Daraa - درع

Daraa - درع

On my second day of living here I went to a bridal shower for an American girl.  My future roommate grabbed me and pulled me in the kitchen.  She pointed to a crockpot in the corner filled in a bubbling grey sludge.  She asked me if I wanted to try this stuff called daraa (درع).  I'm always willing to try something once and watched as she spooned it into a bowl and topped it with butter, honey, nuts, and dried fruit.  It was warm and sweet and very filling.  I later learned that the daraa itself is made from millet flour, evaporated milk, sugar, ground almonds, and water and can be topped with a variety of different things.

As much as I enjoyed it, in the past seven years, I've only had it one or two more times.  A few weeks ago, my husband and I went out early and he asked if I wanted to stop and get some (YES!).  


Just like with lablebi, we pulled up to a stand that has stacks of bowls outside.  This time there's a vat of the bubbling grey goop.  There's a fixed price for the bowl and then an additional cost for each topping you add on.  Of course we got one of everything!  (Butter, sugar, honey, chemaa [sweet sesame paste], golden raisins, ground almonds, ground pistachios, whole walnuts, whole cashews, coconut)
We stood at a high top table in front of the shop and mixed everything all together.  Don't let the color fool you, this is super sweet and delicious.  Each bite has something different in it, either dry fruit or nuts.


We finished our bowl quickly and then washed it down with a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice.  YUM!


Daraa is also used to make very dry cookies that are sprinkled with sesame seeds, but I prefer the breakfast daraa. 

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