One of the specialities at the Dubai Tennis Championships this year is the traditional hospitality tent set up at the Dubai Tennis Stadium.
The tent, serving local Arabic food such as ligemath (sweet bread), regagg (Arabic bread with egg and cheese), chubab (pancake with honey) and khamir (pizza with sesame) has been a huge hit with spectators coming from all around the globe to attend the tennis matches.
In addition to this, there is a corner for applying henna and a place to test Arabic perfumes.
"We have about 300 to 500 people stopping by and tasting local food that we serve," said Ahmad Al Attar, the coordinator of the Arabic tent. "While everyone comes to enjoy the tennis and the special atmosphere, our goal is to ensure they get a little bit of the local tradition while visiting our tent."
The food served — free, of course — has been well appreciated by the people. "It's delicious and people have told us more than once how much they have liked what they have tasted," said Cathy Poliquit, the supervisor at the tent.
"This is fresh food made from very healthy ingredients — and the taste is delicious. Why would people not like it?" she added.
Though this is the first year for this experiment, Al Attar has plans to ensure "the face of the UAE" is projected to people of other cultures and races.
"Since it is the first year for us here, we deliberately started small. But next year we will be bigger and better. After all, this is the Arabic face of this tournament," Al Attar said.
