Qatari Cuisine: traditional recipes enriched with imported ingredients

In the heat of the desert, a sip of Arabic coffee is always welcome and a quintessential Qatari gesture. On the Zakreet Peninsula in western Qatar, locals have fused coffee from nearby Yemen with a rich Indian spice to make a staple of their own.

Unlike traditional coffee, this lightly roasted blend is yellow in colour and has a creamy and delicate texture with a hint of spice.

 "The main flavours come from the spices that we add. You'll notice a hint of coffee. Then there's the cardamom, then there are the spices that give it the richness and then the caffeine and the flavour as well" said Qatari Entrepreneur, Khaled Alrayes.

Coffee culture aside, the region boasts an international food scene influenced by its 2.3 million expats. But Qatar also has a wide range of traditional recipes which take their influences from neighbouring countries. 

Outside of the capital Doha, most of the terrain is flat, arid, low-lying desert. "It was not self-sufficient. Qatar was not able to rely on itself and had to import, you know, different products from abroad. So, we have common spices like turmeric, for example, and we have cumin. They have been brought in from India" said Randa Sheik, a food writer and blogger.

"You also have rosewater. Rosewater is from Iran. So, we have imported these ingredients from many different countries and also the raw materials as well, rice, bread, chicken, meat, and then we combined them in their own way to make fantastic and delicious dishes" she added.

Machboos, saloona, madrouba and harees are four traditional Qatari dishes that are enjoyed across the Arab world but each country offers its own unique twist.

Machboos is Qatar's, Bahrain's, Kuwait's and the UAE's national dish. Chicken, fish or lamb is first