Arab cuisine is unique in preparation, flavor, and depth. If you are not familiar with the country of Yemen or Yemeni food, you are in for quite a treat. Yemen is a Middle Eastern country located across the Red Sea on the Arabian Peninsula in Asia, but you don’t need to travel there to experience Arab cuisine. Shibam is an authortiy on Yemini food and Yemeni recipes!
Like all cultures, Yemen has what they consider staple foods. Goat, lamb, chicken, and fish are the most commonly eaten meats. Beef is quite expensive, and dairy products are not usually consumed as much in their diet. Rice is paired with a lot of Yemeni food as their main starch, but they incorporate a variety of vegetables to their dishes as well. Yemeni recipes have different variations of bread such as kubana, mallawach as well as flatbreads or kobz. These types of bread are all unique in taste and ingredients and are prepared differently from one another.
Whether you refer to it as Middle Eastern, Yemeni, or Arab cuisine, the ingredients used are all relatable. What we usually crave as people is the need to try something new and different in terms of preparation and flavors. With Yemeni food, you can satisfy this desire, because there is such a wide variety of dishes available for breakfast, snacks, lunch, and dinner.
You are sure to find some delicious dishes at your local Yemeni restaurant. Dishes such as haneeth, chicken mandi, or lamb mandi are very popular choices and quite filling. Mandi is very tender meat that is seasoned and then boiled in spices served with seasoned rice. You can choose between the chicken mandi or lamb mandi. Haneeth is a traditional dish that consists of a veal that is seasoned and prepared inside of a sealed cooking vessel. It’s cooked at a very high temperature that results in very tender meat. Popular spices used in Middle Eastern cooking can vary from hot to mild. The use of turmeric, coriander, mint, chili peppers and cilantro make for a wonderfully complex flavor arrangement that is unique and can be found at your local Yemeni restaurant.
When you are looking to get out of your comfort zone and try something new for breakfast, lunch or dinner, Shibam, the Yemeni kitchen, is sure to satisfy your cravings to check off your daily food category list.