Bab al Yemen
It is described as a dumpling. And a porridge. It can’t be both, you reason, and then it arrives at your table: a dune of gray alluvium, slumping into a murky broth.
How to attack this monolith of flour and water? According to the affable host, Waleed al Jahmi — who owns the restaurant with his brother, Abdulghani, the chef — you begin by taking a scoop with your fingers. Dredge it in the soup, then dunk it in an emerald sauce thick with chilies, cardamom and coriander. Swallow it without chewing. Finally, cleanse your palate by biting a raw scallion.
The texture is somewhere between gnocchi and cookie dough, well suited for soaking up the intense broth, with notes of cumin, cinnamon and tamarind. It is, against all expectations, delicious, albeit ponderous. A few mouthfuls will do, unless you’re carbo-loading for a trek across the desert.
Bab al Yemen opened this summer in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Down the street is Paradise Boutique, where mannequins model chic niqabs; around the corner is the Musab Bin Omair mosque. During Ramadan, the restaurant didn’t open until 4 p.m., and visitors before sundown were greeted with a slightly addled look.
On each visit, I had the same easygoing waiter, who wore a checkered keffiyeh around his head and a mawaz (the traditional Yemeni men’s skirt), but with a cellphone clipped where a ceremonial dagger should be.
The small storefront is cheerful, with sunny yellow stucco walls and a deep blue ceiling daubed with patches of clouds. It is dominated by three photographs of the restaurant’s namesake, Bab al-Yemen, the southern gate of Sana’s ancient walled city.
Along the hallway to the kitchen are curtained booths, for diners — most of them women — seeking privacy.
One evening, a booth’s drapes were drawn just enough for a baby in a high chair to peek through. Meanwhile, in the front room, women in hijabs sat with daughters in sparkly jeans, while men in separate corners dined alone, consuming entire plates of aseed majestically.
Aseed is for the committed who seek authenticity. But many dishes on the menu have a broader appeal, like haneeth ($18), lamb slow roasted until it renders a knife superfluous, and fiery red glabah chicken ($14), minced and sautéed, its heat suffusing the rice below.
These items, listed under “Dinner,” come with soup and salad. The dubiously orange dressing turns out to be a feta vinaigrette with enough spice to keep things interesting. The soup is a simple consommé, made rich by boiling down lamb marrow. Drain your bowls and you will be offered more. Decline, to save room.
(In keeping with Yemeni hospitality, each person at a table receives soup and salad, regardless of how few dinners you order. This results in perplexingly low tabs: one meal, for a party of four who left feeling that they had seriously overindulged, barely crested $30.)
It would not be shameful to order reliable hummus ($7) and baba ghanouj ($7). But really, you’ve traveled so far. Try fassolia ($7), a sauté of white kidney beans, tomatoes and onions, strewn with bits of scrambled eggs, which is hearty and a worthy vegetarian stand-in for a meat dish.
Whatever you order, there will be basket upon basket of khobz, the Yemeni flatbread, charred, pockmarked and chewy.
One trial by fire remains: saltah, a stew of root vegetables steeped in a lamb broth and served seething in a cast-iron pot. The green spume on top is hilbeh, a relish of fenugreek pulp. It is jelly-like and bitter, like maple syrup gone terribly wrong.
In Yemen, it is supposed to heighten the effect of chewing qat, the amphetamine-like leaf. But qat is illegal in the United States. And with no buzz in the offing, I just set down my spoon.
Bab al Yemen
413 Bay Ridge Avenue (Fourth Avenue), Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, (718) 943-6961.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Haneeth; glabah chicken; fassolia; Yemeni omelet; aseed.
I saw that and meant to ask. This is different than your middle eastern place you get take out from, yes?
yes, cant wait to try, Tanoreen is the 10+ year old superstar
|
- Skinny 10-07-2010 2:08 pm
It is described as a dumpling. And a porridge. It can’t be both, you reason, and then it arrives at your table: a dune of gray alluvium, slumping into a murky broth.
How to attack this monolith of flour and water? According to the affable host, Waleed al Jahmi — who owns the restaurant with his brother, Abdulghani, the chef — you begin by taking a scoop with your fingers. Dredge it in the soup, then dunk it in an emerald sauce thick with chilies, cardamom and coriander. Swallow it without chewing. Finally, cleanse your palate by biting a raw scallion.
The texture is somewhere between gnocchi and cookie dough, well suited for soaking up the intense broth, with notes of cumin, cinnamon and tamarind. It is, against all expectations, delicious, albeit ponderous. A few mouthfuls will do, unless you’re carbo-loading for a trek across the desert.
Bab al Yemen opened this summer in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. Down the street is Paradise Boutique, where mannequins model chic niqabs; around the corner is the Musab Bin Omair mosque. During Ramadan, the restaurant didn’t open until 4 p.m., and visitors before sundown were greeted with a slightly addled look.
On each visit, I had the same easygoing waiter, who wore a checkered keffiyeh around his head and a mawaz (the traditional Yemeni men’s skirt), but with a cellphone clipped where a ceremonial dagger should be.
The small storefront is cheerful, with sunny yellow stucco walls and a deep blue ceiling daubed with patches of clouds. It is dominated by three photographs of the restaurant’s namesake, Bab al-Yemen, the southern gate of Sana’s ancient walled city.
Along the hallway to the kitchen are curtained booths, for diners — most of them women — seeking privacy.
One evening, a booth’s drapes were drawn just enough for a baby in a high chair to peek through. Meanwhile, in the front room, women in hijabs sat with daughters in sparkly jeans, while men in separate corners dined alone, consuming entire plates of aseed majestically.
Aseed is for the committed who seek authenticity. But many dishes on the menu have a broader appeal, like haneeth ($18), lamb slow roasted until it renders a knife superfluous, and fiery red glabah chicken ($14), minced and sautéed, its heat suffusing the rice below.
These items, listed under “Dinner,” come with soup and salad. The dubiously orange dressing turns out to be a feta vinaigrette with enough spice to keep things interesting. The soup is a simple consommé, made rich by boiling down lamb marrow. Drain your bowls and you will be offered more. Decline, to save room.
(In keeping with Yemeni hospitality, each person at a table receives soup and salad, regardless of how few dinners you order. This results in perplexingly low tabs: one meal, for a party of four who left feeling that they had seriously overindulged, barely crested $30.)
It would not be shameful to order reliable hummus ($7) and baba ghanouj ($7). But really, you’ve traveled so far. Try fassolia ($7), a sauté of white kidney beans, tomatoes and onions, strewn with bits of scrambled eggs, which is hearty and a worthy vegetarian stand-in for a meat dish.
Whatever you order, there will be basket upon basket of khobz, the Yemeni flatbread, charred, pockmarked and chewy.
One trial by fire remains: saltah, a stew of root vegetables steeped in a lamb broth and served seething in a cast-iron pot. The green spume on top is hilbeh, a relish of fenugreek pulp. It is jelly-like and bitter, like maple syrup gone terribly wrong.
In Yemen, it is supposed to heighten the effect of chewing qat, the amphetamine-like leaf. But qat is illegal in the United States. And with no buzz in the offing, I just set down my spoon.
Bab al Yemen
413 Bay Ridge Avenue (Fourth Avenue), Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, (718) 943-6961.
RECOMMENDED DISHES Haneeth; glabah chicken; fassolia; Yemeni omelet; aseed.
- Skinny 10-07-2010 2:09 pm [add a comment]
I saw that and meant to ask. This is different than your middle eastern place you get take out from, yes?
- jim 10-07-2010 2:38 pm [add a comment]
yes, cant wait to try, Tanoreen is the 10+ year old superstar
- Skinny 10-08-2010 12:52 am [add a comment]