Church Blocking the Way
I can’t help being a little cynical and a little sad. I have often wondered how long a very visible church could last in a very visible location. It always made me proud that Kuwait was so tolerant to allow Christian worship to take place side by side with Islam in Kuwait. So now the church is impeding progress, and has to go?
From the Arab Times:
Church, cafe blocking way
KUWAIT CITY, March 17: ‘Minister of Public Works and State Minister for Municipal Affairs Mussa Al-Sarraf is determined to remove all obstacles facing the First Ring Road expansion project,’ Al-Rai daily quoted Assistant Undersecretary for Road Engineering Affairs at the Ministry of Public Works Hussein Al-Mansour as saying. The Minister instructed officials to find solutions to the problems, especially for buildings which block the road’s expansion like the church near Jahra roundabout and a cafe, he added.
According to Al-Mansour, the ministry will not be able to complete the project due to these obstacles and ‘it is likely to cost the ministry a lot of money as the contractor will ask for compensation for the delay.’ He said the ministry is waiting for a temporary location for the church and is trying to find alternate arrangements for the cafŽ to hasten the execution of the project ‘which will help in easing the traffic problems in the country.’
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Flight schedule:
Kuwait – Istanbul Istanbul – Kuwait
Thursdays DEP: 07:55 / ARR: 11.30 DEP: 12.15 / ARR 15.45
Saturdays DEP: 18.15 / ARR: 21:50 DEP: 22.35 / ARR: 02.05
Mondays DEP: 18.15 / ARR: 21:50 DEP: 22.35 / ARR: 02.05
MacDonalds MacKrisby
This is for my stateside readers. Wherever you go, except for Syria, there seems to be a MacDonalds. The funny thing is, in different countries, they have different specialties, things you never see in the USA. For example, while we lived in Qatar, they had a special called the MacArabia, which was kind of like a local fast food, but on a more Western bun. It was no where near as tasty as the local equivalent, but I think they add things to the menu to appeal to people forced to eat there when the kids insist. I am only guessing; I can’t even remember the last time I had anything from MacDonalds.
In Kuwait, they have added a new sandwich, the MacKrispy, a breaded fried chicken thing, sort of like a great big dry chicken nugget. Because Arabic does not have a “p”, the literal translation of the word (you can see it down by the little golden arches) is MacKrisby.
2nd Amaryllis: For Mom
Mom, the second amaryllis is in full bloom, two full blooms and one more to come! I don’t know why it took the second one so much longer than the first one, except that the first one actually started sending out the stem while it was still in the box!
This has been one of my very favorite Christmas gifts. Thank you!
Silvery Sunrise 18 Mar 08
The day is all silvers and greys, greys lit from within by the sun, shimmering greys:
It is 66°F / 19°C at 0800.
Roasted Tomatoes
A friend brought me a huge bag of tomatoes, and also a serving of the same tomatoes roasted up – oh WOW. Roasting these already tasty tomatoes concentrates their flavor.
I serve them as a side dish. I add them to salads, and to salad dressings. I serve them as a salad with a little Balsamic vinegar. I add them to the spaghetti sauce. I make them into a roasted tomato soup, with basil (be sure to use real cream; it’s OK, it just makes the taste richer and more satisfying. If you are satisfied, you won’t eat more and the cream won’t make you fat. I promise.) They are like magic, anything they touch tastes wonderful.
Chop cherry tomatoes in half, bigger tomatoes into quarters. Place in a long flat pan (with sides; these get juicy at first) and spray with a really good olive oil and sprinke with sea salt.
Roast at 180°C / 350°F for 40 minutes, longer if you want less juice.
You will find it hard to resist eating them right out of the pan.
Meat and Fish at the Sultan Center
It doesn’t take long before you live in a country long enough that you don’t see with the same eyes as when you came. Last week, as I was shopping, I was looking for something to fix for dinner. Normally, I just see something and grab and go, but my attention was caught by how expensive everything was, and then again, by the fact that American ground beef was twice as expensive as New Zealand ground beef, and both were really really expensive – it’s ground beef!
I’ve been careful about meat ever since I read Deadly Feasts about ten years ago. The book is a medical mystery, it traces the identification of Mad Cow Disease, and how vulnerable we all are. The human variant takes ten years to develop – all because tainted meat enters our food supply, because meat producers are too greedy to pass up a cow who is stumbling and falling down.
Even those who keep it out of the human food chain often process fallen cows for animal food.
And none of that has anything to do, really, with this post. The point is, for once, instead of rushing by, I was paying attention. When you pay attention, you start to see things (again) (or for the first time.) Here, you see things routinely that you don’t see in the United States:
Lamb’s brains:
Lamb’s heart:
Sheep’s feet:
Fresh Quail:
Kuwaiti Shoom:
Saudi Shrimp (these look big, but Kuwaiti shrimp, in season, are even bigger, and the sweetest shrimp you have ever tasted):
Iranian Squid:
Nuabi (a fish caught locally)
I love Kuwaiti seafood, and this is the one I love the best of all, Kuwaiti Zubaidi:
For those of you in the US, you can multiply the prices by four for an approximate idea of how much the food costs in dollars. The dollar is slipping here, as everywhere else, prices are going up, and we are taking the double whammy.
The seafood is out of this world. Even though expensive, local caught seafood is about what we would pay for seafood in the US. Vegetables IN SEASON can be reasonable. When I want iceburg lettuce, I pay about $3/ head. I have wonderful friends who are sharing their bumper crops of vegetables this year, and oh! they are SO good, so tasty! One of my friends has tried some heirloom tomatoes, and they are doing well!
More Mubarakiya Sights
It seems to be heating up quickly. The months when perusing the souks in daylight hours are coming to an end. We are trying to make the most of it while we can. A few more quick snaps from the Mubarakiyya Market on a quiet Friday:
Vegetable market public art I hadn’t spotted before:
Traditional clothing-seller:
Bath supplies:
Foodstuffs:
Those of you who live here walk right by these stalls all the time, and never notice that they are disappearing. I have been perusing old books about Kuwait, even some not so old, and Kuwait is changing so rapidly that even books only 10 years old or so have become outdated by the rapid passage of time.
For those of you not in Kuwait, there are malls. There are SO many modern malls. As in other countries, some are more upscale than others, but they are malls. In most, you are not supposed to take photos. In most, you will see the same stores you will see in any other country. Mubarakiyya is special because it is still an active market in the old style.
Lazy Mubarakiyya Friday
For our non-Kuwaiti friends, Friday is the day off in Kuwait if you only have one day off, Friday and Saturday for a few. It’s the perfect time of the year to visit the Mubarakiyya Souks – not too hot, not too cold and always something interesting to see. Grab your friends and family, and have lunch in the square where all the restaurants are.
In our two years of visiting the restaurant, we never realized the menu was on the bottom of the kleenex box:
Bread making:
So good!
Kebab making:
Busy in the tea stall:
The tea stays HOT on the table tea-grill:
Something Stupid
I had a birthday a while back, and decided that I was no longer going to mourn my Cuisinart, stuck in storage lo, these last ten years while my husband and I vagabond around the earth. I had bought a cheap food processor in Germany, and left it behind (whew! bought it when the dollar was $1.20 to the Euro, those were the days!) and then I bought a cheap food processor in Doha and brought it with me, but it doesn’t grate Parmesan, and . . . well, it isn’t a Cuisinart, and I really loved working with my Cuisinart. Isn’t it wonderful when they invent a piece of machinery that truly decreases labor, and is a pleasure to use?
I just bought a little one, knowing I will get rid of it when I leave. It is 110 volts, so I could even take it back with me if I wanted. The very first thing I grated was Parmesan cheese, and it was good. And then I grated cheddar, and it was good. And then I chopped onions and parsley, and it was very very good. I used it three times.
Yesterday, I went to grind some sausages and it only worked for one second, then quit. I checked all the plugs, checked the fuse box, checked everything I could. I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t working.
Then I figured it out. I had fried my beautiful new Cuisinart. Can you figure out what I did?
I will show you a close-up of the transformer, maybe that will help:
Yes, I plugged my sweet little 110 brand new Cuisinart into the 220/240 output plug instead of the 110 output plug.
Do you think it can be fixed? Is there somewhere in Kuwait I can take it and get it re-wired? (Sigh.)
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