Special Eid recipes to delight your taste buds

From Gadoae to Bahraini halwa, there are many delicious Bahraini food items that add unique charm to the celebrations

Special dishes are associated with special festivals and Eid Al Adha is no different. One of the popular traditions among Bahrains is to visit each other’s families during Eid to convey greetings and wishes.

In Arabic these visits are called ‘Bait el Oud’. During these visits, guests are served snacks and sweets popularly known as ‘Eid Gadoae’. Gadoae is a popular word for light meals, which include many salty and sweet bites along with warm drinks such as tea or coffee.

Speaking to Tribune, Malaak, a Bahraini woman, said, “Gadoaes vary depending on the financial abilities of the host. Most often, the sweet dishes, such as dates with flour, Khanfarush, Rahash, Kebayt or Zallabiya are offered. All these dishes are very traditional, but recently people added Samoosa, Lessan el Thor, Baydh el Qatta and Legaymat to those dishes; in addition to the permanent princess of dishes, the Bahraini Halwa.”

“Khanfarush is a sweet pastry. It is said in the folklore, as a joke, that Khanfrush is the name of a fairy/ demon of the jinn (genies) who invented this exotic candy, which is fragile and preferably eaten with coffee. “There is legend behind Zallabiya. It is said that a ruler, during the Abbassids reign, asked a chef to make a special dessert. The chef made it, but felt that the Sultan would not like it, because of its strange shape and high sugar in it. The chef said, “Zalla Biy,” which meant that ‘he will kill me’, but the Sultan liked the taste of the dessert, and it has been called Zallabiya ever since.

“The Rahash is a candy made mainly of flour and sugar mixed with tahini. Tahini, is a sesame extract that was imported by Bahrainis from India and Persia, along with sweet dates; not to forget mentioning the mixed fruit dish.

“The most famous of salty dishes to be served at the beginning of Eid is the “Yugutt”, which is made up of dried salted milk and “katteen”, which is salt-dried figs. In addition to that, it has a mixture of cashew nuts, almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Lately, new additions have been made to the list of nuts, and are similar to the Indian Matthai, which is one of the salty dishes offered during Eid.