This guy is probably half Persian (mother) or has a Iranian Arab mother or an Iranian mother that is half Arab and half Persian/any other Iranian ethnicity. That's not quite uncommon in the GCC actually (more than anywhere else in the Arab world) and likewise the other way around in Southern Iran.
UAE is just a tiny Arab country (only 1.5 million natives) and just a tiny part of Eastern Arabia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Arabia
While indigenous Emirati cuisine is quite good, it just shows a tiny glimpse of Arabian/Arab cuisine. Compare it to eaten a dish in one part of Southern Khorasan province in Iran and thinking that this is all that Iran has to offer cuisine wise.
For instance due to the sheer size of KSA and the many historical provinces of KSA, different geographical circumstances and big distances, it is not uncommon for cities let alone regional provinces and historical regions to have quite varied and different dishes. For instance in Najd (I am not a Najdi) cities relatively close to each other have quite varied culinary traditions.
Example: (Wikipedia is really a horrible source in general and in particular for KSA due to outdated information and very few Saudi Arabian editors - the Arabic versions are always much more detailed and up to date and better) but this gives a small example of what I am talking about.
Agriculture
Palm trees in Unaizah
Date festival in alqassim
Al-Qassim region hosts more than Eight million Palm Trees, making it one of the Middle East largest producers of dates, producing an annual amount of 205 thousand tons of various types of luxury dates, which gives the region a high economic value by exporting large amounts of dates nationally and internationally, especially in the GCC region. Multi cities in the region market their dates production with dates festivals that mostly start in September, Although
Buraydah (the capital of the province) hosts one of the largest festivals in the region, at which a lot of people come from all over the
GCC countries to buy their yearly requirement of dates.
Along with
tourism,
agriculture is still the cornerstone of the region's economy. Although the region has been famous for its agricultural assets for a long time, it wasn't until recently that wheat production has been introduced to the local agricultural industry, making
Saudi Arabia a net exporter of cereal. The region also produces
dates,
grapes,
lemons, grapefruits,
mandarin oranges,
oranges,
pomegranates, and a large group of
vegetables. The region also hosts one of the biggest camel market in the world, due to its central location, surrounded by Aldahna and alnfound deserts.
Agriculture in general is considered to be a very important part of the region's natives culture, with special vegetables being linked to every city, for example eating leeks (kurrat) is associated with the people of Unaizah, while adding chili peppers to meals is associated with the people of the city of Rass.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Qassim_Region
There are many of such "surprises" in countries the size of KSA and I also suspect in Iran. Quite sure of that at least.
Yes, Arab and Iranian cuisines have similarities even more so Arabian/Iraqi cuisines and Iranian one. But it depends on the region. Eastern Arabia is most similar while my region (Hijaz) is less similar and more similar to neighboring Shami (Levantine), Egyptian, Yemeni etc. cuisine with a unique cosmopolitan touch of its own due to the history of Hijaz (Hajj, Umrah etc. and people from all over the Muslim world settling in the past 1400 years).
Your photos look nice and very familiar indeed. BTW you might not believe this but I have tasted the Iranian dish (I think it is from Northern Iran - Iranian Azerbaijan) called Gormeh Sabzi and I even made it on my own (like to make food occasionally and consider it a good capability to have).
I think that I used this Youtube video as a recipe.
Well, changes will come and normality will return. You can count on that. It's the logical thing to do but you never know with humans and power hungry people. Nobody could have expected WW1 and WW2 (almost 100 million people perished) but I highly doubt that KSA and Iran would ever go at war against each other. Something really drastic must happen.
Personally I am a bit curious (regardless of personal opinions) how those two countries will look like in say 50 years in terms of rulers, system. I might not even be surprised if KSA and Iran will one day become partners or quasi allies. One can only imagine what KSA (wider GCC as well) and Iran could accomplish if there was peace, trust and some mutually beneficial goals. Which there are already of course but it requires to sort them out so to speak. Writing this while having a flue hence me being "locked" to the computer all day (unfortunately). So apoigeiz in advance if some of the connection is lost in the process.
BTW I most likely will turn pink due to dealing with some low IQ trolls elsewhere on this forum (other threads) so take care for now. Forums where low IQ idiots are roaming freely alone for most of the time are not forums for me. I tend to deal with it online and in person. Don't have the temper or patience for it.
BTW if you are interested in a few Saudi Arabian dishes you should check this food channel out;
https://www.youtube.com/user/SaudiFoodWithEman/videos
1.5 million views;
Absolutely nothing wrong with that. I despise sellouts too. Luckily there a few among us but there are unfortunately some in the wider Arab populace. Don't care who they are selling out to. For instance I consider the current Qatari Emir as a pathetic sellout.
Please continue with such views. Only people with our views will ever be able to put order into this mess. I firmly believe that.
Cooperation with brothers and sisters, friends and allies, of course, big proponent of this, but always clean your own door first and make sure that your fundament is well.
