Promoting Yemeni Food & Music [Archives:2001/50/Last Page]

Every country has its own specialties of food. The popular of some kinds of food has gone beyond their countries of origin to find even greater welcome in many other countries.
Yemeni food is of good variety of delicious kinds, but none are known outside the borders of the country. This could be attributed to lack of promotion or less demand of this kind of food by non-Yemenis.
It is overwhelming to find some non-government and even non-Yemeni-managed institutions have been shouldering the task of presenting Yemeni food to a variety of non-Yemeni people in Sanaa. The Taj Sheba Hotel, in the heart of Sanaa, is one of very few places that puts great emphasis on local foods and sweets, which it tries to develop in order to suit guests tastes.
At the same time, it has also been promoting Yemeni music, especially at its Bilquis Tent, operating since the first day of Ramadhan. A Yemeni band plays Yemeni, Gulf and other Arabic hits of the 1990s.
The majority of Yemenis chew qat in groups, especially at the Ramadhan nights. It is a habit of many of them to chew leaves of khat, while listening to popular Yemeni and Gulf songs. To provide more home-like maqials for such people, smaller tents have been set around the Bilquis Tent with typical Yemeni decoration and furniture to suit the taste of khat chewers. Every smaller tent is equipped with a multi-channels TV. All smaller tents can be curtained if families do not want to be disturbed.



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