SOME contrast

Posted By Yousef

Carrie, A girl born to a freakishly religious mother, never felt normal or accepted by her mother nor her peers. She was the butt of every joke, she came to expect a foot to be shot out at any moment to trip her and then another foot to kick her while she’s down, and ofcourse the laughs, always the laughs that followed every sudden bad turn of events.

Carrie then discovered, gradually, through her own forgotten memories, that she’s telekinetic (has the ability to move objects by mental power). What would you do if you were her?

When I read the reviews and how the book is considered a modern day classic, I thought I’d really like it. I liked some parts, but it was cheesy, the whole topic is old and beaten to death. Maybe it would’ve felt fresh and groundbreaking had I read it when it first came out in 1974, But now, It just feels cliched.

I enjoyed reading the book in general, but did not enjoy the story itself. It’s my first Stephen King book. I thought it would be a little scary, but it wasn’t.

Posted By Yousef

About 2 weeks ago, when I was in france, I found out that we were having ummawash o hasho rebyan for dinner. I wasn’t really surprised, coz that day it was cloudy and raining, and Kuwaitis can’t be Kuwaitis if they do not eat ummawash or m3addas when its raining! its an unwritten rule.

I asked about the history of this Kuwaiti dish and learned the following:

Kuwaitis back in the day didn’t have refrigerators and they had to be creative and mix it up a bit when it came to cooking. They ate mostly grains with rice, dal (3adas) with rice and other stuff. Sheep were available and was a step up from plain rice, or rice with dal and fish dishes. Chickens weren’t widely available as it is now, chickens were expensive and most of the time a chicken dish would be cooked only for a sick person within the family (morale boost ). In the summer they had all sort of sea food: Fish, Shrimps, Crabs and so on. But in the winter it was harder, and I think more expensive for people to get fishes and sea food in general, and thats why they started drying fishes and shrimps. The dried shrimps proved to be more resilient to the invention of refrigerators, whereas dried fishes are no where to be found on the Kuwaiti menus (and thank God for that! imagine coming home from work to find an ugly dried fish on the table..).

Inspiration for this post.

Update:
Apparently the Kuwaiti menu have atleast one dish of dried fish, that is Marag Khobba6. I have never heard of it.