Saudi Arabia

A ceremonial Gulf Arabian coffee brewed from lightly roasted beans steeped with cardamom and saffron, poured from a long-spouted dallah into small handleless cups and always served alongside sweet dates.

A thick, stiff, dough-like paste made by cooking sorghum, maize, or wheat flour in boiling water while stirring continuously until the mixture pulls away from the pot and holds its shape.

A Saudi (Najdi) dish of thin, dried wheat-bread discs broken into and simmered in a spiced lamb-and-vegetable broth until soft, often perfumed with fenugreek.

A slow-cooked, heavily pounded porridge of whole dehusked wheat and bone-in meat — traditionally lamb or chicken — cooked until unified into a smooth, dense paste and finished with a generous pour of melted ghee.

A traditional Hejazi sweet of pitted dates mashed together with butter or ghee and crumbled bread (or flour) into a rich, fudgy paste.

Saudi grilled lamb skewers — marinated cubes of lamb threaded and cooked over charcoal at the heart of the kingdom's mashawi (grilled-meat) tradition.

A thick, slow-cooked savoury porridge of coarsely cracked wheat simmered in seasoned meat broth until the grains collapse into a cohesive, spoonable mass.

A long-grain rice dish slow-cooked by absorption in a spiced meat broth built on dried limes, warm spices, and tomato, finished with the braised meat placed on top and garnished with raisins and toasted nuts.

A round leavened white-flour flatbread, the ubiquitous daily table bread of the Arab world, baked hot so it puffs and is torn to scoop food.

Luqaimat are small, yeasted deep-fried dough balls with a crisp golden exterior and airy interior, served immediately drizzled with date syrup (dibs tamr) and sprinkled with sesame seeds.

An Arabian dish of whole or large pieces of spiced lamb (or goat) slow-cooked 'buried' in an underground earthen pit, often served over rice.

A Yemeni-Arabian feast dish of whole lamb or chicken slow-cooked by dry radiant heat and aromatic wood smoke inside a sealed underground tandoor (tandir), served atop saffron-and-spice rice that has absorbed the meat's dripping juices throughout cooking.

A Gulf-Arabian meat-and-vegetable stew in which thin sheets of hand-rolled wheat dough are torn and simmered directly in the broth until soft.

A paper-thin unleavened wheat flatbread stretched very large and baked briefly on a domed convex metal griddle called a saj.

A thin sheet of stretched dough folded around a savory spiced-meat-and-egg (or sweet banana) filling and pan-fried flat.

Saleeg is a Saudi rice dish where white rice is slowly simmered in a blend of milk and chicken broth until creamy and served topped with spiced roasted chicken.

A triangular deep-fried pastry of thin wrapper enclosing spiced minced meat, vegetables or cheese, eaten across the Gulf and especially during Ramadan.

A sweet Hejazi fried pastry parcel filled with sugared nuts, a staple of the Saudi Ramadan table.

A Levantine street food of spiced marinated meat stacked on a vertical rotisserie, slow-roasted and shaved thin into flatbread with sauce and pickles.

A Gulf Arab dish of spiced meat-and-vegetable stew ladled over layers of broken thin flatbread (regag/rqaq), which soaks up the broth into a soft, savory base.