How sweet is your tooth this Eid?

Dubai: Sweet shops all over the UAE are gearing up for one of their busiest times of the year, Eid Al Adha.

Sugar-hungry people are stocking up on delicacies such as mouth-watering baklava, honey-coated pastries and ma’amoul filled with crushed nuts or dates.

As this special time of the year approaches, families and friends come together to celebrate over magnificent cooked meals followed by an endless supply of desserts.

“During Eid, I look forward to the desserts more than the main food,” said Lina Barakat, 37, from Beirut. “Every Eid I buy all of my traditional Arabic sweets from Al Hallab two days in advance to avoid the heavy rush. I usually go early in the morning thinking it will not be busy, however it gets busier every year. Once I even saw two people fighting over a tray of baklava,” she said.

Al Hallab is a Lebanese restaurant and sweet shop which has been operating as a family business since 1881, first established in Tripoli, Lebanon. There are three located in Dubai with the Al Garhoud branch being the most popular for Lebanese sweets.

The most popular Lebanese Eid dessert is ma’amoul, small shortbread pastries filled with walnuts, dates or pistachios — something to cater to all taste buds.

“During Eid time, our stores get extremely busy, usually around two days before Eid it is most busy. Our ma’amoul sweets are the most popular in both nuts and dates. Every Eid we end up running out of sweets but we solve this problem and keep on producing more and more to meet public demand. We get a wide selection of nationalities purchasing sweets for Eid, including a lot of Lebanese and Emiratis,” said Mohammad Tareq Hallab, purchase manager at Al Hallab.

Every Muslim country has its own traditional sweet dishes that surround Eid Al Adha. In particular, Emirati sweets embrace three main flavours: honey, saffron and dates.

Traditional Emirati sweets during Eid Al Adha include legemat, balaleet, chobab and khameer. A popular favourite is legemat, which resembles small dough balls with a chewy texture, glazed with honey syrup.