Danderma's Blog, page 85
July 21, 2012
Eshda3wa’s Ramadan Gift
My friend and long lost blogger Eshda3wa dropped by my place today with a nice covered traditional Kuwaiti tray filled with goodies as a Ramadan gift.
The tray was big and beautifully wrapped, filled with little plates filled with traditional Kuwaiti sweets like Zalabiya, Darabeel, Samsamiya, Ghraiba, Mini Qer9 3qaili cakes, and Traditional wrapped sweets like Qamar Deen.
The sweets were delicious! I almost polished off the Zalabiya plate on my own with my cup of post-fotoor coffee! Yum!
Thank you sweet Eshda3wa, I loved your Ramadan tray very much and you’re truly missed. Akramch Allah o ma ga9artay. Mbarak 3lech el shahar o 3asach min 3owadah 
Swera’s Ramadan Gift
Another beautiful Ramadan gift, this time from the lovely Swera of Crazy Yet Wise Blog. To be frank I’ve been seeing sneak peeks of her Ramadan gift preparations and hoping I’d end up with one. Guess what, I did
Swera‘s Ramadan gift is a hamper filled with Ramadan essentials: Dried Fruit, Mixed Nuts, A bottle of Leqa7 water, chocolate covered nuts, Arabian gum which is good for the digestion, and white tea which is right on trend as its my current favorite tea.
Also a pretty small yellow lantern filled with pieces of Qamar Deen -soft apricot candy pieces-.
The Ramadan hamper was wrapped in shiny orange paper and had the cutest card.
Thank you dear Swera, your gift made me very happy! Akramch Allah o ma ga9artay. Mbarak 3lech el shahar o 3asach min 3owadah
Q8 Path’s Ramadan Gift
Mbarak 3lekom elshahar! Ramadan is here and there is nothing more heartwarming than receiving a Ramadan gift when the holy months starts. This year I received a few gifts from friends and this one I received was from fellow blogger Q8 Path.
Q8 Path’s gift was a double one: one for the blog and one for his PR company Edges media. I love the designs of the boxes especially the side of the Q8 Path one.
Inside the boxes was two kind of dates. If I’m not mistaken one of them -if not both- is brought over from Madina because I’ve received some a few days earlier. A perfect gift given that this year we didn’t buy any dates before Ramadan and we needed some.
Thank you very much Q8 Path & Edges Media for remembering us this Ramadan with your gift. Mbarak 3lekom el shahar o 3asakom min 3owadah
July 19, 2012
White Expo in Ramadan 2012
The date for Ramadan’s most anticipated Expo is set. The White Expo will be held from the 29th till the 31 of July 2012 in the Exhibition hall of 360 Mall. I personally cannot wait, I already have a shopping list waiting for those ten days to pass by so I can tick it off
For more information and updates about White Expo you can now follow their instagram account on @WhiteExpo.
Shino Qrayshkom ElYoom?
There is a 50/50 chance that tomorrow is the first day of the Holy Month of Ramadan, mbarak 3leko elshahar o 3asakom min 3owadah. Therefore, people around Kuwait are all having their qraish -Qraish is the last breakfast/brunch muslims have before fasting for Ramadan-. We had our graish at work yesterday but today I had a mini graish of my own. Nothing fancy, some KDD milk and a mini pizza from the cafeteria washed down with a medium Turkish coffee.
What I really wanted for Qraish though was some Zaatar w Zeit’s white cheese fried samboosa with some sweet mint tea. The comibinatoin, especially if the samboosa is bubbling hot, is mind blowing. I could have 20 of these and never get enough, they are simply divine
Maybe I’ll have it tonight for su7oor, or tomorrow for breakfast if its not Ramadan. What about you? What was your Qraish?
Amazing Ice Cream Flavors from Milk Cafe
On my birthday I received a cooler bag filled with ice and somethings very nice. Four different ice cream flavors from Milk Cafe which is the perfect thing to send to someone who is an ice cream maniac who loves ice cream so much she goes by the name ice cream or Danderma
Of course I had to celebrate my newly found treasures so I opened the window to get some summer air in, put on some music -Love is a battlefield, retro!-, got some glasses, spoons, and ice cream scooper, and got to work.
The four flavors of ice cream I received were: Maple Honeycomb.
Strawberry Mascarpone.
My absolute favorite flavor combination of all times, Salted Caramel.
Last but not least and in accordance to the current Kuwaiti habba (post), Lotus Caramalized Biscuit ice cream -Kudos for being on trend, spot on!.
I will let the rest of the pictures talk for a while and tell you how things went.
How were the ice creams? AMAZING!
The Strawberry Mascarpone was rich and luscious. The Maple Honeycomb was caramaley and delicious, the Salted caramel had just the right edge of saltness to it, as we say in Kuwaiti “las3a”, and my favorite the Lotus Caramel Biscuits had an amazing texture contrast between the soft cream and the semi-cunchy biscuit crumbs. Highly recommended!
One of our stray cats (post), Lulu, smelled the gelato through the open window and jumped on the window sill. I heard her mew just in time while taking this pots pictures to scream and slam the window in her face as she was ready to bounce inside the house and on the ice creams! She went to stand on the floor and gave me the look above which clearly says what’s your problem! Sorry Lulu, Danderma doesn’t share ice cream!
Thank you very much Milk Cafe for sending over this lipsmacking birthday gift. You made me really happy indeed! I will be back for more once I polish off my stash
Milk Cafe is located in Al-Seif area right next to Burger Hub and Pizzetta. For more information about Milk Cafe you can check their facebook page (link) or follow them on Twitter (@Milk_KW) or on Instagram (@Milk_KW).
July 18, 2012
Al-Yasra Fashion Ramadan Gift
Al-Yasra Fashion group had sent me a nice acrylic box filled with Ramadan goodies as a Ramadan gift yesterday.
Ramadan greetings.
Very cute acrylic box decorated in Orange and Black.
The name of the palce, Dessert, isn’t very clear but inside the goodies were really yummy! Mini Qer9 3qaili, Mini Rahash cakes, Mini Kanafa bites, and Dates stuffed with Sesame.
I attacked the box right away. My favorites were the Kanafa bites, really yummy!
Thank you Al-Yasra! Akramkom Allah and Mbarak 3lekom el Shahar
Review: Baking Tray’s Ramadan Menu
We were invited by Baking Tray to try their newly launched Ramadan menu. Last year I had tried their lgaymat and they were to die for so this year I was intrigued on what else would they add. Well, first things first, they had redecorated their outdoors area with colorful lightbulbs and Ramadan lanterns!
How pretty!
Surprisingly the weather was breezy and not so bad! Now imagine dining with these lights reflecting on your table!
Going inside, the first thing I noticed was Alban Dairy’s fridge stocked with Alban Dairy’s goods by the door. I was happy to see it! I wish I will see a similar fridge at every surpermarket soon :)
We sat down for dinner. Well, my husband did as I’m not really a fan of Ramadan dishes. For drinks he had Lemon with mint.
First course, lentil soup.
The lentil soup was rich and tangy and you could feel the loomi cooked in. I’m not a fan of lentil soup at all but my husband was very happy with it.
Next course was yereesh. Also not a fan but my husband loved it and especially loved the raisins it came with it.
Next, comes Ramadan’s #1 dish, the tashreeba.
How was it? Well, it comes in a bowl with pleanty of meat chunks, not a bone in sight, and tender pumpkin pieces. It also has a sprinkle of diced onions on it. My husband thinks that its very good indeed but if they lose the onion sprinkles and have it on a flat plate it would be perfect.
Last but not least came Baking Tray’s lgaymat! I’m a lgaymat maniac. If I see them I’d have no trouble eating the entire plate. Last year Baking Tray had sent me the most amazing Lgaymat I had every had in a very long time. You know, big, a tad crunchy on the outside and gooey on the inside with killer syrup (post)?
Well, those lgaymat we had yesterday were good, but not the old lgaymat good. Last year’s were much much better. The ones we had yesterday were smaller and too crunchy which some people actually prefer but I don’t. Bring out the old lgaymat Baking Tray, I want them back 
Thank you Baking Tray for your invitation. We had fun
Baking Tray now has two branches, one near Al-Raya in Kuwait City and one in the Avenues Phase II. For more information you can check Baking Tray’s website (link).
July 17, 2012
My Birthday’s Kunafa!
Traditionally speaking people expect cakes on their birthday. Why? I’m not sure exactly. But what I received a while ago was a very special birthday treat that got me really surprised! It was this covered round tray from Pink Girl.
Peeking shyly back at me from beneath the foil wrapper was a bright orange colored thing that could mean only one thing: Kunafa!
If you know me then you’d know that I adore Kanafa. I simply cannot resist them when I see one. What do you think happens when you get your very own Kunafa with your name sprinkled with ground pistachios on top? MINE
Given that the Kunafa had arrived bubbling hot, we wasted no time getting ourselves plates and we dug in. Look at that!
Say cheese…
Pour in some sugar syrup… yummy yummy yum!
And dig in… Happy Birthday to me 
Mama mia that was good! Very light for a Kunafa and so not like the mass produced oily ones you can get anywhere else. The Kunafa is homemade by a local Kuwaiti business which is why it tastes lighter yet very creamy and very good indeed
Lovely Pink, I loved my surprise visit, loved my birthday Kunafa which I was craving, and loved the beautiful gift that you got me 
Thank you so much, you are the best sister I could ever get, Allah la ya7remni minich :*
The New 52 Degrees and their Ramadan Exhibition
Last week I received a Ramadan gift and an invitation to attend 52 Degree’s Ramadan exhibition for home accessories and dara’as (post). What I didn’t expect though is that the new 52 Degrees section would be open and that I’d get a sneak peek of something no one had seen before
Lets start with never seen thing. 52 Degrees manager Hamad Al-Ali took us behind the scenes to show us their new Ramadan commercial. Its not finalized yet so I cannot say anything about it but I can say that its funny Thank you 7md for the sneak peek!
The first thing I do whenever I am in 52 Degrees is check out my book. There it is right by the cashier! I have to say it really stands out between the other books
Now to the Ramadan exhibition. The first thing I looked at was their selection of side tables, new and old, traditional and funky. I have the two below by Dania Al-Jassim proudly displayed in my apartment.
I loved this suzani print one below.
This modern Islamic one is very beautiful! I want to design an entire room from scratch just so it would fit in!
Metallic and sleek.
What about this round one? Not really my style but quite pretty!
How about this retro looking white cube with colored guns print on top? Lovely!
Or this modern Islamic acrylic and metal one? Mamma mia!
The dara’as sections were the busiest and I couldn’t snap a thing without it being pulled from my hands or being shoved aside. You’d think women had already prepared their dara’as by now!
Anyways those two caught my attention and were traffic free.
Moving on to the home accessories, they had quite a selection!
Also I found a new card game by the name of Kuwait Deal on display. I think its similar to monopoly deal but with a Kuwaiti touch.
Check out 52 Degrees new extention which is finally open!
A long walkway with Zain’s branch, Alwatan Radio, and different stores on each side. Very nice!
Some shops are already open on the side like Reham Baluchi, Deer & Dear, and a furniture shop.
The furniture store.
At the end of the new section there is the iWish Dream factory, aka Kuwait’s first reality TV filming place debuting in October. Can’t wait to see it on TV
Last but not least the location of Trolley, Kuwait’s very quirky convenient store where local businesses can showcase their food creations and sell them in a supermarket like setting. I’m intrigued to be honest.
It was a very busy night yesterday at 52 Degrees. If you still looking for Ramadan items I highly recommend you pass by and snatch whatever you can find, plus my book of course
52 Degrees is located in Al-Tilal Mall, Shuwaikh. For more information you can contact 52 Degrees on their website (link) facebook page (link) or follow them on Twitter (@52Degreeskw) or instagram (@52Degreeskw).
