Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Staples & Specialities
Arabian
Breakfast
For most Arab people on the Peninsula, breakfast means eggs in some shape or form and
locally produced salty white cheese with a glass of buttermilk or
labneh
(thin yoghurt) and
tahini sweetened with date syrup. It might come with
fuul madamas
, a bean dish lubricated
with olive oil, garnished on high days and holidays with pickles and eased along with
olives. There may be lentils, heavily laced with garlic, to the chagrin of co-workers, and, of
course, bread.
Known generically as
khobz
, bread (in up to 40 different varieties) is eaten in copious
quantities with every meal. Most often it's unleavened and comes in flat discs about the
size of a dinner plate (not unlike an Indian chapatti). It's traditionally torn into pieces, in
lieu of knives and forks, and used to pinch up a morsel of meat, a scoop of dip and a nip of
garnish.
Books: Arabian Recipes
The Arab Table: Recipes & Culinary Traditions (May Bsisu)
Medieval Arab Cookery (Maxime Rodinson)
Lunch
Lunch means one word only, and that is rice. Rice is often flavoured with a few whole car-
damom pods (one of which always lurks beguilingly in the last mouthful) and at feasts with
saffron and sultanas. Buried in or sitting on top of the rice will be some kind of delicious
spiced stew, with okra or grilled and seasoned chicken, lamb, goat or even camel - but of
course never pork, which is haram (forbidden) for Muslims. Popular seasoning includes
some or even all of the following: cardamom, coriander, cumin, cinnamon, nutmeg, chilli,
ginger, pepper and the all-important, health-giving and almost flavourless turmeric. In Ye-
men no one can escape the bitter, livid green froth of fenugreek used to put a punch in a
minimal broth or bean dish.
Not surprisingly for a Peninsula with such a rich coastline, fish (fresh or dried) is an
equally important lunchtime staple. Hamour (a species of grouper), beya (mullet), kingfish,
