House of Mirrors

On a hot afternoon back in the middle of June I was fortunate enough to go on a tour to the House of Mirrors here in Kuwait.


(50 degrees Celsius (122F) outside at 5:29pm...)

Calling it the House of Mirrors is certainly no joke - the ENTIRE house is covered in mosaics made of pieces of mirror:


(House of Mirrors - front view and main entrance)


(House of Mirrors - front view. An 'Art Museum' it certainly is!)


(House of Mirrors - the main entrance)

Now, before you think this is part of an amusement park or some art project, let me just say that this is a private home (!) and the lady who transformed it from a typical Kuwaiti house to this House of Mirrors still lives there. Her name is Lidia Al Qattan - an Italian lady who has lived in Kuwait for decades and is the widow of the famous (at least within Kuwait) Khalifa Al Qattan. He was a pioneer artist and in the 1960s he created the school of circulism.

What mostly attracts people, though, is the chance to have a look inside this spectacular house:


(Wall decorations in the sitting room - note that the mirrors form not only animals but also Arabic writing)

Lidia Al Qattan didn't limit herself to a few wall decorations - in fact there seems to be no limits whatsoever to what she decorated with mirrors - including the ceiling and the fan:


(Mirror decorations on the walls and ceiling - and the fan - in the sitting room)

In between the many pieces of mirror there has been made space for some of the art work that the couple has produced over the years - including this portrait of Lidia by her husband...


(Lidia Al Qattan by Khalifa Al Qattan - framed by mosaics of mirror)


(A door in the sitting room - covered in mirrors)

Lidia got the idea of decorating her house with mosaics of mirror while her husband was away for an art exhibition - apparently she started with a piece of furniture and when her husband came back and said that he liked how it looked covered in pieces of mirror, she continued over the years until most of the house and furniture was covered...

Kitchen is pretty much covered as well (I guess she is saving the fridge project for a rainy day :)):


(Kitchen covered in mirrors)


(Kitchen covered in mirrors - fish, crabs, apples, grapes - nothing that cannot be made in mirror mosaic!)

Another view of the sitting area - with its leopard printed sofas where she invites her guests to sit and hear the life story of her and her husband, their art and not least the house while extending traditional Kuwaiti hospitality in the form of cake and drinks:


(Sitting room)

Like I said - there are no limits. Electrical socket? No problem!


(Mosaic on the electrical socket - and a fish mosaic, sitting room)

Most of the rooms have a theme - and this room is the Zodiac Hall with planets, galaxies, stars - she has put those little rubber stars that glow in the dark on the ceiling and her art work (the two round shapes in the picture) glow as well! Quite an experience. It is Lidia Al Qattan in the picture:


(Lidia Al Qattan explaining the room and about to hit the light switch leaving us all under the stars)

A few more examples of the extent of her project:


(Door phone covered in mosaic)

Even the bathroom was not spared (and let me again remind you that this is her private home!) - you better like the look of yourself in the morning if you do a bathroom like this!


(Tissue box in the bathroom)


(The shower, bathroom)


(The toilet itself, bathroom)

After everyone had taken turns to squeeze into the bathroom (wouldn't want to miss that!) she showed us more of her dedicated rooms - a lot of them focusing on the universe, galaxies etc. but still mixed with animal motifs and inscriptions from the Qur'an.


(View of the ceiling)


(A decorated cabinet standing on a decorated floor...)


(Patterns, circles, birds, Qur'an inscriptions, planets - and they are all connected in her mind and her thoughts behind the room)


(Bird mosaic - and one of those glow-in-the-dark stars)

Lidia doesn't just show you around her house - she tries to take you on a journey. All the rooms have meditative music, many of them incorporate some "show in the dark", glowing stars, glowing art, colored light...


(Colored light reflecting in the mosaics during one of the journeys...)


(Lots of colored light to add another dimension to the mosaic)


(A light switch and some more bird mosaic)

Here's a view of the sitting room I showed before - taken from the hall. The neon lights - and of course the fact that the walls have been painted blue - give the whole place the bluish shine.


(Sitting room)

Her library is decorated as well:


(Library)

If you look closely, the edges of the book shelves are covered in mirror mosaic and she certainly skipped no corners: behind the books there is mosaic as well!


(Mirror covered book shelves along with family pictures)


(From the courtyard)


(The courtyard and house facade with Arabic inscriptions and more animals)


(From the courtyard - it's about life-size)


(Front door)

Part of the tour also included a look into the first floor galleries - where her and her husband's art is on display. This room is dedicated to Khalifa Al Qattan (and therefore not covered in mirrors) and his accomplishments:


(Khalifa Al Qattan's room - with portraits, medals, photographs of him shaking royal hands)


(Khalifa and Lidia Al Qattan)

Some of Khalifa Al Qattan's art work on display:


(By Khalifa Al Qattan)


(By Khalifa Al Qattan)


(By Khalifa Al Qattan)

I'm not sure which one of them did these ones incorporating traditional Arabic objects but I believe it was her:



Much of Lidia Al Qattan's art work is also on display (and for sale):


(By Lidia Al Qattan)


(By Lidia Al Qattan)


(By Lidia Al Qattan)

Fancy a somewhat different candle holder?


(By Lidia Al Qattan)

It comes in a large version as well:


(By Lidia Al Qattan - oversized candle holder sculpture...)

As another part of the 'journey through her house' Lidia has built this room that also glows in the dark. It is really something else - spacey! The walls are made of a decorated fabric that velcro will stick to (I guess that explains why the flying skateboards stay on). Visitors are encouraged to throw the velcro-backed decorated triangles seen below at the wall and try and make them stick...


(Another glow-in-the-dark room - the triangles to the left are the ones you can throw at the wall and make stick)


(Close-up of the skateboard/space ship/UFO thing)

And last but not least another relaxation room (you can almost hear the meditative music) full of lit-up art, colored glass and the works:


(Relaxation room)

I certainly cannot imagine living in a house like this day in and day out - but you have to respect her for going after her vision/dream and completing it. In Kuwait it is extremely rare to let strangers into your house so the fact alone that she invites people in to see it is commendable (and probably only permissible since her husband has passed away). I truly appreciated the opportunity to meet Lidia and to see her house and am very grateful for her hospitality - but boy what a surreal place!!

Eating in Qatar

What better way to understand a country than through its food and most traditional dishes? K and I took full advantage of the food scene in Qatar and we found a few types of restaurants that we haven't seen in Kuwait - an Iraqi restaurant for example (obviously not very welcome in Kuwait after the invasion) and a Malaysian one.

We headed straight away for the Al Tawash, however, to try some typical Qatari food (which is actually in many ways similar to the food of the rest of the Gulf region as well). It's inside the Souq Waqif that I described in my previous post (The New Old Souq Waqif):


(Al Tawash restaurant, Souq Waqif, Doha)

As in most of the restaurants here, the Lebanese kitchen has had an overwhelming influence - and even in a restaurant serving traditional Qatari food, the starters are still Lebanese (which is really delicious, by the way):


(Lebanese starters, hummus, labneh with mint, tabouleh, freshly baked bread and lemon juice with mint)

We were actually so hungry that I forgot to take a photo of our main courses - the Qatari ones - that were the reason for coming here. I only remembered when we were almost done (hence the half-empty plate) but here is a really traditional one that I seldom see on the menu in Kuwait although I believe it's a traditional dish there as well. It is called harees and consists of wheat and meat cooked slowly for up to 8 hours. I know it doesn't look particularly appetizing but it is actually really delicious:


(An almost finished plate of harees)

Feeling brave and slightly more knowledgeable about the local cuisine we decided to try this little place the evening after. The man who greeted us seemed a bit surprised and tried to 'warn' us that this was 'Arabic food'. We said that we knew and that was exactly what we wanted - and since we had seen so many locals eating there over the past days, we figured it must be good. There was no menu and the owner of the small place asked us to come inside to look into the pots and trays to see what he had to offer because he did not know how to describe it in English. We picked a few to share and had them served to us outside where we sat on traditional sofas and watched the children play in the street and locals walk by with their shopping:


(Dinner at a small local place in Souq Waqif on a warm evening)

This is the 'restaurant' itself, no seats inside but one more row of sofas outside filled with local women that I could not photograph:


(Local restaurant, Souq Waqif)

The food was really good - like a comforting home cooked meal. When we had passed the place the evening before we saw the old wife of the owner serve food for the local women. She was wearing the type of metal niqab that is traditional in some parts of the region (including Dubai) but I had never actually seen anyone wear it nowadays. Of course I could not take a picture of her but this is the thing I am talking about:


(The type of metal face cover worn by women in past generations)

As K was working I ate quite a few meals on my own. Inside the Souq Waqif there was a small bakery that made traditional Iranian bread and through the window you could see the men working inside, taking lumps of dough, flattening it out and placing them on the sides of an oven with a live fire inside. They had a small menu in English glued to their window and I decided to try a freshly-baked bread with thyme (for a bargain 3 Qatari Riyal - $.24 / €.67 / Kr. 5 / KD .240).

When they saw me standing at the window looking at the menu one of the bakers opened the side door (pic below) to ask what I wanted. I ordered the bread, gave him the 3 Riyal and he told me in half Arabic half English to wait 5 minutes. About halfway in, he gave me a subtle nod through the window as if to signal that he was working on it. Then he opened the door and handed me the steaming hot bread wrapped in a folded paper plate and put in a small plastic bag. It was delicious!


(The small bakery in Souq Waqif - taken right before the sand/thunderstorm I wrote about, which explains the color of the sky)


(The small bakery in Souq Waqif - customers place their orders through a small window)

On a different day I had lunch in one of the small covered alleyways of the souq. The smell of grilled meat was great and after walking for a long time in the sun it was nice to sit in the relative cool of the covered alleyway. There was a simple menu on the table - everything was really cheap and very basic (and tasted really good). If you wanted a grilled tomato with your meat that was 1 Riyal. If you wanted a grilled onion that was 1 Riyal and if you wanted a big plate of local rocket salad that was 1 Riyal (usually condiments come with the dishes - but then the dish is of course more expensive and you don't necessarily want your grilled tomato and onion):


(Lunch place at the souq in a covered alleyway)

And lunch is served:


(Grilled meat, kebab, rocket salad and freshly baked bread - a perfect cheap lunch)

Although Qatar has expensive restaurants as well, it seems that it is generally speaking easier to find a decent cheap meal here than it is in Kuwait - but that said none of the countries in this region are cheap.

Another highlight was this Persian restaurant - the food was very good but the interior got a lot of our attention. The place had traditional seating:


(Traditional seating, Persian restaurant, Souq Waqif)

...And the place was FULL of glitter, colored glass and small mirrors - even the ceiling was covered in it:


(The ceiling of the Persian restaurant all covered in glitter and mirrors)


(A huge samovar in the middle of the restaurant on top of a small water fountain)


(Glitter, colored glass and mirrors - the upper section of the restaurant where a lot of women were seated away from the potential stares of men in the downstairs section)

And it gets better - here is their VIP room:


(Glitter, colored glass and mirrors - in the VIP room of the restaurant)


(Glitter, colored glass and mirrors - in the long entrance leading back out into the non-glittery souq)

And the food that we almost forgot although it was really delicious and with quite different herbs and spices from what we are used to in the region:


(Delicious Persian food)

Speaking of food - this tiny cat was just one of many living in the streets but whenever we walked by it it would follow us (so much so that we had to make detours and try to fool it into not following us to the hotel). One day we had bought a small tin of cat food for it, which it seemed to enjoy (the tin is smaller than a normal can of tuna - the cat is really tiny).


(Hungry street cat enjoying some roasted chicken cat food)

Less related to food it was nice to see that the Qatari authorities are trying to stop littering by imposing fines - as this lit up poster made clear:


(Keeping Qatar clean by imposing fines on littering)

Last picture from Qatar - the Qatari National Bank lit up at night:


(Qatari National Bank at night)