Sunday, January 6, 2013

Huge Yemeni Bread Dip in Lamb Stew

had a most satisfying mandi rice lunch at mahareb restaurant at nad al hammar, deira earlier today. oh, i’m a mandi-rice addict – and i don’t want to be cured, thank you very much!

so far, ‘mahareb restaurant’ is the mandi restaurant with the MOST choice in food and types of meat cooking-style in its menu. it also has a lot of other appetizers in the form of soups, salads and breads – unlike some other mandi restaurant which only has 1 or 2 type of salad available and just one soup or no choice of juice in the menu.

mahareb restaurant even has a good selection of fresh fruit juices – i would recommend the avocado juice! slurp!

also a plus point – i LOVE the family room. it’s not just compartmentalized space, or cubicles – it really IS an actual room. personally to me it’s the best i’ve seen. it’s spacious, so classy and beautiful with framed accessory and gorgeous turkish lamp on plaster ceiling. it has a thick door for privacy, and translucent glass on the wall. LOVE it!

check out my review of mahareb mandi and madfoon restaurant when we first went there. click here to read.

 

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my addiction!

 

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saltah fahsah’ or lamb stew

 

mr. khairul wanted to try this dish called ‘saltah fahsah’ which is basically lamb stew. saltah is said to be the national dish of yemen and is a staple food especially during lunch. it can be made with meat or vegetarian.

the one that we had was with soft, juicy lamb. i love the presentation. it was still boiling when we got it, served on a hot plate (or bowl, actually) and this thick bowl was amusingly funny – pitch black, with uneven top and really rough edges. macam buruk je mangkuk tu tapi very raw and classic at the same time!

the stew itself tasted tomato-ish, which i really love. however mr. khairul would like it more if it were spicy-er!

 

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the mulauwah or malawach bread of yemen

 

the saltah fahsah is served alongside this yemeni bread – mulauwah.

the mulauwah bread really looks and tastes like our roti canai, similar to parotha. however, as you can see, the size is 3-4 times larger! you can see how big the bread it when put against my eldest khaleef! yum!

we didn’t know that the bread would be this big when we ordered, so we were reasonably full from eating this bread with the lamb stew before the mandi rice arrived.

 

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what’s our main dish? mandi rice of course!

i had chicken mandi rice as usual – no contest there. it’s my most favorite dish in dubai ever! delicious well-marinated easily-torn-flesh chicken! next, is to decide on which lamb mandi to order. there are a few different choices :

  1. mandi meat – most famous yemeni dish originated from the hadramawt region
  2. madfon meat – a dish famous in western yemen
  3. borma meat – a dish famous in northern yemen cooked in broth
  4. moqalqal meat – small pieces of meat marinated in spices and fried with oil
  5. madghoot meat – pressure-cooked rice with meat
  6. oqda meat – small pieces of meat with broth and veggies
  7. zorbian meat – a yummy dish consists of rice, meat and potatoes

 

i love learning new words, especially when it involves FOOD! never knew there’s so many different types of meat (cooked in different ways) eaten with mandi rice. i guess it’s like when we have nasi lemak that can be eaten with ayam rempah, or chicken rendang and even curry chicken.

we finally settled on hanith meat which is a choice between ribs or shoulder. it’s one of the most (if not THE most) delicious lamb dish served with rice i’ve ever tasted. if ever i want to suggest a really good mandi meat dish, this would be it.

tender, juicy, succulent – it’s simply delicious!

 

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jom makan!

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