Dual Cuisine Nationalism: Food, Identity and the Making of the Nation in the United Arab Emirates

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) presents a distinctive case of nation-building, as its citizens constitute a demographic minority. Nation-building in the UAE involves accommodating non-citizens while maintaining a distinct citizen-centred national identity. This study argues that the UAE constructs national identity through a dual process of culinary nationalism, in which food serves both as a symbol of indigeneity and a marker of cosmopolitan inclusion. Drawing on theories of nationalism, including the invention of tradition, banal nationalism, imagined communities and ethnocracy, the article develops the concept of dual cuisine nationalism to explain how the Emirati state combines ethnocratic and multicultural cuisines, incorporating migrant-derived foods while preserving citizen primacy. The first, an ethnocratic cuisine, is to reinforce citizenship-based belonging and national unity and emphasises Bedouin heritage and pre-oil authenticity through foods such as camel meat, dates and coffee. The second, a multicultural cuisine, incorporates migrant-derived dishes such as karak tea and biryani, symbolically recognising expatriate contributions while reaffirming distinctions between contribution, ownership and citizenship. This study is based on analyses of heritage festivals, popular media and everyday food practices. The article suggests that while migrant-derived foods are incorporated into representations of the UAE, their contribution is not one of ownership but lies within the realm of cultural diversity, and is recognised within a national framework in which citizens retain symbolic ownership of Emirati identity.