Which are the best Traditional Qatari Foods? Find out-Part I
Qatar may be home to as many cuisines as it is to nationalities. From Filipino chicken adobo tenderised with vinegar to crispy Indian dosas filled with spiced potatoes, Qatar’s food choices are representative of its 2.3 million-strong expat population, with specialist restaurants serving foods from back home, wherever home once was.
Workers and investors started arriving on this tiny peninsula in the 1950s, first to build Qatar and then to stay on and work there. At 132 square kilometres it is one of the smallest countries in the world, and today also one of the richest, with an international food scene.
There are cafes and restaurants serving Ghanaian spiced jollof rice, Uzbek manti dumplings, Indonesian nasi goreng, Italian burrata drizzled with truffle oil – food for all palates and budgets.
Away from the global food scene, classic Qatari meals are usually one-pot dishes cooked using foods that were traditionally sourced locally on land and sea, with fish featuring in summer meals and meat in the winter months.
Let we take a look at some of the traditional foods still prepared in Qatari homes.
1. Machboos
Machboos is to the Gulf what biryani is to the Pakistan & India.
This is Qatar’s national dish, a claim also made by neighbouring countries like Bahrain, Kuwait and the UAE, though each has its own slight variations.
Basmati rice is usually the basis of this dish, washed then cooked in stock, before a grilled protein is added – usually chicken, but lamb, fish or even camel are popular.
Which are the best Traditional Qatari Foods? Find out-Part I
The protein adds colour, too, and goes into the pot with garlic, ginger, peppers and a blend of Qatari spices known as bizar.
Machboos is a rice-based dish with added protein and spices.
Bizar, a traditional spice is a blend of cumin, coriander, ginger, cinnamon, turmeric and black pepper, along with loomi, a unique ingredient that was imported to Qatar from Oman. Loomi, or black dried lime, looks a bit like charcoal and is what makes machboos special, adding its unique sour kick to the dish.
Once the dish has been cooked, it’s served with an extra sprinkle of lemon juice to complement the loomi’s tartness.
2. Khubs rgag
Khubs rgag is a paper-thin flatbread made from flour, water and salt. The dough is kneaded and then rolled out to be cooked on a tawaah, a large flat-iron plate that is traditionally heated over coals.
This crisp bread, similar in texture to dosa, can now be found served as a street food in tourist places like the Souq Waqif in Doha, where Kiri cheese spread or Nutella are offered as toppings, a modern twist on a traditional food.
Khubs rgag is a flatbread with a dosa-like texture.
Shay Al Shomous, an authentic Qatari restaurant run by Shams al-Qassabi, Qatar’s first female trader in Souq Waqif, serves the dish with egg and za’atar, adapting it to customers’ palates.
The bread is traditionally eaten as an accompaniment to other dishes, or as an ingredient itself, as in this next dish.
3. Thareed
Thareed takes its name from a large clay pot that was traditionally used to make this dish.
It’s a hearty stew of chicken or lamb stock and tomato sauce, cooked on the hob with seasonal vegetables, often including potatoes, carrots, onions and chickpeas.
But to taste the essence of this dish, dig the serving spoon to the bottom of the pot – at the base you will find layers of khubs rgag, torn carefully to line the pot, soaking up the flavours of the stew.
Thareed takes its name from a large clay pot that was traditionally used to make this dish
Thareed is a hearty stew made with chicken or lamb stock and vegetables.
