I don’t know how many of you guys know what is Vitello Tonnato, those of you who know what it is will really appreciate this post

I got to know about this dish at Roberto’s restaurant in Geneva while I was on vacation a couple of years back. It’s a great dish, and it’s a difficult dish to accept if you’re not OK with trying out new things.

Vitello tonnato: is a veal carpaccio, only with thicker slices, and topped with creamy tuna sauce.

I know the creamy tuna on a slice of veal doesn’t sound appetizing, but it’s great, I love this dish and it is very hard to find in Kuwait. While we were at the Ricardo this past weekend (which is a great restaurant. I regret not taking the camera with me) I found this dish on the menu and had to order it. It was very good, not as good as the one at Roberto’s but close enough. Aldente restaurant in Movenpick also serves this dish but it’s nothing like the real thing.

I heard a lot of good stuff about Signor Sassi, the newly opened restaurant, and last week I had a chance to go out with the family and we all had lunch there. It’s an italian restaurant, a franchise, brought over by Americana. This is not your typical Americana restaurant, actually when it comes to the food’s quality and taste, it’s as authentic as a n3al naydiya to elneyada know what I mean?
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Prelude:
There was an italian food lover back in the 1920′s who married a woman that came from a family famous for their good taste and restaurateur-ship. The couple had their first child in 1959. Soon afterwards the husband decided to open up a restaurant as a gift to his wife, and they named it Margherita. Their child grew up and inherited his Mom’s good taste and passion for cooking. Almost 50 years later this child opened up his own Margherita restaurant in Gemayze, Lebanon.

Review:
I thought the story was worth mentioning, it’s a nice one.

Anyway, We went to this restaurant when we were in Lebanon 2 weeks ago, during Ramadan, but unfortunately when we got there we discovered that they don’t serve anything but pizza till 8pm. Me and my friends were fasting, and while we would’ve loved having a pizza as a side dish or a starter, there was no way on earth we’re going to settle for pizza as a main dish, after all we were fasting and unbelievably hungry from the long day we spent in beirut. So, as my friends were preparing to leave the place, I couldn’t resist ordering a pizza to go. I just had to taste it, coz I heard some pretty nice things about their pizzas (and yeah the place smelled heavenly. It was killing me). And believe you me when I say that this is the best pizza that I have every tried! The dough is so crispy at the edges, and then sooo thin in the middle that it is impossible to lift with one hand, you’d have to lift with both hands to support the middle section. The tomato sauce, cheese (mozzarella. I asked for their best pizza and they recommended the Margherita pizza with mozzarella slices.) along with whatever spices they put in there, all were exceptionally tasty and full of flavor.

The restaurant is pretty small and cozy, with a big pizza oven in the middle of the place. Also the staff were very friendly and welcoming (except for when I asked to take some pictures).

You’ve got to try this place out. Highly recommended.

Pizzeria Margherita

Lgaima sweets is a home business all about mini basbosas. The last time I wrote about them, their basbosas were good, but not great, but then I had their basbosas on more than one occasion over the last few months, and let me tell you that there was a great improvement in texture and taste; they mastered it.

Warning if you’re fasting: Mouthwatering pictures ahead.
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Remember my previous post about  Brownies Delight, Well today I got another patch from the owner containing new flavors: Dipped Lolly Pops, Cripsy+Oreo, and the Flake+Kinder, and a dipping sauce to go along with them.

I tried them and thery were really good, especially the big jar containing the dipped lolly pops! They were exceptionally good.

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We chose the dead sea just because it was the only destination available at the time; all the other places we’re either fully booked or insanely expensive for a last minute decision. We didn’t know anything about the dead sea except for the pictures we saw at the last minute. We did not expect to love the trip this much!

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Whenever you’re at Prime & Toast there are 2 highly recommended dishes that you shouldn’t leave without trying: The Spaghetti bolognese and the Cremeford Caramel dessert.

The spaghetti is astounding. The sauce they use is a bolognese sauce that is so different from the the ones I’m used to. Their sauce is sweet, as in “I bet there is some sugar in it” sweet, and it’s in my opinion the best spaghetti bolognese in Kuwait (the second best is Macaroni Grill’s, without the meat balls for me).

Now the dessert is a very simple dish. I think (I say think here because I really don’t know what it’s made of) that it’s made of layers of thick whipped creme and crushed biscuits, they put it in the freezers for awhile (so the creme feels like ice cream when served) and then serve with caramel sauce on top. You’ve got to try it, I loved it. They also put a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. When I first tried it I thought the ice cream was distracting so when I went back for the second time I asked them to serve it alone, and it made a huge difference. Highly recommended.

A new blog has been addded to the blogroll a while ago, this new blog, re:kuwait, is about an “attempt at finding pragmatic and urgently needed solutions to the problems that plague the urban cohesion of Kuwait City.”

I like this blog and think it’s very different in terms of the subjects they focus on. For example in one of their posts they discuss Sharg’s mall. I don’t enjoy going to Soug Sharg and never knew exactly the reason why. It just felt depressing walking inside that mall, and in their post Soug Sharg, I got to know exactly why I felt like that, and the reason being: You can’t tell whether it’s day or night when you’re inside the mall, you’re cut out of the outside world, unlike the Marina, Avenues, and Fanar malls.

Check it out, it’s a very interesting blog.

re:kuwait

Remember the Oum Kalthoom Exhibition that took place in Bahrain? Well it’s going to take place in Kuwait soon, on the 8th of July at the new 360° Mall to be specific. It’s going to last for awhile so no rush, but you gotta pass by it if you’re ever there, especially the photo gallery, take a look at them. I like looking at old pictures so I really enjoyed them back in Bahrain.

Thanks Bo9ale7

I’ve always had a hard time keeping the books open for me to read, and since I prefer reading the book while in bed, I find it extra hard to keep the book open with my hand holding the book above me.

I searched amazon for a solution and got out with this little book holder/spreader. It arrived 2 days ago and I’ve tried it and so far, it’s working like a charm. It keeps the paperbacks open and has a good firm grip too. I can easily read a book now without struggling to keep the papers from closing in, and also without straining my palm to keep the papers apart.

The product isn’t perfect and it’s got some flaws:

-It won’t handle big books, or real thick ones.
-It’s a bit hard trying to flip the pages. It needs getting used to.
-The color sucks.

But overall, it does what it is made for.

I finished my beginner course on saturday and the only thing left is to have the written exam to get my diving license for beginners.

Lets begin with the review. This time I’ll divide the review to parts and talk about each part separately. There is going to be 5 parts: Safety, Professionalism, Atmosphere, Fun and overall satisfaction.
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I’ve been attending diving classes for the past 3 days at Bubbles diving center. I don’t know how my friend bo9ale7 convinced me to join, I’m not the sportish type; I never really think of ‘activity’ when considering an outing… coz well, let’s just say I’m more of a restaurants person But I wouldn’t have thought that I’d enjoy diving this much!

The diving lessons started on Monday and will be ending on Saturday. Over the last 2 days we were studying the basics of diving with Captain Abdulrahman AlSarheed over at Bubbles diving center. The classes were very informative, and have done a nice job preparing us for the real thing.

Today, the 3rd day into the course, we got to practice what we were taught. We went to a huge swimming pool in Al Araby club in AlMansouriya. The experience was magical. Going in with all those diving gears and breathing under water was one of the most special things I’ve done, ever.

I’m too tired to keep writing after the dip in the pool, but rest assured a full review of the experience and Bubbles diving center will be published once I get my Beginners License.

I had a late lunch today and at 10pm I was in the mood for hot chocolate, it’s heavy enough to count as a substitute for dinner, so yeah I went for it.
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We went to Garoh island last weekend, it was my first time to go to Garoh, and let me tell you how would you feel if you ever went there:

1-On the way there and just before you get to the island, the sea will smell like you’re at a gas station. The sea reeks of gazoline. Big circles of transparent oils are floating everywhere. And just so you know, thats why it was called Garoh. Garoh is a word derived from Gar, which somehow meant Oil/Petrol long time ago.
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Since this issue of eating or not eating non-Halal meat got some good response we thought you might be interested in this iPhone application called Zabiha, which is a good guide for all Halal restaurants and mosques around the world. It costs only $2.99 on iTunes store.

LINK

Galler opened up a branch at avenues in phase one, near NBK, and they have this Milkshake that you’ve got to try. I liked it mainly because it’s not heavy and has little chocholate chunks in it. Me and HBZ tried their mix of dark and white chocolate and it was real good. Mo sa7na kilish

Oh and we asked about their Waffles, which was mentioned on Buzberry’s a couple of months back, and they said they’re going to have it soon, they have the machine to do them but they were yet to be trained to use them. Maybe it’s available now since I haven’t been there for over 2 weeks.

Thanks HBZ

It is very rare here in Kuwait to go to a restaurant and have the food turn out effortlessly fantastic. The restaurants in Bahrain are different, they were all amazing. I went to 3 different ones and every single one could put the best restaurants in Kuwait to shame with their amazing food and great chefs. You actually feel like there is someone in the kitchen coming up with their own recipes, unlike most restaurants in here.
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Yeah so I was looking for this book ‘The cry of the peacock’ in every country I’m in for about a year and a half now, I even told my brother to look for it all over london when he was vacationing there last christmas (maskeen dar 390 book shops with no luck. It’s out of stock and print, he said). So I finally had to order something off amazon and thought might as well include a couple of books in the shipment (I hate ordering online coz I don’t like to wait for stuff to be delivered. Yup I’d rather waste a year looking for the book instead). So when I finally received the book it turned out that I ordered more than one copy (not shifa7a, promise!). Anyones interested? I’m giving them away.. (the extra copies that is )

So.. (so many so’s in one post), I want to say something to those who like to read and immerse themselves in good books with middle eastern backgrounds.

1-”The Bastard of Istanbul” by the turkish author Elif Shafak is one of the best books I’ve ever read, it’s up there with the kite runner (yep thats the book I compare other books to). You have to read it if you haven’t done so already.

2-Alf Laila’s blog. It’s a blog by a talented Kuwaiti author. I’ve been following her writings and stories for a long time now, and I think she’s got the ability to write stories like the best of them. I hope she gets the recognition she deserves and I also hope that she finds it in herself to write the remaining parts of her latest story, Doubt, faster!

A friend of mine recently told me about an asian restaurant, a sort of hole-in-the-wall kind of place. From the outside the place hardly looks like it’s worth it (shakla mayeswa baiza). The sign from the outside was plain old blah, it didn’t look inviting at all. Once we entered, we saw that its a small place with 4 places to sit (two 6 seaters and two 4 seaters). Later and after placing the orders, we had to share our table with a stranger coz we were sitting at a table for six, I didn’t want to relinquish the extra seats but it was hard saying no to a customer standing right on top of me, waiting for me to say yes to the waiter. You get the picture, the restaurant is small.. a la early bird.
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My friend and my roommate in college, who is a football fanatic, who made me cringe every time I hear the words ‘champions league,’ who hogged the TV every tuesday and wednesday to watch football matches, finally made the right decision and started a blog along with his friends dedicated solely to nothing else but.. Football!

For you all football fanatics Football Directa is the place to visit when you’re looking for news about your favorite team. Their site is very alive with updates around the hour with the kind of news you crave.

Drop by and check it out: FootBall Directa. It’ll be added to our blog roll as well.