When I moved to Qatar in 2005, my friends organized a welcome feast in my honor . They wanted me to experience eating a rice-based dish cooked in the desert and eaten with the hands.
On the menu, Kabsa, a traditional dish made of rice cooked with lamb, chicken and an array of spices. A huge platter with a mountain of Kabsa sat in the middle of the table. While I naively waited for someone to distribute plates, knifes and forks for everybody, those never came. My hosts were all already seated, and with a unanimous motion, they started eating with their right hands.
I sat there, eyes wide, confused and shocked at the same time.
“Come on you can do it! Will you just grab it?” yelled one of my friends.
“No, I can’t do it” I answered anxiously. I did not know how to just dig into that steaming pile of rice.
I had heard about Bedouin eating habits, but at 22, I had not discovered yet my passion about culinary exploration, which explained my reluctance.
I guess I was set on the right track that day… I put all the rules of table etiquette that I was brought up with, behind me, gathered my courage, and started caressing the warm rice gently, hoping that I would have the guts to actually grab it as easily as they did. I took a deep breath, and dug into the glowing mountain of food staring at me. I grabbed a handful of rice with my right hand and exerted pressure with my palm and fingers. The grease made the rice stick together into a ball which I pushed into my mouth with my thumb.
made a mess...and loved every bit of it - Dukhan Desert, Qatar- 2005 (Photo by Fernando Di Guama)
Surprisingly, a fulfilling sensation emerged. I have never had such a close contact with food. There was a rich taste of seasoned rice that left a hot and spicy finish when I swallowed. I quickly mastered the procedure and started enjoying, feeling liberated from the constraints of what I thought were proper table manners.
The picture above was taken on another day, when we sat on a table in the desert. We actually used to eat the traditional dish on the floor, sitting around the big platter, barefoot and cross-legged.
From that day on, I became an addict of intense meal experiences, and started traveling the world looking for those and learning about local cultures through their cuisine. Qatar was just the beginning…
**An edited version of this post was also published in Physical Equilibrium Newsletter in New York City.
yes! it is a special feeling. el lakhbassa bil akal
but in a positive meaning!
I have tried similar dish in the desert in southern Jordan.
It was good. We were very hungry and I love rice!
Hug!
Sounds like a wounderful experience… Unfortunately my experience with kabsa involved forks and plates, as I had had it at a restaurant. But still… I’m actually craving some right now.
A nice read.
While eating, most people think that they use mostly only one of their 5 senses, the one related to taste. Actually, using as much senses as we can, the more pleasure we get. If we are offered a poorly presented plate, we lose our appetite, especially if it consisted of some ingredients mixed badly.
Can we eat something that smells bad? surely not. in is this case, this sense further contributes to enhancing the pleasure experienced while eating.
Let us try to imagine the consistency of an ingredient we can’t touch; how can we know if it is soft, hard, crunchy? Usually we do that using a spoon, a fork or a knife, and if not we are hesitant to eat it. We eat most of the time pizza in our hand, we enjoy the chocolate spread when we dip our finger in it and then eat it, Hamburgers, bread with all the meza, fries, etc… The more senses we use while eating the additional pleasure we get specially when we touch the food before eating it, even the rice…It’s really cool and liberating as you said, I have made this experience in India and Ethiopia . . . Everyone should give it a go!!!
Nice article!
Freddy you could not have put it better…Thank you for feedback.
Very nicely described Carla…. Sitting beside you that day with our elbows touching with every mouthful, eating the Kabsa made me feel warm inside too …
Well done .. xx
years ago i had some friends from KSA and Bahrain invite me for dinner….i couldnt bring myself to eat food out of a shared platter….so i had a plate and fork.
if the opertunity ever passes me again…i’ll thing with a much more open mind