Yemeni food is honest and filling. It draws on South Arabian traditions with influences from East Africa and the Indian subcontinent, particularly in the coastal regions that were trading hubs for centuries.
Saltah is the national dish — a stew of lamb or chicken in a spiced broth, topped with fenugreek foam (hulba) and served in a stone bowl over a flame. It is eaten with flatbread and is found everywhere. The fenugreek foam is an acquired taste but is considered essential to the dish.
Fahsa is a similar meat stew, slow-cooked with spices, without the fenugreek element. In the morning, many Yemenis eat ful medames (stewed fava beans) with egg and flatbread. Lamb and goat are the main meats; chicken is common. Fish is eaten heavily in the coastal cities — Aden, Mukalla, and Hodeidah were known for fresh fish grilled simply over charcoal.
Bread is central to every meal. The most common is lahoh, a spongy fermented flatbread similar to Ethiopian injera, served with honey and butter at breakfast. Khubs (plain flatbread) accompanies lunch and dinner.
Coffee has deep roots in Yemen — the country is generally credited as the original source of coffee cultivation and export. The port of Mocha (Al Mukha) gave its name to the coffee-chocolate combination. Yemeni coffee is typically drunk as qishr — made from dried coffee husks with ginger and cinnamon — rather than from roasted beans, giving a lighter, more spiced flavour. The highland regions around Haraz and Bura produce specialty single-origin beans that are sought after globally.
Qat (also spelled khat) is not food but is impossible to separate from Yemeni social life. It is a shrub whose leaves contain a mild stimulant. Every afternoon, typically after the main midday meal, Yemeni men (and some women, separately) gather for qat sessions that last several hours. Business gets done, politics gets debated, stories get told. Visitors were traditionally welcome at these sessions and many former travellers describe them as their most memorable experience of the country. Qat is chewed slowly; the leaves are held in the cheek for an extended period before being discarded.