Culture

Review: Jeddah Gourmet Burger Kitchen

Food 0 Comment

The search for the perfect burger in Jeddah continues, I few months ago I went to the Grilled Burger Kitchen, a London based burger chain, and it was alright, they say it is not like the one in London, but since I have never been to the one in London, I cannot compare.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen Jeddah Saudi Arabia Menu

Gourmet Burger Kitchen Jeddah Saudi Arabia Restaurant




If you prefer, they give you your burger in three little burgers, it doesn’t get messy, and with the large protions you can easily take it home, or share it.

The burgers were not bad, the search continues… I did like the Indian infused flavors in the sauces, that was a good twist, but I have not craved their burgers, and that is why the search continues.

More Food posts (click here)

Saudi Arabia One Day on Earth 11-11-11

Culture, Movies, Saudi 1 Comment

Husam Alsayed (aka @husam_filmhead) a talented filmmaker and an acquaintance of mine shared on his blog a global event called One Day on Earth, where many filmmakers, no matter what their level of expertise or camera they have can join by filming and submitting short clips of the place on earth they are in, the only catch, it has to be filmed on 11-11-2011, last year it was 10-10-2010.

Husam submitted this wonderful film he took in Yemen, since he was there on 10-10-2010, and this year he is the producer/organizer of Saudi Arabia’s contribution for 11-11-2011.

I thought I would do my part, since both are areas I am passionate about (Saudi and Filmmaking) I have joined the movement and I am letting people know.

So if you are in Saudi, own a camera, think you might add a little flavor to the global nonprofit film, don’t let anything hold you back, join us, all it takes is a short video you can take with your phone nowadays and a submission to the group.

Let us show the world what we want them to see.


One Day on Earth – Saudi Arabia

Husam’s Profile on One Day on Earth (so you can add him)

And if you want to, you can add me also :)

If you are not in Saudi, you can also film anything wherever you are, and submit it… what have you got to lose?

TEDxArabia 2011

Art, Culture, Saudi, Tech, Women 5 Comments

I was invited by Big_Hass to attended TEDxArabia on Thursday October 6th 2011, and I am glad I attended, it was interesting to say the least. The Theme of the event was “Live Your Dream”.

Registration was a bit lost, cards were everywhere, and… they couldn’t find the one with my name on it (or my friend Hameed’s card)

I did miss the first part due to me being late, but I didn’t miss much I guess.

Some talks were great, some were boring, and when the rep of the “angel sponsor” (Nestle) started talking, she almost made me hate coffee.

My friend Hassan gave a nice talk about hip-hop and what it should represent (hint: it is not the garbage on mainstream media, it’s a little more like this, or this). My friend Aziz Hamza also gave a presentation about a new iphone/ipad application of hijazi proverbs his company developed.

Ahmad Almehairy, gave one of the most memorable talks of the evening, encouraging small business, and encouraging investors to invest in small businesses. After checking him out online, it turns out he is a VP of a “Private Wealth Management Office LMC invests in Venture Capital, Real Estate & Public Equities. Slogan: Investing for the prosperity of our nation” so basically it was a sales pitch… most of the talks were somewhat more or less sales pitches.

The Smile of Swords as she translated her name (Dr. Basma Alseyofi) was also a very energetic and motivating speaker who wrote a few books and serves as a consultant on many governmental projects.

The nice thing about the event was a live music performance by a group called AlFarabi, who performed their song “story of a king” their musical style was fusion, the song was in Arabic, you can check out a studio version here.

There is a new cartoon coming out about the companions of the prophet, the main hero of the cartoon is the companion Bilal, a freed African slave and the first caller of the athan. The interesting thing is that they used forensic art to find what Bilal and his wife,  and other companions looked like, which would be more authentic than seeing a light skinned actor with blackface playing the part as they usually do in films and series about the period.

I am also excited about a new art gallery which will take place in Jeddah in January 2012, I forgot the name, but not the date :)

All in all it was a good event, thanks to big Hass for inviting me, and thanks for the organizers of the event for making it all possible, it was way better than the videos I saw of last year’s event, and I know if it is done next year, it will be even better… and I hope I get an invitation to the event next year also… either that or I am giving a talk… the last guy on stage gave a talk because he updated a page on “the definition of genius” on Wikipedia.

There was also a moment of silence while standing up for the passing away of Steve Jobs, who without his vision, none of this would’ve probably been possible.

Shoura Council and Ten Lashes To Go with That

Saudi, Women 2 Comments

As my cerebral cortex tries to make sense of all the news coming out from pure secrecy, which makes it all sound like an Apple keynote speech where not even a leak comes out a little bit beforehand, King Abdullah announces that women will be able to participate in municipal elections, as voters and run for elections , and women’s participation in the shoura council, all great news, they need to be represented to make sure they get their rights… another bit of news irks me.

Ten lashes, not like the fake ones sold and worn by many (they do irritate me and make me want to go and pluck them out) but the ones a woman in Saudi was sentenced to for driving a car in Jeddah, and no one knows who she is (all anyone knows is her name is Shayma’a) or was before the news of the sentence came out.

Ten lashes for a woman for driving a car, not hurting anyone, not getting into an accident, not using her car for illegal purposes, yes she broke Saudi law (not sure if she did, I’ve been hearing that it is a “social issue” for so long because women do drive on a daily basis outside of the cities), but that law has no defined penalty for breaking as far as I know… otherwise Manal Alshareef would’ve been slapped with one, and Maha Alqahtani would’ve been asked to pay more than the 100SR for violating traffic laws.

Any light shed on this matter, would really be good to my grey matter… because something tells me this news is fake… wait… news could be fake? I mean… don’t they always tell and convey the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help them God?

Eid in Jeddah

Culture, Food, Personal 3 Comments

We are eid-ing in Jeddah, it has been a while since we did this.

This would be our son’s first eid in Saudi among his extended family.

As customs dictate, buying new clothes is mandatory, we bought our little one his first thobe, light blue as he wished, seeing him wearing it made him seem so big, much older that what we see him as in his little jeans and shirts.

His grand parents gave him eidiyahs, money grandparents, parents, and older siblings give to the younger generation… It has been so long since I received any money like that, I don’t even remember what was the last amount I got. Of course he wants to buy toys, more cars is all he can think about… Oh, and an iPad 2… He even wants his own email and a facebook account, at five years old… We had to say no, but then again I said no to a mobile phone number only to see my dad buying him a prepaid sim card, now he has his own number which he uses in my old iPhone, I have a feeling my dad might set him up with an email account.

The joys of eid, or the eid spirit, are mostly felt by kids, with sweets, chocolates and candy of every kind everywhere they go, I am sure it has to do with the happiness they feel.

These are the days we are happy to be home again, but not when we have to drive from one home to the other to visit and give our respect to family members, that part, is nerve wrecking.

I almost got into a fight yesterday, the streets were crowded like never before, and some guy got pissed off because I would let him cut me off at a traffic light, they tried to get me to stop, one of them even threw his slipper at me while driving, all because I wouldn’t let them cut in line at a traffic light I’ve been waiting at for more than 15 minutes, at the next red light, three of them got out of the car and tried to open the door to the car I was driving, this, while my family was with me, and this at a crowded traffic light where there is always a police car parked there… EXCEPT for when I needed them, I didn’t open the door of course, they seemed like the Saudi version of My Name is Earl, and kept making obscene hand gestures and calling me names, all for not letting them break traffic laws, because when you obey traffic laws in Saudi, you piss people like these off. I don’t take things like that personally, it’s like water off a duck’s back to me, and lowering my self to their level… well, I was raised better than that.

But hey, what are holidays without a little road rage from some ignorant imbecile? The balance of the universe would be upset :)

Haboob

Culture, World 3 Comments

Haboob, not a word we use to describe all sandstorms, is being used to describe the sandstorm which hit Pheonix, AZ.

Haboob, not to be confused with Habboob (meaning a pleasant person to be around), and not to be confused with parts of the human anatomy, has made its entrance into the US vocabulary… mainly, in my opinion, because of the internet.

You know how it is, pictures are shared, words are exchanged, next thing you know you are completing each others sentences, using words you never used, next thing you know you are meeting each other’s families… etc :)

Post that might be of interest:
Riyadh Sandstorm
Video: Sandstorm over Kuwait

Swarovski Abayas – Jawaher

Art, Culture, Women 3 Comments

I find it very interesting to see two extremes in the same day, the first by Bill Maher in his mocking of fashion shows in Saudi Arabia, and instead of Christian Dior he calls the designer “Muslim Dior”.

The second, is Swarovski crystals actually finally catching up with what local shops have been doing for a while, I guess they thought they should sell the whole thing and not just the crystals.

From this picture, I also see they plan on moving into putting their crystals on soccer balls (footballs if you call them that) I would hate to see that crystal ball make any contact with a person’s head.

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© Qusay 2012