Dinner Menus for More Formal Occasions

As is the custom with people in the Arab world, many dishes are prepared for guests. With the exception of dessert, all the major dishes will be spread on the table for guests to take their pick. If you wish, bring food to the table course by course, after the medieval Baghdadi fashion, beginning with the appetizers, and bawarid and nawashif dishes (cold and sauceless), followed by the main hot dishes. End the meal with dessert and tea or coffee.

• Drained yogurt rolled in nuts and za’tar and served with warm bread

  Hummus or baba ghannouj (baked puréed eggplant/aubergine with tahini/sesame paste), served with warm bread

  Biryani or parda palaw (rice pies), served with stew of your choice

  Colorful tossed salad

  Breaded cauliflower or zucchini/courgette pancakes

  Baklawa, tea or coffee

• Spinach soup

  Tabboula and msaqqa’a (fried slices of eggplant/aubergine drenched in yogurt sauce), served with warm bread

  Aromatic shanks braised in vegetable sauce, served with rice of your choice

  Chicken shish kebab on a bed of greens and herbs and onion relish, served with warm bread

  Cake of your choice

  Tea or coffee

• Lentil soup

  Beet/beetroot salad, and spiced puréed eggplant, with warm bread

  Broiled fish with yellow rice and raisin sauce, served with greens and herbs

  Any variety of boureg (stuffed fillo dough)

  Any variety of syrupy desserts

  Tea or coffee

• Tomato soup with rice

  Tabboula and hummus with warm bread

  Different kinds of grilled dishes, such as kebab (grilled ground/minced meat), and tikka (grilled lamb cubes), served with warm bread, and lots of greens and herbs

  Zucchini/courgette pancakes, lentil patties

  Yogurt drink

  Cream-filled baklawa

  Tea or coffee

• Drained yogurt with warm bread

  Tabboula and msaqqa’a (fried slices of eggplant/aubergine drenched in yogurt sauce), with bread

  Leg of lamb in sweet-sour sauce, served with rice of your choice

  Colorful tossed salad

  Spicy prune cake

  Tea or coffee