Bahari: Recipes From an Omani Kitchen and Beyond
SynopsisPlot
Bahari, meaning "ocean" in Swahili, is a culinary exploration of the rich flavours and history of Omani cuisine, a food culture shaped by boundless coastlines and complex maritime history, with origins and influences spanning Pakistan, Iran, India, the Swahili coast, and Portugal.In this distinctive cookbook, Dina Macki travels across Oman and Zanzibar, unearthing regional delicacies and recreating the food of her heritage. With more than 90 recipes for meat, fish, and vegetables, homemade breads and dips, desserts and drinks, Macki invites us into her kitchen, showing us how to create exquisite Omani dishes at home. Tapping into the stories behind the recipes and ingredients, Macki brings a fresh perspective in nuanced essays and identity exploring how food connects us to our past and our communities.
Story
About this book
Bahari takes its title from the Swahili word for ocean, a fitting name for a cookbook centered on Oman, a country whose food culture has been shaped by centuries of coastal trade. Author Dina Macki, a British-born chef of Omani and Zanzibari heritage, presents the book as the first Omani cookbook written by an Omani chef. The collection holds more than ninety recipes covering meat, fish, vegetables, breads, dips, desserts, and drinks, drawn from traditions that reflect connections to Pakistan, Iran, India, the Swahili coast, and Portugal.
Macki structures the book around her own travels across Oman and Zanzibar, tracing regional dishes and the ingredients behind them. Alongside the recipes, she includes essays on identity and food history, exploring how particular dishes and flavors link people to their communities and ancestry. The writing addresses both the practical details of preparing Omani food at home and the broader patterns of trade and migration that brought specific spices, techniques, and crops to the region.
Oman's long Indian Ocean coastline runs from the Strait of Hormuz in the north to the border with Yemen in the south. That geography made Omani ports important stops on maritime routes for centuries, and the cookbook treats this history as inseparable from the cuisine it documents.
