When Mohammed Alhamed moved to Melbourne in 2017 with his wife, Aisha, he couldn't find Yemeni food in Australia. He’d started businesses in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, worked for the government in Saudi Arabia and even had a berry farm in Morocco. He’d never opened a restaurant before, but Aisha’s family has been running eateries since the ‘70s.
Within a couple of months, they were catering small gatherings among the local Arab community. The demand was enough to encourage Alhamed to look for a restaurant, and after some COVID setbacks, they opened on Lygon Street, in Melbourne’s Little Italy, in April 2021.
is at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula between Oman and Saudi Arabia. There are familiar elements of Indian, East African and Middle Eastern cuisine, but some dishes, like the signature , are quintessentially Yemeni. Originally from in the country's east, meat is cooked in an underground pit for hours with a special blend of spices, the juices soaking into the rice beneath it. At Mandi Kitchen, Alhamed has settled for specialised mandi ovens.
“When we started the restaurant, we had our customer base from catering, but now it’s spread. So you have African people who really like the Yemeni food, Somalis, Eritreans, Ethiopians. We have Indians who have lived in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia. They’ve experienced that food and they have those memories. When they come here, they always tell me they feel like they’re at home.”
The majlis floor sofas are the best seats in the house at Mandina Kitchen. Source: Sofia Levin
This sense of belonging is the reason Alhamed came to Australia.
“This is emotional,” he says.
Alhamed removes his glasses, swipes a stray tear and takes a deep breath.
“I was looking for home.”
Alhamed first came to Australia in 2015 as a skilled migrant to activate his permanent residency. Aisha was pregnant with twins at the time, and they had always planned to move.
They’ve experienced that food and they have those memories. When they come here, they always tell me they feel like they’re at home.
Although he was born and raised in Saudi Arabia (where he met his wife), his wife had lived in Yemen for a decade and most of his relatives are in Qatar, Alhamed has never had a place to call home.
“My father was born in India and then came to Saudi Arabia. If I went to India, they'll treat me as a foreigner. If I go to back to Yemen, they will treat me as a foreigner. I would consider Saudi Arabia home, but did not have the citizenship officially,” he says. “There's no place in the world that I can call home and that will accept me. I wanted to be part of a country that will treat me just like their own.”
Now settled in his new home and awaiting citizenship, Alhamed is eager to share Aisha’s food and her “golden hands” beyond the people who are already familiar with it. Mandina Kitchen has recently opened for breakfast, and diners who wish to brunch like a Yemeni can order foul gulaba (mashed broad beans with sautéed onion, tomato and olive oil), masoob (mulawah flatbread smashed with banana and mixed with clarified butter and cream until it becomes porridge-like), and kibdah (strips of lamb liver fried with onion and capsicum). Meals start with lamb broth, whether the signature mandi on turmeric-tinged basmati rice studded with raisins, or spice-rubbed, slow-cooked goat haneeth. There are also plans for a bottomless buffet, so people new to Yemeni cuisine can try a little of everything.
A traditional Yemeni breakfast might include mashed broad beans, fried lamb liver and adani tea. Source: Sofia Levin
“When you come here, you feel that you are in a different place. We don't want to sell you only food; it's also the experience. You see different languages spoken; experience the different cultures, and if this is your culture, then you'll experience home,” says Alhamed. “Australia has a lot of colours, lots of different cultures, all of them living together peacefully. Here we are presenting a new one, like giving the eighth colour of the rainbow.”
Sun – Mon 9 am – midnight
Wed – Thu 3 pm – midnight
Fri – Sat 3 pm – 1 am
