Holiday in Kuwait Part 3 (the last one)

Do you believe in saving the best for the last?

I do.

The Radisson SAS at Kuwait have converted a really large dhow of olden times into a swanky banquet hall.

I felt like I was in the Titanic. It was awesome.

Broast chicken from Canary. Succulent, tender and delicious. The whole chicken had been stuffed with onions and a lemon. There seemed to be nothing other than that. The Arabs have a tendency to go easy on the salt too.. But you could really taste the flavor of the chicken. They always serve this with piles of Khubs bread and plenty of garlic sauce.

Spice shopping.. I went nuts. I bought two different types of Za’atar, Surmac, Chamomile, Arabic mix spice, Hibiscus leaves.. and a lot more.

There were a million varieties of cheeses.. but to be honest, I found them a little too salty to eat.

And not to be left out were the olives. dark green, light green, black, yellow, ochre, in oil, in brine, fresh, dried, stuffed with carrot, pimentos, chili… I could spend an entire day just sampling them.. but then again they were too salty for my taste-buds… I’ll stick with the ones in jars.

I’ve probably said this before; We share he Arabian sea. Despite that, the fish available there are quite different. Take the Hammour for instance. It’s probably the best fish I’ve eaten. Really pricey at 20 kd for a big one. It’s the big brown one on top.

Naif Chicken restauran is another place that offfers fast food vriations of traditional arabic food. I mean just look at this picture. You have stuffed grape leaves and coleslaw and fries. It’s strange how local food gets modified with times and tastes.

Let’s take a closer look at the stuffed grape leaves. The leaves were extremely tender and liberally doused with olive oil. It was quite sour to taste. People say that it’s an acquired taste; my love at first bite it is probably an anomaly.

The stuffing comprised of really temder Brown rice corriander a spices. Fantastic, really.

Perfect Seekh Kababs with Khubs bread and arabic rocca leaves.  Despite having barely any spice in these kebabs, they were delicious. You could really taste the natural beef flavor.

There were also these crepes that were sprinkled with anything you wanted. of course we tried Za’atar then there was honey, labneh, cream cheese even the plain crepe just as it is. we saw these crepes being made and oddly, they were made from lumps of flour-ry batter rather than a liquid batter. Surprisingly crispy and light.

The salad leaves were a bit too spicy to be eaten without a dressing.

The man grilling the kababs wasn’t the friendliest person around.. but we managed to get a quick click. This is what he grilled the meat in, an enormous covered grill.

Meals should always end with something sweet… OK this was far from anything sweet. It was strong Arabic coffee. My aunt served these to us in cute, tiny turkish coffee mugs. You can’t have much of it. Flavourful but really potent.

Why I mentioned sweet was because the coffee is to be paired with this.. These are assorted arabic sweets. Kunafa, bassboosa and other things which I can’t remember. Super greasy and extremely sweet and yum.

This was Kunafa again. Topped with pistachios.

It was a fantastic holiday, and there’s so much more to discover with all that I’ve brought home. All the spices to try, all the dishes to prepare, all the flavours to be remembered and recreated.

For me (at the risk of sounding really cheesy) my exploration of Kuwait has just begun.

Holiday in Kuwait part 2

As I was saying in my last post, there was loads to see there.

I’m a total museum buff. The skeleton of a blue whale.

Then we saw live water beasts… being fed.

A great white.. I really love this picture.

My first ever hardees meal. We don’t have them in Mumbai. I’m already thinking of starting a franchise here.

Dhows and boats and yatchs in all shapes and sizes are visible everywhere. It’s weird that Mumbai shares the Arabian sea with Kuwait but it looks so different here..

There were happy meals..

Some sight-seeing..

followed by  even happier meals..

The board walk goes pretty far into the sea… I didn’t want to leave this place.

But I was bribed with this. I made my own salad at little Ceaser’s. What I really enjoyed was trying out all the local condiments and salads. Hummus, labneh, phool salad, the fried khubs that you out in fattoush, arabic rocca leaves. Fasinating. Strange mix of it all.

Ok I’m working on part three right now!

Holiday in Kuwait Part 1

I’ve been off twitter and haven’t blogged in a while and I truly apologize for it! but I’ve got so much stuff to tell you about it might take a while to tell you all about the fantastic/foodastic time I spent in the City/State of Kuwait.

2 months back on yahoo messenger a convo with my uncle in Kuwait went something like this:

Uncle: I want you to book tickets to make your stay last at least a month.

Me: A month?? you mean 30 days?? But mamu (that’s what I call my uncle) that’s too long! I’ve got a pile of work to do, a ton of exams to give so much other stuff I’m swamped! hows does 2 weeks sound?

Uncle: 2 weeks will just fly by! trust me you have no idea!

Me: (thinking: err the whole Country is about the size of my city, Mumbai… how long will it take to see?) Err Ok mamu, lets meet halfway.. how does 3 weeks sound?

Uncle: It’s still short but as you wish!

Well I was proved wrong. Really wrong. Kuwait was awesome… a ton of places to see a ton of food to try and I went crazy! It’s a small country with a lot of style and a lot of food. I came back with 10 gigs of photo memory (a sizable chunk comprising of food+me eating it).

The entire holiday went by so fast and I have a blurry collection of images in my head (thank God for digital cameras)

Where do I start? from the start perhaps..

It was a short flight; 4 and half hours, night flight + economy ticket = get your own food! but the view was pretty satisfying.

Leaving home…

This was when we were flying over Daman. It was something like 5.30 am

By the time we reached the Kuwait it was 45.C and the hot desert sun showed no mercy. We needed nourishment! motadella and egyptian cheese.

A teaspoon tablespoon of Labneh and some stuffed olives thrown in and it didn’t take long for it to become my daily fix.

Shopping! This is Avenues, it’s the largest mall in Kuwait. It’s freakishly big.. we spent eight hours in there and barely covered one section of it!

I spent a lot of time in supermarkets and really did a lot of research on different types of spices and local ingredients.

And not to forget the awesome yet not so traditional things.. cool tools at Ikea.

Traditional food converted into fast food? we’ll this is  supposed to be Shawarma, but it’s in a bread roll.. verdict: delicious.

I think one of the highlights of the trip was the visit to the Kuwait towers. I mean just look them!

The biggest tower is the viewing one and you can see the entire city from up there..

But probably the best part of the Kuwait towers is the complementary ice-cream with the entry ticket… and you can’t eat ice-cream alone…

Then there was the day we spent on the beach.. seaweed (not edible but so pretty)

Followed by  a barbecue.. (totally edible)

Failaka island was beautiful.. nothing much to do there though… a lot of ruins from the war.

The hot desert sun made me really hungry. Well I just reached out for a quick snack… a word of advice: unripe dates aren’t particularly palatable.

There’s a lot more!

I’ve barely scraped the surface of my foodie escapades..but I’d like to break it down for you to digest! this was just part1.