Incredible View at Raffles Creamery Cafe in Makkah

The View of The Creamery at Raffles Makkah Palace Hotel

I went to Mecca during the weekend to perform Omra. Inshallah الله يتقبلها مني

If you are going to Mecca these coming days or in a month or two when the weather is cool, I suggest visiting Raffles Creamery Cafe at Raffles Makkah Palace Hotel. It has an incredible view of Haram. They have indoors and outdoors seating area. The view of outdoors seating area is amazing. The cafe is located in the main floor where the lobby is and it opens at 4pm until 1am.

If you are going to planning to go, enter Waqf King Abdelaziz through the main door, take the elevators on the right side to P11 floor and then enter the lobby of Raffles Makkah Palace hotel. The cafe should be on the right side of hotel.  The view at night is incredible (see picture) so pray your Isha prayer at haram and then drink your coffee or have a quick snack there. Really worth it! While you are at it, don’t forget to pray for me. 🙂

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La Petite Maison Restaurant in Dubai

Grilled rib Eye Steak

I just got back from Dubai after a 4-day visit. I went to La Petite Maison restaurant TWICE in four days.  It specializes in French Mediterranean cuisine. The restaurant is located in Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), Gate Village 8. If you are renting a car, there is a 3-hour complimentary valet service so you don’t have to worry about parking your car & if you are going & leaving by a taxi, you don’t have to worry as there are lots of Taxis passing in front of DIFC. Anyway, after trying several dishes, here is what I recommend you should order:

For Appetizers:

  • White Beans with Truffle Vinaigrette
  • Marinated Beetroot
  • Salad of Green Lintel

For main Course:

Rigatoni With Mushrooms

  • Order the Grilled Rib eye steak, if you are a meat person as it is 400 gram. Since I am not a meat person & the portion is kind of big for me, I like to share the steak.
  • French Fried Potato
  • Rigatoni with Mushrooms: We got this as complimentary as the steaks took a while . You might want to check the price as it doesn’t list the price in the menu.. it says at market’s price. 😛

For Dessert:

French Toast with Spice Ice Cream

Don’t waste your time with any of the other desserts. Just order French Toast with Spice Ice-Cream and DO NOT even think about SHARING it with anybody. It’s that yummy. 😛 On the day of my departure, I went to their restaurant AGAIN with my luggage so I can eat that dessert.  I told them I had a flight to catch & I wanted to leave my luggage with them. They were happy to oblige. I ate appetizers and dessert and quickly left 🙂 It was a risky move on my part as I arrived at the restaurant less than 3 hours before my flight and I left 40 minutes before the closing of the check in. If I had missed my flight, it would have been worth it. *lol* 😛

I went to this restaurant 3 times & the average cost per person was between 300-500 AED.

If you plan to go, I suggest calling to reserve as at dinners, the place is quite busy: +971 (0) 4439 0505

La Petite Maison Website: http://www.lpmdubai.ae

 

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My Tomato Plants- Update

Italian Pomodoro

My Tomato Plants are all grown up. I have several varieties such as Black Russian, Black Cherry, Juliet, Shirley, Berry, Garden’s Delight, & Italian Pomodoro. I took a video of some of the plants that I am currently growing. I can’t wait for them to mature and for the others to grow as well.

 

 

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Top Kuala Lumpur Attractions

I went to Kuala Lumpur during Eid Al-Adha. I visited the following places and I ranked the attractions from top to bottom:

1. Kuala Lumpur Bird Park

Large park with the most beautiful colorful birds you’ve seen in your life.

Click here to read more about visit to the bird park

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معنى الكويت هو العطاء المستمر فهل انت تستحق ان تلقب باسمها؟ شارك باعادة تدوير نفاياتك

It’s year 2012. Let’s recycle because we  Kuwait.

اعادة تدوير النفايات (اوراق-معادن-بلاستيك-زجاج) هو واجب وطني على كل كويتي ومقيم على ارض الكويت الحبيبة. هل تعلم ان الكويت تحتل المركز العاشر عالميا في تلوث الهواء (مصدر منظمة الصحة العالمية)؟

    شارك باعادة تدوير نفاياتك عن طريق الاتصال باي رقم من الشركات التالية. هم يوفرون لك الحاويات المجانية ويقومون باستلامهم منك اسبوعيا

شركة المعادن والصناعات التحويلية 22986222

شركة الهدف الاخضر 94444927

شركة بن سليم البيئي للتدوير 94925865

 هل تحب الكويت؟ اذا نعم… اثبت حبك لها عن طريق المشاركة وقم بدورك بتقليل التلوث الذي انت تسببه للكويت

كويتنا تستاهل ♥ 


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Malaysia Trip:Kuala Lumpur Agricultural Heritage Park (Day 5 Part 2)

Pineapple Plants

After we went to Putrajaya, we stopped at Agricultural Heritage Park to view Malaysian agricultural products. It was fun looking at different kinds of trees and plants such as pineapple, Rose Apple, Black Pepper, Cocoa, Coffee, Dragon Fruit, Palm trees, Rubber Trees, etc. Our tour guide arranged for us a gulf cart as the weather was sunny and hot. The tour was educational and entertaining. I highly recommend visiting the park.  Enjoy the pictures below:

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Malaysia Trip: Putrajaya (Day 5 Part 1)

Putra Mosque

On our fifth day in Kuala Lumpur, we went to Putrajaya. It’s a planned city 20-30 minutes away from Kuala Lumpur. The Malaysian government transferred their main administrative offices including the Prime Ministry office and many of their ministries from the Kuala Lumpur to Putrajaya to ease on the traffic and congestion. It’s a work in progress city. From what I hear, they have many plans for this city. I was actually surprised at how clean and beautiful the city looked. Now this is a place to work in NOT in our ministries in deira that can give employees and the visitors depression.The landscapes were beautiful. I visited the Putra Mosque which is a beautiful pink Mosque. I took a quick tour inside the mosque and then we had our tour bus take us around the streets to look at their ministry buildings, etc. Everything was beautiful, clean and organized. Even though it was a work-day, the streets were quiet. You don’t see visitors parking their cars illegally around any of the ministries. Unlike here, visitors and employees actually respect the laws. They park in their designated areas.

At the end of this road, you will see the office of Malaysian Prime Minister

 

The cool thing about the streets in Putrajaya is that in each street, the streetlights look different. The design of their streetlights were inspired by Malaysian culture so you see streetlights looking like Cobra, kites, etc. It was fun looking at them. Each street was unique in its own way. 

 

 

 

You can see more pictures below:

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Cooking Tip: How to make your steaks tender?

I had always wondered why when I cooked steaks at home, they were not as tender as the ones I ate at the restaurants. It turns out restaurants tenderize the meat with Kiwi Juice or Papaya Juice. Why? Because Kiwi & Papaya have an enzyme called actinidin that breaks down the proteins in the meat.

Now, I never cook meat or chicken unless I marinade the meat/chicken one night before with Kiwi Juice. To make my life easier, I buy lots of raw Kiwi fruit to make Kiwi juice and then pour Kiwi Juice in a Ice-cube tray. Then I put the tray in freezer. Once its frozen, I transfer the frozen Kiwi Juice cubes into a plastic bag and put it back in the freezer. Whenever I want to cook, I just drop one cube or two in the marinade sauce. Will the taste be affected? No, your meat won’t taste like Kiwi. I just use Kiwi as meat tenderizer and it works with meat and chicken. Try it out…

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Tomato Plants Update (2.5 months old)

Cherry Tomatoes: Maskotka

The plants are now 2.5 months old and are doing well, dispute the cold weather. I picked off my first Cherry Tomato and I gave it to my mother and she gave me the seal of approval. 🙂 I don’t like eating Tomatoes and I just like growing them. It’s fun and every time I grow them from seeds, I’m fascinated at how fast they grow. The cool thing about my plants is that they’re ORGANIC. 😀

If you want to grow Cherry Tomatoes in Kuwait, I suggest “Maskotka” as they adapt very well to our weather, grow fast, and produce lots of yummy tomatoes. This is my second year growing this type.

 

Tomato: Juliet

 

 

I’m also experimenting with regular tomatoes such as Garden’s delight, Juliet, etc.

 

 

 

 

You can look at the pictures below:

 

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Malaysia Trip: Genting Highlands (Day 4 Part 2)

Rides & Hotels at Genting Highlands

On our 4th day, we went to Genting Highlands. Genting Highlands is a resort up in the mountains, 55km away from Kuala Lumpur. The resort consists of hotels, theme parks, etc.  We went there via a private tour bus and then took the remaining way by riding a cable car (telefric). The queue to the cable car was 45 minutes. Yep, looong but it is not recommended to take the whole ride via a car as the roads are steep & somewhat dangerous. Anyway,  as we ascended in the cable car, the weather got really cold. I loved the cable ride as you go over untouched tropical forests. You can hear jungle sounds from animals and insects. When we arrived at the other end, there was an indoor and outdoor amusement park. We paid for all-day tickets that covered indoor and outdoor rides. They warned us at the ticket booth that if it rained, all outdoor games would be closed and no refund would be issued. Anyway, we went to the outdoor area because indoors rides are for young children (4 years or less). There were many rides but unfortunately, my nieces and nephews only got into 1-2 rides because the ride queues were loooooong. It took around 2 hours to get into ONE RIDE and the amusement park wasn’t even busy that day!!! Imagine if we had gone during the weekends or public holidays….. Honestly, I spent most of the time there waiting either in a queue or waiting for my nieces and nephews to finish their rides..

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