display
I got to know a sheikh from Oman through my work in top gastronomy.
He invited me to his family to show me his homeland.
I didn't have to be told twice, especially since I had never been to Oman.
Together with our chef pâtissière Anne Kratz, who is also the captain of the national team of chefs, I got on the plane to Muscat, the capital of the country.
It turned out to be eight unforgettable days full of sun, incredible landscapes and culinary delights.
For me, Oman is one of the most beautiful countries.
The temperature - it was January 2019 - was around 25 degrees, the sun was shining every day.
Ahmed, my host, had prepared everything perfectly: During the day we drove into the mountains and to the sea in a jeep.
The famous wadis - palm-fringed oases in the middle of rocky landscapes were a highlight.
I even enjoyed swimming in the gardens with fantastic water holes, even though I'm not really a water rat.
In the evening we sat in cafes and enjoyed the typical water pipe and delicious mint tea.
Oman is considered one of the safest countries in the world.
Security?
Nowhere to be seen.
Trash on the street?
Neither.
The wealth can be seen in the country.
Once Anne and I went on a trip to a rocky mountain landscape with an oasis on the summit.
Another time we camped in the desert.
Looking at the starry sky and the endless desert on a dune at night - that was a feeling of freedom that I never knew.
display
As always when I travel, I preferred to eat in hidden restaurants.
Only there is real food, the authentic cuisine of the locals.
The Omanis eat a lot of rice with meat or fish (by the way, they eat with their hands).
In addition, dates, different types of bread and many dishes with chickpeas and lentils.
Above all else, the Omanis seemed to me to eat almost constantly.
No sooner had they had breakfast than they wanted to have lunch.
That was an incredible amount of carbohydrates!
If I ate like this regularly, I would have ten pounds more on my ribs in no time.
In general, the cuisine is Indian-Pakistani or generally oriental.
Arab influence came to Oman from Yemen hundreds of years ago.
Nevertheless, they have a few dishes of their own, including Shuwa, their national dish: lamb that is cooked underground for a very, very long time in a sand oven.
I was excited!
But what made me almost addicted was their Karak tea: black tea with cardamom, star anise and clove as well as sweet condensed milk, in the deluxe version even refined with saffron.
At first I asked myself how I should drink this every day.
After a few days, I wanted to order karak tea on every street corner.
This is what original caractee looks like
Source: Julia Comp
display
In our restaurant we have reassembled the tastes of Karak tea.
Reinterpreting original dishes is my passion.
In this case, we made a dessert from the tea: from panna cotta with condensed milk and cardamom, with milk ice cream with spices (cinnamon, star anise, clove) and an almond mousse with a core of tea jelly.
Admittedly, that is time-consuming.
However, it is not at all time-consuming to prepare a Karak tea: Simply flavor half a liter of black tea with three cardamom capsules pressed on, two star anise, a stick of cinnamon and two cloves and season with sweetened condensed milk.
If available, sprinkle saffron threads over the top.
With Karak tea in hand, you can celebrate a piece of Oman and enjoy the warmth of the vast desert.
The star chef Julia Komp, head chef at the Cologne restaurant “Lokschuppen”, went on a trip around the world from January 2019 to March 2020 to explore the culinary culture of other countries. With her column she takes the readers of WELT to a different country every week.