Plainly grilled or boiled fish from the rich seas around the peninsula or tender lamb and camel meat from Bedouin flocks were traditional favourites and are still popular today. But there have been foreign influences over the years. Pearl traders from the Gulf visited India and brought back the exotic spices of Southeast Asia, adding the scent of cloves, cardamom and cinnamon to Qatar’s souqs. The more recent influence of Lebanese and Syrian cooking has added dishes with a sharper Mediterranean edge, and a distinctive style of starters, called mezze, which are often a meal in themselves and provide a wide variety of dishes for vegetarians.