Oman is a rare creature of the Middle East. As I journey from desert camp to mud brick inn and five-star resort, dishes are as unexpected as they are fragrant.
“You don’t even get out of your car to order karak chai,” says Ali, my taxi driver, wiggling two fingers.
For a snapshot of this peaceable Middle Eastern country, you should slice Oman in thirds. Once for its beaches and northern fjordlands looking over the Arabian Sea. Twice for its jagged mountain villages, desert towns and the Empty Quarter, a sand desert larger than France which Oman shares with Yemen and Saudi Arabia. Third for the monsoon-lashed tropics of Salalah in the very south, an ancient port that has launched traders and invaders for millennia.
Fun fact: in days of old, soldiers in Nizwa’s fortress would boil date juice to pour down sly “murder holes” to deter attacking armies – surely the sweetest of weapons? At sunset, fire torches are lit to the sound of drums. I take my seat in a recreated fortress to taste chef de partie Elsayed Metawee’s oven-cooked version – it emerges strong and dark, rich and so smoky, studded with pearls of pomegranate.
On my way down the mountain, hairpin bends and rock faces on either side of the road, my mind is on frankincense, rosewater, cardamon and dates; my travels are fuelled by spiced karak and scented coffee.
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