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.