The Origin of Qatari Cuisine

Qatari cuisine is a style of cooking that is created by old Qatari citizens. It is is a part of Qatar culture and
community. The most popular Qatari dish is Machboos, which consists of rice cooked with Qatari spices
served with either chicken or meat. Arabic or the Middle Eastern cuisine is food that most of the Arabian people
have in common due to their strong relationship and their similar culture. Qatari food is based on the incorporation
of different dishes from different countries. Qatari cuisine is built on different dishes from different cultures from
around the world, however, the Qatari cuisine puts it own twists on the dish.

Qatar is located in The Middle East, which means that Qatar experienced harsh climatic conditions such as low
rainfall and because of that Qatar depend heavily on imports from different countries. For example, Saloona,
is one of the Qatari traditional food that contains vegetables as the main ingredient of it which Qatar does
not produce. The Saloona does not consist of pure Qatari components and that is because Qatar imports
vegetables and fruit from other countries because Qatar cannot cultivate some vegetable and fruits due to its
climate changes. As Kim Wyatt, the author of Where Does Our Food Come From? An Insight Into
Qatar’s Food Industry essay, says that “Qatar’s food is primarily sourced via the GCC [Gulf Cooperation
Council] followed by the United States, European Union (EU), South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand
with exports mainly consisting of cereals, dairy, meat, fruit and vegetables.”

Some Indian spices that Qatari used in their dishes

Ever since I was a little girl, I used to study about the trading that occurs between countries whether it was the trading of agriculture, spices, or rare materials like petroleum. I have always been interested in the diffusion of cultures that occurs as a result of trading and a great example is Qatar, my country. Qatar is famous for trading with India for spices and fabrics, and because of that many of India's traditions including their flavorful cuisine has intertwined with Qatar’s culture to produce a hybrid of dishes that includes both Qatari and Indian cultures an example would be Biryani but with a Qatari twist to it. As Elsa Exarhu, the author of History Shaping Traditional Qatari Food essay, mentioned in her essay that “The food culture of Qatar evolved over time strongly influenced by rice and spiced from Indian and food from Levand.” This means that Qatar imported some spices from different countries such as saffron is originated from Iran. Qatari people use saffron in many traditional food like Balaleet, which is a dessert that consists of cooked vermicelli noodles and omelet egg in the top of it, to give the dish good aroma, yellow color and sweet flavor.

There are misconceptions about the origin of Qatari cuisine. Some people think that Qatari
traditional food is only consist of Qatari components, which is wrong. Qatari cuisine contains
many spices that come from other countries especially India. Indian cuisine contains spice that also
Qatari people use in their food, however, our food is less spicy than them. Additionally, many people believe
that Karak is a Qatari tea while in fact, it is not. Karak Chai is an Indian word that means strong tea. It is
created by Indian citizens, however, Qatari citizens took the idea of making Karak and developed it in
their own style by adding more spices like cardamom and ginger and that what makes Karak Chai a part
of Qatar famous food. Nowadays, Qatari citizens think that Qatari food originated from Qatar because of
Baladna farm. Baladna farm produce meat, milk and dairy products, however, Baladna cannot provide all the
spices and the food that Qatari needs and that lead Qatar to import their needs from other countries. 

Qatar cuisine is too broad and each dish contains many spices and products some of them are from Qatar and the others are originated from various countries. However, Qatari people use the spices that are imported in a different way and cook it in a special way to distinguish Qatari cuisine from other cuisines and make the dishes tasteful and unique.