Rose and rose oil (attar) are more important in Western and Central Asia, where they are used for countless sweets. So, Turks dissolve some locoum, a very sweet confectionary of rubbery texture with strong rose fragrance, in their coffee (see also cardamom). In Iran, honey and jams are made more fragrant with rose flowers. Lastly, although marzipan is today widely considered an European or even German speciality, it is rooted in Middle-Eastern culinary traditions (see almond).

Rose fragrance plays some rôle in most Islâmic cultures; it often has cultic significance or is, in Arabic countries, used as a room desodorizer. Rose is of lesser importance in cooking; yet it appears as one of the innumerable ingredients to Moroccan ras el hanout (see cubeb pepper).

Rose water (ma vard) is often used to give a light, floral fragrance to Arabic and Iraqi rice dishes (machboos) which much remind to Indian biriyani (see cardamom. Long-grain rice, meat (mutton, chicken), vegetables and a large number of seasonings (cardamom, onion, saffron, cinnamon, pepper and dried limes) are slowly cooked together until tender. The spice mixture baharat (see paprika) is often used to give machboos a slight piquancy missing from the Indian counterparts. Rose water is sprinkled over the machboos after it has been finished; it takes a few minutes for the flavour to distribute, in which time the lid must be kept closed.

Northern India is known for its delicious sweets based on milk, many of which may contain a hint of rose aroma: Fried cheese balls served with syrup (gulab janum), cheese balls cooked in syrup (ras gulla) or in condensed milk (ras malai). Rose water may be sprinkled over any of these; other popular choices are saffron or, especially in tropical India, pandanus water (kewra).

The Indian drink most popular with Western tourists is lassi, which in its simplest case is just a mixture of water, yoghurt and sugar; it is usually drunk cold, preferably iced. A very common kind of lassi includes some rose water (gulabi lassi); there is also a sweet lassi with saffron flavour. Less commonly, one finds salty versions of lassi (namkin lassi), which seem to be most popular in Punjab and Gujrat; jeera lassi is a salted lassi containing some pre-toasted ground cumin, which I found more refreshing than the sweet varieties.