Arab cuisine refers to the regional culinary traditions of the Arab world, spanning the Maghreb (the west) and the Mashriq (the east). These cuisines are centuries old and reflect Arab trade in ingredients, spices, herbs, and commodities. The regions share many similarities, but also have unique traditions. Climate, cultivation, and commerce have influenced them.
Across the region, staple ingredients include wheat and rice, lamb and chicken, yoghurt and other dairy products, and a wide range of legumes and vegetables, seasoned with herbs and spices such as cumin, cinnamon, saffron, and sumac. Coffee and tea, often flavored with cardamom, are popular beverages along with arak in some places.
Hospitality and generosity towards guests are central to Arab food culture, typically shared through large shared meals, with regional customs dictating how guests are welcomed and received. During Ramadan, people break their daily fast each evening with iftar, traditionally with dates.
Regional cuisine varies considerably. Levantine cuisine is known for olive oil, za'atar, and mezze dishes such as hummus and falafel; Iraqi cuisine, documented in what is considered the oldest surviving food traditions, is associated with dishes such as masgouf. Egyptian cuisine centres on largely vegetarian staples including ful medames and Koshari; the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula have dishes such as kabsa and mandi. Yemeni food is distinct from neighbors, known for dishes such as saltah. Bedouin cuisine relies heavily on dates, dried fruits, and preserves suited to a nomadic lifestyle. Maghrebi cuisine from Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, and Libya is built around couscous and is known for spice blends such as harissa.
Medieval cuisine
Medieval Arab writers from the 9th to the 16th centuries wrote numerous cookbooks documenting nearly 4,500 recipes from the Arab world, spanning regions like Al-Andalus, Egypt, Syria, the Maghreb, and Iraq.
Breads The white bread was made with high-quality wheat flour, similar to bread but thicker; the fermented dough was leavened usually with yeast and "baker's borax" () and baked in a tandoor. One poetic verse describing this bread: "In the farthest end of Karkh of Baghdad, a baker I saw offering bread, wondrous fair. From purest essence of wheat contrived. Radiant and absolute, you may see your image reflected, crystal clear. rounds glowing with lovely whiteness, more playful than gorgeous singing girls, They look like crystal trays, and were they indeed so, they would have served us as plates.
bread was made in two varieties, (soft, thin flatbreads) and (dry, thin bread flavored with tamarisk seeds).
Sauces Numerous recipes for sauces () have survived from historic Arabic cookbooks. The 10th-century written by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq gives several recipes to be served with roasted fish, attributed to various sources.
To Ibrahim ibn al-Mahdi are credited two recipes, one prepared by adding rue, caraway, thyme, asafetida and cassia to the mustard sauce, and another made by mashing vinegar-soaked raisins with garlic, walnut, mustard, vinegar, and seasonings like asafetida and anise.
From the seventh Abbasid caliph Al-Ma'mun's recipe collection comes a made with whey, walnut, garlic, olive oil and murri.
There are similar recipes meant for poultry dishes prepared with seasonings like ginger, pomegranate, spikenard, and cloves.
A surviving poem about is attributed to Caliph Al-Mu'tamid: The concept of is so subtle that none but the wise its depths may sound. Walnut and garlic with yogurt whey are the most you may need for it. Or make it with vinegar, , and coriander. But with it will be even better. If not, then mustard and garlic mixed with and onion, equal parts, will make your relish. Or with just vinegar and onion eat your fish and it will still be a tasty dish.
Sweets
Described as the "food of kings" and "supreme judge of all sweets", lauzinaj was an almond-based confection that had entered medieval European cuisine by the 13th century from Andalusian influence, returning Crusaders and Latin translations of cookery books. There are two versions of the dish known from medieval texts: or "drenched " is believed to be an earlier version of the Ottoman dish baklava. It was made by filling thin pastry dough with a mixture of ground almond (and sometimes other nuts like pistachio or walnut), rose water, and sometimes luxury flavorings like mastic, ambergris, or musk. was made with ground almonds cooked in boiling honey or sugar until reaching a taffy-like consistency. The raw version, closer to marzipan in consistency, was made by blending the almonds with sugar and flavoring with camphor, musk, and rose water. The finished confection was molded into animal or other shapes, or cut into squares and triangles.
Vegetables Vegetables include leeks, endive, melilot, fenugreek, okra, onions, purslane, Jew's mallow and radish. Boiled asparagus is served with olive oil and murri. The cooking water may be sweetened with honey and seasoned with cilantro, rue, anise and black pepper, and used as a beverage either by itself with honey, or added to wine.
Some vegetables are consumed raw, but asparagus, cauliflower, white soybeans, leeks, orach, a variety of mushroom known as , chard, cabbage, carrot, turnip, fresh fennel and eggplant are usually boiled.
Some vegetable dishes are served cold. One example of such a dish is eggplant with fried onion, fresh herbs and olive oil dressed with fermented sauces, vinegar and caraway. There are several cold eggplant dishes that are similar, some made with smoked eggplant, adding nuts like ground walnuts or almonds, and sometimes different seasonings like saffron, cassia, and galangal.
A dish for fried carrots with fresh herbs, dressing and spices was described by the poet Kushajim:
Dinars of carnelian and gold in a vessel so delicate, it may almost melt and flow. All radiating with luster like carnelian shimmering on pearls. In the vessel harmoniously combined, here together and there disperse. The spices emitting fragrance like wine mingled with sweet breeze. On top are pearls and silver decked with gems, Which the cook delicately fashioned, a gorgeous dish with flavor and perfume. The scattered rue is flowers of turquoise gems, vibrantly green, Jiggling with murri and olive oil, ebbing and flowing with sheen.
Diet and foods
Arab cuisine uses specific and unique foods and spices. Some of those foods are: Meat—lamb and chicken are the most used, followed by beef and goat. Other poultry is used in some regions, and fish is used in coastal areas including the Mediterranean Sea, Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea. Some Christian Arabs eat pork.Nabeel Y. Abraham. "Arab Americans", Encarta Encyclopedia 2007. Archived 2009-10-31.
Dairy products—widely used, especially yogurt and white cheese. Butter, buttermilk and cream are also used extensively. Qishta cream is popularly used in desserts.
Herbs and spices—include sesame, saffron, black pepper, allspice, turmeric, garlic, cumin, cinnamon, parsley, coriander and sumac. Spice mixtures include baharat, ras el hanout, za'atar, and harissa.
Beverages—coffee and tea dominate, with coffee being more prevalent in the Middle East and tea prevailing in the Maghreb, Egypt, Sudan, Jordan, Palestine and some parts of Syria. Rose water and orange blossom water are also consumed occasionally. In the Levant, the main alcoholic drink is arak, a strong distilled spirit of the anise family.
Grains—rice is the staple and is used for most dishes; wheat is the main source for bread. Bulgur and semolina are also used extensively. According to historic recipes known from Arabic cookbooks, grains were primarily used to make porridge and pasta type dishes in Arab cuisine until the 12th century. Two types of pasta were known: itriya, a short dry noodle of Greek origin similar to orzo, and , a hand-cut fresh noodle of Persian origin. By the 13th century, the Turkic style and noodles had entered the cuisine.
Legumes—lentils are widely used in all colours, as well as fava beans, peanuts, chickpeas (garbanzo beans), scarlet runner beans, green peas, lupini beans, white beans, and brown beans.
Vegetables—popular vegetables in Arab cuisine include carrots, eggplants, zucchini, artichokes, okra, onions, and olives. Potatoes are also eaten as vegetables in Arab culture.
Fruits—pomegranate, dates, figs, oranges, citruses, watermelons, cantaloupe, honeydew melon, grapes, peaches, and nectarines are favored in Arab cuisine.
Nuts—almonds, pine nuts, and walnuts are often included in dishes or eaten as snacks. Pistachios are particularly prevalent in Levantine desserts.
Greens—parsley, coriander and mint are popular as seasonings in many dishes, while spinach and mulukhiyah (leaves from the plant of the Corchorus genus) are used in cooked dishes.
Dressings and sauces—the most popular dressings include various combinations of olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, garlic, and tahini. Labneh (strained yogurt) is often seasoned with mint, onion, or garlic, and served as a sauce with various dishes, usually for breakfast.
Structure of meals There are two basic structures for meals in the Arab world: a regular schedule during most of the year and a second one unique to the month of Ramadan, in which observant Muslims fast from dawn until sunset.
Year-round Breakfast Breakfast is usually a quick meal, consisting of bread and dairy products, chiefly labneh and white cheeses, served with tea and sometimes fruit preserves. Manakeesh are also commonly eaten for breakfast.
Lunch
Lunch is considered the main meal of the day. The main dish usually consists of meat (lamb, beef, poultry or fish) with rice, lentils, and vegetables (both fresh and cooked). The vegetables and meat are sometimes cooked together in a sauce (often tomato, although others are also popular). Salads and mezze are served as side dishes to the main meal. Most households add bread.
A variety of drinks can be served for lunch, such as ayran, tamarind, and various fruit juices. Regional drinks include and erq sous in Egypt, and naqe'e al zabib in Yemen. With the advent of globalization, soft drinks have also become popular.
Dinner Dinner is traditionally the lightest meal, although in modern times, dinner has become more important with regards to entertaining guests due to the hours of the workday.
Ramadan Iftar
Iftar (also called ) is the meal taken at dusk when the fast is over. In Islamic tradition, the fast is broken by eating a date.
This is often followed by a soup, often lentil soup, but also chicken soup, oat soup, or potato soup. Freekeh is also common.
The third course is the main dish, usually eaten after the Maghreb prayer is conducted. The main dish is mostly similar to what is served in lunch year-round, except that cold drinks are served. A particularly popular drink during Ramadan is Vimto.
Suhur Suhur is the meal eaten just before dawn, when fasting must begin. It is eaten to help the person make it through the day with enough energy until dusk.
Sweets In addition to the two meals eaten during Ramadan (one for dinner and one for Suhur before dawn), sweets are consumed much more than usual during the month of Ramadan; sweets and fresh fruits are served between these two meals. Although most sweets are made all year-round such as kanafeh, baklava, and basbousa, some are made especially for Ramadan, such as qatayef."Desserts & Sweets in Arabia" .
Arab hospitality
Essential to any cooking in the Arab world is the concept of hospitality and generosity. Meals are generally large family affairs, with much sharing and a great deal of warmth over the dinner table. Formal dinners and celebrations generally involve large quantities of lamb, and every occasion entails large quantities of Arabic coffee or Arabic tea.