If Iraqi Masqouf isn’t on your must-eats list, it damn well should be. But read this first.

Iraqi Masqouf (or Masgouf) is one of those unique, exotic foods you just have to try in the city. It may not be the most spectacular fish I’ve eaten over the decades, but it’s definitely an experience that I’d recommend to anyone living in, or visiting the city. If you’re a Masqouf newbie, learn from my fishy follies at Al Bait Al Baghdadi from last week and make sure you…

  • Get a big hungry group. Or starve yourself for a week. Or both. When we’re talking Masqouf at restaurants in Dubai, we’re often talking about a fish that’s over two kilograms of body weight. Probably carp, and typically hauled in to Dubai from the shores of Iran rather than the more distant Iraq. This beast is going to need all the chomping power it can get.
  • Call the restaurant 45 minutes in advance of your reaching there so you can pre-order the Masgouf. Salting the massive fish and spearing it takes about a minute, but cooking it next to the flaming wood and charcoals takes at least an additional forty-four. I’d rather have the fish ready when I get there, than eat my nails to bits while watching fellow tables plunge into their ready-&-served fishy feast.
  • Park yourself at a table that’s big enough to fit a 2 kg fish. You’ve hopefully come with a large enough group where this will naturally be the case – but if you’re a hungry twosome or a single starved individual, a romantic table for two ain’t going to cut it.
  • If you’re at Al Bait Al Baghdadi and the servers ask you what you’d like to eat with your fish, pipe up and ask for Fish Stuffing. Don’t bother asking them to give you ‘the usual’ or ‘what’s typical’ – the servers may completely gloss over recommending the fish stuffing to you. So take the initiative and jolly well ASK FOR IT. I’m not sure whether the other Iraqi restaurants in the city prepare fish stuffing, or call it by a different name – so if you don’t see it on the menu, attempt to ask for the “tomato and onion gravy.”
    More on this suspense-inducing checklist item later.
  • Eat the pickles. They’re unique – very different than the crunchy colored fare you get at Lebanese restaurants. The ones at Al Bait Al Baghdadi were more uniformly dirty green, and far more moist and peppery than what I’ve had elsewhere. There’s definitely some sort of evasive spice kicking in there that I couldn’t fathom even after repeated ponderous tastes. Subsequent google sleuthing makes me think that it may have been all spice. Whatever it was, try it. This is one of those few places where the nagging eat your greens adage doesn’t spank your taste buds all the way to the Prison of Peas.
  • Once the fish has arrived, and you’ve had your opportunity to stare at it, click photos of it, ooh and aah at it…after all the drama is done, sit back and let the server carve it up for you. The crackly golden skin cloaking the fish doesn’t just have an inviting layer of tender flaky flesh within – but it also has some hideous giant as well as dangerously tiny bones underneath that the experienced servers know how to hack around best. For those self-proclaimed Hercules amongst you – I know there are a few out there reading this – it’s those small bones that will come torpedoing at you like toothpicks into your eye if you hack at the fish in a show of primal bravery.

 

  • The texture of this fish is King. The crispy sweating skin on the top belly of the fish, the bitter charred underside that faced the direct scorching coals, the tender white slivers of fish meat that will release the salty breeze of the beach in your mouth as you chew through it…all of these deserve to be first tasted and savored plain, without the bread, without any salt or lemon adulteration, just so you can appreciate the art of how the monstrous fish is cooked through and through, to soft, evenly-roasted perfection. 

  • Once you’ve done your due diligence of the fish texture, point your tines in the direction of the aforementioned Fish Stuffing: tomato, onion and spices that have been sautéed into a rich, chunky salsa. This is the substance that transforms the otherwise white bland fish into a red receptacle of sour tomato flavor that will pinch your inner cheek and make it salivate sloppily onto your tongue.

None of the popular online restaurant reviews that mention Masqouf in Dubai have revealed this method of lathering the fish flesh with robust tomato flavor. The one exception would be D’s review, and that’s because we discovered the stuffing together – ironically after we had already finished the meal. We spent our entire lunch trying to impart flavor to the bland fishy innards by immersing them in malt vinegar, fresh squeezed lemon and salt – but something still felt amiss. Even when we prodded the server for something tomato-based, he kept the stuffing locked away and instead brought out a lip-pursingly sour Amba, or mango chutney that didn’t really do the trick.

Amba, or Mango Chutney 

A final perusal of the menu over a cup of Iraqi tea made me realize that there was something called Fish Stuffing. Intrigued beyond all hell, we ordered some to take home and consume with the leftover fish. Now that I’ve tasted the vinegar bath, the lemon lather, the salty scrub, the mango makeover, and the stuffing shower, I can safely say: Go straight for the fish stuffing, because it’s exactly that sort of magnanimous flavor that meets this fishy giant head on.

  • Go in with a DSLR camera, or with someone who owns one. I’ve noticed that a big camera tends to invite server-modeling in a lot of Arabic restaurants, and at Al Bait Al Baghdadi it even wins you rights to enter the flaming Masqouf sauna room (hence the first picture up on this post – taken just in time before I melted into my shoes with the scorching heat.) If you’re sufficiently gracious with the number of photos you click, the chefs may humour you with excited tanour bread flipping and baking acrobatics, or steer you through other interesting bits of their open kitchen aisle so that you can give them due lens attention. I really feel like I need to go back and give them their glamour shots.
  • Drink a glass of strong black cardamom Iraqi tea. Or drink two, cause it’s free at Al Bait Al Baghdadi. And because that’s the least you can do to help your internal organs digest whatever portion of the colossal fish you managed to consume that day. Till the day restaurants realize that stretchers would be a fabulous way of helping overstuffed customers wheel themselves out the door, till that day, tea will continue to be the cure for all gluttonous hangovers.

 

Al Bait Al Baghdadi Restaurant
On Al Muteena Street, Deira, Dubai
Phone: +971 (4) 273-7064
[They also have a branch in Sharjah, near Al Majaz Park. Phone: +971 (6) 559-8844]

Author: InaFryingPan

With a family legacy of ingenious cooks, a nutritionist and chef-extraordinaire mother, and a father who introduced me to steak and caviar when I could barely reach the table, I had no choice but to acquire a keen awareness of food during my childhood years in Dubai. But it was only after I found myself on a college campus in Philadelphia – far away from home, too cheap as a student to spend on anything other than pizza, and with dorm rooms that had little rat-holes of kitchens if they even had them at all – when I developed a heightened appreciation of food. An appreciation of food that I once ate every night at the dinner table in Dubai, but that was now an entire ocean away. I lusted for the culinary treasures that lay outside the stale walls of my college dining hall, hijacked friends’ kitchens to try my hand at something, anything , remotely edible, and greedily raided different websites in search of highly-rated restaurants. With my move to New York to work for a consulting firm that secretly harbored self-professed foodies, my appreciation transformed into a passion, an addicition. I felt like everyone around me in New York was talking about food: where to get the best cupcakes, pizza slices, banh mi, kati rolls, pho, fried chicken, and every other food item out there that is just a plain old dish in some part of the world, but that’s become hyped to unforeseen proportions in New York. What fuelled my addiction over time was travel to different cities, both for work and play, which gave me unfettered access to the culinary havens of not only New York, but also of DC, Virginia, Chicago, Houston, Vegas, Austin, Seattle and even a little city called Bentonville (Arkansas!). After 9 years away from home, I’ve finally taken the leap to come back to Dubai – with not just an awareness, but genuine appreciation and passionate addiction for what I’d taken for granted as a child. Mom, I’m back to reclaim my seat at your dinner table, and to rediscover this city with its ever-expanding menu of international flavors.

24 thoughts on “If Iraqi Masqouf isn’t on your must-eats list, it damn well should be. But read this first.

  1. Didi says:

    Seeing the amba made me pucker my lips, remembering how sour it was. Eeep! Note that fish stuffing can also be used for other purposes (like put on top of a piece of bread ala bruschetta) just in case there’d be any leftover ;p

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      Didi – Me like fish stuffing. It reminds me of mom’s tomato chutney…good in a sammy, good with eggs, good over rice, good for finger dips when no one is looking.

  2. FooDiva says:

    I have wanted to try masqouf for a while so am glad you reviewed and rated it so highly :). Have you tried Samad Al Iraqi at Jumeirah Beach Plaza? Meant to be good…

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      FooDiva – Nope, I have tried the Samad branch in Deira though. Service isn’t that great, but the food is awesome. That said, I haven’t tried masgouf there…I’m recruiting an army before I can go to Samad for their fish. Wanna join? ;)

  3. Zerin says:

    Wow!! I had seen this pit in a restaurant near to where I stay in Sharjah and did wonder, what the pit was used for(This pit can be viewed from the street). Since it was morning, I had not seen it lit and had totally forgotten about it till I saw your post. Now I should really go there and check it out. Thanks.

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      Zerin – Yep, the pit is the mother of grilled masgouf, now you know :) Let me know if you get a chance to try it…WITH THE FISH STUFFING.

    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @Sally – That’s what I’m hear for me lady, jump into the murky ocean so that I can test the waters before my lovely peeps jump in. One of the days those sharks are gonna get me.

    1. InaFryingPan says:

      @ginger and scotch – You know what I think would go awesome with the fish? Some soy sauce, scallions, basil, lemongrass, and…Bobby Chin style fish sauce ;) Vietnamizing the masgouf!

  4. saleem says:

    It will take some time for me to try eating seafood again – last visit to Kuwait, did try eating prawns and even I was surprised that I went for the second helping. Guess can go with the group, who will eat the fish and I try to eat a bit and see if I can get my taste buds to allow me to eat seafood again.

    Well written article – specially after your website was down – you were like fish out of the water.

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      dad – why was I not aware that you ate prawns in Kuwait?! And TWO HELPINGS?! Wow, that’s a huge big leap into the ocean of seafood that I’m going to make you eat with me from now on ;) I’m so glad your seafood streak is coming back!

      and yep, you’re spot on as always. I was a fish out of the water…a fish who cried crocodile tears over this site. It’s good to be back in my element, thanks as always for the support! HUGS. :D

  5. saleem says:

    Arva you have the ability to fight back and get the best out of the worst. never give up…you always have tomorrow to look forward to – enjoy what you do and rest will follow!

    Reply
  6. Kulsum says:

    What a shame we don’t have a place like this in Kuwait. I’m a big fan of fish cooked in this manner and to be honest, fish is best when you can taste the flavor of the flesh without any major fancy things with it. Just salt, pepper and lemon makes it for me!

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      Kulsum – well, I can understand why an Iraqi restaurant may not go down so well with Kuwait…but Dubai with it’s eclectic fishy dishes is just a stone’s throw away (or a flight away…but whatever, it’s doable.) I would say a touch of garlic & butter to the salt, pepper, lemon makes simple and classic fish —> KILLER AWESOME fish.

  7. Lifeinthefoodlane says:

    Hilariously delightful post. I am positively drooling for that fish. Whenever you need that army Arva, let me know…

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      Lifeinthefoodlane – I will remember those words hun, stay tuned for a fishy phone call soon!

  8. Farwin says:

    Arva,I can’t wait to and dig in to that massive flesh of fish.Love grilled fish and with that stuffing I’m sure it’s gonna taste great.

    Reply
    1. InaFryingPan says:

      Farwin – Hope you get a chance to go. Maybe you can take the cooked fish home and do something yummy with Sri Lankan spices…that, and appams. It could be revolutionary fusion masgouf.

  9. Nadia says:

    As an Iraqi/American, born in Baghdad, I must say, you describe our delicious fish to the tail bone!! The “Stuffing” as you refer it is called “Khalta”. The ingredients are: fresh diced onions, fresh parsley, fresh minced garlic, fresh diced tomatoes, salt, apple cider vinegar, and curry powder sauteed together with a little water.

    Sahtan!!!

    Reply

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