Supervisor Abdulla shows grounded Gharam masala and ginger butter moulded into a tower at the Hardamout stall. PICTURE: Shemeer Rasheed
By Noimot Olayiwola/Staff Reporter
Attracted by their pleasant aroma and colourful display, stalls offering mixed cooking spices including herbal tea, pickles, saffrons and sweets continue to receive a large number of visitors to the ongoing Doha Trade Fair at the Doha Exhibition Centre.
One of the most popular of such stores is Hardamout, offering a melange of traditional Yemeni spices and coffee.
At the stall, customers particularly like the Gharam masala, which is a mixture of spices such as ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, dried red pepper, black pepper, dried lemon, garlic and other traditional items like ‘innaca’ and ‘zeena’.
The ungrounded masala, which costs QR40 per kilo, can be used to add aroma to beef, chicken and even biryani, said Ameen Abdulla, one of the stall supervisors dressed in traditional Yemeni trader’s regalia ‘jambia’, comprising a thobe fitted with a belt brandishing a knife.
A kilo of Hardamout’s Yemeni coffee with cardamon and ginger is priced at QR18, while one kilo of ginger butter that can be used to cure cough when taken with hot milk, costs QR40.
Another stall participating from Iran is Zafferan Chitoos, which is offering a wide range of items such as sweet and chocolate of various kinds, pistachio, fig, almonds, raisins, honey, as well as tea and saffron.
A kilo of honey is QR10 in the store, which also has item as cheap as QR2, Ibrahim, a salesman said.
More pure honey and other honey-based items are available at another Iranian stall nearby, at QR70 per kilo, and a bottle of honey nut costing QR25.
Also, from Qatar is Bonita, which was established some two years ago mainly for selling sweets and fresh chocolate.
At the booth, a kilo of assorted sweets costs QR50 while only chocolate is QR70, booth manager Taha Zaka from Syria said.
At Oasis Dates from Saudi Arabia, which is also recording brisk sale at the DTF, a jar of Saudi coffee is being sold for QR80, a smaller container of Saudi coffee masala comprising saffron, ginger, cloves and cardamon costs QR20, while a half kilo of Madinat Adwa dates is QR80 and a kilo of Khalas Qasseem dates is priced at QR90.
The centre of attraction is traditional sweets by ‘Qadooa’ making its way to DTF for the first time having being debut in Bahrain, according to Qadooa general manager Thabet Yousift Qamber. Prices of sweets at the stall range from QR70-350 per kilo.
Moreover, cooking utensils are also getting attention from visitors to the fair as a Pakistani company, Welco, and other competitors are having an easy time selling a good number of units of their steamer and barbeque makers daily.
The supervisors are doing live demonstrations for visitors on how to use both the steamer and the barbeque maker.
The items, which come in different sizes, are made of fabricated metal and could be used to cook on hot plate, gas burners as well as electric cooker. They are priced between QR120-140.
The DTF continues until January 10.
