Hejazi Street Stall · Smoked Rice & Meat
Mandi
📷 Closely related photo — Photo: Miansari66 / Wikimedia Commons · CC0 1.0
Traditionally the meat is hung above the rice in an underground pit oven so its fat and juices drip straight down and slow-cook the rice below it — the rice is basically basted by the meat suspended over it.
Mandi is rice and whole cuts of lamb or chicken cooked low and slow — classically buried in a covered underground pit with hot coals — so the meat turns fall-apart tender and the rice underneath soaks up its dripping juices and smoke. Jeddah's old-town stalls and Yemeni-run restaurants pile it high on shared metal trays for takeaway.
Why it's made this way: Mandi originated in Yemen's Hadhramaut region and spread across the Arabian Peninsula through trade and migration, taking hold as a fixture of the Hejaz's coastal street-food scene via the Hadhrami traders and migrants who settled Jeddah's port markets.
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Part of World of Street Food — 3248 dishes from 118 countries.
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