The Emirati Dishes

Each dish gets a professional reference page, not just a recipe: its story, its occasions, its ingredients and an outline of the traditional method.

25 documented dishes

Sweets

Emirati Gahwa

Arabic coffee · القهوة

Lightly roasted Arabic coffee with cardamom and saffron, poured from the dallah into small cups with dates — Emirati hospitality begins here.

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Mains

Chicken Majboos

Spiced Chicken and Rice · Machboos

Chicken and basmati rice in one pot with loomi, whole spices and Majboos bzar, finished with Dahn Khaneen. Serves 10.

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Mains

Harees

Also: Hareed, Jareesh (related Gulf names) · الهريس

Wheat and meat slow-cooked for hours into one silken whole — the first dish of Ramadan and weddings.

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Mains

Thareed

Also: Fareed, Thereed · الثريد

A rich meat-and-vegetable stew ladled over thin regag bread until it soaks through — a Ramadan iftar essential.

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Mains

Salona

Also: Saloona, Marag · الصالونة

The everyday Emirati stew: a spiced tomato broth with meat, chicken or fish and vegetables.

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From the Sea

Madrooba

Also: Madruba · المضروبة

Salt-cured fish cooked down with rice and spices, then beaten into one rich, savoury mass.

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From the Sea

Jisheid

Also: Jasheed · الجشيد

A venerable coastal dish: minced baby-shark meat cooked with spices, served with sweet muhammar rice.

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From the Sea

Maleh

Salt-cured fish · المالح

Salt-cured kingfish — a preservation technique that became a beloved flavour in its own right.

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From the Sea

Muhammar

Sweet rice with grilled fish · المحمر

Rice sweetened with dates or date molasses and saffron, traditionally paired with grilled fish.

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Breakfast

Balaleet

Sweet Vermicelli with Honey and Saffron, topped with a Saffron Omelette

Toasted vermicelli sweetened with sugar and honey, perfumed with cardamom and saffron, crowned with a savoury omelette. Serves 6.

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Breakfast

Jebab

Also: Chebab, Chabab · الجباب

Emirati saffron-cardamom pancakes, served with cheese, date molasses or cream.

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Breakfast

Khameer

Also: Khamir bread · الخمير

A puffed, fermented bread scented with cardamom and saffron, glazed with egg and sesame.

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Breakfast

Regag

Also: Ragag, Rigag · الرقاق

Paper-thin bread spread by hand on a hot griddle — eaten alone or as the base of thareed.

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Sweets

Luqaimat

Also: Legaimat, Lgeimat · اللقيمات

Crisp golden dumplings drenched in date molasses — Ramadan's first sweet.

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Sweets

Khabeesa

Also: Khabees · الخبيصة

Flour toasted in ghee, bound with sugar, saffron and cardamom into a warm, crumbly sweet.

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Sweets

Aseeda

Also: Aseedat Bobar (pumpkin aseeda) · العصيدة

A soft, kneaded pudding — its most Emirati form made with pumpkin, date molasses and saffron.

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Sweets

Buthaytha

Toasted Flour and Date Crumble with Cardamom · Batheeth

Flour toasted golden and worked by hand into dates, ghee and cardamom. One of the oldest Emirati sweets. Serves 4 to 6.

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Mains

Machboos Arancini

Crispy Emirati rice balls · أرانشيني المجبوس

Bzar-and-loomi machboos rice rolled around molten cheese and fried golden — an Italian-Emirati handshake.

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From the Sea

Jisheid Tacos

Emirati coastal tacos · تاكو الجشيد

Spiced coastal jisheid folded into warm tortillas with loomi crema and slaw — the Emirati coast with a Mexican accent.

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Breakfast

Balaleet French Toast

Saffron balaleet brioche · فرنش توست البلاليط

Golden brioche soaked in saffron-cardamom custard, crowned with a crisp sweet balaleet nest — hotel breakfast with Emirati memory.

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Sweets

Karak Crème Brûlée

Karak chai crème brûlée · كريم بروليه الكرك

Silken custard steeped with karak chai and cardamom under a shattering caramel crust — Emirati hospitality in French.

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From the Sea

Hamsa with Shrimp

Hamsa Roubyan · Grilled Shrimp over Spiced Tomato Hamsa

Shrimp grilled over high heat, served over a hamsa of onion, tomato, hot pepper, loomi and tamarind. Serves 4.

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Mains

Lamb and Rice

Baryya · Slow-Cooked Lamb Shank and Saffron Rice

Lamb shanks marinated for 24 hours in yoghurt and bzar, slow-cooked until they fall from the bone, over saffron rice with golden onions and nuts. Serves 4.

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Breakfast

Emirati Eggs with Tomato

Bayd w Tamat · Spiced Eggs in Tomato and Onion

Onion in ghee with turmeric and bzar, tomato cooked down until thick, then the eggs. The everyday Emirati home breakfast.

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