Kuwaiti cuisine remains grounded in its very nature in straightforward, homemade fare such as the Majboos, or the scented rice, a witness to itself. Kuwaiti cuisine is internationally famous to be a volcano of colors, and flavour, which has matured over centuries of commerce, emigration, and multilateral trade on the shores of the Persian Gulf. And diversification, in which the classic nature was that of a foreign cuisine’s richer and cosmopolitan beauty. Tradition is also at the heart of Kuwaiti food preparation and meaning.
Harees, for example, the slow-cooked meat and wheat, that is typically eaten during Ramadan, is a classic example of the identification of tradition. Made within hours to most occasions, food not only is eaten for the nutrient value but eaten because it accentuates socialization and preservation of family tradition. Each preparation is available to be open to receptive experience and native taste in order to develop personal expressions of the same food. Seafood is also the dominant food in Kuwaiti food. Being an ocean-bound country, Kuwait has just as massive amounts of fresh fish that it fries, marinates, or barbecues. Samar and Safi come with sour sauce or fried potato, which shows the use of dominant taste and subsidiary foods. Foreign influence has led to the entry of pasta into contemporary Kuwaiti food where indigenous tradition mixes with foreign influence as in localized macaroni that utilizes fish.
Spices are another central food item of Kuwaiti cuisine.
Cardamom, cinnamon, and saffron are used freely, both for taste and also in respect in which they are used. Spices are gastronomically powerful as well as historically important in the way they present the history of spices overpowering the identity of the place in a biryani prepared through a very sequential layering with marinated meat and rice. These devastated spice tastes also evoke taste but not as much to centuries of trade and commerce between civilizations. The Kuwaiti cuisine has been presented extensively around the world during the past few years.
Middle Eastern cuisine, and Kuwaiti taste along with other tastes, has transcended the Middle Eastern geographical area and onto an international magnitude of food phenomenon. Kuwaiti food is now available on restaurant menus around the world, and housewives prepare and promote their culture via the Internet and TV. The phenomenon has exposed the food to humanity such that it can be accessed and consumed. Other aspects like food festivals, pop-up restaurants, and culinary schools have also made their marks in Kuwaiti cuisine. They are centers of cultural development and expansion that reorient traditional cuisine to new horizons because innovation is done without losing heritage.
House signatures such as Jasheed and Gabout indicate the performative nature of food—a mixing of time-honored skill and spectacle. Teen chefs are keeping their feet on the ground re-imagining more old-fashioned recipes in new incarnations and global flavor, making living food culture as it strikes its middle ground between innovation and fidelity to source. All this creativity is but one indication of a greater desire to establish Kuwaiti food identity globally.
The current Kuwaiti food is an excess of the food and culture. The fiery heat, raspy textures, and lush heritage are the food that is not just about sustenance but an experience pleasing to as much of an extent but conjured out of convention with a dash of added today’s zest. All foods served are an excess of the mix of the gone by and the new, ordinariness and beauty.
