Guinness registers largest date dish in the world

Mezirah: The largest date dish was registered in the Guinness Book of World Records on Thursday.

The record has been registered for the first time under this category said Rob Molloy, representative of Guinness at the Fourth Liwa Festival.

Molloy examined the dish displayed in the festival's exhibition in Mezirah and handed a registration certificate to Rakan Maktoum Al Qubaisi, Head of the Organising Committee.

"For the first time we registered a record for such a size," said Molloy.

The size of the dish is 10.06m x 2.03m and made of steel. About 200 workers lifted the dish from the truck to put it on display.

"The UAE is famous for registering records in different categories, it's part of its reputation," said Molloy.

"We don't have records for largest dishes of any kind, we have records for numbers of dishes on display," he said. There was a debate between Guinness and the organisers about the material to be used for the dish. Organisers wanted to register a dish made of steel but Guinness rejected the request and wanted it made of porcelain or china.

"Then we came to know that it is part of the tradition to serve date in steel dishes and we agreed to register it," he said. Mohammad Khalifa Al Qubaisi, a member of the organising committee told Gulf News "we could not count the dates in the dish but it could be about one million fruit."

The festival will be recording world records every year, he said. The festival is organised under the patronage of General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.