And you thought dates were demure sweet oblongs that could do no harm. Ever imagined that date in your dessert as a weapon of mass destruction? A deadly weapon to trounce a marauding army? Dates? Yes, the sweet, succulent, laden-with-nutrients dates as ammo. In ancient Oman, rulers had a no-fuss military strategy - build a fort with holes in the ceiling, christen them The Falling Shaft and deploy date syrup as slick terminators. Throw logs into burning fire, boil the dates into a gunk and then wait stealthily for the enemy to set foot in; that fateful moment when the army crossed the spiked wooden door, pots of boiling hot date syrup were poured. Not from heaven, but from the fort’s falling shaft. The scalded soldiers wailed, bawled, writhed, squirmed in pain. For the enemy, it was death by the date. For the Omanis, a sweet victory.
The Omanis had a huge date ammo catalogue.
They could pick from 250 date varieties: Khalas, Khunaizi, Khasab, Naghal,
Qashkantrah, Bunaringah, Fardh, Mebselli, Qashtabaq. Each distinct in taste,
colour and texture. Qashtabaq is red-yellowish and oblong; Khunaizi and Khasab
are dark red. Khunaizi is most sugary in taste and Khalas is often billed as
the most delicious.
The date is no longer a war ammo, but in the Nizwa Fort built in
1649 by Sultan in Saif Al Ya’rubi, The Falling Shaft still bears testimony to
Oman’s fascinating battle tales. Not just the soldiers, even the seafarers
depended on dates for survival - only 15 dates cater to an adult’s daily
requirement for essential vitamins, minerals and other trace elements. Dates
and dried lemons saved the seamen from scurvy, the nemesis of the western
sailors.
In Oman, dates are everywhere. There are more date trees than
humans. Nearly 7.6 million of them in the nation with a terrain encompassing
desert, riverbed oases and long coastlines on the Persian (Arabian) Gulf,
Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman. For generations, dates have been the main wealth
of the Omanis; the palm enjoying a near-hallowed place in every farmer’s life.
So entwined are dates with the life of an Omani that the shoot of a date palm
is ceremonially planted to commemorate the birth of a son. And when a date palm
dies or falls sick with blight, the family laments as if a dear has departed.
For the Omanis, dates are the perfect sugar substitute. There is
nary an ounce of sugar in the traditional Omani coffee. They chew a date and
then sip coffee - the two together making a heavenly cup. Wrap the date in
chocolate and the sweet-toothed would happily die for it. Pound it with sesame
and the sticky sweet turns into a mouthful of good health. Forget humans, even
Omani donkeys and horses have their date with dates; dry dates are often added
into donkey feed and a race horse gets his daily dosage of dry dates, ghee
(clarified butter) and honey.
In Al Loomie, the mint-fresh restaurant in Muscat, Chef Salim Al
Kalbani turns the dates into a rose-shaped dessert and serves the risotto with
a date on the side. He soaks dry dates and kneads the bread dough with the
sweet water. On a good day, he even stuffs the dates with cheese and wraps them
in bacon strips. One can also rustle a steaming, creamy, boozy and fruity
pudding named Date pain perdu.
In
Nizwa souq, I got lost in a warren of halwa and date shops. Only halwa and
dates. That day turned into an unforgettable date with dates in Oman.