The love Arabs have for koussa (zucchini) goes beyond cravings, especially when it's stuffed with meat and rice. Lucky for us, the vegetable isn't as expensive in the region as it is in some places in the world, say, Japan.
Earlier this week, a Japanese-Arab Twitter page kindly informed (read: baffled) us that a zucchini - yes, a single piece of zucchini - costs around $1.80 in the country. Just like they sell it around Europe and in the west in general.
The account, which in February dared to tweet that sushi beats mahashi, also asked followers to list the prices of the veggie in their respective countries, and boy did they do more than that.
One koussa = $1.80
A statement that no Arab could handle
"How much did you say it costs?!"
"That's why they eat insects"
"Whoever cooks a whole pot of koussa is rich"
"Why, is this zucchini gold-plated?"
"Here, when we want to say something is cheap, we use koussa as an example"
Have a look at prices from around the region
"- In Iraq, a kg is for 500 dinar ($0.42) or no one buys it.
- In Egypt, a kg of koussa is 8 Egyptian pounds, which is around $0.50.
- In Saudi Arabia, it's 3 riyals ($0.80) per kg."
Denial mode on
"From the image, it looks like the entire box costs $1.80, it's not the price per piece."
The price tag wasn't the only thing that shocked Arabs
"Is this a zucchini or a cucumber?"
No one could figure out if this really was zucchini
"This is the first time I see a zucchini that's this long."
"This is a khyaroussa"
"The color of a cucumber, the looks of a koussa."