Gulf Cuisine

Gulf cooking — Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and Oman — is port cooking. Centuries of trade with India, East Africa and Persia left a deeper mark on its spices than on any other Arab cuisine.

Bzar

Bzar is the Gulf spice blend: coriander, cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, turmeric, black pepper and clove, sometimes with curry leaf. Stronger and deeper than kabsa spice, and its aroma is what separates any Gulf dish from an Egyptian or Levantine one.

Machboos

Machboos is the everyday dish in Kuwaiti and Bahraini households: rice in chicken or fish broth with bzar, dried lime and tomato. Close to kabsa but more strongly spiced and darker.

Fish

The Gulf is a maritime cuisine by nature: hammour, zubaidi and safi are grilled, fried, or cooked into machboos. Salted dried fish is still eaten, though its smell divides opinion sharply.

Harees and luqaimat

Harees is wheat and meat cooked together for hours until creamy — the essential Ramadan dish across the Gulf. Luqaimat are small fried dough balls in date syrup, the best-known Gulf sweet.