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Promise of summer
In the souq, straight out of the sea, some of the best summer recipes take shape. By Pinaki Chakravarty

Percy Bahadur sticks a weathered, thick-fingered hand into a bucket of seawater, emerging with something gooey and multi-limbed. It doesn't look particularly friendly, but the veteran chef looks at the squid with deepening interest. We are standing among piles of Omani sharry fish, fillets of shark, grey crabs desperately clawing at each other and some of the best tuna in the world. What better way to spend a summer weekend morning? We follow Percy deeper into the Muttrah fish souq.

"These tuna would cost a fortune in Europe," he says. "But you can get these here fresh out of the sea for great deals." He isn't joking. What could finally emerge on Michelin blessed five-star tables at the finest restaurants in Oman are now being rushed out of boats. Barely hours out of the sea, into the souq, over frying pans or grills and finally onto plates, such arrangements can lead to great things.

As the morning sun glints off the waters just beyond, Percy busies himself with the tuna. As head of the Iranian Kebab House, he orchestrates the lunches and dinners, sources saffron and personally explains the intricacies of the menu to diners. After almost a quarter century with some of the largest shipping lines in the world, he has seen enough pristine beaches, crystal clear waters and fish markets to know when everything is just right. And less than half a year into Oman, he might now have got hold of the perfect ingredients.

Although named after its extensive kebab selection, Percy’s establishment offers you much lighter fare too, including delicacies that will make a lot of sense this summer, in case you needed an excuse. Far away from the marinated kebab selection that naturally revolves around meat, you can tuck into fresh greens, cooling muttabal and hummous and platters of lightly prepared seafood. This might sound like a lot of food around the city, but each course comes with a heady Iranian twist that few others in Oman can match.

You will find refuge in even the most humble offering. Skip the plain rice and go for it with the irresistible flavour of saffron that stains it soft yellow (mirrored in the blob of butter on top), sprinkled with pomegranate seeds. Absolute perfection that demands you pair it with whatever main course you choose. Following the whiff of this most aristocratic of ingredients further will lead you to grilled shrimp, curled comatose under a sauce of saffron, garlic, butter and milk.

Such decadent summer dining demands the best of ingredients. Percy sources the best saffron, and then grinds the fibres – "It mixes better in the food this way." His feta cheese is Iranian, of course, and is easily differentiated by its texture and taste, the best part of a Salad Shirazi that you must start with.

Kilometres away, Michelin-star chef Enrico Wahl is gazing over the beachfront with pale blue eyes that rival the summer ocean. Already regarded as one of the best hospitality and dining venues in the city, The Chedi is planning to build upon itself, preparing for a new, stand-alone restaurant built somewhere on its private beach, looking out over open ocean. Those summer waters are giving Enrico, who sources his fish from contract fishermen, the raw material to construct a new menu, being tested and honed as we write this.

A new restaurant might not sound like earth shattering news, but coming from The Chedi it sounds revolutionary. A hotel with such an overriding design identity that rises above everything else, this is an establishment that effectively has just one restaurant, if you boil it down to basics. And lest it take away from the overall identity it comes without a logo, or even a name, known simply as The Restaurant.

Such finely tuned identity, from the signature hanging lamps in the lobby to the flawless geometry of architecture over the swimming pool, seem a far cry away from the cries of seagulls and fishermen at the souq down the coast. But they both rise out of the bounty of the sea, and that deep blue is at its best this summer.

Part of that bounty is the tuna that Percy is waxing eloquent about. As the fishermen haul them from the boats, heave them on to wheelbarrows and slap them down along the aisles, he reaches over and shows us the first steps to good food. "The gills have to be a deep red," he says, lifting the flap over one up. "This means it's fresh out of the sea." Not completely satisfied, he pokes a large finger into it, returning with a mucous-like coating, which he is very happy with.

Omani waters have long been harvested for tuna, and yield yellowfin, bigeye and longtail varieties. Later that night, we would slip our fish knife into dried lime and fennel seed crusted yellowfin, over asel sidr and glazed carrot dressing, with pearl barley risotto for company. On a balcony overlooking the sea, we sat down at the Bait al Bahar restaurant for this summer celebratory dinner. Even Muscat's brand new, luxurious and much anticipated Barr al Jissa Resort and Spa, under the Shangri-La, couldn't resist.

From the flurry of the jetties to saffron-flavoured platters, menus under construction and some of the most expensive dinners in Oman, July might just be your brightest month. This is the promise of summer.