Danderma's Blog, page 8

Ten Things You Need to Know About Snap Chat

1- Once you install Snap Chat it will eat up your iPhone battery which will disappear faster than the contents of a Nutella jar placed on a table of hungry people on their diet-free day.

2- People, for some reason, think that Snap Chat is a synonym for circus act therefore its OK to frighten you with strange poses and silly actions because it will be gone in 10 seconds or less. I understand being silly once in a while but being silly all the time, again and again? Don’t be shocked if a respectable person you know in real life comes out as a clown on Snap Chat, apparently it’s what people expect you to do for some reason and no, you don’t have to be if you don’t want to be.

3- Snap Chat provides a glimpse into the private lives of its users, something a too private glimpse of people who decide to share too personal things just because they will be gone in ten seconds or less. I’ve seen too many snaps of people in their PJ’s and bedrooms than I’d really care for, and I’ve known people who were too shocked at the level of intrusion on the lives of others they barely knew that they quit Snap Chat all together. Be prepared, that’s all I’m saying.

4- It goes without saying that Snap alerts you when someone takes a screen shot of your “snaps” and even though you can always ask that person why, almost always they’d reply by “my phone did it on its own by mistake and I didn’t” and I’ve been told that phones do that sometime but you can never be too sure. Plus, there are programs that pull the entire contents of your snap for everyone to share. To be safe on snap you can do two things: a- never share something you’d be ashamed of getting leaked and b- never use any other app for snap chat other than snap chat, the official snap chat, and only the official snap chat.

5- Almost everyone on Snap Chat shoots their snaps while driving their cars, the majority of which give “chat” about their day or “give advice” on all aspects of life, no wonder our streets are crowded all the time. I only know one or two persons who do not do that and I applaud them for it. I do not take snaps when I drive, of myself or the road unless I am waiting at a traffic light. It’s against the law, dangerous, and sets a bad example for everyone else who joins Snap Chat. Please do not do that as well, please. PLEASE!

6- A lot of snappers share a video snap of a song on their radio while driving, most of which do it on their way to work. You might be going through snaps and suddenly this loud song can come blaring out, I’d advice you to keep the sound on mute or wear headphones if you are in a public place.

7- A good trick a friend of mine showed me the other day on Snap is a way to “flip” through snaps quickly especially if its something too long like ten seconds or something too noisy or too repetitive. If you click once on the top right corner of the screen while watching a snap you will skip it entirely and move on to the next snap. Very helpful, very very helpful.

8- Some users, for some reason, have really boring snaps that go on and on and on for 500 or even 1000 seconds. Frankly, that’s just too much sharing. People want a “glimpse”, not a detailed report on whatever you’ve been up to. Ten seconds on Snap is just as long as ten seconds on radio time and it is too long, reduce the time on your still snaps to 3 or 5 seconds and you’ll reduce the number of seconds you use up to tell your story to half!

9- There is no real measure for a person’s “popularity” and by popularity I mean one that is essential for commercial profit in Snap. There is a vague number related to your Snap account on how many snaps you send/receive, and I guess you can always give out a snap shot of how many people saw a certain snap of yours, but I’m not sure how reliable or satisfactory those measures are to the agencies with the money.

10- You will always find stuck up snobs who will whine about what others are sharing and how that’s “not what snap chat is about”. They are not appointed kings and queens of the app and unless they were the ones who invented the app in the first place, you do not have to listen to them and yes that includes what I’m saying above. Share whatever you want while remembering that just because it’s there for ten seconds then its gone doesn’t really mean its gone. Nothing you share is gone, ever. EVER. OK?

Do you have anything you want to add regarding Snap Chat? I frankly didn’t get it at first, I have installed since April and struggled to understand it until about a month ago but now its just another latest app that everyone is currently using these days. Do you use it? How do you like it so far?

A Trip to Yasmine Farm

I came home one day last week to find a huge basket of fresh farm and dairy goodies from Alban Dairy, my favourite local dairy company. Among the fresh goodies that promised at least a week of nutritious sustenance was a invitation card from Ghaliah Technology to join a Saturday weekend trip to the very farm where the produce and dairy products of Alban Dairy and the Farmer’s Market corner of Sultan Center come from, Yasmine Farms in Wafra.

Personally I’ve been to Wafra area once, or perhaps twice, in all of my three decades living in Kuwait. The road is long and passes through vast amounts of dessert sand and once you are there you wouldn’t really know where to go, you couldn’t just knock on people’s farm doors and ask to visit. However, now with a purposeful destination in mind I didn’t think twice about accepting the invitation. To go to the birthplace of those scarlet beauties below? I’m in!

I love Alban Dairy, ever since they’ve emerged on the local market scene in 2011-2012 I’ve been a faithful devotee. You can never have anything of their products and not like it, if you are lucky enough to find anything in the first place. Their akawi cheese is especially good for making grilled cheese sandwiches or preparing cheese stuffed goodies like Samboosas for Ramadan. Their clotted cream is another story on its own, it elevates the flavour of any dessert you make it with and there is no need to speak of the quality of their milk, the product that started it all.

On Saturday afternoon we were supposed to meet up with the Ghaliah team and take a bus to Wafra at 12:30 P.M. but since we did have a few errands to run beforehand we decided to get there on our own. We started heading to Wafra at 1:08 P.M. and we got there at around 2:14 P.M., just a little over an hour of road time and that included a stop to get me some ice cream on the road. We just followed the route to Yasmine Farms from Google Maps and it was really a very straightforwards journey. Once we arrived, we got through the gates to the parking and decided to explore a bit on foot until the Ghaliah buses arrived. There was this little building at the entrance which I think doubled up as a cafe.

There were sandwiches on display and you have them with a drink and dine in if you fancy a bit of a break.

Surrounding the little cafe were green fields decorated with cow bells and a few buildings here and there. We posed by the bell and rang it a few times just for fun.

The buses arrived at around 2:30 P.M. and it didn’t take long for the Ghaliah team to divide everyone into two sections: one would be having lunch while the other was taken on a tour then when the touring section was back they’d be having lunch while the first section went on tour. We decided to be on the section that toured first then lunched later. Our tour, led by Bader Al-Ayoubi from Alban Dairy, started by trekking through the green fields to reach the cows shed while explaining how it all started a few years back with one single cow and experiments that produced brick-tough halloumi cheese.

Personally I do not classify myself as an animal lover, I adore cats and coo over colourful parrots but wouldn’t swoon over other animals the way other people do. However, I have to admit that I never saw any cows up close yet when I did, I thought they were quite cute and mellow creatures! Hello there!

Into the cows shed…

And we met this gorgeous cow who I thought was a buffalo because I thought all cows were in black and white but it turns out they aren’t usually! She’s blonde, with a gorgeous tuft of highlighted hair just like a fringe, and curious and friendly! The cows used by Alban Dairy are of European origin, German and Swiss to be exact, perhaps that’s why the milk is so delicious!

We were taken to the milking parlour but didn’t make it inside. The other group did make it and I’ve seen videos of cows being milked by them, they looked like they were having fun but it wouldn’t be something I’m willing to do. We on the other hand were taken to see the goats and, for the first time in my life I’ve seen goats that looked like the Avatars from the movie Avatar! I thought they were sick but when I asked Bader Al-Ayoubi he told me that the weirder those goats look, the more expensive they actually are!

There were a few other goats that looked so cute they belonged to Heidie’s meadows and not in Wafra! We also saw the big tanks where the milked milk is stored then processed quickly so it would reach the co-op shelves in 4-8 hours max! Couldn’t get any fresher than that I suppose.

Next we trekked through the green houses where the various green produce that is sold in the Farmers Market corner in local co-ops and Sultan Center are planted. They do have strawberries, but it is not open for local picking sadly or else you’d see a picture of myself with my face smeared in strawberries stains. We did get to enter a new and very large green house with big fat tomatoes growing inside.

You’d understand my excitement if you’ve lived in Kuwait and tried to purchase decent tomatoes before. The tomatoes in Kuwait are good and plump during one season but for the rest of the year its just sad and too ripe . The crunchy type of tomatoes, the ones you’d find in fast food burgers, are hard to come by but if I want to eat them I’d buy them from the farmer’s market corner.

And here I am in the presence of the plump crunchy tomatoes that you can buy with their twigs still on. Are they called twigs? Heads? What are they called?

We also stopped by a field of lettuce that was being reaped and I instantly began craving a green salad. The heads of lettuce were huge! How come we never get to buy this amount of lettuce? We always get half the amount? Where do the rest of the leaves go?

Now I was really hungry so we headed back to the Alban Dairy factory where all the dairy goods are made. A nice British gentleman called Larry led the tour there, informing us that he’s been in the dairy business for 30 years and that Alban Dairy’s milk is pasteurised but not humogonised and is the freshest you could get if you are buying it locally.

We went through the factory, which is currently going under some improvement works, and we also got to see the rooms where the dairy goods are kept!

How many jars of yoghurt do you see?

How many cheese sandwiches could you make with these! I was really hungry by that point in the tour!

After the dairy room we got to shop in a huge room chockfull of Yasmine Farm’s produce! Veggies, strawberries, herbs, milk by the tank -is it called tank?-, and the largest selection of Alban dairy products I’ve ever come across!

Look at the cheese room! Yum!

After shopping there we made our way to the dining area.

A big open space with whicker shades, wooden picnic tables, and four food stations: Shawerma Shwaikh, Pickles Burgers, Bes Fool Bes Falafel, and the Urban Creamery ice cream cart.

Needless to say I made it to the falafel station faster than you can pronounce the letters fa…

By then the dust storm that plagued the weekend was no where to be found and the sky was a brilliant blue and dotted with fluffy white clouds! We sat around a picnic table and enjoyed our hot falafel sandwiches with cold diet cokes and a cool breeze. Then I couldn’t resist and had to, just had to try the Urban Creamery’s ice cream in Muhallabiya flavour and Chai Haleeb (tea with milk and biscuits) flavour. I would highly recommend the Muhallabiya!

We staggered back home, happy, full, and content in getting to know Alban Dairy and the Farmer’s Market source better. It was quite a fun Saturday in Yasmine farms and I’d do it again in a heartbeat!

Thank you Ghaliah and Alban Dairy for your invitation and  your hospitality, it was such a memorable trip indeed. If you are interested in visiting Yasmine Farm you can check out their location and any other information using from their instagram account (@AlbanDairy).

The 1001 Inventions Exhibition

I love museums, and history, and everything related to previous civilisations from bygone eras! I have this thirst to know how people used to live in the old days, before our modern day inventions, and what impact did their surroundings have on their lives. Were they different persons, or just like us, and how? What was daily life to them, and was it enjoyable? How did they come about knowledge, and what did they do if they were sick or sad? The past is a mystery to me that I’d love to unlock, I actually wanted to be an archaeologist when I was younger, that’s how much I love history.

When I travel I always include museum visits to my itinerary, my favourite museum of all time being the British Museum and I would move there if I could. The museum scene in Kuwait isn’t at its best form but we do have The Scientific Center, one of my favourite spots in Kuwait. Awesome as they already are, they’ve set up a big tent outside the building to host the 1001 Inventions Exhibitions, an award-winning  travelling exhibition dedicated to Golden Ages of the Islamic Civilisation where many inventions and scientific discoveries were made, paving the way to modern day advances and discoveries.

I was invited to the opening night of the 1001 Exhibitions but I wasn’t able to attend it. I didn’t have the chance to go until one fine Saturday morning. After breakfast we stood in line for the tickets, KD 2 per person or KD 3.5 if you want to gain entry to the different sections of the Scientific Center as well, and then went inside the tent.

You start the visit in a big, dark movie-room where you sit around and watch a short movie starring Ben Kingsly about a librarian explaining the Golden Ages to school kids who were researching the dark ages. I’ve seen that short movie before but for the life of me I cannot remember where! After the movie, the doors are opened into the exhibition and you are greeted by a young man in costume introducing himself as “Al-Jazri”, a scientist who invented an amazing and quite elaborate elephant clock in the 12th century.

Afterwards you move on to another display, also led by a young lady in costume, introducing herself to Mariam the Astrolabist who used and invented Astrolabes, a device that was used by astronomers to pinpoint the location of the sun, moon, and stars. It was, as the talking lady in character stated, something of a modern-day GPS in the Golden Ages. Quite interesting indeed.

There are quite a few displays each with a character in costume talking an explaining about the historical figure they are representing and how useful they were as inventors and pioneers. You get to also roam around the exhibit and check out the interactive displays, such as my favourite which was the virtual surgery one below.

The lady in the middle is depicting a famous nurse, Al-Shifaa, and the two men besides her are also famous doctors that I didn’t catch their names. They greet you, introduce themselves, then you get to move the screen and check out the patient and choose what method of treatment that would be most suitable from the technology that was available in their day. Once you choose, they get to explain more about the treatment. They also get impatient with you if you take too long which was very funny.

One thing I really admire about the exhibit is the attention they’ve given to the female inventors and scientist in the Islamic golden age, proving how important it was for women to be educated and beneficial just like men are. I don’t recall reading as much about women inventors when we studied the Islamic civilisation back in highschool.

Also, all around the exhibits there were tidbits of information that provided quite an insight on how significant the findings of the Golden Era were and how do they reflect in today’s way of life. You could spend a couple of hours just walking from one display to the next, reading and trying the activities.

To add a bit of modern day fun there is a section of customs where visitors can try on and pose for pictures. There is a big section for children to draw and engage in hands and crafts activities as well, many paintings from different children were put up on display.

There was also a corner that worked as a gift shop! With toys that mimic how the inventions were back in the day, for example the camera obscura that was invented by scientists Al-Basri when he was imprisoned.

And there were books! Two books to be exact, one is called Arabic roots and the other is the 1001 Inventions -after the exhibit-. I took them both home with me and the 1001 Inventions book is currently my book of the week. Reading through the pages is like a trip to the past in a time machine!

Once you leave the exhibit you get out with a glowing feeling of pride and the urge to be a beneficial person with so much to offer humanity just like the scientists of old were. You believe that anything is possible no matter what your circumstances are if you put your mind to it, and that you want to learn and keep learning. Well at least that’s how I felt. The only thing I’ve noticed that I’d change if I could would be having the characters in costumes talk in both English and Arabic. They were talking in Arabic only and I expect the many expats in the crowd were feeling a bit left out. The exhibit is in both English and Arabic though.

 Thank you Nawaf Al-Rudaini for your invitation, I had such a great time at the 1001 inventions exhibition. How I wish we had more exhibitions like there, whether visiting like 1001 inventions or local ones. Is it hard, to come up with good cultural exhibitions that are both fun and beneficial to everyone around? I have my hopes up, I wish the day would come when I can spend every Saturday of every weekend visiting a different exhibition like 1001 Inventions. For the time being you can visit -or revisit- the exhibition if you haven’t been already. They are on until 7 March 2015. For more information you can give The Scientific Center a call on +(965)-1848888, check their website (link), or follow them on instagram (@SciCenterKW).

Do You Recognise People in Sunglasses?

If you know me personally and like me enough, you’d know that I really cannot distinguish unfamiliar faces until I’ve met them 3 4 up to 5 times sometimes. I’ve come to start meeting people by apologising in advance for not recognising them in the future, very rude I know but I really cannot register facial features in my face from meeting only once especially in this day and age when everyone looks like everyone else for some reason. However, I’ve only come to realise a new social problem I’m encountering recently: I can no longer distinguish people if they are wearing sunglasses! 

Its bad enough that I am spacey and can barely see half the time, now if I see someone I know wearing modern sunglasses that take out a third of their faces, I am no longer able to distinguish them anymore! I’d walk into a room or an elevator, say a general hello, and stand there silently while you, a person I know, standing next to me and wondering what on earth is the matter with snob me, only its not me being a snob, its me being an idiot who no longer can rearrange your facial features into a coherent image because of the sunglasses you are wearing. Perhaps its because I tend to remember people by their eyes, especially people I do not meet on daily basis, and once you obscure people’s eyes I can no longer tell who they are?

Not an excuse, I’m blaming my poor memory and my method of registering faces in my brain. Perhaps there is something wrong with me? Is it my fault that everyone looks the same these days and the only way I can tell them apart is by their eyes and eyebrows, or is it indeed my problem for not remembering more information about a person as a whole: hair, body build, chin, hairdo, etc.?

The same thing happens to be, but to a lesser degree, when I’ve met a girl in a social engagement where her hair was down then met her in public wearing hijab, or if I’ve known her publicly wearing hijab then met her in a social engagement for the first time not wearing it, I can truly pass by her without recognising her and if I’m to look at here it would take me a full minute or two to make the connection.

God, I’m so tired.

In any case, if you happen to pass by me wearing your sunglasses and I do not say hello then please do not be offended, the schmuck that is me couldn’t recognise you as the person you are especially if you were silent. Please do excuse me, I do not intend to be rude. It would also help if you’ve come across or knew any techniques that helps in the area of facial recognition, its getting socially awkward and I’m coming off as a stuck-up snob who is so full of herself she doesn’t even say hello to people when in reality I cannot recognise people if they change the slightest thing about their appearance How come everyone else recognises everyone else but I cannot?

Tasting Dinner at Nutri Restaurant

The other day I was invited for a tasting dinner in Nutri, one of Kuwait City’s newest restaurants located in Dar Al-Awadhi and specialising in providing light and healthy meals in a restaurant setting. Don’t you wish there were more health-oriented restaurants around in the land of 1001 restaurants? Please let it be the next trend, we are so tired of burger joints!

I arrived in Nutri for the tasting dinner on the night before their official opening, which would make it about a fortnight ago or so therefore by the time you read this post you’d be able to go dine there yourself or order something from their menu using Talabat app. Nutri’s interior is lovely: rustic, relaxed, with shades of beige and cement highlighted with a few green chairs and jars of vibrant coloured fruits or herbs on each table.

As I took my place on the long dinner table, I was handed a menu with many of Kuwait’s favourite usual dishes and other unique dishes. All the dishes had a very important red number types besides them on the menu: the calorie count! A general calorie count of the dish though and not a specific one broken down into carbs and fat and the sorts, but its already very informative and useful to know how many calories per dish are there which would help you decide and plan your meal. For example, I wouldn’t want to order the Meatball spaghetti and consume it on my own once I’ve read it delivers a whopping 712 calories.

I decided to check what the girls were having and share in their dishes. I wasn’t very hungry that day for I’ve already had a big lunch but I managed to have a few bites here and there. First came the edamame, fairly basic and delivered as expected.

Next came the Mushrooms bites, a grilled mushroom topped with a slice of grilled zucchini, melted mozzarella cheese, and grilled half of a cherry tomato, vegetable kebab style. This is my kind of dish really, I wouldn’t mind having that for lunch and I enjoyed it very much.

Next to arrive was the watermelon, feta, and mint salad. Again my kind of dish even though I personally think it is more of a summer salad than a winter dinner dish.

Though the ingredients were very fresh and the salad was well dressed, the watermelon was clearly not that tasty for it wasn’t in season. Again I personally think this should be a seasonal dish best prepared and served in the summer when the watermelons are ripe, sweet, and juicy. Do order this once summer arrives, I’m sure its going to be a refreshing dish then.

For my main dish I had the Asparagus Gnocchi. It was very tasty and somehow it turned out tasting like something that is homemade. To be particular, it tasted like a Kuwaiti homemade “marqooq”.

Here is my plate for the evening, I reckon I had consumed about 250-300 calories, not bad for dinner.

Other dishes the girls had ordered for the evening included the margarita pizza.

I have to admit that I had a slice. The girls loved it and were raving about it. The cheese and the sauce were delicious but I personally thought the base was too thin and had a bit of a grainy chew but its a matter of personal taste really. In general I love doughy pillow like pizzas but if you are a fan of crispy based ones you most likely will enjoy Nutri’s pizza.

One of the girls ordered the glazed lamb chops with purple potato mash. The dish does look good, especially the vibrant purple mash which looked like a smear of colour in the middle of a dark hued dish!

How was it? They said it tasted really good, only wasn’t cooked to their specification. I think she ordered the meat to be medium well and it was just medium or something, I’m not a meat colour expert or fan. If you are however particular about how your meat is cooked and do not stop at well done, you might want to ensure that your meat was cooked to your exact specification.

Another dish that was on the table but I didn’t try was the crispy Kale salad. I am not a kale person, I’ve tried but it was too smelly for my liking therefore I wouldn’t be eating it willingly nor considering it as a replacement for the nachos or potato chips anytime soon but if you are a kale fan you will be happy to share this dish with other diners as you wait for your healthy food to arrive.

For dessert, yes time for healthy dessert, we tried two dishes and met a third. The first was the caramelised apples with ice cream and bits of toasted bread.

As a person who adores apples, I loved that dish. Its not apple pie but if you are craving something like an apple pie then this would be a very satisfactory replacement with a fraction of the fat and calories.

The second dish was the glazed peanuts and grilled bananas. It sure did look good.

Again this tasted very good. I love the peanuts, they give a very sharp flavour and had a nice crunch against the creamy texture of the grilled banana. Again I loved this dessert and almost polished it off myself.

The third dessert, wasn’t mine but I managed to take a picture, was the blubbery cheesecake. It sure did look purple and vibrant. I don’t however recall the feedback on the taste but judging by the other dishes I’d say its worth a try. I’d try it when I dine there next.

We had such a great time at Nutri restaurant the other day. The service was attentive, the food was good and definitely didn’t compromise on the flavour by being healthy, and they even had a nutritionist on had who would discuss your menu options and give you advice when needed! When they asked for my feedback, I pointed out that it would be even more helpful if they had pointed out whether a dish was vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, nut-free, or paleo friendly. You would love it fussy eaters if menus were the case, wouldn’t you? I know I would

Thank you Nutri for having us that night for dinner. We left feeling light yet happy with the good food we had consumed. Wishing you the best of luck and you can count on us being loyal customers for sure. Nutri is located in Dar Al-Awadhi complex in Sharq, Kuwait City and are open from 8 AM for breakfast until 11 PM. For more information you can give them a call at +(965)-22322236 or follow them on instagram (@NutriKW).

Using the Kuwait Finder Number

For a while now, perhaps a couple of years or more, every unit in Kuwait whether residential or commercial, even cinemas, has a little plaque by its door from the Public Authority of Civil Information (PACI) alongside a long unique number. I was baffled at first but then was told that the number is an address that can be used to find wherever place you want to head to in Kuwait electronically. I thought it was a marvellous idea especially in Kuwait where we do not have Zip codes and the postal system is particularly non-existent, but I never did get to know how to use that system whatever it was until the day when my husband ordered some lunch from a popular local doner place called Slice. On the packaging of the doner, you could find the words “Kuwait Finder” and the number next to the logo of PACI!

How interesting! I didn’t know people were giving out the number as an address, I’ve never come across anyone who did that before. Frankly even if I knew what my address number was I would still not know how to use it, but I figured there must be an app related to it and so I went to the Apple store and searched for “Kuwait Finder” et voila! There it was! I installed it at once.

Using the app finder you could search for addresses or simply enter the number they call “PACI Number” and you would get all the information related to it plus get directions on how to reach there and the shortest route information! That is quite awesome! Reminds me of the Kuwait Municipality application on their website that I’ve used hundreds of times to locate different address, only now its an app on a smart phone and you use a number for search! Very convenient and fast.

I have to say I’m going to give people my PACI number instead of my address from now on. I also am going to be asking people for their PACI numbers instead of their addresses and it would be a great help for businesses to start acknowledging their PACI numbers like Slice did and have it printed out alongside -or instead- of their physical address on product packaging or on social media platforms. Just enter a number into an app and you are there, as easy as one two three and maybe in the future if we are ordering something online or via the phone, all we have to do is give out that number and we are done!

In case you are still wondering what is the PACI number, it is literally found everywhere on a little white sign outside of any place with an address. I once came across a shop that had painted over the sign with the same colour as the shop’s background so you might want to look closer if you cannot find the number you are looking for. I am going to be recoding my own number and using it from now on. Do you know your PACI number? Have you tried it before? And why not?

Book Review: All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr

Personally I wouldn’t have reached into a novel that talks about WWII and the Nazis on my own. Though I love history I often find the atrocities of war too depressing to consider as quality time reading. However, everyone was raving about the book so much, I decided I had nothing to lose if it was indeed in my library waiting for the right moment to come. Better safe than sorry I suppose. A few weeks back I had nothing better to read and while browsing my book shelves the heavy novel kept finding its way back into my hands therefore I decided why not, so be it.

The sense of danger and impending doom never leaves you as you flip through the pages. It doesn’t follow one consistent timeline, rather goes back and forth between a panicking sixteen-years-old Marie-Laure all alone in a house being bombed by the Allied troops, the orphan yet brilliant kid Werner who is now a German soldier trapped under the rubbles of a bombed hotel, and the menacing German official who is stalking the house Marie-Laure is in, waiting for the moment to go in and look for the once thing that could save his live. The story goes back and forth, back and forth, from the beginning of Marie-Laure’s diseases that caused her to lose her sight, from the poor upbringing of Werner in the orphanage and how his curiosity and knack for science could have made him the scientist he desired to be had he been born in another day or another time.

You feel really attached to the characters of the story, to the point of smelling the wood shavings of Marie-Laure’s father or the canned fruits of the Madame Manec. You want everyone to be happy and all right, for everything to work out in the end and everyone return to their old happy lives, but war isn’t kind and nothing returns the same once its over. I don’t want to give away the story, but I loved how myth of the precious diamond was intertwined with the events of the story and how its fate was wrapped up properly. I have nothing negative to see about the novel, I enjoyed every word, I loved every phrase, and flipped every page eagerly and my heart beat nervously in all the right places. Its the kind of story that you read slowly, wanting to enjoy every page just the way you’d sip your coffee in the morning, savouring every sip. No wonder it was a best seller for so long and I would personally highly recommend it.

Breakfast at GIA Cafe

Ever since GIA opened up their doors in October 2013 they’ve been creating a buzz with the food loving population of Kuwait. Gia was always busy, and I’ve yet to encounter one person who dined there and didn’t love the food or the atmosphere. They’ve been open for less than a year and a half but they’ve already closed down to expand to the next door shop due to popular demand and now its even bigger with more room to breathe and relax. So what was next for Gia? Why, breakfast of course! 

GIA began serving their breakfast around two weeks ago and it lasts from 9-11 AM daily. I’ve seen pictures of their breakfast, I’ve seen snapchats of people having breakfast and I knew exactly what I wanted to do on that fine cool sunny Saturday morning last weekend. The moment I opened up my eyes, I wanted to have breakfast at GIA and so it was. I actually knew what I wanted to order beforehand but decided to take a look at the menu for I might see something I’ve missed.

Now lets see, personally I only eat scrambled eggs for breakfast and on some rare occasions I eat baked eggs or omelettes but nothing runny. I was in the mood for eggs, and they had two dishes with scrambled eggs on the menu but I decided to try the basic one: Two eggs any style -scrambled- on toast with a side of potatoes and sautéed mushrooms. I also ordered an American coffee.

My eggs arrived first of all other dishes, propped on the softest slices of brown bread and with a side of mushrooms and potato cubes. I really want to say I’ve enjoyed them but they were blah to be frank. The consistency of the eggs was all wrong, too dry and separated into clumps. The bread slices were really delicious though.

Thankfully the other eggs dish, poached eggs with avocados on toast, was a much better dish than my own scrambled one. I didn’t try the eggs, I don’t eat poached ones, and I’ve developed a fairly recent and quite annoying allergic reaction to avocados where my stomach would ache endlessly for hours if I had any, but I was told this dish was a winner and almost every table around us had someone breakfasting on it.

We also ordered a latte, which was rich and lovely. My coffee was good as well.

What else did we have? Well, I was really craving this croissant ever since I’ve seen a picture of it with a description. The name? Aroma’s breakfast toast. Description? Croissant, filled with brie cheese and brown sugar. Interesting no?

Now the brie cheese is melted but not to the point of being an oily mess, there was still a bite of texture to it. The sugar wasn’t all melted as well so it provided a good amount of crunch, you could feel the brown sugar crystals hiding into the fold of creamy brie and once crunched together, it melts away within the cheese as you chew. May I also add that the croissant was fresh and flakey and not at all dry from being heated? May I also add that there were a few sprigs of rosemary hiding between the cheese and the sugar, and that I found a few walnuts in the accompanying salad that I’ve also stuffed in my croissant, and that is perhaps this sugary brie croissant was one of the guiltiest yet most pleasurable and tasteful croissants I’ve had in Kuwait? This is a killer, a way7a qalbi moment for those who know what that word mean.

The brie & sugar croissant was a very successful dish. You would think we’ve had our share of sugar and fat by now no? Not a chance, I had to try the second famous GIA breakfast dish, one that’s everyone is raving about, the salted caramel French toast!

Now if you are truly confused about what salted caramel means, you should try the caramel sauce on this dish and see what exactly a salted caramel sauce should taste like. Creamy, sweet, rich, with a hint of salt that brings everything together. When the dish arrived with the other breakfast dishes I thought to myself whoa! We would have to take this for takeaway. I almost didn’t want to drench it with the sauce but we still had some space in our stomachs and I thought, just a bite or two.

Moments later and we were fighting over the last piece of caramel drenched toast! The dish arrived with a white fluffy cream thing that might be cream fraiche but I’m not sure, its not cream and not ice cream, something in between but lighter that cloud with a hint of sweetness and no there is no pictures of it being spread on the bites of toast and sugar and salt and pecan because if you dropped your fork for a moment there would be nothing for you to jab your fork into in a moment.

The French toast is, also, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and falls under the way7a qalbi category! Oh my god, that was a breakfast worth waking up for indeed!

All four dishes we had returned empty and stark white back to the kitchen. The new GIA is so beautiful, the atmosphere so laid back and relaxed, plenty of people minding their own business and losing their selves in their breakfast, so quiet yet with morning-suitable music softly playing in the background. Our bill came to about 17 KD which I think isn’t bad for such a delicious meal with really generous portions.

May I also add that I love the wall art I found on Al-Khalid complex? I especially love the spaceman in the picture below. At least I think he is a spaceman, but either way I think its a nice way to sprinkle youth on a decades old building.

So, dear reader, whether you are a local or visiting Kuwait soon, GIA is indeed a new and perfect spot to have breakfast in Kuwait away from the mall crowds. Do not miss the Brie & Sugar croissant and you must leave room for the French Toast, you must! Well done GIA, I love your breakfast menu, perhaps even more than your regular menu!

GIA Cafe is located in Al-Khalid Complex in Salmiya. For more information and directions you can give them a call on +(965)-25640257, email them on info@giakwt.com, or follow them on instagram (@GiaKwt).

A Stroll in SoMu, the Trendy Part of Mubarkiya

One favourite spot of mine in Kuwait is the old and traditional Mubarkiya souk. I tend to spend mornings or evenings there, casually strolling in the alleys , my vision split into what I’m seeing for real and what I imagine it must have been in the old days, who must have walked these very steps or touched these very walls. It’s a charming spot deeply saturated with history and many of its standing buildings have not been changed since they’ve been built. 

Mubarkiya have always had restaurants serving traditional food but for a while now a few modernised restaurants Kuwaiti have been opening one after the other, I’d say the trend started in 2011 with the opening of Haleeb o Heil cafe but my memory might be failing me there. Not all the restaurants available serve Kuwaiti food per-say but a younger, different crowd sure began to flock into its streets -and not only for photography classes or projects-. Fast forward four years Mubarkiya is now a very busy and well frequented “hip” spot, especially after the opening of SoMu and the now taking place Mubarkiya Expo in its second year.

You know you’ve arrived in SoMu when you see the big heart with the words “I love you Kuwait” written inside, in the picture above. What is SoMu you say? Well, SoMu is a play on “South Mubarkiya” and is a little area in, well, south of Mubarkiya where a group of modern and trendy restaurants and settings with outdoorsy seating and quirky wall art. It started a year or two back with the opening of the Thouq shop, a tiny little shop with quirky merchandise, around the Thouq shop, the lovely restaurants began to popup as well.

There is Msayan restaurant, overlooking the big love heart wall art and serving modernised Kuwaiti dishes. I’ve been there for breakfast and they have excellent, excellent scrambled eggs with cheese. I’d recommend this as a starting point if you are planing on spending a morning exploring Mubarkiya on foot.

Right next to Msayan you’ll find Brothers St. burgers. They are not open in the morning, being a burger place and all, but I’ve seen pictures of my friends dining there in the afternoon and the evening and I’ve heard really good reviews about it.

What’s really lovely about Brothers St. is the little sitting area surrounded by trees and shrubs. Pictures of that area, softly light in the evening and buzzing with diners, speak of cosey relaxed evening and good conversations with friends.

Right next to Thouq shop and Brothers St. is a really new restaurant that is either just opened or will be opened very soon. Last Saturday I’ve seen tables being cleaned outside and from the name, caffeine, I expect it is a coffee place.

Across from Caffeine you’ll find a beautiful gazebo in between another cute looking cafe, Breo.

Breo isn’t open yet, but I expect once it does alongside its two new neighbours the area and have its tables filled with diners the area would be a really nice see and be seen kind of spot.

Another soon to open place next to Breo is 7th Heaven! I just hope all of these places are open before the good weather days are gone.

Across from 7th Heaven is a piazza with more shrubs and greens, designed in a way that almost certainly means it will be filled with diners soon. Or perhaps some booths of some expo or nomadic markets? You never know, but there is a lot of happy times potential in the making here.

And across the piazza you’ll find my favourite of them all, flower latte Cafe!

If you haven’t been there already then you must have seen pictures of diners snapping in awe at the whimsical decor and gorgeous settings! Its so lovely, so serene and relaxed and quite and inviting, I wouldn’t mind spending an entire morning just sitting there sipping coffee and enjoying the peace and quiet. Its also a shop, or at least it used to be I’m not sure anymore, but its been there for almost a year now and its really a gem in the middle of Mubarkiya. I will be dedicating an entire post just for Flower Latte because it is that beautiful. Here is a preview though.

Lovely place right? Some might argue that its not very traditional or old, that its taking a part of historical Mubarkiya and erasing its traditional identity but if you look closely you’d see the buildings housing the cafes and restaurants are exactly a hundred years old, perhaps they were built in the 70’s and 80’s therefore not really that historical as other parts of Mubarkiya. A little modernisation wouldn’t hurt I suppose, no old buildings were harmed making way for new ones, especially if it meant more people heading and hanging out in Mubarkiya and certainly not only confined to the SoMu section.

While we are on the subject of Mubarkiya let me tell you about two more things that I like. One of them is a little shop called Bait Ahmad that’s been there for a while and filled with lovely merchandise, a mix of modern and traditional. I’ve always loved shopping at Bait Ahmad and recently they’ve converted almost half their space into a little coffee shop.

If you arrive in the evening, you would find a long queue waiting for a table so you might want to go when the souk isn’t very busy.

Another part that I love about Mubarkiya is how dressed up it gets during the festive month of February. Everything is swathed in green, red, white, and black, the colours of the Kuwaiti flag and you get to see shows and traditional music performances. Its a beautiful place to be during February.

SoMu Mubarkiya have been generating quite a buzz and with the festive month decorations and activities, Mubarkiya can be very busy! My favourite time to enjoy a leisurely stroll there is on early weekend mornings or just after sunset on weekdays. You can spend an evening there then stop for some desserts and coffee or have breakfast and walk around until you cannot feel your feet anymore. In any case, if you are planning on visiting Kuwait soon, don’t miss Mubarkiya this time of year.

Brunch at Street Almakan by Zubabar

I’ve always wanted to dine at Street by Zubabar. Even before they were officially open, when they were setting up the place and posting pictures of their progress on their instagram account, I’ve been watching and anticipating their opening. The day they were officially open I meant to go have dinner but a quick look at their menu told me that I wouldn’t be able to order much, the fussy vegetarian that I am. I wanted to go for coffee and dessert and enjoy the atmosphere, but never could find someone at the exact time and place to go with me. Time went by, but I always promised that the next time I’m going out for coffee with a friend, we would be going to Street. And then their brunch happened… 

Located in Kuwait City just across the street from the fabrics market (blockat), the building with glass facade is the very spot for the hippest new restaurants. It is in the same building as Vol. 1, the coffee place with the excellent coffee. You know you are in the right place when you see their red sign on the building, the entrance is to on the back. How cool is Street’s entrance?

Very cool indeed! I love everything! The tiles, the white brick walls, the ladder, the art work, the coffee machine at the very back and the table with the little dog statue -which reminded me of James Bond indestructable dog statue from the latest movie-. The cookbooks lined up by the wall, among them two of my favourite restaurant’s cookbooks -Polpo’s and Ottelinghi’s-. I wasn’t mistaken, I must be in for a delicious meal and a good time!

As I took the stairs to the first floor -where the restaurant is located-

How often do climb up a flight of stairs but linger, come down, go back up, and crank your head dangerously upwards as you climb? Not very often but that was the case as I tried to go upwards on that fine Saturday morning. Well lit stairs, groovy florescent stripes on the wooden walls, and metal cubes joined together at the ceiling. If I ever get to have a house of my own in Kuwait during this life time, my stairway would be a carbon copy of Street’s, yes a shameless carbon copy!

The beautiful stairway was just a glimpse of the uber modern interior of the restaurant above. Very airy, big floor to exposed ceiling windows gathering in all the lazy morning sunlight and streaming it in, music playing, a long communal table takes up one side with one end overlooking the big kitchen window, concrete everywhere. Can I move in and call it home?

We chose a table that was on the window overlooking the busy Mubarak Al-Kabeer street and we had a pretty view of Kuwait’s liberation tower. The sky was crisp blue and dotted with plenty of fluffy white clouds on that morning.

Street’s brunch menu isn’t very big and it didn’t take us long to decide on what to order. I knew right away that I wanted the “Egg ‘Shroom Bun” and my husband ordered the “Truffled Creamed Corn and Poached Egg”. Other options on the menu included the “Duck Shakshooka Benedict”, “Ribs, Fried Rice, and Eggs bowl”, and an option to create your own eggs.

The table setting, I wanted to play with the chopsticks provided with the tiny bottles of sauces. Very cute indeed.

And before you know it, our dishes were on the table! Lets start with my Egg ‘Shroom Bun dish which was the highlight of that meal and I can still feel their heavenly taste two weeks on as I’m typing this post.

Now I’m not really a fan of Asian flavours, or the sweet tinge mixed with the sharp flavour found in many Asian and Asian fusion sauces and dressings. I am also not fond of steamed buns, I usually find them quite bland and washed out. However, in this particular dish the steamed buns were perfect: cloud like and provided a hint of taste and a lot of texture without overshadowing the silky eggs scrambled to perfection. Most of the flavour however came from the shrooms, cooked in teriyaki sauce and sprinkled with chives and sesame.

The dish works! I enjoyed every single bite, sweet and silky and doughy and rich and chewy. When my husband wanted to have a bite, just a bite, he decided it was too good to limit to one bite and decided to steal an entire bun but I was there in time to snatch what was left of the hijacked bun. Yes, that good. I only have 3 favourite egg dishes that I eat in restaurants in Kuwait, and Street’s Eggs n Shrooms became pushed my second favourite off the list and took its place, brining the list to four.

Now comes the Truffled creamed corn poached egg dish, topped with a slice of crusty baguette.

How was it? The egg was very good and cooked perfectly but the creamed corn was too heavy with an overpowering flavour that masked the egg and the truffle taste. If you are a fan of creamed corn you might find this dish to your liking but personally I thought it was too sweet and too heavy for my taste.

We also ordered a latte and a cappuccino to accompany our meal. Now the beverages were perfect and were made with excellent coffee but they came in small cups and were gone in three gulps. For someone who is used to guzzling bottomless cups of coffee in the morning, I was left wanting more. Also, the beverages arrived after the dishes by a significant amount of time and I personally like to start my breakfast -or brunch- with something to drink before solid food. While we are on the subject of drinks, there was no juices on the menu which is not good news for people who love their juice with breakfast.

Something sweet? Well there were four options: “Acai & Berry Granola Bowl”, “Cornflake Crusted Pain Perdu”, “Love with Coco Pancakes”, and an option to create your own pancakes. Can you guess which one did we order?

The love with coco pancakes of course! Let me relay its menu description: coco chip pancakes, coco maple, coco labna -yes, labna!-, and shredded coco! Coco, coco, coco, COCO!

And the coco laden pancakes we gone faster than you say coco three times in a row! The pancakes themselves weren’t the fluffiest, not after you’ve just had the steamed bun with its cloud-like texture, but they were really good, swimming in all that cocoa. I loved the cocoa labna! Maybe one day I’m going to make myself a cocoa labna on a cocoa bread topped with coffee infused olive oil,  that’s my kind of breakfast!

After we were done I didn’t want to leave, I was having such a good and relaxed time in the sunny modern restaurant. I thought I’ve seen it all when we’ve asked for the check but there was one more quirk that made me like Street even more, the check came inside a novel!

A worn, well thumped and obviously loved Danielle Steel novel! Is there any better way to present a check for a book maniac like myself?

KD 11.750, not bad at all for a really good and well prepared meal! I loved Street, I loved everything from the interior to the atmosphere, the attention to details down to the adorable check presentation, and most importantly I enjoyed every morsel of my brunch -except for the creamed corn dish-. The staff were friendly and smiling, service was swift and efficient, and if I didn’t type that down already, the restaurant is owned by Faisal Al-Nashmi (aka Zubabar), a Le Cordon Bleu graduate Kuwait chef who is doing a pretty good job indeed, my complements to the chef, thank you for a brunch worth waking up and getting out of the house for!

Street’s brunch is offered on Saturdays from 9 AM and are open daily from 5-10 P.M. They are located in Kuwait City, Mubarak Al Kabeer street right across from the fabrics market (blockat). For more information and to check out their menu you can check their website (link) or follow their instagram account (@St_Almakan).