Emirati cuisine

Before becoming this cosmopolitan city, Dubai was a small fishing village that depended on pearl trading and livestock farming. At the time, locals mainly ate dates, camel milk, and fish. Once the city started to grow, it welcomed expatriates who brought along their own traditions and recipes. Hence, Dubai’s cuisine diversified and evolved, especially with the introduction of spices that transformed culinary habits. You’ll find in most traditional dishes some meat, fish, or rice. The most popular local speciality is machbous, a dish made with lamb or chicken served over rice, and topped with spices such as paprika, cumin, and cloves. Another national dish is madrooba, which features dried fish served with melted butter. It might surprise you but you’ll probably come across some camel meat in certain restaurants. Due to heavy immigration, you’ll notice many places serving Lebanese, Indian, and Pakistani cuisine, as these communities were among the first to massively settle in Dubai in the late 19th century. Rest assured, you can find food here from all around the world, if you want to try something different. So yes, you can eat just about anything in Dubai—but the locals have certainly held onto their culinary roots!