My Hyderabadi heritage always included preserved lemons. My grandmother, and now my mother, make these every season: limes in bottles with salt, set out in the cool winter sun until ready. Dhoop limboo, or sun limes as they are called in Hyderabad, is a dying trade, hard to find commercially, and few chefs use them anymore. The history of preserved limes begins in Morocco, dating back almost 1000 years. Known locally as l'ḥamd mraqqad, they were a way for ancient tribes to pr

I recently read a wonderful article, Tamarind: The African Secret That Became the Sour Heartbeat of Indian Cooking, by Harshita Saxena. It traces tamarind's origins in Africa and its journey to India. It details its use in the subcontinent and its many applications; a wonderful, enlightening article. Oman has traded with India and the African continent for centuries. The Monsoon Trade routes carried dhows along the eastern coast of Africa, from the Swahili coast up the Middle

Paneer is common in Northern India and appears in curries and stir-fries. Its origins are hotly debated, with three main theories. The oldest, and the one I am most likely to lean toward, is the Kushan and Saka-Satavahana periods (AD 75–300), or even earlier, during the Indus Valley civilization. The second origin theory is from the Persians period, the 16th century. The last is from the Portuguese period, the 17th century, when colonizers came to Bengal and taught locals to