Dining & Entertainment

Yemeni hotel restaurants serve both Western & Oriental dishes, particularly Indian & Chinese. Few independent restaurants serve international & Arab cuisine. Seafood is particularly recommended. Restaurants in Yemen are more for eating than for socializing. Lunch is the main meal of the day. Alcohol is prohibited by Islam but is served in western type of establishments.

Shopping

Yemen does not have all the traditional Arab items, but it does have some typical Yemeni products that you can buy as souvenirs. In the silver souqs of San’a and Ta’izz, old and antique looking jewellery is sold. The typically Yemeni product is the silver jewellery crafted traditionally by the Jews of Yemen. The jambiya or the sharply curved tribesmen’s curving dagger is typical of countries of southern Arabia. Men on a special belt at the waist wear it.

A special form of silverware is the Maria Theresa Thaler, which is a coin of Austrian origin. The Ottoman Turks introduced the coin in Yemen where it was in circulation till the end of the 1980s.