A traditional coffee in Arabic Culture would never be complete without dates.
You can see date palm trees on every single road where green has been artificially planted. You may say that, before tourism and pharaonic architecture, dates trees and camels were the most important thing of Arabic economics.
In Dubai they cover the fruits with fine green nets to protect it from birds and to harvest it, to ensure that no seed is lost once it matures. Any sweet shop where you go has a huge variety of dates with jelly, jam, chocolate, peanuts, so all you have to do is pick one.
Most palm trees are grown in nurseries outside of town and, once the trees are five years old they are transplanted to various urbanization projects all over the UAE. Each palm may reach the value of two thousand Dirhams, depending of the Emirate that buys it.
Date trees actually need the scorching temperatures of arid summer to mature, which acquires a sweet acid taste used to soften the taste of the strong Arabic coffee.
You may get very nice gift packs when you go shopping in Souk Madinat Jumeirah. Even Carrefour sells them.
So, if someone asks you if you had a date yet, no, he is not trying to pick you up. He’s offering the fruit which is kind of trademark of the region. Unless he’s really trying to pick you up, then it is up to you if you want to go out with the fruitcake or not.
