Omani STREET FOOD in Muscat - Camel Curry _ Camel HUMP in Oman 🐫 First Day in Oman!

Welcome to Chopstick Travel. I'm Luke Martin and today I'm in the Sultanate of Oman. I am super excited to be here because this is my first time. So a new country, really exciting and if I'm being honest with you I'm not familiar with Oman culture so this is going to be a full learning experience for me. I'm going to be here for a few days tasting all kinds of Omani delicacies. It's going to be a really interesting series. We're right here at the Grand Mosque here in Muscat, the capital of Oman. So I'm checking this place out this morning and then I'm going to head for an Omani breakfast. It's going to be a great episode so make sure you stay tuned until the end. Let's go eat some Omani food. This mosque is absolutely huge. It's one of the biggest in the GCC and you have these beautiful flowers, all this amazing marble. This is one of the most popular tourist attractions in Muscat and if you're a woman you need to cover your head. Look at what Mink has on. She just rented it here to come inside the Grand Mosque. I like your outfit. I like it too. You're looking like a local. I find that one of the most beautiful parts of this mosque is the way that the shadows are projected on the marble floors from these archways. It really just sets a beautiful peaceful atmosphere. Just took my shoes off. It came inside of the mosque and this is just so extravagant. Everything in here is just so grand. The carpet in here is just one piece, handmade. It took years and years to make it. It's apparently the second largest in the world and then the chandelier up here too is also apparently the second largest in the world. Wow, so grand, so beautiful. The Grand Mosque is a perfect introduction into Omani culture and a great first stop on my trip here but let's be honest, the real reason I'm here is for the food so let's go get some breakfast. For my first stop here in Oman, I've come to Dukhana Cafe. It's built like a traditional Omani home but this is more of a modern style cafe and I'm here with Ahmed from OOT Travels and Tourism. Welcome to Oman, man. So pumped to be here. Absolutely. We're going to take you through some of the dishes that we usually have for breakfast. Okay. So I'll start with, this is actually a sweet. This is sweet. It's like mini pancakes and we usually have it with honey or date syrup. Yeah, okay. That's the date syrup. Yeah. And what about this one right here? And this is suwariya. So it's like small chopped off noodles and they cook it with some sugar and condensed milk. It's really tasty. We usually have that for sweet but my main course for breakfast is usually the haris. Okay, haris. This is lamb haris, man. Yeah, I recognize this. So it's like pounded wheat, right? Yeah. With lamb and then we've got some fried shallots over here and then what's this one right here? So this is, we call it tursha. So it's a sauce. It's made of tomato paste and then you get also the tamarind sauce. It goes really well. It's got this sour kick to it and it goes really well with the haris. All right, and then we've got another huge platter of breakfast items here. I see some chickpeas. What's this one here? Some eggs? That's shakshuka. Shakshuka. And then some beans? Beans, more beans. And then we got, this is my favorite, man. This is cream and honey. Cream and honey. Oh, that sounds amazing. And then a little bit of cheese. Some veggies. And then you get the lentils. Okay. So we usually have such an amazing variety of food for breakfast. This is a serious breakfast. Yeah, it's lunch, man. So should we dig in? Before we dig in, man, I'm gonna serve you some coffee. Coffee. All right. Omani coffee. I've heard a lot about it. Thank you very much. So just a little cup like that. I love it. And not filled up too much. Just only about halfway. I can smell the cardamom in there already. Let's try. Oh yeah. Wow. It's got like a floral cardamom flavor. A little bit bitter and not actually as strong as I was expecting. It's a little bit light. Yeah, it's not too strong, so you can drink as much as you want. Okay, we're gonna start with the haris here. Yeah, man. I'm gonna. Oh wow, that looks thick. So and then I put some sauce on top of this? Sauce and a little bit of the onions. Yeah, okay. So just take a little bit of this tamarind sauce. Is that enough? Maybe a little bit more? Okay. That's good. I'll grab some of these onions too. It almost looks like oatmeal, but it's definitely not gonna taste like it. Wow, the tamarind sauce is really good. A little bit tangy. Really thick and creamy. And then those onions give it a nice flavor too. How much of that can you eat for breakfast though? I don't think I'm gonna be able to finish that bowl. I want to taste everything. I've also ordered up this mint lemon juice. Super green looking. Oh, that's refreshing. Okay, good start. This is beans? Just red beans? Red beans. Okay, let's try this with the chapati. Yeah. Here you go. Go for a little dip with the bread. A little bit of coriander on there. There we go. Very tomatoey. It's got a little bit of a sweetness in there too. Yeah, look at that. Lots of olive oil on top too. A little dip with the chapati bread. You can't have this without olive oil, man. No, you gotta have olive oil. Oh yeah, that is even creamier than the other one. You know what's my favorite though? This one. That looks like a seriously thick cream. And like a thin honey too. It's not actually a really, it's not a very thick honey. Let's try that. Wow. That was different than Turkish Kaymak. It's got more of a smooth texture. It's not as chunky and thick. And actually the honey's not super sweet. No. Yeah, you can really taste the cream, natural flavor. Yep. Wow. Oh man, I'm already falling in love. I'd have three, four, five dishes of this every day. I don't mind at all. This is shakshuka, right? Yeah, this is shakshuka. Go for some of those like scrambled eggs with some tomatoes and stuff in there. Some spices. It's definitely got like a Mediterranean flair. Yeah, I can feel the Mediterranean influence here for sure. With a little bit of coffee. It was really nice. There's going to be a lot of Omani coffee on this trip. Yeah. Every day, all day long. Time for our breakfast dessert. What did you call this one again? So this is sueywia. Sueywia. Yeah. It's fried noodles with some condensed milk. Fried noodles, but like kind of a sweetened version. Cardamom in there for sure too. A little bit of almond on top. They're not crunchy though. They're still soft noodles. Yeah. But it's so tasty, man. That is really unique. It's really rich as well. Yeah, it's strong. And you dip it in the, this is date syrup. Date syrup. Wow, really thick. It looks like molasses. And it's just like a little pancake or is there anything special to it? No, it's just a pancake. Omani style. Wow. That date syrup. Just a little bit of that. It's pretty sweet. Yeah, very sweet. It's like Omani maple syrup. It is what maple syrup is to Canada to Oman. Exactly. Need coffee after that. Wow. That is so sweet. It's really sweet. So that was Dakhana restaurant. Really good breakfast. Absolutely. Glad you enjoyed. Oh, I'm stuffed already. We're going to head it off to the fort, Matra Fort. Are you ready for that? Yeah, let's do it. Some ancient things. All right, cool. Let's go see it. So that up there is Matra Fort. This is a nice little town, just about 10 minutes outside of Muscat, right on the sea. And it's about 30 degrees out right now. And we're going to climb up to the top there. So it's gonna be sweaty, but it's gonna be a nice view, I think. Let's go. You know, before I came to Oman, I kind of just thought it would be like the UAE. I've been to Dubai a couple times. But since I've gotten here, I've realized that it's completely not the case. First of all, the landscape is totally different. It's beautiful here. Mountainous, rocky. It's not just like a kind of desert. But there is desert here too, of course, which we will see later on this trip. But also the buildings, you can see nothing like Dubai. Short little buildings and not super modern. They've kept the kind of traditional architecture, which I love, really sets a nice atmosphere. And I can really feel the culture here a lot more than in the UAE. Mutra actually used to be the capital of Oman. And this fort, the Mutra Fort, was originally built by Omanis back in the 1500s. But then the Portuguese came, they took over and they expanded it. And it's actually only been open for the public since 2019. So it's kind of a new attraction, you can come and see. Incredible views over Mutra. The water here is so clear and beautiful. And you can see all these cannons and stuff here because it was used as like a defense tower. But also people apparently used to live in here as well. Hey Ahmed, what is this boat doing here? The Subaru? It's just chilling here, man, waiting for us to go and check in. Oh yeah? Yeah. That's our ride home? I told them we'll be a little bit late. Hold on guys, we're coming. Get the caviar ready. This is seriously high up. It's perched right on top of this mountain. And if you look at the landscape, you can actually see all kinds of these little towers. Some of them built by Omanis and some of them built by Portuguese. But wow, this has got to be the best view in Mutra, I'd say. Maybe in Muscat. Maybe in all of Oman. Definitely. Actually, the nice thing about Oman in November is the weather is like 30 degrees, the sun is hot, but it's not humid at all. Really dry. So I'm actually not too sweaty. That was beautiful. And there was only two other tourists at the entire fort, so we had it all to ourselves almost. We're gonna head for lunch now. This is our lunch stop for today. And as you can see, the sign says that they specialize in only camel meat. I'm not exactly sure what kind of dish we're going to be having, but they're only serving dishes with camel meat. So that's a popular thing to try here in Oman. Let's go inside and check it out. It's almost set up like a buffet style. All different types of camel dishes and a lot of rice and different colors of rice. So I'm gonna dig into this and you can see this is the dining room right here. An Omani dining room all sitting on the floor. It's carpeted and eating with your hands. So I think it's gonna be a little bit messy. I'm gonna be a little bit messy anyway. So we're sitting down now. I'm with Ahmed and this is Osama, also from OT. And we've got some camel. Got a camel feast. You've had camel before, haven't you? I've had camel in Morocco before, yeah, but it was nothing like this. So I need you to help me introduce. So I see some bones here. So I'm guessing these are just camel bones. This is camel bones. This is where they made the soup out of. Yeah. We have the soup over here. Right. And then you get this one. This one, this is fried with onions and garlic. Okay. And then some more. Just fry it with salt. Okay. Spices. So just different flavors of camel meat. This one you said was tamarind sauce, right? Tamarind. Yeah. And then curry. Okay. Curry. Lots of different flavors of rice here in the middle. Yeah. This is like the white rice that we have. Yeah. This one is the Kabuli rice. Kabuli rice. Okay. This one is the Kabsa rice. Kabsa. Okay. Yeah. And what are these in here? It's probably camel pieces, man. Pieces of camel? Yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna give you extra one. Oh, yeah. Extra camel. Bone is camel meat. Wow. Yeah. All right. So you're gonna have to teach me how to eat this, right? All right. Before we get started, I asked for a special delivery. What is this? This is... Oh, wow. That's just piece of fat there? This is a fat. Okay. It's like a bone marrow or... No, it's actual fat from the hump. Oh, the camel hump. Yeah. The more humps the camel has, the tastier the fat is. Really? Yeah. How many humps can a camel have? Man, it can go up to five, six. It's like a car, like with the cylinders. I've never seen a five-humped Omani camel before. A little bit of That is a big chunk of camel hump. How does it taste? It melts. It melts. It's exploding in your mouth. Yeah, it's very juicy. Juicy and oily. It doesn't have any strange flavor at all, but it's very oily. It just completely melts. So we'll start off with... You want to try the soup first? Cheers, man. Yeah, cheers. We got some camel soup. Whoa. Oh, that's so oily. I know, right? That's really good. A little bit of saltiness in there. There's definitely lots of spices. Just leaves like a film on your lips. Very oily. Oh, it's good though. Because that's cooked with the bones, right? That's cooked. But look at the amount of fat that's still on the bone, man. So the camel must have a ton of fat on it then. Yeah. Not just in the hump, but everywhere. Yeah. Just like this? Just like this. All right. Let's go. And a ton of rice too. Whoa. Looks like ribs. Camel ribs. Tons of fat on there. And this is what the soup came out of. Yeah. It's got the same flavor as the soup. It's super oily. It's super oily. There's a lot of fat. Yeah. It's so soft, man. Like if you squeeze it, it's just going to come out. It's really juicy. So use this one. Oh, what's this? This is the sauce. So I'll just pour it a little bit everywhere. Okay. This is like a tomato sauce? Yeah. Yeah. Tomatoes and onion. Yeah. Nope. Yeah. Everything's greasy, so our hands are slippery. And then grab a piece of meat. Get some rice. It's been a while since I did the old eating with the hand. Yeah, you got it, dude. Yeah, I got it. Okay. A little bit of chili in there too. A little bit of spice. I think it was a tamarind All right. Actually, the meat is lean but oily. It's got a really nice flavor. So this one fried with onions? Yeah. Yeah. They look like they would all taste the same, but actually each one is completely different. Yep. And the rice too. So how does it taste compared to regular beef? It tastes just like beef, but oily. Very oily. Yeah. But there's no gaminess. It's not even like mutton. It's more close to beef, I'd say for sure. Would you eat it every day? I could easily eat this every day. Yep. I don't see why not. Got it. Do you eat this every day in Oman? No, but frequently. Yeah? Yeah. It's all about the thumb action. You got to kind of shovel it into your mouth. Make a circle. Yeah. It takes years of practice. But you got it, got it. Got it right from the first time. I'm a professional. I'm really impressed. It's your first time eating with your hands, Ming? Yeah. I'm excited. Which one is the best? Yeah, they're all good. Let's try this one. Get some rice. Not as easy as it looks, huh? Not easy. Is it good? First time trying camel too. Oh my god. My knees are killing me. Guys, let me tell you something. People say that Asians, like East Asians, eat a lot of rice. No. The Arabs are the people who eat a lot of rice. There's nothing but rice here. I mean, bread a little bit, but everything comes with rice. And apparently, you need to use the special soap to be able to get this oily camel meat oil off your hands. Let's go wash your hands. So you use the detergent first. Use the soap? No, detergent. Oh, the detergent. Oh, what do I mean? Just grab it? Yeah. Oh, it's actually like detergent. It's not even soap. Make sure you clean all the oil. With water? No, just wash it like that. Put a little water in it. Okay. So it's actually like clothing detergent. Not even soap. Oh, yeah. It's like scraping all that oil off. And then grab the soap. And then soap. All right. Yeah, it works really well. Don't forget to wash your hands, kids. Thank you. A little bit of tea to wash down that camel. Oh, it's got cinnamon in it. I can smell it. Oh, and it's sweet. Really sweet. What'd you think of your first camel experience? I love it a lot. Really? Yeah, I like it a lot. It tastes like beef, but so juicy. They told us there's no cholesterol in it because the fat doesn't actually mix in with the meat. So it's kind of separated completely. I don't So I think now we're going to go check out some other sightseeing here in Oman. So I've come to Al Alam Palace. This is one of the royal family's many palaces here in the Sultanate of Oman. So there's a Sultan of Oman. It's similar to a king, but it's reserved for Islamic countries. There's a religious meaning tied to the Sultan, but similar to a king. And this is a beautiful palace with really unique architecture that I haven't really seen anything quite like that building. I love the landscapes. You got the mountains with all these little forts dotting the tips of the mountain peaks. And it's like a nice breezy square. It's about 4 p.m. now, and the temperature you can feel has dropped significantly. Yeah, really enjoying my first day here in Oman. Such a unique and really interesting country. Delicious food too. Okay, this is the Mutrah Souk, which is like a market full of shops. It's covered. There's lots of different things for sale. I mean, it does feel touristy for sure. And as soon as you enter here, you can kind of see the smoke and you can smell the frankincense. So Oman is very famous for their frankincense. I think we're going to stop in at a shop and kind of check it out. Smells good. Yeah. So this is the frankincense. It comes from a tree. It's like sap that's crystallized. It's not as strong when you smell it. When it's burning, it's more strong. You can eat this? You can eat it? Yeah. Small piece. I didn't think this was edible, but Ahmed's telling me it is, or you're just tricking me. I'm not. Oh, it's chewy. Yeah, it tastes like the smell, but very light. It's like sappy and a little bit bitter. Chewy, like gum. Looks like crystals. He's got so much of it at the shop. Whoa. Okay, so the actual translation of the name of it in Oman, we say it's Luban. We translate it into English, it's gum. Gum? Oh, really? Yeah. Okay, so we call it frankincense, but in Arabic, it's gum. Luban. Luban. Yeah. Cool. Yeah, because it is. It's like not breaking down. You can just keep chewing it. It won't go away. I like, it smells really good when you burn it. Yeah. That smells awesome. Just look at the bags on the bags of it. Wow. So, a popular thing to try here at the Mutrah Souq is rose milk, and look at this. It's so pink. I feel like they must have added some food coloring. It honestly looks like Pepto-Bismol, but I hope it doesn't taste like that. I don't think it's going to. I can smell the rose. Oh, it's not as thick as I thought. It's a little bit sweet. A little bit floral, but not very strong. It honestly tastes more like vanilla ice cream or something. Not bad. It tastes like bubblegum ice cream or something. Not really like roses. So, we just came across this guy selling shawarma right here in the souq, street food style, and look at how shiny this little thing is. It's really a petite shawarma, and only 50 cents. Super affordable. Let's try it out. That is really good. If I wasn't full of camel, I'd probably eat 100 of these. That's a good shawarma. Perfect little snackable shawarma. He's been around for 47 years at this shop. So cool. Really small shawarma, but super affordable. Tasty. Some kind of tangy sauce in there. That's really good. 47 years not changing his price or his location for that shawarma shop. So cool. I mean, where can you find a 50 cents anything in Dubai, which is just right an hour, a couple hours away from Oman? Not even possible. Got to come check out Oman. Ahmed, thank you so much. Absolutely. Incredible first day here in Oman. Make sure to check out OOT Travels and Tourism. Their Instagram's down below if you guys want to do some awesome travels here in Oman. Absolutely. Hope you enjoyed. Oh man, I'm stuffed. I got a full stomach. Yeah, I do. That's awesome. We got a lot more videos coming from Oman, so stay tuned, and I'll see you guys on the next episode. Bye.