Eating Out: Wasabi's

I figured, since I certainly don't cook every night and I do eat out a good deal that I should also take the time to blog about the restaurant scene in Kuwait while I'm here.

It's a very strange habit for me, being a cook myself, but when I eat out I usually order the same thing over and over from a place I've been before - A habit I'm trying to wriggle out of.

So when I ordered takeout from Wasabi's this week, I decided to try and get away from my standard spicy Cali roll. Sushi is hard for me because while I love it, sadly my stomach does NOT agree with raw fish of any kind. So I'm relegated to choosing from veggie rolls or maki with cooked meats in them. I recently found that while the menu in the Wasabi restaurants don't give very good descriptives of their sushi rolls, their menu on 6alabat does.

Skeeeeeert! What the heck did she say?

6alabat – www.6alabat.com – is an online take out service exclusive to Kuwait that works with restaurants in your neighborhood to make their food available for delivery straight to your door with a few clicks of your mouse. It makes my “no-cooking-on-Wednesday” nights SO much easier.



Well anyway, pickings were still on the slim side but I managed to choose a Bifu Roll, Tempura Shrimp Roll and a Kani Furai. I also threw in a cali roll there, just in case :D



The Bifu roll is my new favorite. It came with a sweet creamy sauce and I enjoy beef and scallion pairings. The spotted wrapper was cool too, although a bit weird on the texture as it was chewy. But seaweed is chewy too so it wasn't that big of an issue.



The tempura shrimp was pretty basic and bland. Shrimp and tobico on the inside, seaweed on the out and tempura deep fried.



The Kani Furai roll (Kani = Crab, Furai = Coated in breadcrumb) left something to be desired. I credit that in part to the fact that it has two hunks of sealeg in each “bite” - And yeah, a lot of sushi places employ sealegs in their rolls (sealegs a.k.a. “crabstick” = that weird imitation crab meat made of starches, pureed white fish (surimi) and food coloring). I can tolerate it here and there in small amounts (it comes in the cali roll afterall) but that much made me not even want to finish the other 5 pieces.



The California roll I got was also lack-luster. Usually it's generally satisfying but the rice tasted.. old? Not what I'm usually used to from Wasabi but.. it is what it is. Next time I do order, it will def be the bifu roll.

This reminds me, I need to try my hand at a sushi blog sometime.. Oh! And I'm open to new roll suggestions! Asian is one of my weakspots so I am not a sushi afficianado by any means and am always looking for an experienced point in an interesting direction :)



Source(s):
www.6alabat.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crab_stick
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surimi

Hookah/Shisha/Hubbly Bubbly... NFR

Whatever you call it, if you've ever been to the mid-east you'll know what it is. It's one of the first things I fell in love with as a traveler. Narghile, Ghalyoon, Chillim, Lula.. These are a few names for the same waterpipe made so famous by this part of the world.

Most sources indicate India as the origin of the device, by which tobacco is smoked and “purified” by passing through water. (The pipe is said to be circa late 1500's). In India it is often referred to as a “Huqqa”, which most westerners learned through the British empirical period and have since dubbed it “Hookah”.

In the modern era, the middle-east is where hookah is smoked most prevalently. The actual waterpipes themselves come in an astonishing array of colors and design/motifs. Almost everything about the device can be decorated - from the waterbowl to the hoses all the way up to the tobacco bowls.
And there is a surprising variety of tobacco flavors to choose from as well – from vanilla and mint to all kinds of fruit (seriously, every kind of fruit you can think of). They even make cola & cappuccino!

Layalina is a very popular brand over here in Kuwait, being imported from Dubai. It's the only kind I've smoked at home thus far. My favorite (or fave of the moment, I have lots to try) is the apple bahraini but I really want to try their new Better Than Sex shisha! (lol, something I'm not so sure will be hitting the kuwaiti markets so I'll have to order online).

Now, I am an utter and complete novice when it comes to this stuff. So far, all I have is a plastic 8KD shisha pipe but I've been trying to talk the Mr. into getting a bigger and better one (a 2 hose pipe would be nice). There's a cute black one in the shop I go to that has camels on it, but I definitely need a new hose. The guys who were working the shop the day I bought my little hookah were very lackadaisical. When I bought a hookah as a present there once, they really hooked me up so.. I don't know what happened but I'm guessing I just need to find a better shop to avoid more slap-together service.

Anywaysssss, I digress.. This is how (I know) to set up shisha, and it's fairly simple – you can even prep it ahead of time. You will need your waterpipe, your tobacco, charcoal, small patch of foil, a toothpick, tongs, water and a receptacle for carrying the heated charcoal (will include a picture – I don't have one yet personally, I use a stone ramekin that I carry on a plate so I don't burn myself by the ambient heat).



First, you unscrew your hookah to fill it with water (some people like to use ice cold water for a supposed “smoother” smoke, and some like to add to the water fresh fruit or mint for extra flavor infusion. Some even like to add milk!)



Then you fill your tobacco bowl with some crumbled tobacco – You cover the bowl tightly with foil and then poke concentric holes through the foil for a “screen” effect. Some people disregard foil use all together and just put charcoal directly on the tobacco. Haven't tried that yet though so can't tell you the difference. Foil just seems like a better idea to me though. (Also, nicer hookahs have bowls with windscreens on them and metal discs to cover the bowl – this sidesteps the whole foil step. Something I should look into getting)



(with windscreen)


Then you put the bowl on it's base which has a plate underneath to catch charcoal ash.



The last step would be to heat your charcoal. You want to heat your charcoal until it is uniformly gray on the outside and you can no longer see black. Place the bricks on top of the foil that covers your tobacco bowl and you should be ready to smoke almost instantly, as the charcoals are extremely HOT!





Enjoy! And remember.. all things in moderation.. Except for cuddling and sex, and maybe chocolate.

Source(s):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hookah
http://www.hookah-shisha.com/
http://www.hookahcompany.com/hookah_history.htm