The Oral History Analysis of Arab Food in Arabic Family

Arab food style and diet are changing throw the years based on different causes like climate change, geography and trade system. Now to get food is easier and fluency and that because of having different kind of markets and grocery which sell varied food because, of world trade that spread around the world but, prior to 75 years getting food was so limited and hard beside the lack of diversity. And in this period they used to get their food from natural source. I visited my grandmother and held this interview to collect some information about their food style before 75 years ago. My grandmother’s name is Amna she was born in Fujairah in 1943 in the rural area called Ohala. Ohala founded in the mountainous area and valleys in Fujairah. Besides, they used to take their food from urban areas and that’s the only source for them. So my grandmother moved after marriage to urban areas in the area called Algrfh what special of these area are the food source rural people used to get their food like rice, Poultry and fish from urban area.

I asked my grandmother about some special dish that they used to eat. She said that sea is an important source where they get different kind of fish for example hamor, saary and beyah. Moreover, they make malah a special dish consists sea salt and a kind of fish called kanaad it is delicious dish. They eat malah with rice or bread. My grandma got a farm for cattle like cow, goats, chickens and ram. She use to get a pure milk and butter from the goats and cow and eggs from chicken. By all these things she makes meat or chicken Megabus, puree, broth a red sauce with vegetables like pumpkin, green mango, onion and tomato. Beside, Arisya which is a rice dish.

Moving to the second question I asked her if the food have changed from what she used to eat, or is available now. She told me that food before was simple because it contains a simple ingredient but now spices appeared and another type of crops. There are still available but in different taste with more ingredients. It may slightly change for example the broth with vegetables contains more than onion and tomato like potato, Carrots, bean, parsley, green onion and Squash. Food in the past was limited so its hard to get enough food. Some remain without any adding like Bread wafers (riqaq) and leqamat. My grandmother used to get her food from a natural farms and Traditional store in urban area she used to farm Arabian lemon and banana, and as I said before she got farm of animal for milk and egg. Also, in the past they used to swap that mean exchange food. For example, my grandmother has egg and she wants watermelon so she gives 12 egg for one watermelon in the traditional market. And they used the traditional store for dates to make from sugary dates by collecting the mature date and keep it in bags made from the palm tree. And keep it above each other then it became a black sticky liquid called black honey because it’s similar to honey. They used to eat it with a sweet called leqamat.

I have asked her about her favourites food now she told me that she likes to eat Mahashi which have a different kind like grape leaves, green pepper, Squash and eggplant all these contain Egyptian rice with Minced meat and I like it too. Moreover, falafel it contains a lot of vegetables. In the past, she eats her favourite food on a special occasion like Arisya and meats megabus. She told me life before was providing limited food and there was only Indian and Pakistan trade that helps to exchange food with UAE. But, now food in UAE became so open we eat different kind of food that wasn’t in our lifetime before. Also, about farming we used to farm only specific crops and dates but that all changed and we can plant whatever we want to eat. And we have different choices now in our country from different countries. Food style is changing because of technology and development that provide us different ways to get the best food. I am so proud of our past because they depend on their self’s to get food and provide it in healthy ways. It is true that their sources are limited but they have made the best food. This interview shows me that food trade help us to provide our own producer and our ancestors contributed to the production of food that can be used in a diet.