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| First rice pudding store opens in Kuwait |
| | Tue, 03 Apr 2012 |
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KUWAIT: "Rice pudding has been around for a long time, especially in Europe but I was inspired when I visited New York and found a store exclusively selling rice pudding," said Abdullah S, Kuwaiti proprietor of the first store dedicated to selling rice pudding in Kuwait.
Passionate about cooking in general, Abdullah immediately started toying with the idea of opening a similar shop in Kuwait as well. "I mean, why not?! Asians are more familiar with rice than the Americans and it seemed like a much needed concept here."
It soon became an obsession for the young entrepreneur and after spending two months holed up in the kitchen; Abdullah opened 'Rice Pudding Factory' just a few weeks ago.
Located at the Al Nuzha supermarket branch, block 3, next to Starbucks, the Rice Pudding Factory offers five cold and two hot flavors in various sizes with different toppings. "There is White Original, which is like vanilla, Raspberry Cheesecake, Cookies & Cream, Tiramisu, and Cacao which need to be eaten cold. While there is Caramel Praline and Chocotula which is eaten hot," explains Abdullah who conceptualized everything about the store from scratch.
The basic ingredients in rice pudding of course are rice and milk but like an ice cream or frozen yoghurt store, Rice Pudding Factory also offers recommended toppings and syrups for each flavor. "For instance, we would suggest having the Raspberry Cheesecake with toppings such as biscuit crumble, rock jam or raspberry and caramel syrup, and white chocolate sauce as it will give you a similar experience as biting into a cheesecake. Likewise, the White Original will taste best with toppings of mixed fruits, oatmeal coconut crumble and buttery pound cake and caramel sauce," says Abdullah, who insists he did a lot of research before coming up with all these options. And some of them are signature toppings. It isn't everyday you would come by topping flavors such as Cloud, Granola or Cotton Bites, to name a few. And in addition, one can mix flavors to get a different effect. "Like a mixture of vanilla and chocolate will give you a 'Kinder' taste or tiramisu and cacao will generate a 'mocha' sort of flavor," shares Abdullah, adding that White Original, Raspberry and Chocotula are the fast selling flavors as of now.
Two chefs prepare Abdullah's recipes, while his mind works overtime and especially these days, as he intends to introduce new flavors for the month of Ramadan. "We just opened this store, so I don't want to introduce new flavors just yet. Let people get used to these and hopefully they will like what we have to offer soon. The new ones will contain more Arabic ingredients but cooked in American way with possibly additions of rosewater, cardamom, and some other exclusive Arabic toppings which are not yet finalized."
The sizes of the cups have been centered on the Rice Pudding Factory's tagline, "It's what happiness tastes like" and have been named 'joy' which is the small size, 'charm' for the medium, 'delight' for the large and 'Happy Box' consists of six 'joy' sizes. Starting at KD 1.450, the joy size offers two toppings and with the bigger size and extra toppings, the rates increase. "We have kept all our containers in the form of flat boxes so that the toppings can be savored right until the very end, instead of just eating it all up initially with nothing reaching the bottom. All the flavors are freshly cooked every day, so our customers can take it home and store it, if they like which in my opinion; rice pudding tastes better on the next day. My partner, my nephew, who usually mans the store and myself are usually around to explain all this to the customer which definitely generates a better experience for them as well," says Abdullah.
With grains of rice motifs running on the walls and counters, and the color blue highlighting the basic theme of the store, Abdullah hopes this new concept will catch on. "Blue has to do with the color of whole milk packet, and as for the store, it's going to take time I am sure because it is a new experience for the people of Kuwait. But rice pudding being a comfort and feel good food, so far we have already had a number of repeated customers. And we are excited at the idea of offering something new to this State. There are new concept restaurants and sweet shops opening every other day around here, but most of it don't offer too much variation. And though franchises are undoubtedly less risky, it feels good to introduce something unique," concludes Abdullah.
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