Eastern Arabian cuisine

Eastern Arabian cuisine today forms the traditional cuisine for countries such as Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, the southern part of Iraq, and eastern parts of Saudi Arabia and Oman, each with slight local variations.

History

Originally, the inhabitants of Eastern Arabia relied heavily on a diet of dates, wheat, barley, rice and meat, with little variety, and with a heavy emphasis on yogurt products, such as "leben" (لبن) (yogurt without butterfat). Globalization and contact with ancient civilizations such as the Romans, Persians, and later on with the Ottomans brought the Arabs in close contact with dishes of several other cultures, as well as introducing several new ingredients in their diet.

As with most Asian cultures, much of the modern culinary heritage can find its root in either Persian, Indian, or Chinese cuisines. In fact the food structure of Persian-Arabian civilization began with cooking techniques innovated in ancient Persia and carried forward by Persians during the Sassanid Dynasty. With subsequent development and growth of the Ottomans (Turkish empire), Arab culture came in contact with the Ottoman empire; Turkish contributions to the Arabian culture included "kebabs".

This multicultural inclusion became possible after the advent of Islam, and with the growth of Arabian influence after the invasion of Persia, Balkans, and North Africa, making it possible for merchants of different nations to travel long distances coming into contact and being influenced by or influencing local cuisines they encountered. The exchange of customs and food was bidirectional, with Arabs also exporting their dietary preferences such as dates, figs, and lamb to the areas they traveled to or conquered including the Persian empire and the Turkish population of Balkan. This interchange of goods and ways of life, was significant in forming the current modern Arab diet. Arabs later on transferred these newly gained cuisines on their conquests to Africa, and as far as North Africa, West Africa, and South of Spain. In fact, certain Spanish desserts such as polvorones, tocino de cielo (custard and caramel) and yemas de San Leandro (marzipan based) are heavily influenced by the Moors. Though these influences were not carried out by the original Arabs of the Arabian sub-continent, their westward expansion into Egypt, and Morocco led to dissemination of Chinese, Indian, Arabian, and Persian cuisines and eventually their vicarious adoption by the North Africans.