Food and revolution in the Libyan desert.

http://www.arabist.net/blog/2011/3/22/l ... uggle.html

Thanks for pointing to that - I had missed it at Arabist.

For another food angle - from Yemen this time - check the second video in a post I did this morning (in my non-food, non-dayjob time I write for a blog about Middle East issues) - the children interviewed tell why Saleh needs to be overthrown - because "yogurt now costs as much as a chocolate treat":

http://tinyurl.com/4vjjol6

(linking to post since I'm fumbling embedding here)

These videos btw really amazed me - most of the footage we're getting out of the revolts is quite haphazard, though often moving but Sarah Ishaq's work is on a whole other level. I'm hoping she'll post more - she has a lot of footage apparently but very little time in the midst of events.

This is probably not the best thread to ask, but what do folks eat in Yemen? I want to try the Yemeni place on Kenneth (Lawrence & Elston) but Mr. Pie insists I find out what they serve first. Pfft.

Pie Lady,

Are you sure that place is open? I was under the impression it closed a few years ago.

If it is, you should definitely check it out. Yemeni food resembles other cuisines from the Arabian Peninsula - Saudi, Omani, etc., with their slight nod to South East Asia (due to historical mercantile ties). I think Yemeni even incorporates a bit of North-East African, as evidenced by the love of ful, okra and molokhiya (Jew's Mallow, or jute).

Typical dishes include salta - a sort of left-over stew based on meat broth and usually containing okra and tomatos cooked into oblivion, topped with whipped hilba, or fenugreek. Roast lamb is common. Masloug is a typical chicken or lamb stew. Rice preparations that resemble biryani are not uncommon. The rice is usually very good - resembling the kind of rice you might get at Barwaqo Kabob in Chicago. Same with the tea, usually moving beyond the simplicity of levantine preparations by substituting a variety of sweet spices in place of mint.

If this place is open, and the food is half as good as some Yemeni I've had in the states, this should be a boon for Chicago.

They are indeed open - just the other day I saw the lit sign in the window. Perhaps they "reimagined" (please slap me if I ever say that again). I wish they had a website or something on menupages, but I can't find diddlyshit. If I can win Mr. Pie over (or I give up and go by myself on Tuesday) I'll post my findings, hopefully with pictures. Thanks for the info! It sounds like some tasty chow. Would you consider Yemeni a healthy-ish option?

How can a cuisine that sustains the population of Arabia Felix not be healthy?

You have approximately 1.5 weeks to get there, try it, and document it before I do.

I love a challenge!

I think you may be talking about two separate places. There WAS a Yemeni place near Montrose and Elston (Red Sea) that closed about four years ago and was replaced by an Afghan place. The place Pie Lady speaks/writes of is (I think) Yemen Restaurant at 4748 (also given as 4750) N. Kenneth.

Gypsy Boy wrote:The place Pie Lady speaks/writes of is (I think) Yemen Restaurant at 4748 (also given as 4750) N. Kenneth.

Indeed it is. It used to be a plumbing business.

I read somewhere - maybe Chowhound - that the place on Kenneth had closed. I hope this turns out to be a good find.

It is open...somewhat.
I went inside and the ambience was nil at best. Checkered tablecloths covered in white paper, that's pretty much the extent of things. I asked for a takeout menu and they didn't have menus, period. Just chicken with rice, lamb with rice, fish (only because it's Friday) and lentil soup. I asked if they weren't really open yet, and they said yes, they were. And there was a cook outside in back with two guys and another two guys talking out front - I was getting a weird vibe.

Freedom is??? a twinkie and a snickers? But aside from that its nice to see people helping one another.

Thank goodness, the freedom fighters have something more than Twinkies to eat now:
http://feb17.info/news/pizza-delivery-s ... ne-rebels/

Seriously (more seriously), though, Libyan food looks interesting and delicious:
http://libyanfood.blogspot.com

May the Libyan people soon be able to cook and eat in a peaceful and normal country....

-- Amata (obsessively following Libyan news on twitter for 4+ months)

We travelled to Libya in 2004 and had a hard time finding places to eat. Some were attached to the hotels -very expensive and not so interesting. We had a Hell of a time finding fresh cows milk for our toddlers-plenty of the shelf stable stuff which our kids refused. There was plenty of fresh and dried fruits and veggies at the local markets. We found some local chicken rotisserie places-really good as well as falaffel, shwarma, baba ganouch (spelling sorry) and fresh breads. The coffee was amazing- cappaccinos, lattes and espressos made from old time Italian machines left over from colonial times- the coffee was Ethipoian. The coffee drinks were around 10 cents to 25 cents depending on location.