Craving For "Mandi".

Hi People. Yup, we're back from Penang. Got back last Sunday. I guess it's only expected that I post something about our recent weekend in Penang, right? Well, guess what? Today's entry is nothing about Penang at all.

Thanks to my recent conversation with my friend Julie who called me to invite the family to her daughter's aqiqah this coming Sunday, (Yup, we shall be making another trip back to Malaysia this weekend) I have this sudden craving for this dish I had in Dubai, mid last year. 

Nope, I'm not pregnant in case you people are wondering what's with the craving. :D

You see, my friend Julie mentioned about serving "mandi rice" during her daughter's upcoming aqiqah, and it brought me back to my first encounter with "mandi rice", not too long ago.

 

To those of you who are familiar with middle eastern cuisine would surely know what “mandi rice” is about. To help facilitate the explanation about mandi rice to the unfamiliar ones, yours truly sought help from “Mr Wiki”. (http://en.wikipedia.org)

Mandi (Arabic: المندي‎) is the traditional dish in Yemen native to Hadhramaut Province Yemen and many other Yemeni Cities known as Haneeth also. It is now very popular in the rest of the Arabian Peninsula and in many other Arab countries such as Egypt and Syria.

Mandi is usually made from meat (lamb or chicken), basmati rice, and a mixture of spices. The meat used is usually a young and small sized lamb to enhance the taste further. The main thing which differentiates mandi is that the meat is cooked in the tandoor(Taboon in Yemeni) which is a special kind of oven. Tandoor usually is a hole dug in the ground and covered inside by clay. To cook mandi, dry wood is placed in the tandoor and burned to generate a lot of heat turning into charcoal. Then the meat is suspended inside the tandoor without touching the charcoal. After that, the whole tanoor is closed without letting any of the smoke to go outside. Raisins and pine nuts can be added to the rice as per one's taste.

Mandi is considered as the main dish served in special events such as weddings and feasts.

I was introduced to this very pleasing dish when Shafiq and I accompanied Hubby on his business trip to the Middle East mid last year. Though it was a short trip, managed to check out the cities of Abu Dhabi (so not interesting) and Dubai (very cosmopolitan). Anyway, this post is not about the trip but about the mandi dish and the place we had the pleasure of acquainting ourselves with "mandi" for the very first time.

One of the very few pics of us taken in Dubai.

In the background, the famous Burj Al Arab.

We met up with Hubby’s friend from school who is now a pilot with Emirates and residing in Dubai. He took us to this restaurant called “Al Marhabani” (if memory serves me right), not sure the exact location in Dubai but the restaurant that we went to was housed in two shop lots. The restaurant has its usual chairs and tables and indoor tents. Yup, there’s tents indoor! One of the shop lots has been partitioned into small tents (very Arabian Nights indeed) and it is usually occupied by guests with families.

Our "Arabian" tent.

So we got to our tent, and yours truly felt like she was in the middle of the Sahara desert. The tent was very cozy with throw cushions scattered around. Hubby’s friend did all the ordering for us as we of course didn’t know what to order, since it’s our first time and all. So he ordered chicken and lamb so that we could get a taste of everything.

The mandi rice was served in this big round tray and trust me when I say that the serving is big enough to feed a family. The rice was served with chicken and lamb and accompanied by salad with crunchy bits (so sorry, cannot remember what it was), lentil soup (very, very, yummy soup), savoury “sambal” (again, can’t remember what it's called but it’s something like the chilli sauce that we eat with "chicken rice" but theirs had tomatoes in it) and the best thirst quencher of all time in my books, fresh pomegranate juice.

The "Mandi" dish came with salad and soup.

Check out the huge portion of the "mandi" dish!

What I liked about the mandi rice is that it doesn’t have the strong taste of spices like the “beriyani rice” or is it oily like the “nasi minyak”. The mandi rice to me is just nice and the chicken was cooked just right, not so tender but yet still possess the right amount of juiciness in the meat. The lentil soup and the "crunchy salad" compliments the rice very well. (Didn't try the lamb as I don't really favor the smell and taste of lamb)

Pic taken with Hubby's friend and his family 

in our cozy little tent after a very satisfying meal.

My MIL has been raving about this middle eastern restaurant in Cyberjaya that is very famous for its "Nasi Arab". I think it's similar to the "Mandi" dish. Have been wanting to check out the place but whenever we're back in KL, we always seem to be occupied with so many things.


Anyway, thanks to my friend Julie, looks like somebody will be having "mandi rice" this weekend. :D