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Setting out to cook a meal from Felicia Campbell’s new book, The Food of Oman, can take you to a range of places: Middle Eastern grocers (black limes, rosewater), Asian markets (powdered coconut milk), and even the hardware store (a paint chipper, the closest hack for the tool used to make the region’s distinctive flatbread).

As this varied shopping list hints, Oman is a small country whose history and geography have opened it up to flavors far beyond its borders.

“It’s probably the most surprising food I’ve ever come across, but also the most accessible,” Campbell says of Omani cuisine.

Oman lies at the historic intersection of Asian and African trade routes, as well as caravan routes to the eastern Mediterranean. It was colonized by Portugal, and then became an imperial power of its own, extending control (and its capital city) all the way to Zanzibar. Walking down an Omani street, you can hear Arabic, Swahili, English or Urdu. And all of this comes through in its food. (Despite this diversity of influences, Oman is also a surprisingly insular country, where even marrying a non-citizen requires government approval.)

‘Food Of Oman’ Serves Up Surprising Cuisine At Crossroads Of Cultures

Photos: Courtesy of Ariana Lindquist/Andrews McMeel