McDonalds in Kuwait

This is a blog post I’ve tried to write before, but at the moment I’m managing this blog on an iPhone. Last time I made this post, I was nearly finished when I pushed one wrong button by accident and it all went away. Wish me better luck this time.

Here is the McArabia. It comes in some neato packaging so you don’t have to get your hands dirty when you eat it.

After the McArabia, I was feeling a bit baleful because I didn’t think there was much unique about McDonalds in the Middle East. Then I realised that I have never seen a Chicken Big Mac anywhere but in the Middle East, so here it is. It’s basically just a chicken burger constructed like a Big Mac. It’s just okay, but it could be made much better if it had actual Mac sauce instead of plain mayonnaise.

There is also the McFizz, which I’m realising was just a limited time offer. No matter, as it’s basically just a glorified soft drink, anyway. I chose the blue one mostly because I like the colour blue, but also because it claimed to have passion fruit flavouring, and I like passion fruit. And I’d be lying if I said its name (I think it was called the Blue Lagoon) and the mention of the word “curaçao” made me think of a cocktail and whetted my thirst just a bit (but alas! this was not a cocktail, just a simple soft drink– we are in the Middle East, after all, and alcohol is haram).

Throwback Thursday: McDonalds in Kuwait

McDonalds in Kuwait now uses more environmentally friendly packaging for their Big Macs but last time I lived here, just five short years ago, they were still using styrofoam Big Mac boxes!

More food in Souk Mubarakiya

Even though my mission at Souk Mubarakiya this weekend was to get Christmas gifts for my dad and brothers, I managed to fritter away the afternoon people-watching and checking out the various other stalls, as well.

When I was having fun visiting with the butchers in the market, there was a man there who felt I needed “rescuing”. He offered to buy me tea, and since I have a hard time saying no, I accepted. I would have preferred to have finished my chat with the butchers in my own time and then wandered at will, but die some reason I have a very hard time telling people what I want and what I do not want, so I let this man lead me in circles around the market. I didn’t like it at all, as true butchers were right next to the place I wanted to be and I felt like this man was getting me lost. Finally, I voiced my displeasure at feeling lost and at the fact that he had lead me so far away from the part of the market I wanted to be in, and he was able to find a tea shop within seconds. Funny. I politely sipped my tea and made small-talk, but also tried to make it clear that I had firm plans for my visit to the market, so I couldn’t spend the whole afternoon sitting there sipping tea with a stranger who, frankly, made me feel pretty uncomfortable.

Finally, I was able to make my escape (I feel bad that I feel like I needed to ‘escape’ as the man was probably just trying to be hospitable, but anyway), and I made my way back to the part of the market I wanted to be in. I knew I was close when I found the vegetable vendors. In this part of the market, there are murals depicting grocers selling vegetables. Not far off from this part of the market are the fish vendors, and you know you’re getting close to the fish vendors when you start to see murals of– you guessed it– fish vendors.

After wandering around enjoying the vegetables and the murals, I wandered into the spice part of the souk. The spice vendors have tiny little shops crammed with containers brimming with all sorts of spices. As I love to cook (and also as the intense scent of bulk spice brings me back to my childhood in the butcher shop), I cannot get enough of spice markets.

After the spice, I wanted to check out the gold shops. Either I wasn’t able to find any gold shops or that part of the souk isn’t open on Fridays. Regardless, I was walking around, going nowhere, looking for something I couldn’t find, when I came across a sweet shop. Mmmmm, there was halwa and Turkish delight and other yummy stuff in the window. I had to hold back from buying it all up because I’ve been gaining a lot of weight in the past few months, and I’ve finally made a decision to do something about it, starting with cutting back on the amount of food (especially sugar) that I eat. Otherwise, I probably would have bought a little of everything in they window.

I didn’t really have anything special planned for after the spice market. I’m kind of a loner, so I didn’t have any Friday night plans or anything, but I wasn’t in the mood to go home just yet, so I wandered some more into the part of the market that sells kitchen wares.

I also gawked at all the kitties. I LOVE cats, and there were so many of them in the market. The only problem with cats in Kuwait is that they are so feral that you couldn’t (and probably wouldn’t want to) get terribly close to them. Anyway, I thought these kitties hopefully watching the people in this restaurant were pretty adorable.

Mutton Market in Souk Mubarakiya

Today, I went to Souk Mubarakiya in Kuwait City to buy some Christmas gifts for my family. Last time I was there, I found some beautiful hand-crafted leather-bound notebooks, and I wanted to buy some for my dad and brothers.

Souk Mubarakiya is huge and, to someone who’s unfamiliar with the place (like me), it’s easy to get lost/disoriented. At first, I just wandered around aimlessly, a little frustrated cloud growing overt head because nothing was looking familiar and I felt like I was looking for a needle in a haystack. Then I remembered that the stall I was looking for was fairly close to the Mutton Market in the souk. Last time I came to the souk, it was with one other new teacher at my school and the school’s driver. He had mischievously suggested that we pay a visit to the mutton market. In hindsight, he’d probably expected that this pair of western girls would be totally grossed out and insist that we didn’t want to go. And that was exactly the other girl’s reaction. But me, my parents bought a butcher shop when I was four years old and I grew up around it, so I have quite the fondness for and interest in butchers worldwide. I said I was interested, so he was then obliged to take me to the mutton market. Thank goodness he had tried that prank because it was the only way I was able to orient myself when I came back to the souk alone today.

When you get near the mutton market in Souk Mubarakiya, there are butcher-themed murals. Turn towards them and then you are in a wide “alley” crammed with butcher stalls. Today, probably because I was a single, unaccompanied white girl, I caused quite the sensation in the mutton market. Soon all of the younger butchers wanted me to pose for photos with them while the older butchers sat and looked on, expressions of amusement or weariness on their faces.

My family sold our butcher shop ten years ago, so it’s been years since I’ve properly been in a butcher shop. Just like Proust’s Madeleine brought him back to a long forgotten memory, as soon as I stepped inside the first butcher stall to pose for a picture with one of the butchers and the slightly sweet scent of a raw side of beef wafted into my nostrils (technically it was mutton, but my family dealt mostly with beef and the scent is mostly the same), I was brought clear back to my childhood, to time spent doing hard work with my brothers and my father, which wouldn’t have been very much fun for a young girl except I loved spending time with my brothers. And I’m actually proud to be (or have been) a butcher’s daughter. Working in that meat packing plant is the only reason I’ve never become a full-blown vegetarian. A lot of people think animals that get slaughtered are treated cruelly or they think that all kinds of disgusting things happen to their meat, but I know that if you find a quality butcher, neither if those things are true and you can be assured that your meat is ethical and sanitary.

Technically, this post isn’t about anything I ate, but since this is a blog about food, and since butchers sell food, I figured I’d share this story with all y’all.

Starbucks Middle East

I can’t make a complete comparison against all Starbucks branches in the Middle East simply because I’ve only visited Starbucks in Kuwait and Dubai. I can say that the similarities are striking, so I’m going to work off the assumption that all Starbucks branches in the GCC offer similar products.

Well, I know that as a chain coffee shop, Starbucks ought to be similar worldwide, and it mostly is, but each region usually offers something a little unique to add some local colour, like the green tea frappucino with white chocolate pudding in Thailand or the cherry blossom latte in Korea (that was a short-lived special, but it was amazing). In Korea, they also sold Jeju Green Tea (why it was Jeju Green tea and not Jiri Green tea is a mystery to me), while in Thailand, they offered a special blend if coffee beans produced in Thailand.

So what does Starbucks in the GCC offer to celebrate its regional uniqueness? Not too much, actually. Of course they have old favourites like yogurt with granola.

They do have a halloumi sandwich (I don’t have a picture to share, but I’ll come back and modify this post when I do) as well as a trio of wraps with Arab/Mediterranean specialties, like this one:

But short of a halloumi sandwich and wrap, I don’t really see much on offer at Starbucks in the GCC that embraces this part of the world. When it was PSL season, Starbucks offered pumpkin spice lattes. Now that we’re moving into the Christmas season, Starbucks is offering gingerbread lattes and toffee nut lattes and, as much as I love toffee nut lattes (and feel nostalgic for the days I could get a toffee nut frappucino from the Starbucks in Thailand), I can’t help but be a little disappointed that Starbucks in this part of the world isn’t doing a little bit more to put their regional stamp on their products. Starbucks, it would be so easy to appease me. Just add Arabic coffee to your menu. Or offer a cardamom latte. Not only would that be insanely, ridiculously delicious, it would jive well with this part of the world.

Mmmmlove’n’hugs!

Fruita Candies

This candy is basically the candy-version of Pringles: you can’t eat just one. It’s actually dangerous for me because I’ll eat the whole goddamn bag in one sitting before I even realise what I’ve done. And every time I finish I bag, I tell myself I won’t buy these candies anymore. And then every time I’m in the grocery store and spot these candies I figure, ‘Just one more bag can’t hurt.’ Last time I lived in Kuwait, I remember being relieved when I finally moved away because I wouldn’t be able to get these addictive candies anymore. Since I’ve been back, I’ve had, ahem, a “few” binges.

Cheese Cake Gummy Candies

I would like to meet (and thank) the genius who came up with the idea for cheesecake gummy candies. Oh my wow, I just ate until I felt sick.

Happy Pepero Day!

Sure, I’m in Kuwait now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t still keep track if some of my favourite holidays from countries where I’ve previously lived. Today, 11.11, is Pepero Day in South Korea. It’s basically like Valentine’s Day, except it’s in November and people just give Pepero to their loved ones (and their teachers– always remember Pepero for the teacher!). Many people say, and I kind if believe it, that Pepero Day was invented because November 11th, when written as 11.11, looks like a bunch of Pepero sticks. Regardless whether that’s true, I’m willing to believe any explanation that justifies the creation of a holiday the entire point if which is to give chocolate-dipped cookie sticks to all of your loved ones (and your teachers).

A restaurant quest

Kuwait is the type of place where you can EAT, and eat well, but I’m not interested in fancy-pants type restaurants. What I really look for is ma and pop type restaurants or hole-in-the-wall eateries. I tell people that after spending years and years in poverty-stricken countries, I feel much more comfortable in eateries like this, and that explanation is mostly accurate, but really I think I’m just shell-shocked and even though I no longer live surrounded by abject poverty, I still can’t get myself out of that headspace. I can’t even bring myself to get a mobile phone, for spaghetti monster’s sake!

On one of my first nights in Kuwait a little over a month ago, I walked all over looking for a hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant. I found plenty of small chinese restaurants, as well as lots of shawarma places, but no Indian food (aside from Mughal Mahal, but that’s neither ma n pa nor hole-in-the-wall, and that’s another blog post).

Well. The other day as I was leaving my apartment, I chanced to look left down a little side street and what did I see but Al Dandhan Indian, Pakistani, Arabic and Chinese Restaurant! Exactly what I’d been looking for last month and, what’s more, it’s literally (and I do mean literally) a two minute walk from my house. I think Al Dandhan and I will be seeing a lot more of each other in the future.

The Kruffin

We’ve all heard of the cronut by now. I made a post awhile back about a cronut-like pastry offered at Dunkin’ Donuts in Korea called the New York Donut. It was pretty tasty.

Since I’ve been in Kuwait, I’ve noticed that Krispy Kreme here definitely does NOT offer a cronut, but they have something similarly intriguing: the kruffin! Is it a donut? Is it a muffin? Why can’t it be both?!

A quick google search tells me that this is not a new product for Krispy Kreme (I found articles about the kruffin dating back as far as 2010), but as I spend the bulk of my time in east Asia, and I’ve never seen a kruffin in Korea or Thailand, this is news to me, so imma blogging about it.