Monthly Archives: April 2018

Food

Mint Restaurant | The Best Indian Restaurant in Orange County

Posted on by ryuker
25
Apr

Orange County is one of the nicest places on earth, and my two very favorite cities are Irvine and Newport Beach. I have always been looking for the best restaurants to write about, and for the past few years, I found that Mint Restaurant is the best authentic Indian restaurant in Orange County. The Chef used to work at my previous favorite Indian restaurant Tamirend of London, which sadly closed down few years ago. Mint is a family owned restaurant, and they treat all the customers like their own family. The waiters and waitresses are very friendly, happy, and helpful. The restaurant gets very busy on weekends, and you have to wait for 30-40 minutes to get a table, Thank God that they bought the restaurant next to them for expansion. I was told that the expansion will finish sometime in May if they get the permits and approvals on time. Now when it comes to food, they have a lot of tasty items on the menu. Some of the items are on a secret menu, which I found on Yelp. I was using Yelp as my main source to order from Mint, because I like to choose an item from the images I see. I am impressed that Mint sustained a 4.5/5 stars on Yelp for a very long time, and it isn’t usually the case for a lot of restaurants. Mint serves authentic food, and they use real Indian spices, and they also can make the food spicy if you ask them to do so. Here is the following list of my very favorite items on the menu.

Starters:-

  • Vegetable Samosa

Main Course:-

  • Chicken Tandoori
  • Chicken Biryani
  • Chicken Tikka Masala
  • Sikh Kebab
  • Qeema (Secret Menu)
  • Naan and Cheese Naan (Must eat them as soon as they get them from Tandour)

Desserts:-

  • Gulab Jamun with Vanilla Ice Cream

 

 

 

 

 

Food, Kuwait, The Best in Kuwait

Just C Burgers | Kuwait’s Best BBQ Box

Posted on by ryuker
04
Apr

Every Thursday we go to the farm, and every time we go, we bring a BBQ box from a restaurant. We tried a lot of them, and until today the best one is Just C Burger BBQ Box. The burger is perfect, the bun is very soft, and the vegetables are always fresh. Their fried onions topping is very delicious and if you have it with their special sauce, it gets even better. The thing I like about Just C is that they never downgraded their quality, they kept the quality consistent for a very long time. Honestly I believe that they surpassed international franchises in terms of quality, and Just C can be an international chain if they decide to expand overseas. During the holiday on Feb, we had a big birthday at my home. I ordered from Carriage and specified a specific time, but they couldn’t make it on time. I was really disappointed at that time, so I called and complained. They were late for 2 hours, so I cancelled the order and got a refund, because the kids were waiting. I thought that their staff and management won’t care that I was disappointed, because this is how it is in Kuwait. In Kuwait, even when I am a very loyal customer for many years, usually they don’t care about pleasing their customers. Surprisingly, the manager called me and sent me 2 BBQ boxes as an apology. I was really surprised, because that never happened to me in Kuwait. I was their loyal customer for a very long time, and will continue to do so, because Just C really take care of their customers.

Thank You !

Real Estate

Real Estate Recession in Kuwait

Posted on by ryuker
03
Apr

Real estate in Kuwait has been crashing since summer 2017, and it will continue to get worst in the upcoming months. This time the recession will be worse than all the previous years and I will list all the reasons below.

1- Increase of interest rates : Most real estate investors in Kuwait invested 30% from their pockets and the rest is a loan from the bank. Interest rates were very low for a very long time, so they got used to pay small installments. Now interest rates are increasing, and the installments average per year is increasing.

2-Vacancy : Vacancy has been increasing more than ever, and most renters in the market are expats. Expats are leaving Kuwait due to the increase of cost of living leading to more vacancy. The increase in vacancy is creating an issue for landlords who borrowed money to build their properties, because their expenses is increasing (interest rate increase), and their income is decreasing (increase in vacancy).

3- Cost of Living : Cost of living is increasing in Kuwait forcing expats to leave the country. During the last 2 years, the government increase the cost of gas, electricity, water, and medical fees. There is also the tax on wire transfers for expats, which goes up to 5% per transaction.

4- The Overall Economy : The economy has been going down and the purchase power has been decreasing. The income of restaurants, retail, and businesses is declining all the way. You see retail have constant Sale to get rid of the supplies they have. You also see stores and businesses shutting down and laying off employees.

The problem with the Kuwaiti real estate market is that it is filled with junky properties. There are very few nice properties in the market, and very few properties are well maintained. Real Estate agents are more desperate than ever to sell any real estate. They really don’t like it when someone tell them that the market is crashing, and they always say that the real estate market will appreciate.

The real estate market in Kuwait is crashing and it will continue to do so. It is a buyers and renters market, they are the ones who will negotiate from a position of strength. For those who are renting, you can negotiate your rent, because vacancy is increasing on daily basis.

Kuwait

Feeding Pigeons in Kuwait, A Bad Habit That Must Be Stopped

Posted on by ryuker
02
Apr

Kuwait used to be a nicer place back in the 60’s and 70’s, but it is no longer the same. The government is constantly trying to clean up people’s mess. One of the really bad habits I see across Kuwait on daily basis, and it never stops is people feeding pigeons their trash. I can’t believe that people believe that feeding pigeons their trash is a good deed, because without their trash, they think that all pigeons will die.

Pigeons mostly eat seeds, which is very light on their stomach. In Kuwait it is a total different story, you will see people feeding the pigeons fried chicken, oily rice with meat, pile of hummus, samosa, baked zucchini, hareesa, and whatever leftovers they can find in the fridge.

Video: Q8 Needs You

The problem is that when pigeons eat all that trash, they poop everywhere, because they are not used to eat food that is extremely oily. Their poop becomes acidic and it damages buildings and statues. The poor government send people on daily basis to cleanup the trash that people throw for the pigeons.

I want to personally thank Q8 Needs You for their constant efforts to make Kuwait a more beautiful place.

Travel

Blogging in Kuwait

Posted on by ryuker
02
Apr

It has been 4 months since we started blogging in Kuwait. The blog started with an idea of sharing whatever interesting things we see in the market. We are really enjoying blogging even though blogging is not as popular as it used to be, because people switched to Snapchat and Instagram.

We haven’t blogged in the US yet, but we will do so at the end of this month and at the end of July. Can’t wait to cover all the good restaurants and nice resorts.

We will keep you updated until then !