For the preparation of oriental sweets, a large amount of honey, molasses, fruit syrups, nuts, and candied fruits is used.
I'll say right away: the halva, nougat, Turkish delight, and sherbet (correctly called sherbet, but most of our compatriots are accustomed to this pronunciation) known to Europeans are sweets adapted to our taste. In their historical homeland, they are a hundred times sweeter (though it's very hard to imagine without trying) and look completely different—mildly speaking, inedible.
All That Glitters Is Not Gold
It is in oriental sweets that a European finds a vivid illustration of the thesis about the eternal confrontation between East and West. Go into any non-tourist pastry shop in an Arab country, located somewhere deep in a neighborhood or in the depths of a bazaar, and you will be amazed: on mirrored display cases, dazzling-looking jewelry of unknown purpose shines. Bracelets and buckles glitter with gilding, adorned with turquoise, huge rings or necklaces of silver, tiny caskets studded with pearls...
All this luxury is betrayed by the smell: captivating aromas of vanilla, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and who knows what else—and the snow-white corrugated napkin-cups on which they recline. And the sellers—with special sugary smiles, capable of persuading even a dead man to eat sweets to his heart's content.
From what historical distances the oriental tradition of giving sweets a jewelry-like makeup came is unknown. But not a single local housewife will serve even cookies to the table without giving them an appropriate appearance. She will coat them with silver glaze, sprinkle with golden caramel shavings, and place ruby or turquoise candy beads around the edges. It will turn out to be a charming little thing, like a precious medallion. Try to overcome the psychological barrier and taste the "jewel." It will literally melt in your mouth, despite its iron-stony appearance, and you will hardly ever forget the taste of these cookies and the aromas of unfamiliar spices.
Desserts from local confectioners often make it into the Guinness Book of Records. For example, a few years ago in Dubai, they built (there's no other word for it) a cake weighing 3.1 tons and covering an area of 31 square meters. From dough, nuts, and honey, they sculpted the country's main attractions—the Burj Al Arab skyscraper and the Emirates Towers. Witnesses claim that the copies were so realistic that they resembled an architectural model, and the smell of vanilla emanating from them seemed completely alien and evoked not appetite but genuine bewilderment. Thanks, apparently, to this circumstance, the giant oriental sweet not only remains an unbeaten Guinness World Record but is still stored intact in the national museum.
And in the UAE, they also make the world's most expensive cupcakes called "Golden Phoenix." The price is a thousand dollars each. Decorated with edible gold and chocolate, sprinkled with gold dust on top.
A Ton of Halva, a Hundredweight of Baklava
All emirates have specialty sweet shops aimed at tourists. One of the most popular is Dubai's Candylicious, the largest candy store, with an area of about a thousand square meters. But if you want to try real oriental desserts, head to the bazaar. You can safely buy them there; sanitation in these countries is in order, markets are strictly inspected, so there is no need to worry about health and product quality.
The scale is magnificent: colorful mountains of halva and candied nuts, huge trays of baklava, giant baskets of Turkish delight, and dates, dates, dates... You have to be strong not to give in to offers to try everything in one visit. Pace yourself.
Traditional sherbet bears little resemblance to what is sold under this name in most countries of the world, including ours. The local one is prepared according to ancient recipes with rather exotic fillings; there are almost more spices in it than sugar. Try it at least out of curiosity.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of types of Turkish delight here, and the entire color spectrum is represented—your eyes run wild. In addition to the sweets traditional for the entire East, pay attention to local desserts very similar to puddings.
Umm Ali (Omm Ali) is the least sweet, something like a light sponge cake with raisins and nuts, soaked in fruit syrup (bread in compote, said one young eater who did not develop respect for Arab cuisine). Asayaa (Esh Asaya, or As Saraya) is a pie made from sweet sheep's cheese, topped with custard. Ligemat is something like honey doughnuts, round or elongated. Asida is a coarse flour pudding with butter and date syrup, usually served for breakfast. Mehalabia is a soft pudding soaked in rose water and sprinkled with pistachios—a strong test, because our "Euro-noses" are accustomed to the smell of rose oil only in perfume, and consuming it internally is like forcing yourself to bite into a "golden" cake.
Absolutely crazy success among foreigners is enjoyed by pistachio baklava—it's even unclear why this product hasn't become a major export item alongside oil. A big plus is that you can buy it for future use and take it with you, so that at home you won't suffer from withdrawal due to a sharp drop in the level of sweet life.
As a souvenir, you can bring from the Emirates the only chocolate in the world made from camel milk. It is produced in five varieties: with dates, with nuts and oranges, with spices, dark chocolate, and milk chocolate. It is romantically named Al Nassma, after the seasonal wind that brings freshness to the desert people.
Coffee Break
When it seems that your inner world is starting to get a bit sticky, it's worth drinking tea or coffee. Drinking coffee the Arabic way is a special art, because you're unlikely to be able to sip the contents of a tiny cup for an hour without prior training. Coffee is considered a traditional drink for conversation, and don't even think about downing your cup on the go—you'll offend the host, the server, and the coffee shop regulars.
There will be several varieties of coffee in any coffee shop, but the most popular are traditional black and light Arabian, made from barely roasted beans. Coffee with cardamom is very popular. You should try everything. By the way, coffee here is drunk unsweetened, but a European's oddity is forgivable, so don't hesitate to ask for sugar.
There are many coffee shops in the Emirates, both national and quite European; they are easy to find by smell even in the gas-filled city center. But you won't encounter vending machines or coffee makers even in cosmopolitan airports. However, you will once and for all learn what a real "coffee break" is. It's not a break during a meeting or conference when a plastic cup holds a miserable instant drink. It's a time of pure happiness when the rush of life stops, the air is saturated with the smells of hot sand, coffee, and spices, and dark male hands place a glass of cold water in front of you and pour sealing-wax-thick coffee into a small cup from a dalla—a curved metal coffee pot.
Here comes a troubled and sweaty poor soul in a business suit and tie, with a folder under his arm—a typical representative of the bank clerk class. Look at him 10 minutes later: with a cup of coffee in a relaxed hand, he is laughing with a white-toothed smile at the jokes of an elderly neighbor, tired wrinkles no longer furrow his brow, and his eyes hold serenity and peace... Leaving the red sofa half an hour later, he almost forgets his briefcase with documents and steps out of the coffee shop's semi-darkness into the suffocating heat of the street, refreshed and rested.
If you fundamentally don't drink coffee—such things happen—you can order tea. They drink it here too, especially a lot after meat. It is served in small glasses, about half the usual size, but the tea is very strong, aromatic, green, with herbs. Among the recognizable ones is mint; among the exotic ones is maramiya, a local variety of sage, carefully grown in flower pots. If you ask for lemon in your tea, they won't refuse, though they'll be surprised. And another thing: tea here is terribly, terribly, terribly sweet, so when you wash down oriental sweets with it, you can fall into a state of sweet ecstasy.
Where will we make a waist?
Visiting the Emirates can cost you about five kilograms of extra weight. A large amount of honey, molasses, fruit syrups, nuts, and candied fruits are used to prepare oriental sweets, and various spices, rose water, and orange blossom water give these products a special, unique flavor palette.
Remember: all these delicious things are created especially for women, to help them maintain the forms that are delightful by Eastern standards: wide hips, a lush bust, rounded arms with dimples at the elbows, and a soft belly, necessarily with a deep navel—the epicenter of female beauty. It's no wonder an ancient Arab proverb says: "Plumpness is half of beauty." It's not surprising that Eastern women are big sweet tooths.
But men here almost never eat sweets, except for traditional dates and ice cream, which has become especially fashionable in recent years. The exception is a small piece of halva from the hands of a beloved. By the way, if an Arab man suddenly offers you halva—be vigilant: halva in the East symbolizes a passionate kiss!
Based on materials from Lenta.ru