Muscat: Oman’s Al Hosni Sweets created a new Guinness World Record by making the largest halwa (sweetmeat) in the shape of the Sultanate’s map on the occasion of the Oman’s 45th National Day celebration.
According to Times of Oman, the sweet weighed more than 750 kg contained 45 dishes of halwa complied into a one giant halwa.
It took 10 people to cook the halwa.
Murshid Al Hosni, owner of Al Hosni Omani Sweets said, “We did this in the name of Oman. The Omani sweet is an inheritance from our forefathers and we must preserve it as our tradition.”
“We cooked 45 dishes in celebration of the 45th National Day,” he added.
The halwa contains 900 litres (lt) of water, 27 kg of corn starch, 270 kg of sugar, 135lt of rose water, 90 kg of ghee and cardamom each and 135 eggs.
Judging criteria
According to Guinness World Record’s one of the strict judging criteria was that the halwa must be distributed for it to be valid as a record.
“It has to be halwa. For a halwa to be made anywhere in the world, it has to a have four main ingredients: sugar, starch, eggs, water and ghee are a minimum. To make it an Omani sweet, you have to add what you want and that’s according to the local culture,” Pravin Patel, adjudicator for the Guinness World Records-London, said, explaining the criteria which was followed.
Unique
Talking about the unique record, Patel said, “It’s unique and the first of its kind. We have many new applicants for the Guinness World Records. We don’t accept every record, so we liked this idea (halwa), it’s unique and we said okay.”
“This achievement is dedicated to His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, the loyal Omani people and friends and family. This has now opened several doors, which will motivate me to go for bigger opportunities,” said Al Hosni.
“My grandfather, father and uncle and now my whole family all make halwa and that made me open my eyes that this career is important. We will teach our children (to cook halwa) so that it doesn’t wither away, and our secrets remain within the family,” he added.
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