad of crisp greens, tossed it with some cherry tomatoes, tore apart chunks of bread still hot enough to scald my fingers in the process, then with a pop I pried open the lid of the balsamic pearls…

How do balsamic pearls look like? They are a cluster of dark shiny orbs swimming together in a pool of very fragrant balsamic vinegar. They are beautiful, modern looking, and they looked like they’d taste good which of course isn’t really an indicator of anything but they did promise something tasty.

Ah now, this is the moment where I remember getting out the creamy mozzarella out of the little jar it came from and placing it gingerly on the bed of greens. I found the mozzarella in one of the deli fridges of Sultan Center, Souq Sharq branch, and though I was in initially envisioning trying the pearls with a buratta I somehow thought the softer texture of the Stracciatella would be a better match to the delicate nature of the balsamic pearls.

Here we go, the pearls were slippery and didn’t land slowly nor gracefully on top of my cheese like I was planning, hence the somewhat awkward picture. The spoonful of pearls went down in a plop, all at once and all together…

The first spoonful of pearls went down to the bottom of the salad bowl, barely grazing my cheese though staining the surface with balsamic vinegar all over. For the second spoonful I was more prepared, I scooped a smaller amount and let it down very gently hence the picture below. Be very careful when handling them if you care about your dish’s presentation, the pearls are slippery and tend to stick together.

Ta-Da! My camera admired my handiwork, they didn’t look half bad and they sure add an interesting twist to an otherwise fairly ordinary dish.

Give the pearls a minute and you’ll see pools of balsamic vinegar running around in the most tempting delicious way ever.

The pools of balsamic vinegar joined together with the pools of cream from the cheese and together they made the most awesome dip for my chunks of still hot bread! I might show you how I baked these in another post in preparation for the holy month of Ramadan.

One last picture, remembering the delicious weekend lunch

How did the pearls taste like? Well, I though they’d come with a bite to them and add some texture to dish but they didn’t, not at all. They are full of balsamic vinegar flavour but its not intense like, say, balsamic glaze. When you bite into them all you taste is balsamic vinegar, and a good one, but that’s about it. They are more decorative than texturised but they are sure very fun to decorate with and eat!

Now I’m trying to come up with more ways to use my pearls but I’m still undecided. Do you have any ideas you can share with? Please do not be shy.

Oh and you do not have to go abroad to have balsamic pearls, I found them available in the very same deli fridge that I got the mozzarella from in Sultan Sharq but they come from a different brand so yes you could have them for lunch right away and buon appetito

Find Me on Storehouse

Its been a while, I know, since I’ve last opened up my beloved blog and written something. I wasn’t being lazy I swear, I was travelling then was swamped with work upon my return plus, surprise surprise, my attention has been taken captive by one of the newest social media application to hit your resident app store: Storehouse!

Another social media application, yes indeed. We are still recovering from the introduction from Snap Chat that, successfully, emptied out instagram and brought forward a range of the most colourful and frankly boring characters I’ve come across. Seconds upon seconds of clowns, know it alls, problem-solvers, more clowns, couch potatoes, and a very select useful and discreet few. I don’t like Snap Chat much, I don’t like how sane normal looking people you know and respect in real life would lose their marbles seemingly because they are appearing with a timer of ten seconds, the damage was more permanent that ten seconds for sure. However, everyone in Kuwait stopped interacting with each other on instagram and migrated to Snap Chat and if you wanted to keep in touch, you had to snap.

Enter Storehouse!

At first I was skeptic, so another photo sharing app, so what? OK so it enables users to post more than just photos, more like a story book of really excellent and quite sharp photos and the closest thing to a blog than any other social media app there. So I posted a story, and I just felt like I belonged there. The crowd is different, the ease of use is remarkable and sadly much less low maintenance than a blog, and every single picture you come across is so sharp and dazzling you cannot help but stare for a second too long. Its better than instagram for you can share more than once picture in a single post, and way better than Snap Chat for you are not bothered by endless rants and silly actions that eats up your battery and your internet plan for nothing.

One of my recent stories published in Storehouse about balsamic pearls, a delicious new culinary ingredient that I’m currently in love with. I will be posting about it on the blog soon I promise. For the time being though, I need to figure out where to go if I need to share something! Do I tweet? Snap? Facebook? Insta? blog? Storehouse? Or all of the above? This is getting a bit too much!

You can find me under my blog name, Danderma, in Storehouse.

Caffeine, a new Coffee House in Kuwait

If you recall in my post about SoMu district of Mubarkiya souq area in Kuwait, I mentioned Caffeine, a new place that looked about to open soon. Last Thursday I was dining in SoMu when I saw people sitting outside Caffeine and, though I was full after dinner, I decided to stop by Caffeine and check the place out for the next time I passed by SuMo.

To be frank I expected Caffeine to be just another cafe or restaurant, with a menu of sliders and Cesars salad, perhaps a couple of ribs or fiery shrimp and something with Nutella for dessert alongside an Arabic coffee dallah. I got the Arabic coffee dallah right, but I was very, very wrong in my speculations. You see, Caffeine is a proper coffee house. Yes, a new coffee house that serves good coffee prepared from excellent beans using different coffee making methods. ANOTHER COFFEE HOUSE that doesn’t belong to a coffee chain! Oh I’m loving 2015!

When you first enter Caffeine the direction you should take is quiet obvious, just head to the coffee bar with the La Marzocco gleaming on its surface and the black board on the wall that serves as a menu. Of course I took a little detour and kept on, looking at the Syphon and the coffee drip in the corner. I should also mention the music playing loudly, fresh and fast paced, setting the mood for a good time with your upcoming cup of coffee. You’ll hear a sample of it in the movie below.

As you pay look upwards at the awesome light fixtures installed inside Arabic coffee flasks or Dallah as we call them in Arabic. How lovely!

I actually didn’t look at the menu, I was greeted by two friendly guys behind the counter and I asked them what they’d recommend and they said the Syphon so I did gladly. Had I done that I might have had a hard time choosing between a cappuccino, an Oji Style iced coffee, a Greek or the Affogato and therefore would have stayed there all night!

Did I mention that the owners were very friendly? Well they are, we chatted about coffee and they told me they had been trained in London before opening up Caffeine which by the way was opened only a couple of days ago on the day I was there. Today I think they’d be open for a little over a week. The coffee bean they used to make my coffee was a single origin Mexican one as I was told, and even though I am a coffee maniac I’ve never tried or seen a coffee syphon in action before! I’ve shared the coffee preparation video to my SnapChat account as it was being prepared but in case you missed it here it is:

How fun was that? I got butterflies in my stomach, the same feeling I got during chemistry experiments when back in my school and college days. I’ve always loved chemistry, I realise how much I’ve missed it as I was watching the coffee magic that is the syphon!

How did it taste? Well, the caffeine guys did mention that the coffee will taste different, better, if left to cool a bit so I did. You get different layers of flavours with every sip, strong with a hint of acid then light with a hint of earthiness, I loved that. It was very good, a cup of coffee worth having.

By the blackboard menu there were small platters of traditional Kuwaiti bites: little maamool and dates stuffed with rahash -thick tahini dessert-. Those would go beautifully with the Arabic coffee.

You can choose to sit inside caffeine and enjoy the music and the coffee aromas or you can sit outside to watch people passing by in the hip SoMu district. I suppose by next winter the area will be so busy with outdoorsy seating and people milling about it would be even more fun to hang out there especially during the weekend.

I enjoyed my coffee with joy filling my heart, I’m proud to have another coffee house that actually cares about providing good coffee in Kuwait that is worth the caffeine-overdose shakes and elevated heart rate.  This we need more of, this I miss when I travel and this is what I extremely enjoyed when I was in Australia! I’m also glad they were serving Arabic coffee, I cannot wait to go back and try it myself.

One day I will be opening up my own little coffee place, perhaps my very own coffee roasters. Until then I’m glad to be getting a good coffee fix from Caffeine, wishing them the best of luck. Caffeine is located in the SoMu district of Mubarkiya and they open in the evening from 3 – 10 P.M. with Fridays off. For more information you can check out their instagram account (@CaffeineKuwait).

Clarisonic Face & Body Cleansing Brush

For a while now all I’ve been hearing is “clarisonic” this and “clarisonic” that. Girls all over Instagram have been raving about it, Clarisonic being an electric brush that cleanses and exfoliates your face or body. I didn’t intend to go get it myself but I happened to be shopping in Sephora and I was in a credit card burning mood and one thing led to another and I found myself buying a colourful clarisonic with both body and face brush attachments. 

I almost regretted my purchase, surely its just another device that I’d use and get bored in a few months? However, I happened to use it to wash my face a few days later after coming back from a wedding and I have to say it cleaned my face, sweeping every last morsel of makeup remover-resistant foundation from my sensitive and makeup-hating skin. Before clarisonic, I’d spend a long time scrubbing my face free with facial wipes and cotton balls but now, I can have a fresh gleaming makeup-free facial skin in a matter of minutes.

I do regret paying extra for the body brush attachment though. Its been a while and I’ve never used it, not once, even though I’ve been meaning to. The facial brush is so lovely but using it every day might irritate your facial skin if its the sensitive kind as it vigorously scrubs your face. It does improve the appearance of pores after usage and gives a nice polished shine to your cheeks and chin once you are done exfoliating with it but I’d recommend it you use it every three or four days or once a week. I use it with Bliss facial cleanser or with La Mer cleanser if I have a big night out or if my skin feels tired.

By the way it doesn’t take long to charge the brush and it will be good to use for a while before you use it again. Also, you do not need to be afraid about water touching it, it will be fine afterwards but make sure its completely dry before you plug it into the charger so you do not get electrocuted. Clarisonic and replacement brushes are available in Sephora Kuwait but I’m sure I’ve seen it being sold in a couple of other places. Mine came with a warranty and cost about 85 KD if I recall correctly but that’s because it contained the body brush as well as the facial brush. If you know you won’t use the body brush then don’t get it.

Have you tried the Clarisonic face or face and body brush? What cleanser do you use with it and where did you get it from?

My Stay at W London

Are you feeling blue in the bleak period between the National day holiday the summer holiday? Perhaps you are already researching your summer vacation trip? I am currently travel-sick and day-dreaming of roaming the world and I think there are many who share my current state of mind, longing for their next gateway and counting the days. That’s why I’m going through my travel pictures and thought I’d share this experience -and a few others to come- with you. Lets start with my stay at the W Hotel located in Leicester Square, London.

I was in London last December for work and I needed to spend the work week in a place near the underground station to where I was heading every morning. I didn’t want to spend too much time commuting therefore I decided to stay in the W for the first time, partly because I’ve always wanted to stay there, and because it is in the heart of Leicester Square and right above the underground station which meant a one way quick ride to my morning destination.

Because I was in the nick of time and decided to book on a whim, I went through Trip Advisor’s reviews of the hotel and found that most reviews complained only about the noise from the night club that is located in the hotel itself. I also found that the hotel took measures to keep the noise down so that looked promising. I booked quickly and got quite a decent price for my booking given the short notice I’ve had. You cannot go wrong with W’s location, its situated right above m&ms world in Leicester Square, Piccadilly and shares the same modern glass facade with the colourful glass panes and has a big W at it entrance. I wasn’t there when we checked in our room, but I was told the check-in was quite straightforwards and easy. The lobby is gorgeous by the way! Floor to ceiling windows, modern interiors, and it is where breakfast and tea are served.

I only passed by the breakfast/tea area when I was checking out and I am sorry, it looks like a groovy place to dine!

What about the room? We were located in the second floor, and as you get out of the lift at night time you could hear the strong beats of music blaring for sure. Perhaps because we were located right above the night club and it isn’t the same in upper floors? However, to get into the corridor of your room, you need to use your card on a separating door, which also works as a security barrier I suppose, and once you are inside the beats of music are reduced to soft thumping hums in the background.

Our room was like a little studio apartment, with a little area for the TV/Bed and another area dominated by a long sink and mirrored walls. Very convenient.

The rain shower and WC were in separate closets with mirrored doors across from the big sink.

The hotel amenities on the sink were from Bliss, a brand I personally adore and swear by! Needless to say I took home all the shampoos, body butters, conditioners, and face washes I could get my hands on.

The room was clean, very modern, and quite interesting. With a book on fashion I found on one of the shelves and quirky art handing on the wall. The bed was also very comfortable. I loved the room.

The selection of items in the mini bar were also interesting. I don’t usually care much for the confectionery that is provided with hotel mini bars but in W’s case it was the other way round, Pez candy! Jelly Beans, and the awesome Beroca vitamin C tablets that are sure to battle away your flu symptoms when they first appear. I haven’t told you about them yet, have I? I need to post more, I will soon.

So lets recap here, I love the location of the W, the modern yet comfortable room I adore, the attention to detail and the fact that I can shop and dine and walk around London and just get back from wherever I was to take a break before heading back on my way! The most perfect location ever.

What I didn’t like? Well, first when you try to sleep at night you can still hear the music from the club. Not that loud, mind you, if you are tired after walking all around London then you will be asleep in no time and it wouldn’t stop you sleeping or wake you up per say. However, my husband didn’t like it. I think its the price you pay for staying in the city, it isn’t louder than city street noise or midnight sirens anyway.

Another thing I didn’t like? Every time we went into the hotel the guards would ask if we were staying in the hotel and how long are we staying, even though we would be holding the room cards and the outside doors and elevators would only work with them. I do understand its for everyone’s security but if you are the kind of person that gets annoyed easily it can get on your nerves.

On trip advisor I read a few complaints about the fire alarm going off and people panicking, we got that as well. It was night time and we were about to go to sleep when it went off. By the time we made it to the exit door the PA announced it wasn’t anything to worry about. Myself and other disgruntled guests weren’t amused.

One last incident? On our last night there which happened to be a Friday night, we got into the elevator and were followed by five to six huge men. Almost two metres tall with bulging muscles. The men were so big, the elevator so small, I wanted to get out as I’m a bit claustrophobic but I couldn’t and thankfully they were on their way to the club in the lobby and got out quickly. They, however, were very amused by my panicking and were laughing their heads off as they went to enjoy their night, I wasn’t.

Would I stay there again? Well, personally I would. I didn’t mind the noise much and I think the location is perfect, perhaps checkout before the weekend. My husband however didn’t enjoy his stay and felt very out of place and agitated by all the hoopla surrounding him. The W wouldn’t work well for families with children. It will be perfect for youngish couples or a group of friends who don’t mind a bit of noise and are looking for a fun, modern, clean place to stay in London.

The Breathtaking Cherry Blossom Tree

Growing up, Japanese anime was a very big part of my childhood and of many of my peers as well. My love for the anime we watched made me adore everything Japanese to the point of dreaming of moving to Japan to live and to join my favourite characters in their daily lives. The rain, the quaint little neat houses, the walk to school, strolling by the sea after school, the train rides sitting by big windows with a view of Mount. Fuji, eating chow mein with chopsticks, if you share my same vision and I won’t be surprised if you do then you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. 

Now that I am all grown up I still dream about visiting Japan. My dream trip, the trip of a life time, would be travelling to Japan and specifically during the Sakura season where the cherry blossom trees are in full bloom. I’ve been plotting this trip since forever but every year something comes up and my plans are thwarted. Last year in late March I happened to be in the UK, specifically in Milton Keynes, walking towards the mall, when I was stopped in my tracks by the sight of the most beautiful pink hued trees ever!

There were several trees, six or eight, standing with each two facing each other and a walkway in the middle so when you walk through them the intertwining branches of laden with pink flowers would give off the most beautiful pink shade for pedestrians walking underneath.

Needless to say I was so smitten by the sight that I’ve never seen before I stood in the middle of the walkway, gazing up in wonder, blocking other people’s path while trying to make sure this is indeed the one and only cherry tree and these are her blossoms!

How come I’ve never seen those trees in London before? Or any part of the UK, including Milton Keynes before? How come we do not have them in Kuwait? OK so the dessert climate in Kuwait wouldn’t help exactly but why not? Where did they come from? Can you get a shrub from Japan and plant it wherever you want? Is it specific to Japan or does it appear in other parts of Asia? I’m not sure, I didn’t get the answer to my question but I knew, for a fact, that this tree is perhaps the most beautiful tree my eyes have ever fell upon.

The word gorgeous wouldn’t do it justice. The flowers are soft pink, delicate, and joined together in clusters that look like ready bouquets. No wonder there are songs, poems, and entire celebrations surrounding them.

And as I stood and gazed up, I could see the delicate droplets of dew snuggled between the delicate pink folds of the cherry blossoms. Nada, my name, means Dew in Arabic by the way, therefore I could see something of myself reflected in those teeny beauties if that makes any sense at all.

Sadly the first time I came upon them I had only my iPhone camera with me. I decided to go back again in a week’s time with my own camera to take proper pictures of the cherry blossoms. To my horror, a week later meant that most of the flower petals have fallen away and the trees looked a bit bare. I was too late, I didn’t know.

However, as I pointed my camera upwards at whatever was left of the cherry blossoms, the falling cherry blossom petals dropped around me like pink confetti, slowly, magically, not directly falling to the ground but defying gravity one last time and flying around me through the air. It was like standing inside a globe with pink snow, it was like a dream.

Can you see the bare and the still standing petals in the picture above? Yes, I stood in the middle of the walkway again and yes, passers by seemed oblivious to my excitement and my -muted- squeals but I couldn’t help it! How could anyone help it in the face of such beauty? I posed for a picture and laughed and twirled and even met the largest, furriest bee I’ve ever seen in my life. I swear there were visible yellow stripes on her fur!

I had planned but given that it was a busy walkway I’ve decided to wait. Unfortunately I’ve waited too long, for when I finally got out my camera all the blooms had fallen off,

If these few lone trees were, in their short bloom period,  that beautiful then I cannot imagine how mystical they must look when in Japan with hundreds and hundreds of them! I came to know after a bit of research that these trees were gifts from Japan to London and different countries. Now I cannot stop fantasizing also fantasised about growing the tree here in Kuwait. Can’t I at least have a little tree indoors? I’d name it Koji and love it like a family member. I must go to Japan and get my Koji one day, I must!

I think the cherry blossom tree is now officially my favourite tree, ever! Have you ever been to Japan during the Sakura season? And if its your dream trip as well, do share please

Days Boutique Artisan Bakery

In the very last days of January I had the chance to get a sneak peek inside the location of a new bakery in Kuwait City that was due to open very soon. The name is Days Boutique, an artisan desserts bakery located in Dar Al-Awadhi right next door to the famous Karak Gholam. The decor of the coming-soon Days Boutique is quite lovely, modern with a huge studded revolving door, patterned tiles, and endless gorgeous light bulbs hanging from the ceiling.

A few days later I came home to a tin tray with the most gorgeous collection of flowers on one side and a big patterned box on the other. The box said Days and on the strings holding together the box there was a card with my blog’s name on it.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, GORGEOUS flowers arrangement! When I took them out of the tin tray to arrange into vases I nearly filled up all the vases I had in the house. Given that most of them were roses, my little apartment could have been called the rose central for an entire week afterwards for wherever you’d look, you’d find a bunch of roses brightening the spot they were placed in.

Obviously the tin tray with the flowers and a box were from the very same Day’s Boutique I had visited a few days earlier! Now excuse me for spending a moment marvelling the design of the box, which I had developed serious separation issues when it was time to throw away and nearly hid it in the room where everything is hidden -didn’t I tell you about that one? No? Will do in the future-.

The bottom of the box is of cardboard colour, the top is white with brown recurring designs, then there are two buttons, yes buttons, stuck to opposite corners of the box. To secure the box and keep it from opening up, there are two black strings that stretch and latch on the buttons, making for both a cool looking box and a very handy stick free lock, gone are the days when you clawed at the little piece of scotch tape stuck to every corner of the cake box. I love the buttons/string, such an impressive packaging!

What use is a beautifully branded bakery if the food didn’t live up to the design? Now, looks-wise the cake I found inside lived up to the overall design, lived up indeed. Peaks of cream going up and down all over the surface of the came, pools of caramel gathered at the creaks of the cream, dripping to the side, soaking the thick chocolate-y crust. Its been a while since I’ve seen a cake that attractive.

Taste wise? Well, its all in the taste, it is the deal breaker for me, the one thing that would let me remember a bakery or a shop and pay my hard-earned money to satisfy a craving. Did this seductive beauty have what it takes to win me over with its taste and complete the circle of awesome?

I am happy to announce that yes indeed, the cake is a winner on every level. There are several layers to it, which means several flavours and textures and I love the several layers concept of food, it ensures a surprise with every bite. First there was the thick, crunchy yet moist Oreo crust.

Next there is a layer of fluffy cheesecake, with a flavour like coffee but I might me mistaken. Not your average boring-old cheesecake no, and for a cheesecake its quite light indeed. Over the cheesecake layer there is a pool of salted caramel sauce, one where you could actually taste the tang of the salt, seeping over the cheesecake slices when you cut into it.

Then there is the layer of creamy peaks, which I’d like to say is whipped-cream base but frankly I couldn’t tell what it is. I think it might be more of a cream-cheese cake based frosting than whipped cream and you’d think it would make the cake quite heavy but on the contrary, the overall cake was still fluffy, smooth, and easy on the tongue and stomach!

On a final note, there are more salted caramels pools swimming above the creamy peaks, in addition to the ones below the peaks. Yes, a slice must pack about 800 calories and no, you wouldn’t eat this every day. This is the kind of cake you celebrate with. It demands attention, special settings and a cup of really good coffee and an appetite that is longing for some naughty culinary treat. It is that good and yes, it is a way7a qalbi kind of cake and you know what that means.

So if I had tried the cake almost a month ago why am I posting about it today on the blog? Well, because the cake is so good I thought it would be a bit cruel of me to post about it then ask you to wait for the bakery to open. The good news is, Days opened up TODAY and you can get in your car right away and head towards Dar Al-Awadhi in Kuwait City and get your hands on this salted caramel cheesecake and whatever else they have on display which, judging by the reviews I’m hearing and my own happy tastebuds who still remember the taste of that cheesecake, must be worth trying and consuming the calories for sure.

Days Artisan Desserts Bakery is located in Dar Al-Awadhi and are open as if today. You can get directions and more information by calling or +(965)-22322377 or following their instagram account (@DaysBoutique).

Book Review: The Shock of the Fall by Nathan Filer

Hello March! Winter is supposedly officially over and its time to embrace the insatiable beauty of spring, or so it feels! Though I’m a winter person myself I cannot help but be a bit excited at the prospect of iced lattes and the warmth of sunshine and I have just the caffeine drink to celebrate spring, pictured above and more about it later, for now let me stick to inflicting my opinion of one of my latest reads on my still faithful blog readers. Shall we? 

What made me reach out to this book is the paragraph on the back cover of the books narrator introducing his brother Simon who, in his own words, “In a couple of pages he’ll be dead. And he was never the same after that.’ Ah, interesting. So will it be a story of a lingering ghost? It seemed to me like it was the case, and I loved the forwardness of the story-teller, hence I ended up reading it.

How was it? Well, to clarify one thing, it isn’t a ghost story, not at all. It’s about a young boy who loses his older brother and can basically never get over his loss until he is admitted into an institution. It breaks your heart, how a young person with so much prospect suffers so much its impossible for him to move on, becoming every parent’s worst nightmare.

The story is written in whatever Mathew, the boy who lost his brother, seems befitting and according to his circumstances and it made for a quite honest and realistic read but takes a bit too long to get to the heart of what matters. Its like sitting next to a distraught, rambling person, waiting patiently for him to spill out his story for you and explain what happened. The story is beautifully written, it must be said, but it somehow took a bit of time for me to finish even though it wasn’t too long, and two weeks later I still cannot put my finger on the reason why or if I liked it or not. It wasn’t the kind of book that keeps you engaged, perhaps because it drained me and, to be frank, scared me a little but there was something in there that made me plough through to the end which, like I expected, isn’t much of a happy ending. More like an accepting kind of ending which made me sadder still but really, how could there be another ending?

What I’m saying is the book isn’t for everyone and I wouldn’t recommend it as a happy holiday or a bed time read. Its more sinister, and will rack both emotions and fears nestling deep inside of yourself. If you are in a contemplative mood or in need to reflect on your own life and choices, then maybe you want to read it then.