Feast of Middle Eastern food

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MENTION Middle Eastern food and most people will think of kebabs, hummus and pita bread. As a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa, however, there is much more diversity to Middle Eastern food.

What’s more, we Malaysians are lucky enough to have more than a few kinds of Middle Eastern restaurants, ranging from Iranian to Moroccan to Lebanese.

So what’s a foodie to do when faced with all these choices? Why, try all of them in turn, of course!

Unusual options

Named after the historical city of Hadramawt in Yemen, the Hadramawt restaurant in Chulan Square, Kuala Lumpur, provides a wonderful introduction to the delights of Yemeni food. Besides serving the usual Middle Eastern fare, the restaurant also focuses on the hearty, filling dishes that are typical of Yemeni cuisine.

Hadramawt managing director Hamza Mahmood, who is of Yemeni origin, says he wanted to introduce his country’s food to Malaysians.

Yemeni food 101: Hadramawt, a restaurant in Chulan Square, Kuala Lumpur, is a wonderful introduction to Yemeni food.

“Many people only think of Lebanese food when you say Middle Eastern food, because Lebanese cuisine has a huge variety of dishes. However, Yemeni food is unique in many ways. For example, it uses rice in quite a lot of its dishes. It also tends to be heavier than other kinds of Middle Eastern food,” he explains.

I started my meal with some appetisers that are Middle Eastern favourites, the mutable, baba ghanouj, hummus and salads.

The mutable was hands-down the best I’ve had – the eggplant dip’s smoky sweetness was beautifully balanced by a sourish tang, and its rich, velvety texture was perfect for scooping up with pieces of flat bread. The ghanouj, too, was delicious, and loaded with tomatoes and onions, making it chunkier than most others I’ve tasted.

The mendy, cooked with lamb (pic) or chicken, is a traditional Yemeni dish

Another appetiser that Hadramawt excels at is the dolma – grape vine leaves stuffed with rice filling. It is definitely an acquired taste, with the strong and unusual combination of flavours putting off most novices. For me, the sharp taste of the leaves contrasted very nicely with the soft, almost sweet rice inside.

For the mains, although there was a wide variety of Middle Eastern dishes to choose from, I decided to give the traditional Yemeni ones a try. An excellent decision, as the salta turned out to be the highlight of my meal. This is a stew-like concoction of minced lamb, egg, rice and vegetables, sprinkled with halba (fenugreek) powder and served with fluffy bread.

According to Hamza, the salta is one of the most popular dishes in Yemen.

Its spicy fragrance alone set my mouth watering, and the taste was even better. Hearty and thick, the stew had a chockful of juicy strips of lamb, with the egg and veggies adding to the explosion of flavours. Needless to say, I was wiping up every last drop with the bread.

Salta served with bread is one of the most popular dishes in Yemen

The mendy, too, is a traditional Yemeni dish, where lamb or chicken is slow-cooked in an underground oven. The dish is served with rice that is infused with the flavours of the meat. Both the lamb and chicken mendy at Hadramawt were beautiful – the slow-cooking process ensured that the meat was juicy and tender, and practically falling off the bone. The flavourful rice that came with it was so good you could even eat it plain.

The only main dish I wasn’t a big fan of was the Halabi kebab, a lamb kebab served on a bed of chunky hot and sour sauce. While cooked perfectly, the meat was just a tad too salty. The sauce too, while tasty, wasn’t anything to shout about.

Now, on to the desserts. Yemeni desserts are not something many people are familiar with, so it was with some reservation that I tried the banana fattah and ma soub, which Hamza recommended. One mouthful later, however, I had no more qualms.

The fattah, which is minced fried bread and banana drizzled with honey, had an unusual, almost crunchy texture thanks to having bread as its base. As it was sweetened only by the bananas and honey, it had a more subtle flavour than most desserts.

The ma soub, on the other hand, was much heavier. It consisted of shredded fried bread and banana, topped with cream and milk and drizzled with honey. The creamy texture was similar to bread-and-butter pudding, and every sinful bite was a real treat. Washed down with copious amounts of delicious Aden tea (flavoured with cinnamon, cardamom and cloves), it was indeed the perfect end to my culinary adventure of Yemen.

Appetising appetisers

Set right in the middle of Suria KLCC, Al-Marjan is a great spot to enjoy some Middle Eastern food while people-watching from within its open-walled interiors. Serving mainly Persian and Lebanese cuisine, the restaurant does a lavish lunch buffet and also offers à la carte options. Having dropped in during lunch, I opted for the buffet while also ordering some grilled items from the menu.

Perhaps more than for most cultures, Middle Eastern cuisine has an extensive array of appetisers and salads, and these are certainly Al-Marjan’s strong suit. Almost everything I tried was delicious, and I practically filled up on them even before hitting the main courses!

Great spot: The restaurant Al-Marjan, in Suria KLCC.

“Our appetisers and salads are extremely popular,” says restaurant manager Hamlina Abdul Malik. “Our hummus, in particular, is very special and unlike any other restaurant’s.”

The star of the appetiser selection certainly was the hummus bi tahini, the quintessential Middle Eastern dip made from blended chickpeas, tahini, olive oil and lemon juice. Smooth and creamy, the hummus hit the perfect balance – you could taste the influence of each ingredient without any overpowering the other. To me, the mark of a good hummus is its aftertaste, and this blend left a lovely nutty, lemony flavour in the mouth.

Another success was the musaqa’ah, where eggplant and tomato are simmered with fresh herbs, garlic and olive oil. The charred sweetness of the eggplant merged very well with the garlic and tomato, and the dish’s texture was perfect.

Of the salads, both the fattush (fresh vegetables tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and sumac, topped with crispy pita bread and pomegranate paste) and the Arabian potato salad were near-perfect. Unlike most potato salads, this dish, which is simply boiled potatoes tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and fresh herbs, was very light.

Fattush consists of fresh vegetables tossed with lemon juice, olive oil and sumac, topped with crispy pita bread and pomegranate paste.

For the main course, I tried a selection of grilled items: the shish kebab (lamb), the shish tawook (chicken), kebab barg (beef tenderloin) and kebab mahi (Dory fillet). Of these, the beef kebab, which was marinated with saffron and grilled with butter, was the best. Juicy and tender, the meat was done well without being chewy. The shish kebab, while nicely flavoured with herbs and onions, was too gamey. The chicken and fish kebabs were all right, but not particularly memorable.

The mixed grill includes the shish kebab (lamb), the shish tawook (chicken), kebab barg (beef tenderloin) and kebab mahi (Dory fillet).

To end the meal, the dessert section offers a selection of pudding-like treats: the mahlabiyyah, a light, custardy concoction of milk, rose water and sugar; shiberenj, made of rice, milk and sugar; and sholezard, a rice dish flavoured with sugar and saffron. The mahlabiyyah was the clear favourite with its light, creamy consistency and lingering sweet aftertaste. The other two, while certainly unusual, are more of an acquired taste.

Alternatively, you could end your meal with some Arabic coffee or mint tea, accompanied by some of Al-Marjan’s excellent baklava – perfect for lazing the afternoon away.

All about the food

Tucked away in the corner of a lane off Jalan Damai, Damascus Gate (previously named Al-Maghreb) is immediately identifiable by its distinctive Moroccan-tiled decor and the many patrons relaxing over sheesha on the patio.

But what keeps the restaurant so popular is its straighforward yet excellent Middle Eastern food, particularly of the Syrian and Moroccan variety.

According to chef Mohamed Marwan Al Abdulla, who hails from Damascus, Syria, his aim is to give patrons authentic Middle Eastern dishes.

“I want both customers from the Middle East and locals to eat my food and say: ‘Yes, this is the real thing’,” he says. “There are quite a number of Middle Eastern restaurants around, so what keeps us above the rest is the quality of our food.”

The real thing: Damascus Gate’s chef Mohamed Marwan Al Abdulla (second from left) and his assistants showing off their dishes

To start off, I had a fava bean salad known as foull. Tossed in lemon juice, olive oil and parsley, the salad was delicious. The fleshy texture of the beans went very well with the tang of the lemon and the bittersweet flavour of parsley.

Another must-have is the restaurant’s tabulah, parsley salad flavoured with herbs, lemon juice and olive oil. Refreshing and bursting with flavour, it was one of the best tabulah I’ve had.

Also worth trying is the falafel, fried patties made from spiced chickpeas. The golden patties were crunchy outside while soft and fluffy inside, and had a wonderful nutty flavour with just a hint of sesame.

The restaurant’s dips were also very good, and had a very distinctive taste. The hummus was dense and creamy, with a rather strong and garlicky flavour. It had a slightly stronger aftertaste than I would have liked, but went very well with the warm Lebanese bread. The mutable, too, was quite hefty, with the texture being chunkier than usual. Its sweet-sour flavour, however, was lovely.

For the main course, I had the chicken shawarma and barbecued fish. The shawarma – pieces of marinated and roasted chicken wrapped in Lebanese bread with mayonaise and salads – was simple but delicious.

The chicken was juicy and nicely spiced, and the garlicky mayonaise added an extra kick.

The fish was very different from anything I’ve tasted before. Marinated in a special sauce of tomato, vinegar, lemon, and Arabic seven spice, it was charred on top but firm and juicy inside. While extremely flavourful, the delightful marinade did not overpower the natural sweetness of the fish, and yet left a lingering taste of spiciness.

For dessert, Mohamed recommended the kataif, a special Damascus pastry that the restaurant offers specially for Ramadan. Liberally stuffed with cashews, almonds and coconut, the pastry is then soaked in sugar syrup, making this quite a hefty end to the meal. While the filling of the kataif was fantastic, the thick taste of sugar syrup made it a little too sweet after a few bites. Paired with Moroccan mint tea, however, it was simply heavenly.

All three restaurants are currently having Ramadan buffets daily.