Results

Middle Eastern Rice Dishes, and How Each One Is Actually Built

Kabsa, machboos, maqluba, mujadara, freekeh. They look similar on a platter and are constructed by completely different methods. A guide to which is which and when to cook it.

Aug 14, 2026

Middle Eastern Aubergine Dishes, and the Two Ways to Cook It

Almost every great aubergine dish in the region depends on one of two techniques: burning it whole over flame, or frying it until it collapses. Choosing wrongly is why yours is rubbery.

Aug 14, 2026

Roasted Cauliflower Shawarma Bowls: Spiced, Golden

Caramelized cauliflower dressed in shawarma spices, served in grain bowls with tahini sauce. Middle Eastern flavors, no meat required.

Jan 15, 2025

Technology

What AWS's Own Report Reveals About Internet Concentration

Amazon's after-action report on the October outage confirms a blunt truth: one region in Virginia carries too much of the world's digital weight.

Nov 10, 2025

Saudi Arabia Stopped Loading Oil at Yanbu, a Houthi Drone Was Shot Down South of Mecca, and Four Ships Crossed Hormuz

With the East-West pipeline still shut, no Saudi crude has left the Red Sea since 11 September and Europe's late-September cargoes are being cancelled. The coalition called the Mecca drone a red line. An American drone killed the crews of two IRGC boats.

Sep 17, 2026

Technology

A Middle East Data Breach Now Costs 8 Million Dollars, and a Quarter of Them Are AI-Enabled

IBM's 2026 breach report puts the regional average at 8 million dollars, with lost business the single largest line at 3.57 million. The cheapest number in the study is the one most firms have not spent.

Aug 18, 2026

Turkish Menemen: Scrambled Eggs with Tomato and Peppers

A Turkish breakfast classic that transforms simple vegetables and eggs into something aromatic and deeply satisfying. Gentle heat and fresh herbs make this one-pan dish shine.

Sep 25, 2024

Gulf Aviation Is Heading for a $4.3 Billion Loss, and the Airspace Advisory Still Runs to 31 August

Middle East carriers earned 7.2 billion dollars in 2025 and are forecast to lose 4.3 billion this year. Emirates is flying at three quarters of capacity, jet fuel is up nearly half, and European regulators still advise avoiding four countries' airspace.

Aug 22, 2026

Palestinian Food: A Guide to the Dishes, Regions and Rules

Not a single cuisine but several, split between coast, hills and desert. What defines it, which dishes matter, and why so much of it is built on olive oil, wheat and the seasons.

Aug 9, 2026

Keto Shawarma Bowl: The Spice Does the Work, Not the Bread

Shawarma seasoning was never the carbohydrate. Roast chicken thighs and cauliflower hard, build a garlic sauce that is not thickened with anything, and the bread turns out to be optional.

Aug 10, 2026

Kibbeh Without Bulgur: The Potato and Rice Version Levantine Kitchens Already Make

Kibbeh is defined by bulgur, which is cracked wheat, so the gluten-free version has to be rebuilt rather than substituted. The good news is that the rebuild already exists in the region's own repertoire.

Aug 11, 2026

Knafeh Without Semolina or Kataifi: A Gluten-Free Version Worth Making

Both classic knafeh shells are wheat. Rebuilding the dish gluten free means rethinking the top layer entirely, and rice-based kataifi plus a coarse cornmeal crust gets remarkably close.

Aug 11, 2026

The Syrup Is the Recipe: Ater for Baklava and Everything Else

Two parts sugar, one part water, a squeeze of lemon and a restrained hand with the blossom water. Get this right and most Middle Eastern desserts stop being difficult.

Aug 14, 2026

Shish Tawook vs Shawarma: They Are Not the Same Chicken

Both are marinated chicken, both arrive in flatbread with garlic sauce, and they are made by completely different methods. The difference is the heat, and it changes everything.

Aug 14, 2026

Congee Is What Half the World Eats When It Is Unwell, and It Takes Five Ingredients

Rice porridge simmered until the grains dissolve is the convalescent food of East Asia, and kitchari is its equivalent in India. Adding turmeric and ginger to congee simply puts the two traditions in the same bowl.

Sep 4, 2026

Shawarma Is Not an Arabic Word, and the Dish Is Younger Than Almost Everyone Assumes

The name is a loanword from Turkish, the technique is a nineteenth century invention, and the man usually credited with it was a butcher in Bursa who turned the spit on its end. Here is where shawarma actually comes from.

Aug 21, 2026

The Same Beans, Four Countries, Four Different Breakfasts

Egyptian ful is crushed, oily and cumin-heavy. Lebanese ful keeps chickpeas in it and more lemon. Sudanese ful arrives under cheese. The bean is the same and almost nothing else is.

Aug 15, 2026

Oil Is Back Near $100, but the Outlook Splits Between Shipping Risk and Weak Demand

Brent's renewed jump toward $100 reflects Middle East shipping danger, while IEA and EIA forecasts point to demand destruction and lower prices if supply routes normalize.

Jul 25, 2026

Lamb Kabsa: Saudi Arabia's Fragrant Rice and Meat Classic

Saudi Arabia's national dish combines tender lamb with fragrant basmati rice and a warm spice blend. Toasted nuts and raisins add sweetness and crunch to this show-stopping one-pot meal.

Nov 22, 2023

Ful Medames: Breakfast That Has Outlasted Every Empire in Egypt

Fava beans simmered until they collapse, crushed with garlic, lemon and olive oil, eaten out of a bowl with bread. Older than the pyramids by some accounts, and still what Cairo eats at dawn.

Aug 14, 2026

Vegan Baklava Works, Because the Butter Was Never the Hard Part

Most filo is already vegan. Swap clarified butter for a blend of coconut oil and olive oil, use sugar syrup instead of honey, and the result is genuinely crisp rather than merely acceptable.

Aug 14, 2026

How the Red Sea Crisis Is Reshaping Gulf Supply Chains

Houthi attacks on shipping have rerouted global trade around Africa, and Gulf importers are absorbing the fallout in freight rates and delivery times.

Feb 5, 2024

Sports

New Rules Turned Formula One Upside Down: Antonelli Leads, Verstappen Is Sixth, and Two Gulf Races Are Gone

Twelve rounds into the most significant regulation change in a decade, the four time champion is more than a hundred points adrift and a driver in his second season leads by fifty. The war removed two races from the calendar as well.

Aug 24, 2026

The Houthis Took Mocha, the Red Sea Is Now the Second Strait in Play, and Two Ships Were Hit Off Oman Overnight

With Hormuz reduced to a trickle, Saudi exports go out through the Red Sea. On Thursday the Houthis took Mocha, eighty kilometres from Bab al-Mandeb, after the heaviest fighting since the 2022 truce. Hours later four projectiles hit two ships off Khasab.

Sep 12, 2026

The Ten-Year Touched Five Per Cent, Brent Held Near 107, and Chip Stocks Fell on a Warning From the People Who Sell Them

The Fed decides Wednesday with a rise at ninety per cent, the Bank of Japan is expected to follow on Friday, German Bunds are at a 2009 high and gold sits near 4,300. Nvidia lost two per cent after Anthropic and OpenAI asked the industry to slow down.

Sep 15, 2026

A Strong El Niño Is Building: The Time to Prepare Is Before the Weather Arrives

WMO forecasts point to a rapidly strengthening El Niño, raising the odds of disruptive heat, drought and heavy rain. Preparedness now can reduce damage later.

Jul 31, 2026

Miso and Tahini Are the Same Idea in Two Languages, and Aubergine Is Where They Meet

Fusion earns its name when two traditions are solving the same problem. Miso and tahini both exist to carry savoury depth into vegetables, and roasted aubergine is the dish where putting them together stops being a novelty.

Sep 4, 2026

Lifestyle

Earthquake Safety, Compared: What the Gulf, the US and Europe Actually Tell You to Do

Drop, Cover, Hold On is the near-universal instruction, and the exceptions matter. Here is the official guidance from the UAE, Saudi Arabia, the United States and Europe, and where it diverges.

Aug 12, 2026

Oil Is Flowing Again, but the Fuel Market Is Still Far From Normal

Crude shipments through the Gulf have recovered sharply, yet refineries and fuel supply remain constrained. That gap explains why cheaper oil may not quickly reach consumers.

Jul 31, 2026

Twelve Days That Closed the Gulf's Skies

Israel's strikes on Iran and the retaliation that followed grounded Gulf carriers and shut down entire national airspaces within hours.

Jun 26, 2025

The Case for Travelling in the Weeks Nobody Else Books

Shoulder season is cheaper, emptier and usually better weather than the peak it sits beside. It also has failure modes, and knowing which ones apply is the difference between a bargain and a wasted trip.

Aug 8, 2026

A Glacier Fell 1,200 Metres Onto a River, and a Valley Full of Travellers Was Gone in Half an Hour

The ice broke away above the Lhende river in Tibet on Wednesday morning, dammed it, then let go. Nepal's tourism department has 668 visitors from 34 countries listed as missing. The mechanism has a name, and the Himalaya is producing it more often.

Aug 28, 2026

Fish Mansaf: How Aqaba Rewrote Jordan's National Dish

Jordan's coastline is 26 kilometres long, and it produced its own version of the country's lamb dish. The jameed stays. The animal changes entirely.

Jul 31, 2026

Why the Gulf Economy Held When the Region Didn't

A war that closed the Strait of Hormuz and hit every GCC state should have broken the region's economics. Reserves and diversification kept it standing.

Jul 16, 2026

The Oldest Written Hummus Recipe Is Egyptian, From a Cookbook Roughly Seven Hundred Years Old

It contains four things and one of them is not optional. The supermarket version usually gets the ratio wrong, the ownership argument is genuinely political, and the earliest written record does not point where most people expect.

Aug 21, 2026

Crypto

Global Warming’s Call for Sizzling Summers Ahead: Heat Waves

Global climate change may be the most significant problem ever faced by humankind. Global climate change, also called global warming or the greenhouse effect can convey mild or gentle warming, however, a rise of just a few degrees in the average temperature of the earth can result in large-scale regional weather patterns. Global warming is

Aug 19, 2023

Why Smash Burgers Took Over Dubai's Menus

Thin, crispy-edged patties have muscled aside gourmet stacks across Dubai and the wider Gulf, and the reasons go well beyond taste alone this time.

Oct 5, 2024

Falafel Was Almost Certainly Egyptian, Made With Fava Beans, and the Chickpea Came Later

The version most of the world eats is the Levantine one, and it is a revision. Egypt still makes it the older way, with fava beans, under a different name. The argument about who owns it is genuinely political.

Aug 21, 2026

Kousa Mahshi: Lebanese Stuffed Courgettes, Cored and Simmered

Hollowing a courgette without splitting it is a skill worth twenty minutes of practice. What goes inside is rice, lamb and enough spice to season both at once.

Jul 29, 2026

Design

Designing for 45C: What Gulf Architecture Knew Before Air Conditioning

Thick walls, small openings, shaded courtyards and wind towers were not decorative. They were a cooling system, and a glass tower in the desert is a decision to pay for that work with electricity instead.

Aug 7, 2026

Health

The Finnish Sauna Study Everyone Quotes Is Real, and It Is Weaker Than the Wellness Industry Wants It to Be

Men who used a sauna four to seven times a week had far fewer sudden cardiac deaths over twenty years than men who went once. That finding launched an industry. What the study can and cannot support, and who should be careful.

Sep 6, 2026

Aramco's $67.2bn Half Year Was Built on a Supply Shock

Profit rose 29 percent as Hormuz disruption pushed crude to $108 a barrel in the second quarter. The number says more about the strait than about the company.

Aug 6, 2026

Design

A Beijing Studio Put a Restaurant Inside a Live Highway Underpass and Left Half of It to the Public

MARS Studio split the space beneath a working road bridge in Tongzhou with a wall of mirrored glass. One side is a 108 square metre dining room. The other stays an open corridor for anyone walking or cycling through.

Aug 29, 2026

Red Sea Tanker Attacks Push Oil Above $96 a Barrel

Houthi claims against two Saudi tankers have exposed the weakness in plans to bypass Hormuz, sending Brent higher as two vital shipping routes face risk.

Jul 23, 2026

Health

Berberine and the 'Nature's Ozempic' Claim: What Evidence Shows

Berberine lowers cholesterol and blood sugar in small trials, but comparing it to semaglutide misreads both the data and the biology.

Feb 14, 2024

Ghormeh Sabzi: Persian Herb Stew with Kidney Beans

Iran's unofficial national dish layers fresh herbs, kidney beans, and dried limes into a deeply aromatic stew. Serve it over saffron rice for pure comfort with complexity.

Jan 8, 2025