Traditional Omani food

A good friend of mine gave me a very good suggestion to write about traditional Omani food. In another article, I started writing about traditional Omani food served at weddings and engagements. Now I will talk about the traditional Omani food that is served daily at meals and religious holidays, such as Eid, Ramadan, funerals and other important events.

But for starters I will start with an intro about some information that you will find and what you will not find in the menu of restaurants in Oman. The food in Oman is delicious and what leaves your mouth watering after you taste it. You can't stop it after you taste it, meat or rice flavored with different spices. The cuisine is a mixture of dishes from different regions such as India, Europe and America etc. However, unfortunately, alcohol and pork are banned in Islam. Alcohol and pork are not sold in shops and hotels. However, some hotel restaurants have bars for foreigners.

Oman is a wonderful vacation spot. The delicious and improving food, the warm and hospitable nature of the people invented with a lot of activities, events and festivals make this place a tourist magnet and ensure that tourists return with pleasant memories of this country.

Oman hosts wonderful landscapes, beautiful beaches, dazzling deserts and wonderful waterfalls. Oman is truly a charming country, and the food here is fantastic.

Who doesn't like to taste a delicious and beautifully prepared cuisine? Oman hosts some of the most delicious dishes in the world. The main ingredients used in the main dishes are rice and fish, rice with chicken or beef, marinated with exclusive spices, such as Qabuli with lamb or Biryani lamb, Djaj Foug El-Eish.

Similarly, succulent dishes consist of homos chicken and some vegetables, muscat-style maqboos, battena-style chicken kabuli and chicken arsiya.

I would like to talk about traditional Omani cuisine. Omani cuisine is influenced by Arabic, Iranian, Indian, Asian, Eastern Mediterranean and African cuisine, which reflects Oman's position as a vast trading empire at the intersection of traditional spice trade routes.

The dishes are often based on chicken, fish and lamb, as well as rice. Most Omani dishes tend to contain a rich mix of spices, herbs and marinades.

Omani people are well known for their hospitality and soft drinks. If you are invited to someone's house it will mean qahwa coffee, a strong, bitter drink, flavored with cardomon and dates or halwa, a sticky sweet gelatinous substance, which is made with brown sugar, eggs, honey and spices. It can be flavored with many different ingredients, such as nuts, rose water or even chocolate. Without it in the homes of locals, special events and religious holidays, weddings, engagements and funerals, is not missing.

Where will you go in Oman? Will you find Kahwa? It is the perfect representation of the famous Omani hospitality, with a full course that reflects the exceptional, warm and welcoming essence of the Omani heritage.

The kahwa offering is almost ritualistic and represents a direct representation of the warm and welcoming nature of the locals in Oman.

In addition to kahwa, Lokhemat is served, another ingredient for coffee, which are balls of flour and yeast flavored with cardamom and fried to gold, then served with cardamom syrup. The sweetness of this dish often counteracts the bitterness of kahwa.

 Kahwa is served with the right hand and is offered to the oldest to the youngest member. If they are guests then the first one is offered to the guest and then it is served to the owner of the house. Kahwa is an Oman coffee mixed with cardamom powder, often served as a symbol of hospitality. It is often served with dates and human halwa. The cups are normally only half full, and it is customary to drink three cups. Arabic coffee has a prominent place in traditional Arab holidays and special events such as Ramadan and Eid.

After serving Qahwa, switch to the actual food, depending on the food served at the table. Here I will write about the famous dishes that are usually served at lunch, the Eid holidays after Ramada and special events.

More substantial food often has rice as the main ingredient, along with cooked meat. The main daily meal is usually eaten at lunch, while dinner is lighter.

The most common dishes served at lunch are Kabsa and Makboos, it is a traditional dish of mixed rice, originating in Saudi Arabia. It is famous in the Arab world, especially in the Gulf countries, including Oman.

The food contains rice, basmati, vegetables, meat or chicken and a mixture of spices. It is sometimes served with yogurt or lettuce, traditional bread and tomato sauce. Maqbous is a kind of rice, colored yellow with saffron and cooked fish a spicy red or white meat.

Another dish is served in the house of the locals is Mashuai is a tasty fish dish. It is grilled kingfish with a special salted lemon sauce. Served with a portion of lemon rice, this dish is particularly delicious and should not be missed visit to the country. Rukhal bread is a thin, round, initially fire-baked bread made from palm leaves. It is eaten at any meal, usually served with Omani honey for breakfast or crushed over curry for dinner.

There are all kinds of bread in Oman. One of them is thick and has a large circular shape. But most often it is made and eaten with all kinds of curry is a thin bread and has the size of a small circular plate. Most locals make their own bread at home and obviously there are bakeries also popular in restaurants to be served with meals.

Another traditional Omani dish is Harees which is usually cooked for special occasions. It is what I call a simple food covered behind a facade for the simplicity of its appearance; tastes live, which will give a new dimension of understanding to the taste buds. It is easy to prepare and much tastier, given the simple ingredients needed to prepare it. It is made from wheat mixed with meat and is usually served with special sauce.

Harees are a favorite dish in the Middle East, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. The preparation and choice of ingredients differs from each Arab country. Harees is a combination of boiled, cracked or coarsely ground wheat, soaked in water, combined with clarified meat butter and mutton fat, which is left overnight. It looks more like porridge when served on a plate. It is seasoned with Arabic spices and when served cinnamon and sugar is introduced to give a refined taste and fragrance.

Sakhana is a thick soup made from wheat, dates, molasses and milk, usually eaten during Ramadan.

During Ramadan, you can taste human food at the best level. Foods such as shuwa, arsia (rice lamb) and mishkak (similar to kebabs) are served mainly during the Eid holidays. Shuwa is elaborately prepared by seasoning a large piece of meat (often lamb) and wrapping it in banana leaves, sacking and then burying it in a pit above the red coals. The meat is left to cook slowly for a few days in the embers and, when unpacked, it is tender and juicy.

Arsiya is a festival meal, served during the holidays, consisting of spicy rice puree with spices. And on the first day of Eid, Arsiya (lamb with rice) is eaten, also called "mudhroub rice", arsiya is a chicken and rice paste that is eaten with fruit sauce. It tends to appear during Eid and at celebrations such as weddings. The following recipe comes from East Omani from Omer Al Aamri. Arsiya is best eaten hot. It can be reheated in a microwave, but must be consumed on the day it is cooked.

In fact, on the first day of Eid, Arsiya is eaten, and in addition to arsiya, tea is drunk. Only arsiya is eaten that day. The owners of the house buy goats, sheep or camels to prepare for the 2 days of Eid.

Meshkak also known as kebab. Meshkak is ground beef, mutton or chicken that is grilled on sticks. It is usually marinated with various spices, in especial curry, and served with human bread. This is another special dish of Omani food, which is prepared all over the country, especially on the day after Eid and other special events.

Shuwaa is served on the third day of Eid by the whole family and in other special events. Shuwaa is a food that is served only on festive occasions. To this dish put pieces of goat, sheep, cow or camel marinated in a spicy paste of dates and fried in a special oven, which is a pit dug in the ground. This is usually a communal activity of an entire village. The meat is flavored with a variety of spices, then wrapped in bags of dried leaves, which are in turn placed in the oven. Another dish that is eaten on the streets of the Middle East and around the world is Shawarmele. This tasty sandwich consists of meat with spices, wrapped in pita bread. Often eaten with french fries or garlic, shwarms are freshly prepared in the street stalls of Oman and are eaten hot.

The traditional Omani cuisine is quite simple, but by using different marinades and impregnating the meat with spices, the result is a delicious preparation that stimulates the taste. Chicken, fish and mutton are regularly used in dishes. A favorite drink is laban, a salted milk. Yogurt, cardamom and pistachio flavorings are also very popular. Although spices, herbs, onions, garlic and lime are generally used in traditional Omani cuisine, unlike similar Asian food, it is not hot. Omani cuisine is also distinct from the indigenous foods of other Gulf states and varies even in different regions of the Sultanate. The differences between some dishes prepared in Salalah, in the south, and those prepared in Muscat, in the north, are so commercial that it is difficult to find anything in common between them. However, a pleasure that remains a symbol of Omani hospitality throughout the country are the ubiquitous dates, served with Khawa or Omani coffee. Special dishes are prepared for festive occasions. The Islamic world celebrates two main religious holidays - Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha.

Eid Al Fitr is celebrated after the Holy Moon of Ramadan, when the Omani people complete their obligatory fast for 30 days. Eid Al Adha is celebrated at the end of the Haj, or pilgrimage, to Mecca, commemorating the sacrifice of Abraham. Dishes prepared during Ramadan are rarely cooked on other occasions. Food cooked on important occasions, such as Eid, is of an infinite variety. Humans across the country serve a variety of dishes. 

In Dhofar and Wusta, the festivities begin with mudhroub ruz, a dish made from cooked rice and served with fried fish and maqdeed, a special dried meat. In the Muscat, Al Batinah, Dahira and Sharqiya regions, muqalabul, a dish of tripe and jerky cooked with crushed or ground spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, peppers, ginger, garlic and nutmeg), dominates the menu.

If you ever come to visit Oman, you will not regret it at all, you will be sweetened with Omani food.