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'Traditional Cooking Contest' to reflect tasty side of heritage

DUBAI - The Traditional Cooking Competition has been re-introduced as part of the Heritage Surprises Week, providing a tasty inroad to the culture and traditions of the UAE and the Arabian Gulf.

The competition, organised by the Dubai Summer Surprises Office at the Bin Sougat Centre as part of this sixth DSS themed week, will focus on a handful of dishes using a variety of ingredients, said Maitha Ghobash, administration coordinator and supervisor of the Traditional Cooking Competition.

"The competition has been organised to give ladies from various nationalities and cultural backgrounds an opportunity to showcase their talent by making different dishes, including main courses and sweets, in addition to decorating and serving them," she said.

"We have selected a number of traditional and Arabic dishes for the participants to cook and compete with. These include popular main courses such as Harees (whipped wheat mixed with meat), and yareesh (wheat mixed with vegetables, spices, fish or chicken) and traditional sweets like kabees (a mixture of semolina, flour, saffron and sugar), balaleet (vermicelli mixed with sugar, saffron and eggs) and aseeda (semolina with sugar and saffron)," she added.

The competition will be held over five days at the Bin Sougat Centre in Rashidiya, and is subject to a number of rules and conditions. The dish, for example, should be cooked at home and weigh less than two kilos. Participants are also free to enter multiple categories.

Dishes will be judged on cooking style, serving style and several other criteria.

All the dishes should be handed over before 4pm daily to be evaluated.

Beginning tomorrow, every day of the competition will focus on a different dish - Saturday's focus in on Harees, followed by Asida on Sunday, Balaleet on Monday, Khabees on Tuesday, and Yareesh on Wednesday. Three winners will be chosen daily and awarded substantial prizes from the Bin Sougat Centre: first-place receives Dhs2,000; second place receives Dh1,000 and third place Dh500.

The deadline for registration will be one day before every individual competition.

To register, please call Ahlan Dubai on 600545555 or visit the DSS Office on the second floor of the Department of Economic Development to collect registration forms.