Many reluctant vegans are concerned with the scarcity of veg-friendly dining places in Kuwait. I believe that's just a matter of nuance as there's a plethora of places where we can feast to our hearts' (and tummies') content but they simply don't market themselves as vegetarian or vegan friendly, and what few places do are conveniently listed on the HappyCow website and app (a must have for the hungry wayward herbivore!) so I'll be dedicating a section of the blog for reviewing some of these places.
The first delectable endeavor is last night's dinner at Ginger, a cozy lil veg-friendly Thai place downtown in Al-Muthanna. Apart from a couple desserts, the menu here is almost completely vegan. And if you're here with a group of friends who couldn't possibly bear though a meatless meal for a night, fear not. You can still enjoy your thai food night together as there's another thai place just a few steps away that's equally appetizing, albeit not very veg-friendly, called AroyD. Anyway, let's get reviewin'.
My first time there on Eid Al-Fitr, there were only two groups of people that came by and last night we had it all to ourselves! It's a great place to go to for a quite, intimate evening. The atmosphere's peaceful and there's also a small library of books you'll find incredibly informative and indispensable additions to any collection on nutrition and thriving on a healthy diet for the body as well as the soul.
But I didn't come here to read. I came to nom and nom I did. Asked them to spice up everything and they sure as hell didn't disappoint. left with numb but happy taste buds.
For starters (not that I needed appetizing) I got me some rice paper spring rolls with a creamy peanut dip. They had your regular fried spring rolls as well but I never cared for them, really, and was curious to try rice paper! I'm always down with experimenting with "wrap duty" foods like nori, grape leaves and romaine and this was a wrap I can work with for dinner party goodness. The mix of veggies in there was carrots, cucumber, yellow bell pepper and celery. They were fairly mild-tasting, save the grassy celery taste, so the peanut sauce pretty much carried all the flavor.
Japanese-style salad with sweet 'n sour sesame dressing on the side. those are julienned carrots, bell pepper, cucumbers and apples (great touch! adds a nice tart sweetness and crunch), wakame and tofu on a bed of iceberg lettuce. the sesame sauce was so good I kept dipping my spring rolls in it.
Now this was my favorite thing on the menu. If I came here for one order it would be this ginger tom yum soup. and I usually hate soups, they're always too mild for my taste. This is FAR from mild. This soup eats other mild soups for breakfast. I'd venture a guess it has to do with the heaps of lemongrass stems and ginger slices in there but I'm not that familiar with thai soups. My brain insisted that the lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves were edible. Either way, it has a thin consistency but a burst of sour, spicy flavor (look out for the chili too if you order it spicy.) It was also full of diced tomatoes, button mushrooms and what may have been enoki mushrooms? I could be wrong. Downed that thing to the last cilantro garnish. tom yummm, indeed (you know I had to.)
Next was this Pat Kimo, spicy sour flat noodles with mixed veggies and mushrooms. Also my type of flavor. The noodles felt like lasagna noodles :D I may keep eating my lasagna this way instead of baking it.
As for the curry, it's your choice of either red or green curry paste. Last time I had red and it was to die for. I duplicated the recipe at home at least 10 times and shamelessly showed it off to the family. This green curry was no different. Still has this rich, creamy coconut base with potatoes, carrots, bell peppers, broccoli and mushrooms, but for some reason it came in a smaller plate while the red curry was in a large sharing pot. Since they're the same price I'm sticking to red! It's now my go-to comfort food.
Of course, DH had to go for the mix maki platter, the only non-vegan option of which was the tempura, and I dove in for the pickled ginger; this stuff is heroin for me.
(Edit: The tempura here turned out to be veggie tempura and not prawn! yay! Thanks to a fellow vegan customer who pointed it out)
(Edit: The tempura here turned out to be veggie tempura and not prawn! yay! Thanks to a fellow vegan customer who pointed it out)
The dessert menu was my only criticism of the place, as there were 3 items on the menu and only one of which was vegan (other two had ice cream scoops) so we opted instead for a pot of Japanese green tea and it was a pleasant end to the evening, working online and reading up on some food for thought, soul and tummy!
Even the check I found endearing as it was handwritten. It was a total of 16.250KD and have the food was left over. and I NEVER leave leftovers >:O it's like a family tradition to clean your plate, but spicy food tends to fill you up quick. I didn't even order rice with my curry like last time as it was way too filling and I left with a very mature food baby. Even named the kid. Nothing a nice long post-dinner walk around Kuwait City couldn't fix, though.
The place is easy to find but just in case, here are the directions taken from their main website and HappyCow:
+965-22495097
Eat, drink and be merry, my dear earthlings!
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