My First Time Eating Mandhi Rice with a Whole Roasted Chicken
Hi bloggers and food lovers, how are you all doing? It’s hard to believe we’re already a week into October. Earlier this month, I tried a Middle Eastern dish that was quite new to my palate. I rarely eat this kind of food because there aren’t many restaurants that specialize in Middle Eastern cuisine like this, but yesterday my younger sister invited me to a place called Emado’s for dinner with my mom.
The place isn’t very big; they serve several traditional Middle Eastern dishes. Their main dishes are Mandhi rice, kabsa, or biryani topped with roasted chicken or lamb. What’s interesting is that the roasted chicken is cooked by rotating it over an open rotisserie right in front of the restaurant, so you can watch the chicken being roasted right before your eyes. Here, they offer single portions and sharing portions. In addition to main courses, they offer Middle Eastern-style snacks and desserts like um ali and banana kunafa and cheese kunafa.
I ordered one whole roasted chicken with Mandhi rice for four people, which came with garlic mayo, spicy sambal, and pickled carrots and cucumbers. The Mandhi rice smelled delicious the moment it arrived at the table, it was a vibrant yellow, topped with a whole roasted chicken that had been cut into four pieces.
This was my first time trying Mandhi rice. From the very first bite, I could taste the aromatic spices and smoky notes in the rice. It tasted delicious, perhaps it had been adapted to local tastes, so it suited my palate perfectly. The roasted chicken was also delicious; the meat was tender and juicy, and it paired perfectly with either the garlic mayo or the spicy sambal.
Another dish we ordered was the peri-peri chicken shawarma. This dish consists of a tortilla filled with slices of roasted chicken and potatoes mixed with peri-peri sauce. To me, the tortilla was a bit thicker at the edges similar to a kebab and it tasted great when eaten with garlic mayo. For one serving of Mandhi rice, chicken shawarma, and 1L of apple tea, we spent around Rp 206.000 or about $12.
Okay, that’s all for today. Thank you and see you in another post