 |
| Indian oud at AED200,000 per kg |
|
As for gold, there are two things in this region that are worth more than gold: oud and saffron.
Oud is such an important part of the Arabs’ daily lives that it deserves an in-depth introduction.
First of all, don't get mixed up with the Arabian traditional string instrument which looks like a pearl-shaped guitar with a round back, that is also called oud (عود); exactly the same word with the same pronunciation. However, when it comes to the incense, oud or agarwood is everywhere in town; you can smell oud burning in every corner of shopping malls.
 |
| A musician playing the oud |
According to old Muslim scriptures, it is called oud-al-hindi, hinting that it originated from India. It might also explain why the most expensive oud comes from India. In one shop, we saw some Cambodian oud priced at AED 25,000 per kg while the best Indian oud in the shop cost AED 200,000 per kg, eight times the price of its Cambodian counterpart.
Then we saw a bottle of oud essence oil which has 150 years written on it. I joked at the salesman that his shop couldn’t have been 150 years’ old?! He told us that it was the age of the tree. Tree bark had been harvested from the same tree for that many years! It sounded similar to the durian trees in Malaysia, being marked for their excellence and yielding harvest for generations.
 |
| Oud essence oil from a 150 years' old tree |
Arabic households would burn oud in a incense burner and then pass it around to guests to show hospitality. I was also told that one should cup their hands to collect the smoke from the burner and then bath their faces and heads with the smoke. Oud is becoming so popular that European perfume brands are adding it into their concoctions too; so much so that oud has now become more expensive than gold! However, it really is an acquired taste when used on the body.
 |
| Resin or oud is heated on top of a burning charcoal disc inside a burner |
 |
| Burner of this size can be passed around guests |
Of course, another exotic commodity here which is worth more than gold is saffron -- the "red gold". Depending on the shops, some would even lie about Spanish saffron being better than Iranian saffron. Shameless! I also saw some which claimed themselves to be Iranian but bore the brand name "Taj Mahal"?! Anyway, according to my "intensive" research, the best saffron "available" should be Persian (sounds so much more romantic!) unless you can get your hands on some Kashmiri saffron.
 |
Top: the best quality saffron I can find in this trip
Bottom: saffron with yellow strands from a local supermarket |
There are all kinds of fake saffron these days: some are colour-dyed stigmas from other flowers or even corn silk; some are plastic; sometimes the yellow part of the strands are added in to increase the weight; and some are mixed with the cheaper Spanish saffron. Now that I have smelled so many different grades of saffron from so many shops between Abu Dhabi and Dubai, I would say the aroma of the best quality saffron does not have what I would call a smell of pharmacy. Also use your eyes to look at the length and the heads of the stigmas. They should be a small-trumpet shape and the longer they are the better.
So there we are; frankincense (luban), myrrh and the "new" gold!
Comments
Post a Comment