Saturday 04 / May / 2024
No trip down south would be complete without trying some local Dhofari foods. During Khareef, men and women from the surrounding villages travel to Salalah where they sell their specialties at the Salalah Festival and at roadside stalls along the main road. Many of these foods cannot be found anywhere else in the country, and are well worth seeking out.
1. Muthbe
The most famous southern specialty is a dish called muthbe, which is more of a cooking method than a particular food. For muthbe, smooth, clean wadi stones are piled over the embers of a huge fire, and once they are glowing hot, salted meat and chicken are seared on the stones. The stones naturally pull moisture away from the exterior of the meat, creating a crisp crust and a juicy interior. The chicken muthbe is especially good and is typically served with a yellow, mandi-style rice in aluminium takeaway containers. Find it on the main street leading out of Salalah toward the mountains (ask anyone where the muthbe grillers are, and you will be pointed in the right direction)
2. Ma’ajeen
This dish is more beloved in Dhofar than Shuwa, and is considered one of the important celebration foods in the region. Strips of beef or camel are salted and hung to air dry before being fried in cubes of fat. The resulting food is crispy, oily, and will stay good for up to a month outside the refrigerator. The flavour is distinctive to say the least, and any foodie should try it at least once. Find it at the stalls on the same line as the muthbe grillers at the shops hung with drying meat.
3. Kak bread
Unlike the chewy, sesame-seeded Lebanese bread of the same name, Dhofari Kak is more like a cracker than a bread. Slightly sweet and flavoured with cardamom and black nigella seeds, you can watch this Salalah staple being made on clay moulds at the Salalah Festival. It is especially good with Dhofari Chai, a sweet karak tea flavoured with thyme leaves and cardamom.
Find it at the Salalah Festival and at local bakeries throughout town.
4. Indian Ocean Seafood
Directly on the Indian Ocean, Salalah has a bounty of seafood, though it can be tricky to find a good seafood restaurant in Salalah itself. To enjoy the freshest catch of grouper, king fish, and cuttlefish, head just north of Salalah to the fishing village of Mirbat, where the humble restaurants next to the port serve just-caught fish at incredibly low prices along with freshly made flatbread. Find it in Mirbat at the small restaurants next to the port.
5. Khubz Lahooh
A twice-fried, chewy, crispy, slightly sweet crepe-like bread, khubz lahooh is a dream food for any carb-lover. Watching the Dhofari women at the Salalah festival making the bread is utterly mesmerising, as they pour batter into large skillets, deftly flip the giant round, and carefully pour oil under the circle where it boils and dances under the thin dough, crisping the outer surface. Find it at the Salalah Festival.
6. Not-for-the-faint-of-heart Specialties
For those who are into more extreme foods, there are several on offer in the south that have, shall we say, more pungent flavours. At the grilling stands, you can order goat head and use the jaw bone to pry open the skull to eat the tender brain. Often the vendors will not sell this part of the animal, as they want to keep the savoury treat for themselves. At the same muthbe stands, you can purchase coils of intestines, which are stuffed with intestines. This is a very popular choice for visiting Omanis. They have a pronounced, gamey flavour. For many, brain and intestine are typical, but the local specialty known as hubshah, is an intense (albeit beloved) dish even for the locals. At the Salalah festival, most of the spreads of local foods presented by the ladies include a hot pot of this soupy dish, which is a sour, vinegar-based soup of goat stomach and other internal organs.
