What is the difference between Chicken Majboos and Chicken Biryani? How do you react when you are suddenly face to face with the Amir (Ruler) of Kuwait? And how do you survive a dust storm? These are just some of the issues Kuwaiti bloggers are discussing this week.
Rieaane, a Filipino living in Kuwait, shares with us how to cook a traditional Kuwaiti dish. She writes the full recipe and explains the difference between Chicken majboos (a Kuwaiti dish) and Chicken Biryani (an Indian dish) in her blog philq8 [1].
I always love cooking and making experiments with the foods I found in our kitchen. Since I am in an Arab country right now, I always aim of cooking all the Arabic dishes that I want to eat. And since some of the ingredients of these dishes are not suitable in my taste, I always make a way to cook it in my own style and personal taste. I also noticed that the Chicken Biryani (Pinoy Style) which I posted here few months ago ranked 3rd in this blog’s top posts for the month of April. Few days ago, I tried to experiment arabic dish again called Majboos. It is an Arabic dish which is consist of long grain rice and chicken or meat. The meat or chicken were boiled before frying, then the rice is being cooked with the meat or chicken’s broth.
Krakatoa [2] speaks about how he reacted when he came face to face with the Amir of Kuwait [3]Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Jaber Al Sabah at a condolence meeting.
اسوق هذه المقدمة لنني سأذكر حادثة اختلف فيها جميع من تكلمت معهم بها..سواء من الاهل او الاصدقاء او كبار السن، الحادثة كالتالي..قبل فترة كنت بمعية صديق نذهب لإداء واجب العزاء لصديق اخر وقد ذهبنا الى ديوانهم بعد جهد جهيد استطعنا العثور على الديوان..فكان الدخول من الباب الخلفي وليس من الباب الرئيسي للديوان..وعند الدخول استغربنا من وجوم الحاضرين وسكوتهم على غير عادة بعض العزاءات..حيث بعض الكلام الجانبي والتغشمر بين بعض الحاضرين..المهم..دوخلنا كان عن طريق صالة جانبية تؤدي الى بهو الصالة الرئيسة لقاعة العزاء، كان صديقي يتقدمني فتفاجأت به يقف عند باب الصالة الكبيره خلف احد الاشخاص ولم يكن احد امامنا ولا خلفنا وكان هذا الشخص الواقف خلفه صاحبي لا يتقدم للإداء واجب العزاء. فعرفت انه من حماية الشخصيات
المهم قلت لصديقي تقدم ( طوفه خن ندش) وما ان تقدم صاحبي وانا واذا بنا نتفاجأ بأن صاحب السمو جالس بالكرسي الملاصق لكبير العائلة ( بالكويتي اختبصنا ) لا ندري انسلم عليه سلام اليد ام نرفع ايدينا بمساك الله بالخير وندخل لنعزي على كبير العائلة ..كل هذه الامر حصل لثواني قليله فكان الاختيار الثاني هو سيد الموقف فرفعنا ايدينا بمساك الله بالخير حتى بدون طويل العمر او أي من الديباجات المعهودة ودلفنا نسلم على كبير العائلة نظرت الى صاحب السمو عين بعين..كتلك المرات التي اتطيح عيني بيعنيه فرأيت تلك النظرة اضغط لرؤية النظره ، وجلسنا قليلا ومن ثم احسن الله عزاكم وخرجنا من الباب الرئيسي الذي لم ندخل منه..وهناك وجدنا صاحبنا واقفا في الخارج فعزيناه..ووجدنا العربيات والمتورسيكلات والدنيا كلها وأفه..!!!
طبعا لم نلحظ أيا مما سبق كوننا دخلنا من الباب الخلفي للديوان واخذت افكر في هذه النظره..واوسوس ما إعجبة انه ماسلمنا عليه ولا اهي النظره عادية ولا شنو
المراد من كل هذا والسؤال المهم..هو
هل ان كنت في مثل هذ الموقف ( الشيخ جالس بكرسي ملاصق لعميد العائلة ولا يوجد احد جالس قبله فهو في اول الصف) ..أتسلم على الشيخ سلام اليد..ام ترفع يدك بالسلام من بعيد وتدخل لتعزي كبير العائلة؟؟؟
I wrote this forward to present this incident that everyone whom I spoke to about gave me a different opinion – be it family, friends or old people.
It happened as follows: Some time ago I was with a friend who went to pay our condolences to another friend. We went for their Dewaniya (a traditional section of Kuwaiti homes used
for social gatherings). After some time, we finally located their dewaniya, and we entered from side door – and not main door. When we entered we were amazed that everyone was quiet, unlike most condolence meetings we went to lately, where people were usually chatting and laughing. When we entered, my friend, who was in front of me, suddenly stopped. There were no one behind or in front of us. There was only one guy in front of us, who wasn't there for the condolences, so I figured he was a bodyguard. I told my friend: “pass him and let's enter ” and once my friend went forward we were surprised to find His Highness the Amir seated next to the family elder. Basically we were confused: should we shake his hands, or just verbally greet him and move on to pay our condolences to the family elder? All this happened in few seconds so the second option was our choose. We gestured and said “God bless you” to the Amir without any of the normally accompanying words like Your Highness and we paid our dues to the family elder.
When I looked at His Highness, we exchanged eye contact like in previous occasions.
We sat for a while and then left from the main door we didn't enter from. There, we found our friend standing outside so we paid our condolences to him. We also found the motorcade outside.
Of course, we didn't notice the motorcade before because we entered from the side door.
But I was thinking of that look I exchanged with the Amir. Was it a look to say he didn't approve of the way we acted or was it a normal look?
The most important part of this and my question is if you were in that situation (the Amir is sitting in a chair next to the family elder and there is no one sitting before him so he is the first in the row): would you shake hands with him or just gesture with hello and enter and pay your condolences to the family elder?
intlxpatr [4] takes us on a tour of the old American Hospital in Kuwait.
I discovered the beautiful building we park in front of when we got to church is the Old American Hospital. I don’t know what it is used for now, but it has been beautifully renovated.
Qais over at io81 [5] shares more of his business experience and how advertisements affected his business.
Following my earlier post of Gift Express, when i introduced my marketing campaigns:P they are small but i like calling them campaigns. I had to know what impact i got for the money i have spent on such ads.
Meanwhile, Ms Loala [6] tells us about bad parking at Kuwait University.
Now don't tell me those two were on a hurry. Can you see the freaking distance between the two sidewalks??! This is unbelievable!
Finally, Forzaq8 [7] was shocked with the dust storm over the weekend.
wow what a weather yesterday, the dust storm was obstructing view on the street , i was drivng on fifth ring road yesterday after i went out of my friend dewaniya
Picture from Forzaq8 flickr stream [8].