Finally Some Good Yemeni/Yemenite Food & Fond Memories

Above: My sister has no problem reading a menu or eating with her daughter conveniently suspended in a sling.

Below: Tasty Yemeni food:)



Once upon a time (when I was still a teenager), I lived in an insular Yemenite community in Israel. It was an interesting experience-- imagine constantly being referred to as "Ha-Amerikani" (= The American). It would be an understatement to say that I stood out with my light brown hair, fair skin and blue eyes. It would be accurate to say that everyone within twenty blocks knew of my arrival and who I was within 24 hours. (The most common question I got in those first few days was "Who is your husband?" and "Where is your husband?" as no one could quite comprehend why I would be there without a man or that a young woman could move halfway across the world all on her own).

In addition to having an eye-opening cultural experience, improving my Hebrew and learning a fair bit of Arabic, I also became a big fan of Yemenite food, despite a bit of a rough start. My first day in Israel, my host family siblings took advantage of my disorientation (hello jet lag) and poor Hebrew to dupe me into eating a spoonful of schug (mainly ground up hot peppers)-- HARIF (spicy/hot in Hebrew)! I was not amused, despite my penchant for spicy food.

Since then I have often longed to eat a meal of traditional Yemenite food, but alas, no such opportunity has presented itself in California, or even this summer in Washington, DC. Since this is the first time I have spent more than a few hours in New York city, I decided to hunt for a good Yemenite restaurant.

First problem: If you put Yemenite into Yelp or another online restaurant review or guide, it only comes up with Jewish/Israeli Yemenite food. However, Yemeni yields a full set of results.

Second problem: The Yemeni restaurants are in the Brooklyn/Cobble Hill area, quite far from my sister's apartment.

Solution: I decided to try Queen Sheba in Harlem, the only Yemeni restaurant listed outside the main area.

The food was quite good. I had tea, vegetarian shorba, fattah/fateh bread with honey and butter and fasoulia/fassoulia (kidney beans and rice).

I realize that the food I grew accustomed to in Israel is not the regular Yemeni cuisine. For example, the Jewish version of fasoulia is apparently called fasoulia bzait. Who knew?
If I could have any Yemenite food, I would love some jachnun (jachnoon), kubaneh or most of all, matrid. I was able to find recipes for kubaneh and Yemenite chicken soup in The Sephardic Table: The Vibrant Cooking Of The Mediterranean Jews by Pamela Grau Twena, but those are just a few of the recipes I would like to have.

What has eluded me completely, and most frustratingly, is a recipe for a Yemeni yogurt soup that I remember having after my family broke the fast on Yom Kippur and also that my family made for me one time when I was very ill. I could have sworn it was called matrid, but many fruitless searches have turned up nothing under that name. A search for Yemenite yogurt soup on google turns up one recipe for "zom" which sounds similar:

I have no idea why the entire internets haven't generated 1 recipe for yogurt soup. Seriously, this is the best comfort food on earth. spicy, creamy, satisfying. What more could you want? Oh - high in calcium, low in fat.

I make it a bit "by ear" but.. you need this for a single serving:

Zom. Yogurt Soup.

2 cups of nonfat yogurt, fat free is fine, by lowfat is smoother

2 tablespoons of flour

water

some sort of spicey stuff - I like yemenite Schug but I suspect that comes from my historical love of the flavor. I bet other hot sauces would work just fine.

Hunks of bread

Mix water with flour in a small pot on the stove until well blended. Turn on stove to medium. Add in yogurt and stir until the yogurt breaks down into a smooth mix. Add small amounts of water to achieve desired consistency. I like it pretty thick - sort of "potato soup" thick. As the mixture warms, add some spicy sauce, to taste. Continue stirring until you achieve a boil and immediately remove from heat. (It's rather prone to burning, strangely).

Pour into bowl. Dip or submerge hunks of "good bread" in it (like giant fresh croutons). Enjoy.

The book Yemen by Anna Hestler curiously describes "a refreshing green yogurt soup called shafut ("SHA-fuht") made with sour milk mixed with chili beans and herbs, poured over bits of bread." There is also this online recipe for chefout:

• 2 pieces flat bread
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 cups yogurt
• 1-2 hot chilies (or 2 tbsp canned green chilies)
• 3/4 cup coriander leaves

Directions

1) In a blender, finely chop coriander leaves. Add all other ingredients except bread.

2) Put bite size pieces of bread in a bowl and pour over soup mixture. The bread absorbs the sauce and is refreshing.

And last of all, apparently the recently published Flatbreads and Flavors: A Baker's Atlas by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duquid includes a recipe for Yemeni yogurt soup.

I'll have to try some of these recipes out and report back...

Meanwhile, if anyone out there has any suggestions for spicy Yemeni yogurt soup, feel free to post a comment. I imagine getting the flavor and texture right in America is quite challenging, as our dairy products are quite different (and lacking in my humble opinion) compared to the variety and flavors available in the Middle East.