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Time of India
21 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Reviving roots: How Saudi chefs are redefining heritage cuisine
Haneeth is a popular dish in Saudi Food driven by landscapes and hyperlocal ingredients A golden, crisp sphere arrives at the table, visually unassuming until the first bite. The shell shatters to reveal a warm, tender centre. It evokes arancini, but this isn't Italian. The grains are broken durum wheat and smoked rice; the coating,crumbs—bread steeped in a stew of vegetables and meat, carrying layers of flavour. Deep-fried and served in a single mouthful, it's a riff on, a traditional, three-layered Saudi feast. At Takya in Riyadh, a restaurant dedicated to preserving ancestral recipes, heritage comes reimagined as haute are many more like Takya. Saudi Arabia's culinary scene is evolving as swiftly as its tourism vision. Once known for its modest kasbah-style eateries, the dining landscape of Riyadh and Jeddah now hosts global fine-dining icons, such as Yauatcha, Nobu, and Roka. A wave of restaurants across the country is now looking inward, using regional ingredients and culinary heritage to reimagine traditional flavours through a contemporary shift is part of a larger transformation. Since 2016, the Middle Eastern country has been steadily pivoting from a fuel-focused economy to one powered by tourism, in alignment with its ambitious Vision 2030 agenda. Massive investments are driving this change, including three giga projects: the multi-billion-dollar Red Sea Project, the futuristic smart city of Neom, and the restoration of cultural heritage hubs like Diriyah and plays a key role in this vision—not just as a trade ally but also as a key tourism market. In 2023, Saudi Arabia welcomed around 1.5 million Indian visitors, a 50% jump from the previous year. The country is strengthening flight connectivity and easing visa access, as it aims to attract 7.5 million Indian tourists annually by 2030.'Saudi Arabia is deeply rooted in tradition, but at the same time, the country is rapidly evolving. In a way, the culinary scene reflects that,' says executive chef Daniele Polito of The St. Regis Red Sea Resort, one of the five resorts that are currently operational as part of the Takya, the menu spans the kingdom. From the north, there's red—broken durum wheat simmered in tomatoes and local spices. From the east, a lamb shank slow-cooked with, a red wild rice indigenous to the region, cooked with date molasses and crispy onions. From the west,, a creamy rice dish made with milk, broth, and chicken. From the central region,—a warm whole-wheat bread pudding made withdates and ghee. And from the south,, slow-cooked lamb chops smoked with herbs and served over rice.'Saudi Arabia's landscapes are incredibly diverse, and every region is known for different ingredients. The east is known for its seafood due to its proximity to the Gulf, whereas the west, a pilgrimage hub, has culinary influences from travellers around the world. We wanted to capture the diversity of the food from the region,' says Hadeel Al Motawa, Co-founder of religious and trade travel have long been integral to Saudi culture, leisure travel within the country has gained popularity post-2016. 'Before, most people knew the food in their own region,' says Al Motawa, who has journeyed across the country to gather recipes for Riyadh, chefs in Saudi's emerging tourism destinations are tapping into age-old methods of cooking. At Nesma, the Arabic restaurant with Turkish influences at The St. Regis Red Sea, chief Polito channels the cooking methods of nomadic Bedouin tribes, who slow-cooked meat underground to retain moisture and flavour. His version—lamb shank cooked sous vide until fall-off-the-bone tender—is served atop aromaticrice, studded with toasted the coast in the Alnesai Desert, at the Six Senses Red Southern Dunes, a taste of traditional Saudi dishes begins right from breakfast, with dishes like, lamb stir-fried in Arabic spices, and, goat liver sautéed with tomatoes. At the hotel's Arabic restaurant, Bariya,is elevated with duck instead of chicken, and dates are celebrated in playful as boats for quinoa salads with lemon and tahini, while, a dish of chicken and rice with nuts, gets its umaminess from a home-madedate syrup. 'A lot of the pulp goes to waste while making date syrup, so we use it in jams and chutneys that end up in dishes like hummus,' explains executive chef Nelson the desert oasis of AlUla, the local bounty finds pride of place on plates. At Banyan Tree AlUla's all-day restaurant Harrat, unripedates—yellow-hued with a honey-like sweetness—are used to glaze meats and in dressings. At Tamas, the restaurant at Our Habitas AlUla, global dishes are created with hyperlocal ingredients: salads with cactus greens, moringa flowers, kumquats, and beef paired with cactus chimichurri.'Though a desert, AlUla is incredibly fertile,' says executive chef Gerardo Corona Alarcón. 'We use local mandarins, mingans, and blood oranges in salads, moringa in drinks, and cactus in our spice rubs. The landscape drives the menu.'As tourism grows and Saudi Arabia continues to evolve, chefs are racing to keep their culinary heritage alive. 'It's not about changing tradition,' says chef Polito. 'We want to educate tourists and future generations with a spark of innovation and intrigue. The ingredients, stories, and history remain intact, but the lens is new.'
Los Angeles Times
15-02-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
House of Mandi brings the flavors of Yemen to Westwood
Walking through the glass doors of House of Mandi in Westwood, my eyes went straight to the fabric patterns I remembered from the restaurant's original location in Anaheim. Ribbons of black-and-white geometrics stream across stop-sign-red cushions. I peered around the far corner of the dining room and, sure enough, there were the similar low-to-the-ground partitioned booths for communal seating, all full of diners on a rainy Wednesday night. I wrote about the first House of Mandi, run by Sarem Mohamed and his family, back in July 2021. The restaurant took over the space that had long housed Olive Tree (a heartbreaking casualty of the pandemic) anchoring one end of U-shaped Little Arabia Plaza. In an area most richly saturated with Lebanese, Palestinian and Syrian flavors — the homey goodness of Al Baraka, the manaeesh at Forn Al Hara in dozens of savory variations, newer Kababji Grill for raw and cooked versions of kibbeh — House of Mandi had opened a specific window into Yemeni cooking, shaped for centuries by trade routes that ran through the Arabian Peninsula and along the Red Sea. Family member Faris Alkabass oversees the second branch, which he launched last March with chefs Om Fayad and Zumzum Omer. The menu looks nearly identical, a gift for those who have a shorter drive to Westwood than to Orange County. Meals center on the restaurant's namesake feast, a platter of aromatic rice and meats intended for groups: The 'whole lamb of mandi,' for example, costs almost $600 and feeds up to 18 people. At lunch, the restaurant serves portions geared for individuals, with accordingly reasonable prices. At dinner my table ordered the 'No. 1' option, comprising lamb roasted two ways and spice-rubbed roasted chicken, for three people at $93. It was an image of bounty. Turmeric-stained, cardamom-scented grains created a base for the splay of chicken and lamb. Garnishes dotted the landscape: whole green chiles, round lemon slices, wisps of caramelized onions. The odd slivered almond or golden raisin occasionally showed up, having almost disappeared into the rice. Haneeth, one of the lamb variants, arrived still in its foil to preserve its juiciness. I unrolled the packet onto the tray and the mingled scents of spices rose up from the steam. I caught cinnamon and garlic and ginger and black pepper before they evaporated, but I found them again in the lush meat. Alongside there were herbed yogurt and what the menu labels 'Yemeni sauce' — a.k.a. zahawiq, also called salata harra but more widely known these days as zhoug — its adoptive name in Israel and throughout much of the Middle East. Many versions burn with green chile, but this one is as tame as the mildest tomato salsa. They helped every forkful vary in taste and texture. The other crucial order to me is fahsah, a dense, mulchy stew of shredded lamb and vegetables fragrant with cumin and coriander. It arrived in a stone pot simmering around the edges, not quite as volcanically as soondubu appears from the kitchen in Korean restaurants, and crowned with a wholly unique topping: silky, pale-green hilba. It's made by soaking ground fenugreek for several hours; beating it to a consistency that registers somewhere between meringue and Cool Whip; and then stirring in a puree of scallions and herbs. This marvel of science fascinated me as much as it did on my first encounter in Anaheim — so much so that I went back to 'Sifratna,' an authoritative cookbook on Yemeni food by Amjaad Al Hussain, to study the instructions. Someday the right chef will reignite the trend of modernist, vegetable-forward vegan fine dining in Los Angeles, and I hope they adapt fluffy whipped powdered fenugreek as a nondairy embellishment. (As it happens, House of Mandi does serve a vegetarian version of fahsah slicked with hilba.) For contrast to these hefty centerpieces: shafoot, a salad of herbed yogurt and cucumbers over thin bread that, as it absorbs the ingredients over top, takes on the delicateness of a large crepe. There's a whole section of breakfast dishes on the menu, available any time of day; Al Hussain notes in her book that her family often eats morning staples for dinner too. Lamb galaba featured chopped bits of lamb sauteed with minced peppers, tomatoes and onions, tossed in nicely gritty spices and delivered sizzling in a stone pot. The Yemeni version of shakshouka came in scrambled form, cooked to firm, nubbly curds almost like diner eggs. They wouldn't be as bad as an early lunch, alongside strong Arabic coffee brewed with cardamom. The restaurant opens at 11 a.m. and closes at 1 a.m. I looked around the room at dinner, full of people who appear to be from many backgrounds and whose general youthfulness had me guessing that plenty of them are UCLA students. We're all diving into the pleasures of Yemeni cuisine together. House of Mandi: 1083 Gayley Ave., Los Angeles, (424) 273-1198,
