I wish the Bourdain show had spent some more time on the Omani food – something I say after most of the episodes lately – and less on the public relations firm talking points. He has slowly morphed into Robin Leach, which is rather disappointing to this formerly enthusiastic fan.
The Sultanate of Oman stretched from the Gulf all the way down to what is now Northern Moçambique, and it really encompasses two two different ethnic groups and cuisines – Arab and Swahili. I haven’t yet been to Muscat, but I have traveled through much of what used to be the Sultanate of Oman along the East African coast, and I really enjoyed the Swahili cooking – heavy on seafood and coconut laden curries, coconut rice, and chapatis. Malay or southern indian has some similarities, but I’m not aware of any Swahilli New York City. The closest place I have heard of is Swahili Village in Beltsville, Maryland, but I’ve never been there, and don’t know anybody who has been. While there are no Arab Omani restaurants in NYC either, I don’t think it would be vastly different than the food from the rest of southern Arabia. I’m not crazy about many of the Yemeni places in town, but Aden on Steinway Blvd. is marginally ok, and would probably give you a reasonable facsimile of many of the meat dishes. David’s Restaurant on King’s Highway in Brooklyn does a great job with Yemenite Soup – which it seems is also eaten in Muscat – and also notably excellent hummus, falafel, kebabs, and foods of the Sephardic diaspora.
I have heard that Oman Air will begin JFK flights to Muscat in 2018, so there might soon be an easy way to go to the source.
