Meet Uncle Sam

When the worst is about to happen, how much of a wake up call lead do you need?


Well i don't think there is anything more wake up like than the US Debt crisis!


i can go on about it, but i think this short video sparks the brightest light bulb in everyone





What do you think!? is it impending doom soon?!


@Alexi13

Farsi Food (Anar Restaurant Review)

Anar Resturant @ Madinat Jumeirah - DXB

The setting is right on the creek goin through MJ, with duckies passin by, and the busy abras carryin the tourists around the creek! The place has indoor seating as well, which will give you more of a persian feel.


The lovely touch of a fresh orchid flower on your table surely to bring a smile to your face, and a distraction while you wait for ur food :p 

The menu is rich in its selections, and i liked the fact that they had the persian names for the items, extra bit of general knowledge and fun to try and pronounce them!! 

 

We start off with a plate of greenery n walnuts n feta cheese pieces with a nice presentation, along some baked (i think) persian bread or smthn, which is very tasty!!!

I took the Kashk o Bademjan for starters, it was yummmeeeyyyy for anyone into eggplants!! with the yoghurt and mint sauce adding a lovely sting to the eggplant's full flavor, and the onions on top releasing a sugary after taste.

For the main course, i attacked a Fesenjan Ba Morgh,,, The chicken bits come scuba diving in this rich flavored sauce of ground walnuts and pomegranate sauce... laying down those yummy chicken pieces on the very well cooked rice, the meat just slides off from the bones, one of the quickest de-boning i had!! As for the taste, one hell of a sweet and sour mix, to die for!! 

Finally you must keep room for desert and what better thing than to try a persian dessert. Enter the Bastani Akbar Mashti, or basically vanilla ice cream and saffron persian style ice cream... hellloooo the feeling of wanting the desert to never end!! highly recommended!!! 

Now, price wise, hmmm, kinda on the moderate to high side of things... 
Starter + 2 main courses + 2 desserts = AED 510 or USD 140.


@Alexi13


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Baking Powder!!

And here goes another man into the Kitchen!! 


I must start by saying one of my good friends named Z, is responsible for awakening a passion for the kitchen and not just the plate! He's a self made amateur cook, producing amazing platters.


Today, my love pulled me into the kitchen to bake some Madeleines!! 


The preparation is pretty easy, some baking powder, some flour, some vanilla, some butter some lemon zest and egggggs :D 


Voila the result below!! 

 Bon Appetit! yes they tasted like heavenly clouds!


@Alexi13


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That's my Madeleine of the day

قهوة القزاز

Another iconic landmark of the Lebanese socio-cultural scene is to wither down...

The most famous café in Lebanon, located in on of Gemmayzeh's beautitful old buildings, is set to shut down.. Apparently after finding a technical loophole in the tenancy contract, the building owners have moved along with the decision to evict the cafe owners..


This place has been standing strong for 85 years,


85 years of clients
85 years of entertainment
85 years of politicians, writers, thinkers, etc...


85 years of Lebanese socio-econo-politoco-cultural histroy,,, that's EPIC !!

The cafe will shut down on New Year's Eve and start evacuating the premises that week. im glad ill be in Beirut prior to that and will visit the shop for one last goodbye of this Phoenix!


The cafe will hold a charity concert night, which will raise money to Save Beirut Heritage association, which works on preserving our heritage.


P.S: it is set to reopen in Antellias area... i doubt it will be the same, fingers crossed to rise from the ashes!!


if you had any experiences of the café, do share!!


@Alexi13


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vrOOm 4x4 Trip!

Last weekend me and a group of friends went to Oman for some Off-Road action and a nice lunch afterwards,

The grid lineup consisted of the following:

Land Rover Defender TD5 SWB a.k.a Ruby

2 Mitsubishi Pajero LWB

Mitsubishi Pajero SWB

and my Nissan Armada aka Butso

once we reached Oman, the action started off easy with some gravel and rocky paths, and then curiosity hit about a leading upward trail into the mountains,,, the wise advice of our women passengers was deafened by typical Boys n' Toys !! 

Butso and Ruby

Butso in action!!

The off-road expedition was cut short due to rough terrain ahead that would damage the stock cars (all except Ruby). We did push our cars to the max with the rough terrain BIG time!! i was sooo impressed by my Butso handling the terrain, and thankfully with no damages, well other than the plants scratching the hell out of my paint, yea Ali, get a black car,, suuuuper bright of you!! well, now the dangerous thought of buying a Wrangler as my Off-Road toy is poking me endlessly, siighhh...

Next stop was the lovely retreat, Hatta Fort Hotel for a quick lunch before heading into the desert for a short camping spot !! 

And here are some pics of our camping site!! it was quickly set up by the boys, with the wimiiinnnzz setting up the food for their Macho Macho Men!! hahaha corn cobs, marshmallows, Nutelllllllllla sandwiches and a crazy dude wanted to bbq a banana !!! 

The trip was a great experience with friends, good food, lotsa laughs and pics!! 

Thank you allll!! 

Dany & Lama, Carl & Maya, Firas & Sally, Tony & Soulaf, Rabih & wife :$, Wael, Hatem, Sarah, Alan and Habib !!

P.S: i still felt alone with all this company, my baby girl @LaSahely was MIA but present in my heart and running around in my head telling me to be safe :D 

Till the next trip, keep those engines revvvvvin'!!! 

@Alexi13

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TEDxDubai - Ideas Worth Spreadin'

TEDxDubai was held on Saturday 4th December in Dubai, with a collection of speakers sharing their ideas,,

Just a bit of history on TED, it stands for Technology Entertainment and Design, in short it is a conference where speakers are given an 18 min window to share their ideas under an umbrella of "ideas worth spreading", to leverage on the power of ideas to change the world.

TEDx is a program that enables schools, universities, businesses or individuals to have a TED-like experience by themselves hosting, organizing and designing the event.

This year's TEDxDubai in its 2nd edition built on further on last year's success, i'll be sharing my experience at the events and highlighting the points that i saw positive and the areas where work is needed...

The event registration was done by filling a form online and being selected for the event, then receiving a digital barcode as a confirmation! A green approach to a paperless registration and entrance, very well done indeed, i do hope to see this being picked up by others soon, makes it so easy, and avoids losing your ticket ;)

The goodie bag was differently thought of as well, it was a specially designed scarf for TEDxDubai, tied to form a loose handbag, with a note pad inside, indeed a nice touch, and was worn differently by the attendees, some held it as a bag, others as scarfs, others as a headband, i tied it to my backpack :p ... 

The wristband also was designed differently, with a clip on mechanism, and made of cloth instead of those annoying rubber or plastic ones which you must rip off after an event,, this was a nice keepsake, as well as your key to get into the after party at ARMANI/privee later in the evening.

This year's event was titled REBOOT, and as per the TEDxDubai blog (http://tedxdubai.com/blog/tedxdubai-2010-reboot/), it revolved around

The list of speakers consisted of the following: (Read More) 

Més Que Un Club!

1,2,3,4,5 - 0 !!!! 

that's how people should remember yesterday's El Clasico !! the famous clash of the titans of two of the best European soccer teams

The tension was at its highest between the fans before the start of the game, with the usual teasing and taunting pre-game and in the first minutes of kick-off... the fans in club shirts, caps and even BlacBerry Messenger profile pics, including me and @LaSahely,,, everything was set for an action packed game with everyone preparing the taunts, the replies, the "gooooooooooolll" broadcast messages and tweeeets!!  

Kick-off, teams testing each other out, and BAMMMM, then KAPPOOOWWW, the first two goals in barely 20 mins into the game and the Blancos' spirit was broken, their play began to fumble down the drain unfortunately, only to be replaced with a 70-30 possession split in favor of the Blaugrana !! 

One would wonder about such a crushing victory against Mourinho, one of the most prominent coaches these days, and his results with Real Madrid, adjusting their playing style to their old beautiful flair, barely though... 

Well i believe the issue was not Mourinho's formation, tactics or instructions to his players which betrayed him and the team,, but it was the players themselves... running a comparison with the Barca play yest, one would notice a team playing as One-For-All, like a build-up of 20 passes before the 2nd Barca goal, against a team playing as 3 teams in one, with the defense trying to just hold their ground and push the ball away, the midfield desperately looking for the attackers and missing the passes, and the attackers passing when their teammates least expect it?! i think the Real Madrid players betrayed themselves with not being in-sync, with not taking things slower, building up their movement through the pitch..

I have enjoyed and quite agreed on the 10 points why we Barca fans should've feared Mourinho, byt my good friend @figo29 on his blog,


http://figo29.com/2010/11/22/i-fear-mourinho/


well i guess tonight my friend figo, we showed them !! Ronaldo still ddnt score against Barca in a Real Madrid jersey, we did not treat them like an Almeria team (they made it easy), Messi was flamboyant against Mourinho's containment measures, we did not need our substitution bench (albeit Bojan almost scored twice), Puyol was Ronaldo's "Sisyphus Boulder", Villa scored twiiice (but ddnt play tht well though)....

The game's golden moments would definitely be the renowned tiqui-taca passing of Barca, the Ronaldo shove to Pep Guardiola, the fighting spirit of the Barca players, the disorientation in the Real Madrid players, the Sergio Ramos red card and the silent Mourinho...

i would like to congratulate Barccaaaaaaaaa :D and hard luck for Real Madrid, but the crushing win left aside, the season is not over yet, this is the first time Barca tops the standings, and we have always witnessed the relentless fight of Mourinho and the Real Madrid team's surprises throughout the league.. 

The coming games are tough for Real Madrid...

Until the next El Clasico in May (with Mourinho having never lost a home game since 2003 with any team he coached), godspeed for both teams!

@Alexi13

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A Slice of Heaven

This year i spent the Eid break in the UAE, in Dubai more specifically. I had the company of close family visiting and was responsible for activities :D 


For the first time i was able to enjoy all the various good restaurants in Dubai, the good fun to be had with family and all.


The biggest surprise for us all was our visit to Jumeirah's Bab el Shams Resort and Spa !!! 


We planned to arrive there before sunset to watch it from their very very cosy Al-Sarab cafe! it is built like an old fort top with a gorgeous outdoor chimney! the couches and arabic majlis seating are very comfy, the service impeccable and the weather a blissful collection of breezes! 


Unfortunately we left a tad late for the 45 mins drive from the hotel, but we were still treated to majestic sand dunes sun kissed by the sunset through the drive.. The magic kept on goin till we reached and sat in the cafe, with the gorgeous sky colored by a palette of orange, yellow, purple and dark blues !! The sight is truly to die for!! 

Trusty Nikon D5000

The Resort is exquisite with its architecture, reminiscent of the Bedouin times, with a simplistic modern twist, the pictures speak for themselves !! The resort's serene feel is just accentuated by its isolated position in the middle of sand dunes, away from all the busy feel and state of bustling Dubai !! 

Next stop, is a short 3 mins buggy ride outside the main resort building deep into the sand dunes into the Hadheera (The Barn)
The place is basically a reconstruction of a an old times barn. It is used as a great place for a good night time!!!  the menu for entertainment consists of an arabic singer at first (not bad), a Tannoura dancer with his face painted in green (guess its a morrocan thingy), well he was a star with his performance and interaction with the crowd, moving around the place and dancing for almost every table! The dabkeh band was a hit as well, and there is an oriental dancer, but we missed it since the kids were too tired to stay up, but according to the pics we saw of her, she haawwttt!!! 


The place is well designed, with very nice seating, allowing you to see the stage wherever you are, i advise sittin on the sides with the nice couches and majlis areas instead of the classic chairs before the main stage.


The place has a buffet system, but a veryyyy well organised one, with food station scattered around instead of a single line of food... there are almost no cues to get your food, and the waiters can even serve you a collection of the available num num !!!  the meat and chicken kababs are yummmyyy and so are the freshly boiled crabs and steaks!! 


There is also a heritage village within the location, where you have a rebuilt village type of setting, with wax figurines depicting the lifestyle of bedouins from their homes to their habits and professions of carpentry, fishing and barbers... moreover you have the typical camel rides, pony rides, horse rides and falcon posing!!! 


The place is a must see and a great weekend getaway if you are living in Dubai !!! 


@Alexi13


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