Yesterday was Friday, a weekend holiday in the middle east. I thought of having my dinner at a restaurant. I went to the Mansour Mall in Baghdad, Iraq in the evening thinking of what to have in the dinner. Undecided, I walked into a Lebanese restaurant, named Ahwak — an Arabic word, which means I love you. It’s a nice restaurant. While going through the … Continue reading Traboulsiye | A Lebanese Fish Dish
Recently, I attended an Iftar party at a luxury hotel in Baghdad. After I finished the food, I found a nice, sweet dessert there, called Om Ali — a simple concoction: bread and pastry are combined with raisins, pistachios, coconut and almonds, then drenched in sweetened milk. It’s not the story of a royal chef preparing an innovative dish at the behest of a discerning king, but of a murder and a rather cruel one! Continue reading Umm Ali | Dessert Born in Blood
Dolma is a family of stuffed vegetable dishes common in the Mediterranean cuisine. It slowly made a delicious journey from the shores of the Mediterranean Sea to the shores of the Bay of Bengal, where it got the exotic transformation. Continue reading Dolma | From Mediterranean to Bengal
Roasting small chunks of meat is a process dating back to antiquity. Evidence of hominin use of fire and cooking in the Middle East dates back as far as 790,000 years. In the end, it doesn’t really matter who invented kebab. What matters is that fire has touched meat, that the meat is good, and the company is even better. Continue reading Kebab is delicious | Who cares who invented it?
Basbousa is a traditional Middle Eastern sweet: spongy, semi-soft semolina cake garnished with almonds or coconuts. Continue reading Basbousa | “Just a Kiss” cake
Yesterday, when we went for our lunch at a restaurant, we decided to have quzi. Quzi is a delicious dish and I love it very much. Whenever you take seat at any restaurant in Baghdad, they will first serve you with soup and a large selection of salads and plentiful amounts of breads. Continue reading Quzi | An Iraqi Cuisine
Masgouf is one of the most popular Iraqi dishes – traditionally cooked on the shores of the river Tigris, a seasoned butterflied carp cooked next to an open fire. Originating in the basin of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, grilled fish has been around since the Babylonian times. It’s one of those unique, exotic foods you just have to try in Baghdad. Continue reading Masgouf | An Ancient smoky Iraqi fish cuisine
Iraqi cuisine has developed over the course of a long and rich history. Oldest known recipes in the world come from Iraq, and were inscribed on Babylonian tablets going back to 1700 BCE. Boiling the meat into stew with spices and other ingredients was the basic culinary technique. Garlic, coriander and mint appear in these recipes, as does cumin, a spice that has retained its … Continue reading Pache | A Dish Since Ancient Babylon
In the Middle East, breakfast is a big deal, especially on the weekend. It is almost a fiesta of flavours, colours and textures. My colleague Mohammed was telling yesterday about an Iraqi dish of Fool. I got interested by the name Fool and decided to go for it! A fool is the Arabic word for broad beans. Continue reading Fool Breakfast | Baghdad
If there’s one dessert that rules as the Queen of Arabic sweets, I would nominate kunafeh, the sticky pastry made of gooey sweet cheese sandwiched between layers of shredded crispy pastry. Continue reading Kunafeh | Queen of Arabic Sweets
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