Dinner at Kuwait Magic
Kuwait is changing almost by the minute. I am awed by some of the new buildings downtown, apparantly finished, with huge, gravity defying sweeping curves that mirror the Gulf waters. For dinner, we decided to go somewhere that stays pretty much the same – Kuwait Magic.
Even many expats who live here have never been to Kuwait Magic; we rarely see other westerners there. I also think maybe there is a ban on bachelors; it is a very very traditional family mall, not at all fancy, but with a really fun children’s play area, and a restaurant that has Adventureman’s favorite stuffed vegetables.
AdventureMan thinks that is stuffed zucchini. It doesn’t look like zucchini to me, although it may be a variety of zucchini. I think it might be an Indian squash called something like snake squash. Anyone out there can tell me for sure?
In the US, you can find mechanical rocket ships, mechanical cars, mechanical horses that you can ride. In Kuwait Magic, there is a camel! It is a very high camel; if I were a child, I would be terrified to be up so high.
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Oh, Kuwait Magic! What fun!
Do you mean the light green vegetable? We call it “koussa” in Arabic, and it is always translated “squash” rather than zucchini. I haven’t heard it called anything more detailed, though, so maybe it is Indian in origin.
I always thought ‘koussa’ was generic for squash, but that it encompassed a lot of different kinds of stuffable squash. (I think it also means something else, and I need to check it before I ever use it in a conversation, LOL) But this with the tiny little stripes doesn’t look like zucchini to me . . . Wish you were here, Little Diamond, to do the big re-visit with me.
From your research buddy – One of the responses in the link below seemed to have the best answer. I found numerous links where squash, zucchini, marrow, and courgettes. Zucchini are a summer squash and at the very bottom of the article at the Wiki link we are informed that kousa is a Lebanese summer squash closely related to the zucchini.
I also found koosa frequently related to a type of dogwood tree – certainly wouldn’t want to get THAT confused in our meal plans!
K
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zucchini
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/714505
There is no big dark green zucchini available in the Middle East. The native squash which is closest to the zucchini is the koosa. I believe in English we name this squash marrow.
Intlxpatr :
It is Kousa ,a cousin of Zucchini which tends to be dark green on the out side and much harder and with less seeds in the inside.The Lebanese residents brought it first to Kuwait when they came in the Sixties.
Just to pick on any Lebanese relatives you may have , the old joke says that when earth was created a choice was given to Kuwaitis and Lebanese to take either Oil or Kousa .The Lebanese were first to choose !!!
Anyhow when you say Kousa make sure you say the A loud and clear hehehehehe.
LOL, Ken, I did some research, too, looking for a photo that matched what we ate, but never could find it exactly. Thanks for this good information!
Aha, Daggero! I wonder if you grow Kousa? When one of my younger Kuwaiti friends got married, I asked her if she sat on a koosa, and she almost died somewhere between laughing and mortification and told me never never never to say that again, that it is a KOOORSA you sit on, not the other, the kousa-without-an-a, LOL.