DOHA: The traditional Arabian fragrant rice dish, Kabsa, is so much in demand by Qatari families during Eid Al Adha that catering companies specialising in Qatari cuisine have stopped taking orders at least a week ahead of the festival.
The dish is so popular in Qatar that the specialist caterers were inundated with orders so much as that they had to turn down further orders.
“We have stopped taking orders anymore,” a catering company owner Mohamed Sulaiman told local Arabic daily Al Raya in comments published yesterday.
Kabsa is a dish in which long-grain rice is cooked with a mixture of aromatic spices and barbequed goat or sheep and served atop a huge platter of the rice.
According to Al Raya, one dish is costing this year between QR1,750 and QR1,800 ($480), but a caterer told the daily their prices remain unchanged for the past seven years despite rising costs.
The rates depend on the price of Syrian sheep. Most families prefer Syrian sheep for Kabsa.
Sulaiman said for the first day of Eid Al Adha itself he has booked orders for some 85 Kabsa dishes. Some families want the dishes delivered for 8am banquets in their homes while there are others who insist on delivery at 11am, he said. Cash-rich Qatari families now prefer to buy traditional cuisines for occasions like Eid than cook them in their homes, the daily said.
The Peninsula
