When we found out we were moving to Qatar I had this image in my mind of "eating like an Arab:" finding out what the locals eat, and eating that way. I was really excited to try all sorts of different Arab foods. Well, it hasn't exactly panned out that way. First of all, they kind of eat like Americans! There are American fast food places all over here: Pizza Hut, Subway, McDonald's, KFC, Burger King, Papa Johns, to name a few. And the funny thing is most of those will even deliver to your house! (Even McDonald's!) When you go to the grocery store it really looks a lot like what you might see in America. Every time I go I try to pick out something that looks exotic or that I've gathered to be local fare, but since I can't drive and I'm getting really sick of calling a taxi, I haven't even actually been able to go grocery shopping very much. Most Americans that live here continue to eat like Americans. They might pay slightly higher prices for some of the American foods here, and some bring back suitcases and suitcases of food from home every time they visit the US (or "the states" as people call it here). On facebook groups I'm a part of here people are constantly asking each other things like, "Does anyone know where to find ranch dressing around here?" I guess I find it funny that people come all the way to the other side of the earth and try to keep eating like they're at home. Maybe it's not funny, but it's not what I had in mind for myself.
I think another part of it is that there really isn't a lot of interaction between Qataris and expats here, so there isn't a lot of opportunity to see how they eat on a daily basis. I suppose I could just google a bunch of recipes, and I may end up doing that, but I guess in my head I imagined something different, so that seems kind of lame. Anyways, one night we went to an Iftar dinner at the Ritz Carlton Doha with some of Dan's coworkers. One of them is a Qatari woman and she was really the first Qatari I got to interact with. The Iftar dinner was a huge buffet and she pointed out some things to us that were traditional fare. This was more like what I had imagined! I was able to make one of the foods tonight for our family. It's called "Om Ali." It means "Mother of Ali" and it is a favorite dessert here in the middle east. It was also a big hit at our house tonight.
Our whole dinner group
When we had this dessert that night they had all the nuts and raisins on the side to put in. Dan's coworker said her family usually makes it without any of that. I added in just raisins and chopped pistachios tonight because that's what I had on hand. You don't really have to measure the add ins, just throw them in however you want. I hope you enjoy this little piece of the middle east!:
Om Ali Ingredients:
- 1 large sheet of puff pastry ( about 90g/3 oz) / (or 5 to 6 sheets of small filo pastry)
- 120g (4oz) raisins (1/2c)
- 120g (4oz) flaked almonds and pistachios, a few chopped apricots, and dates. (1/2c)
- 1 litre milk (4 1/4c)
- 300 ml double cream (1 1/4c)
- 90 gr (3oz) sugar (scant 1/2c)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 150C degrees (~300F)
- Lightly butter the puff pastry (optional).
- place the one large sheet of puff pastry sheet on an oven tray. and bake for 25 minutes or until crisp and brown. Remove from the oven and raise the oven temperature to 240C degrees. (465F)
- Butter the baking dish.
- Crumple the pastry into a baking dish, scatter the raisins, fruit and nuts in between layers
- In a saucepan on the top of the stove bring the milk , cream and sugar to the boil. Pour this over the pastry. Sprinkle with cinnamon, flaked almonds, and ground pistachios.
- Place dish in oven for 20 minutes or until the top is browned.
- Serve hot.
How fun! I hope you're compiling your international cookbook...??
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