Yemen & Food: A Kaleidoscope of the Senses
Words by Marta Colburn Photos by Sayed Asif Mahmud
The cadence of food in Yemen is shaped by meal times and holiday schedules. Recipes are drawn from a woman’s memories and her mother and grandmother working beside her as she learns the importance of food in family life. Recipes for the same dish vary considerably even within the same village as creativity and inherited versions affect the flavors and techniques. What dish to cook is dictated by the season, availability of ingredients and finances, where the cook is from, and her family’s preferences.
Portrait of Fatima Salem in the backyard of her house in De Chalinhatten.
Abdulsalam Jubair prepares to make fresh Taizi goat cheese. Abdulsalam inherited the cheesemaking profession from his parents and grandparents and has been working in the industry since his childhood. He follows in his father's footsteps and sells cheese in the local market to provide for his family's basic needs.
Honey oozes from its comb, hung for harvest.
Seiyun Beekeeper Saleh Saeed harvests honey and shows off a full cup. His bees forage on the sidr flower, the main source of Seiyun’s renowned honey, as honey oozes from its comb hung for harvest.
A beekeeper in al-Turba smells a flower as his bees forage nearby.
Saleh finds a sidr flower, the main source of Seiyun’s renowned honey.
Yemeni cuisine is rich, diverse and little known outside the country’s borders, though the ongoing conflict and the resultant global diaspora has meant more restaurants are popping up introducing others to these hidden treasures. The food of Yemen can be described with the metaphor of a kaleidoscope of the senses with odors wafting through homes, the din of cooking and talking during preparation, the beauty of the colors and presentation, and taste buds stimulated by ever changing combinations of spices, ingredients, utensils and cooking modalities. As one adjusts the different layers of aromas, cooks, locations, meal times and special occasions, a unique combination pops up.
Abdullah al-Soraib, owner of the oldest fish restaurant in al-Mokha, stands in his kitchen. The restaurant’s rooftop was blown off by an air strike.
Men eat lunch in a restaurant after Jumma (Friday prayer) in al-Turba, Taiz. The restaurant is owned by two sisters who also prepare the food.
The kaleidoscope of breads is endless with both unleavened and leavened varieties using different grains including sorghum, wheat, millet, barley, corn, and combinations of flours. Kidam (kidma or kudam plural), is a traditional fare of soldiers still baked in the ovens of the citadel in the capital city of Sana’a. It was once made using grains brought into the city by tribes as zakat and is considered a bread of the poor as it is inexpensive, healthy, and readily available. Cooking and baking techniques also vary greatly depending on type of fuel available, such as butane gas, wood, charcoal, and dung cakes. Some Yemeni breads are cooked in a traditional beehive shaped clay oven called a tannur (varyingly known as a mefa, mawfa, mas’ud, tabun, or mas'ada in parts of the country) and others in a skillet, such as khobz tawa, or over specially heated stones among Yemeni bedouin.
Saleh Bawazeer prepares a meal of flatbread and goat meat in the traditional Bedouin way, where a grill is placed over heated stones and the food is cooked on top without any salt or oil added. Cooking is often done as a collective effort in Bedouin culture.
Mona al-Khadim prepares bread in her shelter in al-Jufaina camp. Though daily life is always a challenge, things has become a bit easier for her family since her husband Murad built the family a small house in the camp. Murad, who worked as a farmer before the war, has faced unstable employment and low wages since the family was displaced, and seeks daily labor jobs to make ends meet.
Qafoo’a bread preparation in Seiyun, Hadhramaut.
A traditional tannur in Seiyun, Hadramaut.
Muneerah Taresh stands for a portrait in al-Turba. To earn income, she bakes malooj, a flatbread, and sells it in her neighborhood.
Guma'a Mohamed pulls freshly baked bread from her tannur in al-Mokha.
Hind Nomman shows the homegrown red maize she produced in her garden in al-Turba.
A cook working in the oldest makhbaza in al-Mokha prepares dough for rashush, then lifts the finished product from the griddle moments before it is served to customers.
Hind prepares lahuh made from the flour of her homegrown red maize.
Maraq hamedh (sour soup) recipe
This tasty soup, or sauce, is a commonly shared around sufras (a woven mat, piece of fabric, or plastic sheet placed on the floor to create a clean surface for meals) in homes across Taiz, Ibb and parts of Al-Dhalea. Rarely tasted in restaurants, maraq hamedh is a soup served in the center of ‘aseed (or ‘asida), a porridge so thick, it’s really a dough ball.
‘Aseed is featured in the 10th century AD cookbook by Ibn Sayyar al-Warraq called Kitab al-Tabikh, and is found in many parts of the Arab World. After preparing the ‘aseed, a concave depression is made in the middle to hold the various soups or sauces. When eating this hearty dish, two fingers on the right hand are used to scoop up the dough and dip it in the sauce in the middle. While different sauces are used with ‘aseed, maraq hamedh is a favorite pairing in the central highlands of Yemen.
Saleh and Sahala’s family enjoy a delightful lunch together at home in the company of cats.
“During Ramadhan, my mother’s sour soup was a bold, tangy comfort — strong in flavor yet impossibly tasty, like a warm, wake-up call for the soul. I’ve tried to follow her recipe, but it’s never quite the same; she always said the secret was fresh tomatoes and just the right amount of boiled water.”
Sahala Bakheit, Saleh’s wife, cooks lunch for her family. Sahala has worked in the local salt industry for many years, and the family’s livelihood depends mainly on salt. Sahalah recounts, “We have experienced the impacts of severe storms caused by climate change. We never saw these types of storms until the past few years. The 2015 hurricane was different. It hit us hard, and we suffered tremendously.”
“Maraq hamedh is the best. If you have a cold, it makes you feel better, if you are in a bad mood it cheers you up. It is so healing it is food for the soul. I am so lucky to grow up eating maraq hamedh and knowing how to make it myself.”
Ingredients
1 medium sized yellow onion, diced finely
4 cloves of garlic, pounded or smashed
1 quart vegetable or meat broth
1 pound of beef or lamb with bones, optional
2 potatoes, diced finely, optional if not adding meat
4 medium-sized tomatoes, diced finely
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon tamar hindi paste/sauce or the flesh off of 3 seeds
1 disk of halqa, broken into pieces and soaked in a cup of boiling water for an hour, if available
1 teaspoon each of dried cumin, turmeric, paprika and coriander
Salt and black pepper to taste
2 tablespoons of tapioca flour or cornstarch to thicken the soup
Olive oil to sauté the onions and garlic
Bisbas, hot green chili, if desired
Directions
Sauté the onions and garlic in olive oil until golden brown and add the tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Some cooks blend this mixture as well until smooth.
Add tomatoes, spices and chili and blend until smooth in the food processor/blender.
Put the mixture in the pot with the onion/garlic/tomato paste and add the tamar hindi paste/flesh, halqa with liquid
Add the broth and the tapioca flour or cornstarch to thicken and mix continuously on a low heat.
When thickened add the potatoes or meat and bones.
Let it stew for an hour on low heat, or put into a pressure cooker for 25 minutes.
When the potatoes/meat is cooked it’s ready. Remove the bones.
Serve as a soup on its own, as a sauce with bread for dipping, or pour into a depression in the middle of the ‘aseed and dig in!
Women labor in their fields in Seiyun wearing traditional handwoven hats made of palm fronds.
A farmer piles up a harvest of red onions near al-Khokha village in al-Hodeida.
A man hauls cabbage picked from his field near the city of Taiz.
A donkey helps transport a burdensome load of onions in al-Khokha.
Date paste stuffed in goat skins can stay preserved for years, as in the house of Adeeb Abdullah in De Chalinhatten, Soqotra.
Adeeb slices open one of the stuffed skins to get at the sticky date paste.
A man prepares a slaughtered goat for meat in Seiyun.
Dynamic Yemeni Foodways
Foodways in Yemen are not static, which is a strength of this versatile cuisine. The vast number of foods eaten in Yemen echo the diversity of the country’s lands and waters. Home and family are at the center of Yemeni society. Sharing a meal is a tradition with deep significance that reflects the importance of human connections. Food reinforces social relations and helps Yemenis bridge differences and overcome conflict. Even in times of scarcity, food underpins relations among family, tribe, and neighbors, as sharing it expresses generosity, compassion, love, and religious sentiments.
At the crossroads of ancient trade routes, monsoon weather patterns, maritime traffic and a major geological nexus, Yemeni cuisine is a culinary fusion from many parts of the world. Yemenis have been sojourning as religious, economic, cultural and even military migrants for millennia. Spices, plants and recipes ebb and flow across seas, oceans and borders, influencing foodways in Yemen and in the diaspora. Yemeni food is part of broader cultural dynamics connecting recipes to Africa, Asia and beyond and delighting diners in Cairo, Kerala, Djibouti, Kenya, Kampala, Calgary, Quebec, Dearborn, New York, and many other cities. Hopefully, readers will get an opportunity to sample this amazing cuisine for the first time or to bring back memories of their homeland!
A woman pours a cup freshly ground coffee in Bani Hamad.
Sahala Bakheit shows the salt harvest near the pans where she works in al-Mukalla. She and other women labor around the flats, removing the crystallized final product after the seawater has evaporated.
Fatin Moushale plucks qat leaves for chewing in al-Khokha.
Fatin Moushale pre-mashes qat in al-Khokha village to make chewing easier for those who have lost a few teeth.
A vendor holds a bundle of qat for sale in Qatar market in Aden.
“Halqa is an important foraged culinary and medicinal plant that is rich in vitamins E and C and high in antioxidants, with a proven ability to lower bad cholesterol levels. It is quintessential in the kitchens and medicine cabinets in homes in the southwestern mountains of Yemen.”
Book cover of Bitter Sweet: A Story of Food and Yemen.
A man bathes from a traditional well in al-Khokha.
To learn more about Yemen’s culinary treasures see the 2024 photography book, “Bittersweet, A Story of Food and Yemen,” with images by Sayed Asif Mahmud, and text by Marta Colburn and Jessica Olney, Produced by United Nations World Food Programme, Yemen, and co-published in the US by Fall Line Press.
