Traditional Arabic Food: Harees هريس

Harees (or hareesa) is an Arabic dish that resembles sort of very thick savoury porridge in a glue-like consistency (!). It's main ingredients are wheat, ghee (purified butter) and a tiny bit of meat (often lamb or mutton). It is cooked for hours until the meat has the texture of purée and completely dissolved. Yeah.

هريس

The other day I wrote about 'biryani', that is a must for Ramadan. Harees is another such dish that is typically served on special occasions like weddings, 'Eid' holidays and Ramadan.

For centuries Yemeni trade merchants travelled all round the world and some settled in Indonesia and Singapore in South East Asia as well as other parts of the world. Today there exist sizeable communities of Yemeni descendants in these countries, and Arabic is still spoken by some.

When I lived in Singapore, one Eid I visited the home of a Singaporean imam of Yemeni descent. I noticed that the harees was the very first dish out of so many other mouth-watering food on the table that a group of young Saudi exchange students helped themselves to. They were enjoying it with a touch of honey and cinnamon powder. Harees must mean a lot to many Arabs.

At the imam's, harees was duly prepared by the imam's mother herself and not by the Indonesian maids or cooks. Harees is an example of a traditional Arabic home cooked meal and customarily enjoyed only at home. Although in the Middle East, it can be found in selected Arabic restaurants throughout the year, but if you are a tourist on a short visit, the chance to try harees may not come by that easily.