Kuwait

Kuwaiti cuisine centers on machboos, spiced rice with meat or fish, and reflects Gulf trade with India and Persia. Dried lime (loomi), cardamom, and the ritual of dates and coffee define the table.

The Kuwaiti signature within the machboos family is the prawn version, machboos rubyan, because Gulf shrimp were landed here in quantity long before oil. The dried black lime is pricked with a fork before it goes into the pot so its sourness can leach out, and bzar, the local spice blend, does the rest.

Harees is the Ramadan dish, wheat and meat cooked down and beaten until they become one texture, and it appears across the Gulf rather than in Kuwait alone. Before oil, this was a pearling and trading port whose boats ran to India and East Africa, and the cardamom, saffron, rice and dried lime in the pantry all arrived that way.

A fragrant saffron and cardamom sponge cake topped with sesame and nigella seeds, a Kuwaiti celebration classic.