The Search for Kuwaiti Cuisine … in Kuwait

by David Farley on
People don’t come to Kuwait to drink alcohol. Nor do they come to eat pork. They also don’t arrive expecting to see pitbulls, to smoke marijuana, to watch Michael’s Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, or to look at any sort of pornography. It’s all banned in Kuwait (with harsh penalties for lawbreakers).

For tourists who hate being around other tourists, this desert country is an oasis: there are no tourists traps because, well, there really are no tourists here. Every place is an off-the-radar local spot.

It’s not surprise, then, that another aspect that’s not pulling people to Kuwait is the food. That’s because if you ask a local, as I did during a recent visit to this conservative and diminutive Middle Eastern state on the Gulf of Arabia, your question about the local cuisine will be greeted with a shrug. That is, until a Lebanese friend who lives in Kuwait City (one of the initial shruggers) called her boyfriend who called another friend who recommended one of the small handful of Kuwaiti restaurants in town.


In most countries, there are ethnic restaurants and then there are restaurants serving the default local cuisine. Here in Kuwait, however, it’s the other way around. One has to seek out a Kuwaiti restaurant; otherwise, you end up at a Lebanese place (which is the best of the best when it comes to eating in the Middle East), as I did at the excellent at Burj Al Hamam or Italian or Spanish (I had very good versions of both at the in-house restaurants in the new Hotel Missoni). Or perhaps one of the many unfortunate American chain restaurants (Applbee’s, TGI Friday’s, Ruby Tuesday) that have set up shop here.
The entrance to Freej Swaileh is around the back from bustling Salem al Mubarak Street. Descend the broken escalator to the darkened basement to find a dining room separated by private booths. Dining privacy is important, especially if you’re a burqa-clad woman, so you can eat without the hassle of the burqa getting in the way.

The servers knock on the door before each visit. And when my waiter came to take my order, I just pointed to various items, not sure what any of it was. About 15 minutes later, my juice mocktail almost drained, the server knocked and entered with several plates. There was chicken majboos (see photo), a biryani-like recipe with a tender half chicken set atop rice and a tomato-based sauce on the side; markookh, a stewy lamb-laden dish with eggplant; and jireesh, a mash of spelt with lamb mixed in.

It turns out, Kuwaiti cuisine is really just an amalgamation of other cuisines: Persian, Indian, Lebanese, for example. According to Abdul Fatah Marafie, who comes from one of the richest families in the country, Kuwaiti cuisine began with the date trade. “The dates came from Iraq,” he said when I somewhat randomly met him and expressed my bewilderment with the lack of local cuisine. “Then they came here to Kuwait where we transported them to places like India and Iran and Arabia. We came back with spices and added them to our cuisine.”

Which is why these dishes all tasted familiar. And why it wasn’t a surprise when the waiter knocked one last time and brought in a try full of gulab jamun, fried syrup-laden dough balls from India….er I mean…legaimat, as they’re called in Kuwait.

First woman to climb world’s 14 major peaks without backup oxygen

by Jessica Festa on

Another record has been set in the world of extreme sports as Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner, a 40-year-old Austrian woman from Germany, summited 14 of the world’s 8,000-meter peaks without carrying backup oxygen.

Supported by grants from the National Geographic Society, Kaltenbrunner was one of four climbers who reached the summit of K2, the world’s second highest mountain at 8,611 meters high. The conditions had been rough, and the threat of avalanches had been too high for many of the climbers, including Kaltenbrunner’s husband, to continue. Despite having to trudge through waist-deep snow and battle aggressive windstorms, Kaltenbrunner continued on to success.

Gerlinde Kaltenbrunner began climbing mountains as a child. When she was 23, she realized she wanted nothing more than to climb an 8,000-meter peak. The then nurse saved her earnings for climbing expeditions and in 2003 became a full-time mountaineer.

In her blog, she writes, “…The burden of the last days were lifted off my shoulders – we had made it. My life’s dream has come true…”

Ancient city of Mari in Syria under threat

by Sean McLachlan on

Last month we reported that the Biblical city of Nineveh is falling apart due to the ongoing war in Iraq. Now it turns out another ancient Mesopotamian city is in danger of being lost.

Mari, in Syria, was one of the great cities of Mesopotamia. It was a trading center on the Euphrates River and was founded some 7,000 years ago. Archaeologists have discovered the giant palace of a Sumerian ruler, a temple to Ishtar, and a huge library with more than 25,000 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform.

Now Popular Archaeology magazine reports that erosion and neglect are returning the city to the earth. The people of Mari built with fired mud brick, using clay that was cheap and plentiful along the banks of the Euphrates. Wind and rain have been picking away at the bricks for thousands of years, and it doesn’t help that more walls have been exposed by archaeologists. Dust to dust.

The Global Heritage Fund released a report on Syria’s endangered heritage sites that lists Mari as the one in most need of help.

I visited Mari in the 1990s and it was one of the biggest archaeological orgasms of my life. To walk through a Mesopotamian palace, to visit one of the ancient world’s biggest libraries, and to stand atop a ziggurat all in the same afternoon is something you can’t do anywhere else outside of Iraq. It’s one of many outstanding archaeological treasures in Syria that are in desperate need of protection and conservation. Crac de Chevaliers, one of the ten toughest castles in the world, is also in danger.

Sadly, with the Syrian government more interested in killing their own people, I don’t think protecting the world’s heritage is very high on their “to do” list.

[Photo courtesy peuplier via flickr]

Excavations at ancient city of Perge in Turkey celebrate 65 years

by Sean McLachlan on


Archaeological excavations at the ancient city of Perge in southern Turkey have reached their 65th year, the Hürriyet Daily News reports. This makes them the longest-running excavations in a country with a wealth of ancient sites.

Perge (aka Perga) is in Turkey’s Antalya province and was founded 3,500 years ago by the Hittites. It became a prosperous Greek colony like Ephesus and Pergamon and was for a time under Persian rule. Many of the surviving remains are from the Roman period. In the early days of Christianity, St. Paul preached there (Acts 14:25). Several interesting monuments can still be seen such as a theatre, a stadium, two city gates, and a temple to Artemis.

The UNESCO World Heritage Site is so massive that more than a half century of digging has only uncovered a quarter of it. The current project is to restore many of the columns that once lined the streets.

Perga is at one end of a challenging 300+ mile trek called the St. Paul Trail that cuts diagonally across the country.

For more information and photos, check out this Anatolian travel page.

[Photo courtesy archer10 (Dennis) via flickr]

New web tool helps you “find the best” adventures

by Kraig Becker on

A new web tool from Find The Best, a website designed to help consumers quickly compare a wide variety of products and services, may help you decide on your next exotic destination. The site, which joins a growing number of adventure travel aggregators on the Internet, looks to make the process of finding tour operators fast and simple.

The Adventure Travel & Tours search tool lists more than 1000 tours worldwide and can be sorted by region, country, cost, and duration. The rather basic interface allows you to apply a variety of filters quickly and easily, so you can find the perfect adventure in no time at all. For instance, you can look for trips in Africa, then narrow the search further by selecting specific countries, trip lengths, and a price range. You can even search by desired activities, level of difficulty, and the months that the trip is available. That last option is especially nice for those who can only get away during certain times of the year.

Once you have your search results, you’ll be able to click on links to get further information about the trip, the company that provides it, and how it can be booked. There is even a place for travelers to post reviews of the various tours, although I didn’t come across any in my searches. This is most likely a result of Find The Best still being in Beta and not having a large community yet.

If you’re looking for new ideas for your next trip, you may want to give this tool a shot – or at the very least, bookmark it for future use. It’ll definitely come in handy when seeking out new destinations for upcoming adventures.