Tag Archives | usa

Raising Cane’s Now Open at The Spot Choueifat

By Rami on January 5, 2018 in Reviews

I’m lately becoming a less fan of fried food but the minute I saw Raising Cane’s open at The Spot Choueifat last week I felt curious to try their chicken finger after hearing about it from a friend living in the US.

For those who are not familiar with the name, it is a fast growing restaurant chain in USA serving one single item, chicken fingers. Their menu is quite minimalist with only 3 meal options, 1 sandwich, and a kids combo.

I ordered their most popular options which is the Box Combo (13,250L.L) with the purpose of comparing it to KFC, and despite the limited offering, it didn’t really take a lot to notice how much better Raising Cane’s is.

I don’t really need to go all poetic about how tasty the chicken fingers are, but they’re really GOOD! Freshly fried, tender, juicy, and best of all they’re not oily so your fingers won’t feel sticky when you’re done. The cane’s sauce that comes along is pretty good as well, just make sure to order an additional sauce on the side because you will definitely be double dipping. I know I did.

As for the sides, the fries are just average but the texas toast is tremendous! Bread lovers will surely appreciate it. It is grilled after being lightly brushed with garlic butter, so beware if you’re allergic to garlic.

All in all, Raising Cane’s is definitely recommended if you’re into that kind of fast food. And with two more branches soon opening in Hamra and Zahle (as I was informed by their staff), KFC better be prepared for some good competition in the coming months.

Follow Fadi Bou Karam As He Visits All The Lebanons in USA

By Rami on October 25, 2016 in Travel

Fadi Bou Karam is a Lebanese photographer who’s currently in the US on an unusual yet cool quest to visit all the towns and cities called Lebanon there.

The number of cities he’s planning to visit are 43 and it will take him around 5 months to go over all of them. His starting point was Seattle where he rented a used caravan in order to save on hotel costs, and the closest Lebanon town to him right now is 1 week away in North Dakota. This massive road trip he’s doing should end in San Francisco around March 2017.

You can follow his news and the photos/videos he will be sharing on the blog he set up LebanonUSA.com.

His first post included a cool find from the 1950s about the late president Camille Chamoun who invited the mayors of 7 American towns called Lebanon in order to introduce them to the “real” Lebanon. Back then they spent two weeks touring the country and each one was given a small cedar tree as a souvenir on their way back to the US.

Wishing Fadi Bou Karam good luck in this fun quest! It’s hard not to envy people who go on such long trips by the way as I always dream of doing something similar in the far east!

via @ritakml

Short documentary of 1983 Beirut marine barracks bombing

By Rami on October 23, 2013 in Lebanon

On a day like this 30 years ago, a suicide bomber in a hijacked truck managed to bypass the barriers around the barracks and smashed right into the lobby of the main building before detonating his explosives.

The explosion was so big that it collapsed the building into rubble and killed 305 servicemen.

The video above is a short documentary told by two marine veterans who were serving in Beirut at that time, with footage and photos of the bombing.

Check out this Fattouch!

By Rami on May 24, 2013 in Funny

via reddit

Connecting Lebanon to Cyprus with a bridge

By Rami on May 14, 2013 in Lebanon

Lebanon Cyprus

Beirut Night Life posted about an American company who’s currently proposing a 150Km bridge connecting Dbayeh to Limassol to allow reaching Cyprus from Lebanon (or vice versa) within 80minutes. Using this bridge will be subject to paying a certain fee, and it will be owned by the American company for the 10 years.

Can you imagine how many things can go wrong if this projects gets approved?

No matter how this highway will be designed, Lebanese drivers will always manage to find a way to make a u-turn on it.
Some people will drive for like 20 minutes then park on the side, set their arguileh, and start grilling some meat, because you know, picnic by the sea!
Others will just use it to jump into the sea, because its sides appear to be higher than the sidewalk in Ain El Mraiseh.
After the 10 years pass by, the Lebanese side of the highway will always have potholes.
Zouzou Ebba and the gang will never know where this highway leads to, since they will just use the first few hundred meters of it for racing, then make a u-turn and go back to Dbayeh.
Shall I go on??

Dracula loves the Lebanese

By Rami on March 10, 2013 in Lebanon

GEICO by the way is a US auto insurance company known for its advertisements stressing how it takes a 15 minutes call to save 15% on car insurance using different characters.

via reddit

Lebanese bloggers reinvent the world

By Rami on February 27, 2013 in Lebanon

Nicolas Sehnaoui

The ministry of telecommunication is holding a competition called “Lebanese bloggers reinvent the world” and offering the winner a trip to Silicon Valley with minister Nicolas Sehnaoui.

All you have to do is submit a blog post about one creative invention that you think might change the world, to be assessed by a jury of prominent Lebanese in Silicon Valley working in the ICT sector.

The digital era is revolutionizing our societies.

As Lebanese, we are uniquely equipped with the creativity needed to succeed and shine brighter than any other country on the Digital Sphere. So let’s embrace the digital revolution and reinvent the World!

Whether it’s a flying car, a humanoid Nano-Robot that manipulates our DNA or an environmental country sized biosphere that reduces pollution we all have that one crazy creative invention that might change humanity.

Compose and submit a blog post about this topic under the main title “Lebanese Bloggers Reinvent the World”, accompanied with a subtitle reflecting your own Invention.

Blog posts will be judged by a jury of prominent Lebanese in the Silicon Valley working in the ICT sector based on the writing style and the creativity of the Invention.

The winner will get the chance to visit the Silicon Valley with Minister Sehnaoui end of March.

If you have some creative idea, make sure to write about it and submit it as soon as possible to the competition website www.reinventingtheworld.net, since the competition ends in a couple of days from now on March 1st, and results will be announced on March 6th.

Maura Connelly’s bodyguards harass two women in Hamra

By Rami on February 18, 2013 in Lebanon

Maura Connelly

Is the U.S. ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly now determined on creating a mess every time she goes out on weekends?

First her convoy drove over some ancient ruins in Tyre and damaged a stone wall two weeks ago, and just yesterday, her bodyguards harassed Lebanese actress Yara Abou Haidar and one of her Egyptian friends at Dar Bistro in Hamra where Connelly was having a coffee. You can read all about the incident in this article by Al-Akhbar.

via @AbirGhattas

Direct flights to resume between Lebanon and the US?

By Rami on October 19, 2012 in Lebanon

According to this article from Al-Akhbar, Mohamad El-Hout (The CEO of MEA) is now working to convince the American authorities to remove the ban on MEA that was imposed in 1985 following the hijacking of a TWA plane at Beirut airport.

Aridi and Hout requested the resumption of air transport relations between Lebanon and the United States. One expert familiar with the issue said, “Hout went seeking US recognition of Beirut Airport’s ability, and the adequacy of its safety standards, to receive American airplanes and fly MEA planes to the United States.”

There has been an American ban on MEA since the hijacking of a TWA American passenger plane at Beirut Airport in 1985. Following this incident, the airport was put on the US terror list. MEA flights were banned from US airports and American airliners no longer flew to the airport in Lebanon.

The expert revealed that Hout took detailed files on MEA and Beirut airport to the DoT in America, including information on public safety standards at the airport, the technology used in this regard, as well as current capabilities and other related information. The DoT officials were satisfied with the information Aridi and Hout provided about the Lebanese carrier and the airport.

Telling by the actions Hout is taking, I wouldn’t be surprised if flights really resume some time in the near future. Given of course that politics will have nothing to do with the matter…

Meet Simon Baz, the first Lebanese-American superhero

By Rami on September 11, 2012 in Lebanon

Geoff Johns, a comic book writer of Lebanese roots, has recently created a new character called “Simon Baz” who’s a young Lebanese-American guy living in Dearborn, Detroit (the area where a lot of Lebanese immigrants to the US live in) who once became a car thief after losing his job because of the financial crisis but ends up stealing the wrong car. Then, and out of nowhere, he is unexpectedly called to join the universe’s galactic police force known as the Green Lantern Corps, and he eventually converts from being a criminal into a crime fighter.

You can read more about Simon Baz and how was he created here and here. And notice the Arabic tattoo on his right arm meaning “courage”.

1 2 Next →