Omani Shuwa: Spiced Slow-Roasted Lamb

In the cool hours before dawn on the eve of Eid, families across Oman gather around freshly dug pits in the earth, lowering banana-leaf-wrapped bundles of meat into smoldering coals. This is Shuwa, a ritual as much as a …

Reem Thornbury

August 26, 2026

Culinary

Slow-Baked Jachnun: Yemenite Sabbath Pastry

Long before the sun rises over Jerusalem's stone alleys or Tel Aviv's bustling shuk, ovens across Israel are already humming with a secret that has traveled thousands of miles and hundreds of years. Inside them, coiled rolls of golden dough sit patiently in low, steady heat, transforming overnight into something extraordinary: deeply caramelized, faintly sweet, impossibly tender jachnun. This is the taste of Yemenite Jewish heritage, carried by immigrants who settled in Israel and brought with them a Sabbath ritual as much about patience as it is about flavor.

Culinary

Classic Egyptian Koshari: Cairo's Beloved Comfort Bowl

Step onto any bustling Cairo street corner as the sun begins to dip, and you'll catch the scent before you see the stall: cumin-laced tomato sauce simmering, garlic sizzling in oil, and the sweet caramel perfume of onions frying to a deep golden crisp. This is the aroma of koshari, a dish so woven into Egyptian daily life that it transcends class, neighborhood, and generation. From marble-countered downtown eateries to plastic stools set up along dusty alleyways, everyone has an opinion about whose koshari reigns supreme.

Culinary

Desert to Table: Middle East's New Culinary Renaissance

There is a moment, somewhere between the first exhale of cardamom steam and the gentle collapse of slow-braised lamb against a bed of saffron-gilded rice, when Middle Eastern cuisine stops being food and becomes something closer to memory. It is a cuisine built on millennia of trade winds and desert crossings, of Persian gardens and Bedouin fires — and increasingly, it is a cuisine rewriting its own story with breathtaking confidence.

Culinary

A Culinary Crossroads: The Traditional and Modern Food Culture of Bahrain

Bahrain's cuisine reflects centuries of trade, migration, and Gulf Arab tradition, blending Persian, Indian, and Arab influences into a distinct culinary identity. From spiced rice dishes to freshwater fish, the archipelago's food culture remains deeply tied to its geography and history.