Yemen

Kaitlin suggests that I turn these blogs into a travel book about international experiences in California. The hard part will be choosing just one place to represent Mexico, Morocco, Germany, or Thailand – there are so many great places. But Yemen is easy. If you want to experience Yemen, go to Oakland.

I discovered this when I read The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers. This is a great adventure story about a Yemeni-American, a kid from San Francisco, who wants to start a coffee business and has to explain how important Yemeni coffee is to soldiers and bureaucrats across a war zone to make it happen. Here’s an interview with Mohktar Alkhanshali and the author about how this story started: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvUAEe6fkvM

There are now several Yemeni coffee shops in Oakland. Here is just one example: https://sf.eater.com/2022/10/6/23391370/delah-coffee-house-opening-oakland

Suzy and I stopped by Mellana Café, another coffee shop in Oakland, for their Yemeni latte with cardamom and honey. Their juices, smoothies, granola, açaí, and avocado toast didn’t look like they came from Yemen, but I also took home a bag of whole bean medium roast Yemen Mocca, which Suzy ground and brewed, and Carmyn evaluated as smooth, mellow, and pleasant, with no bitter aftertaste. I’m not a coffee drinker, so I don’t know the difference, but here is more about the coffee that comes from Yemen: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/yemen-coffee-in-brooklyns-yafa-cafe-teaches-americans-about-coffees-oldest-tradition/

One doesn’t live on coffee alone, so last January, after visiting my parents for the weekend, I stopped on the way to the airport at Bab Al Yemen in Oakland. It has outdoor booths that look like tents and plenty of secluded space for each group. I ordered the tuna fahsa, served in a lamb broth soup, with flat bread, a salad, and Yemeni chutney - sahawuq. The salad was light and delicious. The soup came in bubbling from the heat. I wrapped the hot chunks of tuna in the bread so they wouldn’t burn my mouth and it was still hot twenty minutes after being served. This was a private experience because I never saw the other patrons due to the individual tents. I want to come back for breakfast as they have several great looking options. Other Yemeni restaurants in the Bay Area that I want to try include Yemen Kitchen in San Francisco and Belladi Kitchen in Oakland.

My southern California choice for Yemen with Amy in May was House of Mandi in Anaheim. We had the chicken mandi, which is traditionally cooked underground. They built a clay oven to achieve the same result. We also had hrada of fish (tuna); hrada of seltah vegetables (okra, potatoes, other root veggies); date fatta (a date cake/bread with cream poured over it); tandoori bread; a sauce of tomatoes, cilantro, and mint; and another sauce with yogurt, dill and mint. We ate on a platform with cushions and our shoes off. The food was so good that we finished it all, even though we over ordered. I’m interested in these recipes to keep the Yemeni feast going: https://www.shebayemenifood.com/

If you are looking for a classic Yemeni story, there are a lot of books about the adventures of Hatim Taï, a prince of Yemen who is one of the most generous people the world has ever known. Here's one: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/70290

I also read the book and watched the movie based on Salmon Fishing in the Yemen by Paul Torday. I probably shouldn’t count it because it is such a fantasy, but it was fun: https://pluto.tv/en/on-demand/movies/6201c11515c8610013667026

Here are works of literature from authentic Yemeni authors: https://wordswithoutborders.org/read/country/yemen/

The Yemeni sport of camel jumping might not be what you first picture: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aPcDs436fI

Legacy of Ancient Civilizations: Ancient Arabia on Prime Video is mostly about Yemen.

There are plenty of interesting things to see and do in Yemen, some of them listed here: https://tourrom.com/asia/yemen/tourist-attractions-yemen/. I would love to go! I hope for a time when broad travel gives us new perspectives. In the meantime, I’m hoping we all survive, thrive, recognize our mutual humanity, learn to deal with our conflicts, and allow peace, health, and safety to flourish in Yemen and throughout the world.

Photo Credit: Andrew Syk https://unsplash.com/photos/siq3xkHUhSg