Yemeni Cuisine: A Guide

Yemeni restaurants are eating places rather than places of social interaction. Lunch is the main meal of the day. Instead of the knife and fork, fingers of the right hand and a piece of bread are usually used to eat the meal. Bottled mineral water and soft drinks are easily available even in the smallest villages. Never drink water from the plastic jars in the restaurants.

Bread is baked once or twice daily and is of several varieties: khubz tawwa (ordinary bread fired at home), ruti (bought from the stores) and lahuh (a festive pancake type of bread made from sorghum).

Kebabs are common and cheap. The national dish is a thick, very hot stew laced with chillies and made of lamb or chicken with lentils, beans, chickpeas, coriander, spices called "salta" and served with rice. The Yemenis also have varieties of "shurba" that is a cross between stew and soup, like "shurba bisan" (a lentil soup) and "shurba wasabi" (lamb soup). Fenugreek is often used in these soups.

A typical Yemeni dessert is "bint al-sahn", that is sweet bread made with eggs, and dipped in clarified butter and honey. The everyday drink in Yemen is shay or tea, had in small glasses with or without milk. It is sometimes flavoured with a leaf of mint. "Qahwa" or coffee is often flavoured with ginger and other spices. Yemen is the birthplace of coffee and is served very sweet. Alcohol is banned under the strict Islamic law, but is available in western establishments.