Local fruits, date delights offer sweet treat for visitors at Souq Waqif

Date products and locally grown fruits are drawing crowds while sweetening their tastes in the ongoing Local Dates Festival at Souq Waqif. Spread across a tent, over half a dozen stalls sell a diverse range of date products and sweets, to grab the attention of visitors at the 10th edition of the festival.Among the highlights is the date ice cream that is delighting many visitors. The date ice cream at Gelati Dino stall comes in different flavours and all of them have been well accepted by the visitors. "We get an overwhelming response from the visitors. We sell date ice creams of pistachio, mango, chocolate, vanilla, cinnamon and saffron flavours,” said Rana Hussnain. At the stall, date ice creams, mixed with kunafa and cheese cake, also enthuse the buyers.Date juice at the stall has turned out to be the favourite of several visitors. The juice is prepared with milk without adding sugar.Cake Al Taybeen, which has been a participant for five years at the festival, sells cakes, rangina, cheese cake, mabrousheh, cookies, pickles, jam and basbousa to delight the visitors. The prices of the sweets start at QR10 for one box.The stalls also sell date syrup, which is amongst the most sought after items at the festival. Also, locally grown figs and papaya are available at the festival at moderate prices. The price for one box of farm fresh figs starts at QR15 while the price for papaya starts at QR8.Meanwhile, the festival is evoking a good response from the visitors. The festival that started on July 24 has so far recorded sale of more than 79 tonnes of dates with the participation of 114 local date farms. Figures, released by the Ministry of Municipality on X, said it received a total of 36,000 visitors.Held under the auspices of the Ministry of Municipality and Souq Waqif Management, the festival features date farms from across Qatar and offers a variety of local dates. Running until August 7, the festival is open from 4pm to 9pm, except on Fridays and Saturdays when it remains open until 10pm.