Why Hadramout Restaurants Are Expanding to Serve Yemeni Food Across Texas | Eater Dallas

"On busy weekends I often see 30-inch stainless-steel platters heaving with spiced rice and meats carried out by multiple people on their way to a family feast. Hadramout serves the equivalent of 200 whole lambs per week—each carefully selected at auction, processed at a halal-certified shop, and then transferred to a kitchen for butchering and prep—an efficient, hands-on operation that enabled rapid expansion from its first location on South Gessner Road in Houston’s Westchase (opened March 2020) to Plano, Irving, and Austin in just three years, with plans for San Antonio underway. When I taste the mandi, the famous spiced roasted lamb or chicken, the meat is so tender the bones come off clean, and it’s easy to understand the devotion; other highlights include hanith (using a Tihamah hawaij), zurbian, pompano from Aden, mugalgal, ogda, fahsa served in a hot stone bowl, regional mezze like hummus, baba ghanoush, fattoush and tabbouleh, Saudi kabsa, and desserts such as masoob and areeka. The interiors feel like a slice of Yemen—photos of rugged landscapes and the Socotra dragon tree, woven rugs, and a dedicated majlis for carpeted, floor-seated communal dining—and the owners, Hadramhi families tied to the Hadramout region, send chefs back to Yemen at their expense to preserve family recipes. Large-scale catering and community hospitality are part of the model—built from experience catering weddings of up to 1,000 guests—so they routinely handle hundreds of holiday orders, donate food to mosques during Ramadan, give away excess food to unhoused people, and offer free meals to anyone who cannot pay, reflecting their tradition of inviting everybody." - Didi Paterno