SOME contrast

Posted By Yousef

When I first discovered foret noir, or black forest, the cake (duh), I was not so fond of it. What is there to like anyway? it is supposed to be some kind of a chocolate cake that doesn’t taste quite like chocolate, it has this sour syrup that everybody on this earth hates with a vengeance, and its covered with this thin layer of cheap whipping cream (the ones I tried are cheap) then covered again with something that is supposed to look and taste like chocolate flakes. It is hatable. Almuhaissin, I think, is one of the main reasons why I’ve always hated the black forest, the other reason being the egyptian movies and the way they pronounce it’s name; belack foorest.

Anyway. I discovered this AMAZING cafe (actually, I didn’t discover anything. Mom took me to this cafe 2 years ago and made me try their foret noir) their foret noir is nothing like almuhaissin’s! its nothing like any other black forest i have ever tasted. First of all they got it right and won major points for cutting that sour syrup out of the recipe, then they scored even more points for including a chocolate paste (is it called paste? its a layer of melted chocolate) that works perfectly with the cake, very subtly sweet, it adds this whole other dimension to the otherwise boring cake and it kind of redefines the cake. Then there is the award winning whipped cream layer which takes it to a new level.

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Posted By Yousef

Actifed Duo is one of the best allergy medicines I have ever tried, even better than the mighty Zyrtec. It has double effect, acting as both an allergy drug and a running nose’s. I also love it coz I don’t feel drowsy/sleepy after taking a pill.

Highly recommended.

Posted By Yousef

Mont Salève (1380m) is in france right next to the swiss borders. Its one of the nearest mountains to geneva and once you’re up there, you’ll have a panoramic view of geneva and all the cities next to it. I think I can see all the way to lausanne (I think Montreux is blocked by the Mountains near Evian).

You can go up there either by using the Telepherique (Cable car) or by car. I prefer using the car, gives a sense of adventure (I’m afraid of heights). We went there last week, by car ofcourse, my brother was in the driver’s seats, driving the manual car (which makes our heads go back and fourth with every gear shift!). The trip took less than 15 minutes. There is a little cafe on top (many cafes) which overlooks the whole thing and just a few meters away from the cafe there is this flying-edge where (crazy people, as mom would refer to them, elmeyaneen) jump off and fly with their parachutes.

This is the stadium where some of the UEFA games were held.

The giant football hovering over geneva’s skies.

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Posted By Yousef

There is this tiny little restaurant in Movenpick Hotel called Al Dente. It can easily be overlooked by everybody who hasn’t been in and ate one of its various dishes. Its little, the decoration is so so, and its in Movenpick. As you can see the odds that can come between you and one of the better italian restaurants in Kuwait.

I’ve been to this restaurant countless times. I like it because its not crowded, its consistent and I can have the pasta my way, which is a thing I really appreciate in an italian restaurant. I always order their pasta (whatever kind I feel like when I visit) with the cream sauce, I love heir cream sauce, its heavy so I always make sure that I stay away from any kind of appetizers just to make enough space for the main course. Recently my friend introduced me to a new kind of creamy sauce, it’s pink, a mixture of white and red sauce (I think they call it rosa?). Anyway, I usually ask the chef to be generous when using olive oil and garlic while making the pasta. (I just ate a pizza, I’m really not happy describing food).

The service is excellent and friendly. The atmosphere is nice, not great. The place is small and chances are everybodys gonna hear your conversations (but that happens everywhere in Kuwait coz Kuwaitis have it in their blood to eavesdrop, so it’s ok).

Score: 4 Out of 5.

Al Dente is located in Movenpick Hotel in Shuwaikh’s Free trade zone, near Villa Moda. Phone # 4610033.

Posted By Yousef

Just thought I’d share my current homemade wallpaper with you guys, I think it looks nice as a desktop picture. Click on the pic above for the bigger version.

Posted By Yousef

As promised, Goats Town! in all its glory Its in France, near Chamonix. approx. 30 mins away from both Chamonix and Geneve. Its in a mountain where a city called Morzine is located nearby, The obscure place in which this Goat’s town reside is called Les Lindarets.

The town is pretty small and filled with, well, Goats. They lay and walk around freely, you can buy specially packaged food and feed them (rizg lig6awa) they pose and follow you whenever they spot the plastic bag, which contains their food, in your hand. sometimes, in not so rare cases, they hassle you and pull the plastic bag out of your hand, leaving you feeling both angry and silly.

They’re all gathered around this giant salt cube, licking it and there are many other cubes lying around the place from them to suck into. From what I understood, Goats love salt and they’d do anything to have their salt fix. In Kuwait I saw them licking the cement around their cage just coz it got some salt in it. They actually made a dent in the cement from all licking!

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Posted By Yousef

I just finished reading A Thousand Splendid Suns by the awfully talented Khaled Hosseini. I should first say that the writer didn’t drift away from what made him famous; his first novel. The story is set in Kabul, afghanistan and it sees much of what we already have read in The Kite Runner, and it adds some more.

I enjoyed the novel, I enjoyed the plot, the characters, the war-zone atmosphere and above all I very much enjoyed and marveled at the way he writes. Its a story of a young harami (bastard), her name is Maryam, who lives with her mother in a hut away from her father, who came to visit once a week. She awaits his arrival every week with patience, every single week, and loves him dearly and relentlessly, inspite of her mother’s constant bashing and warning that one day he won’t come to her anymore and will forget about her exactly like how he forgot to publicly own his mistake and let her, Maryam, live legitimately with her other sisters from his other wives.

The writer then starts another story with another girl who lives down the street from Maryam, her name is Layla, who is in love with Tariq. Fate plays the cruelest games with these 2 girls. They learn much about life and how, at times, it means nothing and everything at the same time. You learn much about how life was not so nice to Afghan girls during the 70’s, 80’s and ofcourse their worst days in the 90’s during the Talibans stage.

I recommend this very well written novel to everyone. Its like what you’re probably going read if you ever (not possible) read one of Amir’s* novels.

* Amir is the boy in Hosseini’s first novel.

Posted By Yousef

We went to an italian restaurant the other day, it was recommended by Hamad’s boss. When we first saw the street it’s located in and the neighborhood we had our little doubts. We know that restaurants in europe and especially in switzerland aren’t flashy and the best restaurants always look kinda cheap, but still, the place looked weird for some reason, maybe being behind the train station and all.. I don’t know. We wanted to sit outside but the waiter told us that we only have this cramped table to sit at coz the other section is not being served for the night. We didn’t sit outside and went in. The restaurant is small and not so cozy, there was a football game being played on TV and italian waiters arguing loudly. My brother couldn’t have been any happier, being an AC Milan fan and all, he couldn’t have wished for a more italian restaurant to be in.

We sat and the Pizza oven was right next to us, the smell was killing us, it smelled so good inside! we skimmed through the menu. We knew we’re going to order pizzas for starters, it was only a matter of quantity and we all ordered the same maindish (by accident, I’d like to believe), a home made tagliatelle with creme and mushrooms.

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Posted By Yousef

As you may already know, I’ve been looking everywhere for hotspots because of my internet problem, and I came across this interesting website recently that offers you a list of free hotspots all over the world. Take a look HERE.

Posted By Yousef

We went to Gruyère the other day. We go there mainly to indulge in cheese. They’re the number one source of the best cheese in switzerland and maybe all of europe. We go there prepared, we don’t eat anything heavy before heading to Gruyère. We order their raclette; a block of cheese they put under a some tiny cheese heater/griller (shown in the pictures), and their fondue which also is made of melted cheese. And for the dessert, we either order their hot chocolat viennois or their denmark icecream (I once ordered both and felt sick afterwards). Everything there is to die for. I’m gonna leave you now with the pics, 19 pics to be specific

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