The most common meats eaten by Saudis are chicken and lamb. Islamic law forbids eating pork and drinking alcohol. Arabic unleavened bread or Khobz is eaten with almost every meal. Other staples include lamb, grilled chicken, falafel (deep-fried chickpea balls), shawarma (spit-cooked sliced lamb), and Ful medames (a paste of fava beans, garlic and lemon).
Eating breakfast in Saudi Arabia is typically similar to the Western way. Some traditional people have unleavened bread dipped into yogurt and honey with some dates. Dates are very important in Muslim culture and it’s the favorite snack. Breakfast may continue with shakshukah, eggs gently cooked on a bed of fried onions, green pepper and tomato.Lunch is the main meal of the day which usually includes chicken or lamb with rice and side dishes of vegetables and salads followed by fresh fruit. Bokhary, Mandi, Kabsa and Buriyani, Mathbi, Jarish, Qursan, Saliq rice are the most common dishes you will see in any local restaurant.
Most Saudi families gather in late afternoon to have Arabic tea which is black without milk and has herbal flavoring that comes in many variations. It's also a famous custom between friends and even meetings at work.
Dinner, is usually a lighter version of lunch and some times people tend to have fast food.
MENU ITEMS IN SAUDI ARABIA
Eating breakfast in Saudi Arabia is typically similar to the Western way. Some traditional people have unleavened bread dipped into yogurt and honey with some dates. Dates are very important in Muslim culture and it’s the favorite snack. Breakfast may continue with shakshukah, eggs gently cooked on a bed of fried onions, green pepper and tomato.Lunch is the main meal of the day which usually includes chicken or lamb with rice and side dishes of vegetables and salads followed by fresh fruit. Bokhary, Mandi, Kabsa and Buriyani, Mathbi, Jarish, Qursan, Saliq rice are the most common dishes you will see in any local restaurant.
Most Saudi families gather in late afternoon to have Arabic tea which is black without milk and has herbal flavoring that comes in many variations. It's also a famous custom between friends and even meetings at work.
Dinner, is usually a lighter version of lunch and some times people tend to have fast food.
MENU ITEMS IN SAUDI ARABIA
- Bukhari is made of rice cooked with chicken or lamb and stir-fried with onion, lemon, carrot and tomato.
- Mandi is made from 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 at special events such as weddings and feasts.
- Kabsa is made of rice cooked with red or white meat or chicken in a pot. A variety of spices and vegetables can be added to the dish. Al-Kabsa is considered a staple dish throughout the Kingdom. That would cost from anywhere around 10 SAR for a meal.
- Buriyani is a set of rice-based foods made with spices, rice (usually basmati) and meat, fish, eggs or vegetables.
- Al-Mathbi involves grilling seasoned lamb or chicken on flat stones that are placed on top of burning embers.
- Jarish is an Arabs' wheat that simply is boiled and served with a topping of chopped hot peppers and onions or it may be browned in butter or oil and then cooked into a sort of pilaf with chunks of meat.
- Qursan is baking by alternating layers of the meat-vegetable mixture with thin circles layers of bread.
- Saliq, a simple, bland dish, is the best known of all the rice dishes of Saudi Arabia. It's almost like a hot rice pudding, the rice is first half-cooked in meat or chicken broth and then with milk, stirred and simmered for about an hour until soft. It must be flavored with cardamom and absolutely must be scented with a hint of mustaka (gum arabic), the aromatic resin of the mastic tree. Mustaka is more expensive and far more delicate than luban, frankincense, but like it recalls the days of the incense trade. Saliq is most typically served with meat or fowl and the universal Arab salad: parsley, onion, hot green pepper—all finely chopped, lemon juiced and salted.