Applebees, Gulf Road, Kuwait – Restaurant Review

In India I was used to Ruby’s Tuesday and I used to love that joint more than TGIF. But in Kuwait I was a trifle disappointed with them on some elementary matters and then Applebees came to our notice. I have visited them twice over and would go there for more. Both times I have been there it was during lunch and I think we enjoyed the fare. The location is quite nice beside Le Notre on Gulf Road near the Kuwait Towers. In fact from the restaurant you could see them and perhaps take a nice shot.

Like most other restaurants we were greeted by a plethora of Filipino hostesses. We asked for a table with a view and thankfully got one. The table hostess was very polite though she as trained, rattled off the soup course which we were absolutely not interested in.

In our first visit we had take the TRIOs that was a mixture of burgers, pastas and steak. This time we ordered for the tortilla artichoke dip, which was awesome. Each of us decided on our own courses viz Ribs and Steak, Mushroom Steak and Pastas. On the side we also had some Mozarella Sticks. A free dessert followed this, consisting of chocolate cake, hot sauce and vanilla ice cream.

The meals were excellent and we could not finish and ask them to pack up the remnants. If you haven’t yet made it to the Applebees, I suggest you should. But do select your item carefully! It should match with your mood.

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Pressing Thoughts

Lalit Modi has been served an email notice of suspension. I am already seeing a calming down of the press unless there is some thing spicy again. For example, some revelation or scoop that some money from D Company perhaps was routed to the kitty through multiple SPVs in multiple countries would surely interest Arnab Goswami. Or Vikram of NDTV would quiz the same four or five guests on the requirement of cheerleaders for post game parties.

Given that, to me IPL 4 is just about starting in a new avatar. There is a new IPL Commisioner from Baroda whose prowess in administrating such games is relatively unknown. But this time we know that the gentleman will be a stooge in the hands of Shashank and Sharad and all the others. They wil all sit around the round table and devise newer ways on how to fool the public, the government and fill up their own coffers. New auctions, new sponsorships, new television rights…all big money tickets for making money on the sly by the dicey cohort.

So while IPL will continue the responsible press will forget to hound Mayavati for her criminal expenses. They have forgotten to talk about the how the Police forces were supposed to be terrorism ready. The press will forget that 3G telecom bids are another equally big scam and why not since they have already forgotten the cellular scams.

Unfortunately, one or two Jessica Lal sort of cases is not able to convince me that we have a very responsible press. The media is still running after glitz and instant popcorn. There is no long haul these days. Perhaps the times are of one-night stands where we are the clients and media is the other partner in crime or pleasure!! Sphere: Related Content

Golden Chopsticks, Shaab, Kuwait - Restauranmt Review

Finding a Chinese Restaurant serving authentic food is always a challenge and then when we encountered Golden Chopsticks in Shaab, Kuwait; we were quite pleased with the results. The basic dishes are the best test for most restaurants and this one passed with high scores. The important point to note is that we have not had food in the restaurant since we have always ordered for Home Delivery. I assume that eating live at the restaurant would be a much better experience,

We ordered for some fried rice, crabs and a dry chicken fried dish. They were all excellent stuff. The next time onwards we repeated the fried rice and the chicken and also threw in some sweet and sour stuff. It was a repeat performance. They are jut good. Period.

Go and try them yourselves. If you haven’t as yet, what the hell are you waiting for?

The menu link:
http://www.kuwaitpaperdump.com/food-restaurants/golden-chopsticks-restaurant/ Sphere: Related Content

Camel Meat

I have been trying to convince Chaitali that we should get some Camel Meat home to cook. The result so far has been negative but now that take is that I would have to ask some Kuwaiti colleagues for recipes. If they sonnd palatable the chances of a green signal are bright. In the mean time I though of researching the net and I chanced upon this one.
SERVES 100
Ingredients
1 whole camel, medium size
1 whole lamb, large size
20 whole chicken, medium size
60 eggs
12 kg rice
2 kg pine nuts
2 kg almonds
1 kg pistachio nut
110 gallons water
5 lbs black pepper
salt
Directions
1Skin, trim and clean camel (once you get over the hump), lamb and chicken.
2Boil until tender.
3Cook rice until fluffy.
4Fry nuts until brown and mix with rice.
5Hard boil eggs and peel.
6Stuff cooked chickens with hard boiled eggs and rice.
7Stuff the cooked lamb with stuffed chickens.
8Add more rice.
9Stuff the camel with the stuffed lamb and add rest of rice.
10Broil over large charcoal pit until brown.
11Spread any remaining rice on large tray and place camel on top of rice.
12Decorate with boiled eggs and nuts.
13Serves a friendly crowd of 80-100.
(http://www.recipezaar.com/recipe/Whole-Stuffed-Camel-67495)
Want to try this one? I am told that this one is not a joke!! Sphere: Related Content

Tomato, Onions and Me

The other day Moushumi was narrating a story about a neighbor pestering her daily for providing some Bengali Dishes for her to sample. This process went on for a few days when finally one day the neighbor could not wait anymore. She insisted on Moushumi that whatever was cooked that day should be given to her. Moushumi therefore could not resist this request and gave her a Cumin flavoured Potato Cauliflower Bengali Contraption and also some Spinach Fry Bengali Style (The dish is made with garlic and is not crispy). Later in a conversation Moushumi enquired about the outcome and the neighbour said that both the dishes were fantastic. Before eating she had fried some tomato and onion and added some more condiments and made a gravy and mixed the same with what Moushumi had produced!!


North Indians have this genetic fetish about cooking almost everything with tomatoes and onions. For the uninitiated, Bengalis classify people in India into three categories. Bengalis, Non Bengalis and South Indians. I am a Bengali, while a person from the Southern Part of India is a South Indian and the balance are Non Bengalis. The Non Bengalis could be further classified into North Indians , Gujaratis, etc. Coming back to our main point of contention, the typical North Indian household cannot do without curries that are made of these two ingredients. Therefore even in restaurants serving North Indian Food they would prepare these cauldrons of gravy and keep for use against most of the orders.


I am not however saying that good dishes are not made of those two ingredients. They are for sure and there are famous ones too. But I am talking about the generalization!!


The other day I had been to Greenland Restaurant in Kuwait and we had ordered for Paneer Karahi, Navratan Korma and Dum Aloo. They all tasted the same!! The reason is simple. The chef there does not follow the actual authentic recipes and they dish out dishes that are sub standard with the same crazy with some very minor variation which is nothing to talk about or discern.


I have realized over time, at the cost of sounding a bit uppity, that most often than not myself and Chaitali are not able to tolerate mid or sub standard quality food. That’s one of the reasons perhaps we are so circumspect about trying out new Indian restauramts since most often then not they produce a lot of junk that all our friends are quite satisfied with!! Each to their own I guess, but that cannot make you run away from reality. Rip Offs after all rips you off!! Sphere: Related Content

Asha's, Kuwait - Restaurant Review

Asha Bhosle is one of the renowned playback singers of Bollywood India and has made a major mark in the industry and the minds of the people. She also happens to be the younger sister of Lata Mangeshkar. She is also well known for her controversial relationship with RD Burman, a music director of Bollywood pedigree. But what she is not perhaps well known for in India is about her interests in food. I came to know of this when I came to stay in Dubai and then in Kuwait. She has lent her name to the Food Industry and the results are the chain of restaurants known as ASHA’s. The restaurants typically have Asha’s personal photographs on the wall that are not properly lit. The furniture is Spartan with hues of dark red and orange.


In spite of some warnings from close friends, we decided to try our destiny on a Friday Evening in Kuwait. The menu was elaborate with some typical Indian entrees along with some signature Asha entrees ( her own creations). I was personally quite keen to try her specials rather than treading the oft beaten track. Chaitali was of course in two minds and we sort of hit a balance.


We walked in and were greeted by a host from the subcontinent only to be informed that our table hostess would be a Pilipino who I would assume would be well versed with Indian cuisine other than the clichéd comment on something being spicy or not spicy. It was also a case of true International integration.


The on the house fried South Indian fried appalams(a cousin of the Papad – a roasted lentil thin crust pancake) and some roasted conical papad were served along with some Mint Chutney, Marinated Mango pieces and some Indian pickles. That was good!!


The menu was elaborate with all the typical sections and after major deliberations, with Asha Bhosle’s old Hindi songs playing in the background; we finally arrived at our choice. They were as follows (Asha signature recipes in italics):


1. Safeedi Mutton Kebab
2. Ghar Ka Dal (Homemade Dal)
3. Mutton Vindaloo
4. Prawn Patti
5. Garlic Naan
6. Khurmi Naan
7. Kesar Biryani


The kebab was a flat piece of beaten mutton perhaps marinated with garlic and ginger and then grilled. This entry was passable. I could not figure out the specialty of the Ghar Ka Dal except for the conclusion that perhaps her house cooks the same Dal as we. The Mutton Vindaloo was definitely not from Goa and the Prawn Patti was a disaster. It is basically a Aloo Tiki filled with Prawns , coriander and mint. An aloo tiki is nothing but mashed potato, spiced up, made into flat spheres and shallow fried. That part was fine except that you had to search for the prawns inside.


The Naans were a shame and the Biryani was full of Kesar(Saffron). No, that was nothing positive about it. In fact, just before we ordered for the Biryani the hostess had asked an innocuous question about whether we wanted it to be spiced up. We had agreed and that was my mistake. Typically cooking Biryani takes considerable amount of time and any restaurant that would serve you the dish in about 30 minutes just cannot produce the same. If they are, it’s a big lie!! So the Kesar Biryani too did not pass. Boiled Mutton with fried rice, Saffron Colour and too much of Kewra water is definitely not Biryani!!


So there you go. It was a wasted evening and my suggestion to you is to stay off this place. An overpriced, unauthentic rip off. Sphere: Related Content