Hey everyone hope you're having an amazing day! It's Mark Wiens I'm in the gorgeous region of Jazzan in the very South Western corner of Saudi Arabia. This is one of the birthplaces of coffee and so today we're driving High into the mountains. we're on the border of Yemen. We are gonna see some of the local coffee production on the sides of the mountain and then we've been invited over to a local family home where they are going to prepare for us a local dish which is called hanith.

this is for lunch. This is the whole goat preparation of a whole goat over rice. It's a very popular dish in the mountains in this entire region. The milk oh that's the Milky years.

Oh nice buttermilk and it's going to be an incredible day learning about the beautiful culture in this unique and special and gorgeous region of Saudi Arabia and I. Cannot wait to share everything with you! It's all coming up right now in this video. So we are starting off this morning. We're in the city of Jason and which is the largest city and if you look at a map it is along the Red Sea and we're in the very Southwestern corner of Saudi Arabia on the border of Yemen.

But this is a it's a small region but it's really blessed with the sea with islands and with beautiful Green Mountains And so today we're driving up into the mountains of the Jazzan region and so we're on our way. It should be like a hour drive or so our driving and there we're gonna see the coffee beans. Yes, our coffee region is famous for coffee. We're gonna have cooking and eating and we're gonna learn about the culture there just now about to get into the mountains and it's amazing how the landscape just so drastically changes from the Red Sea desert all of a sudden into the mountains and it's becoming more and more green.

And Lush as we go and we're about to get into the rugged Mountains of Jazzan. Yay! That was a spectacular spectacular journey to get here we're in the mountains at the Coffee Farm s Thank you very much Very good, nice to meet you, thank you One of the Customs again is you show us welcome. This shows hospitality is immediately having coffee as soon as you enter anyone's home from this region. Oh it's like very light and fruity and yeah like just almost like tea.

Like it's so so light and it's not served uh sweet at all. So then you typically eat dates along with it to accomplish the sweetness with the coffee. All that date is superb. In addition, this area is very well known for their fruits.

So these are some of the the custard apples that are right off the tree. Ishta sweet fresh. They have fruit. They have coffee here within the green valleys of these mountains.

and then additionally they grow butterfly pea flower juice. Oh it's not sweet. Oh it's just like straight up the fragrance of the butterfly. Pretty, it's going nice.

Oh and it's smoky. It can taste kind of that smokiness maybe of the the Arabic gum. What will you cook? Uh, meat. Okay, Is it called honey? Hey honey honey? Yes.

Okay, so we're We're at the house. here. we're in the yard overlooking the mountains underneath. I Think a mango tree.

We're setting up the fire. now. this is where we're gonna start cooking and preparing lunch. Oh yeah, I can get used to this.

Just relaxing, peaceful. Gardens Just continuously drinking coffee. Oh yeah, as the fire is burning, they have to burn down those coals and burn down the the wood. We're gonna walk around a little bit and see some of the coffee production and just take a look at this beautiful community in the Hills It smells a lot like Sage So aromatic.

Wow! Along with coffee, there's so many different medicinal herbs and growing along the mountain that they harvest. It's they grow fruit here. So beautiful. Okay, so these are right.

this is Arabic Yes and we're getting our first glimpse of real local coffee. What they grow Here is known as Kalani Coffee Known to be some of the highest quality coffee beans due to the warm and humid Mountain Air of Jazzan and the generations of cultivating knowledge passed down by the Kalani tribes in this region. Coffee and Jazan is so much more than just a drink. It's a cultural tradition that's been passed down from generation to generation.

It's a symbol of hospitality and generosity, and serving coffee directly from your farm is one of the highest gestures of respect. This is where the original coffee comes from. Along with Yemen and Ethiopia and I think we're gonna continue hiking up a little bit. Man, it's just so incredibly peaceful.

What is this? Oh the gum. Yes you can chew it. Yes, not sure. Can I try? Yes Okay, you can't try it.

Okay, this color is is white. It is like a a natural latex gum from the tree. Hmm Oh it tastes like tahini. Tastes like tahini.

Whoa. That has so much flavor. It's like sesame seed paste but with a like herbal like punch to it and a bitterness. I'm sure that's medicinal.

Back from the small hike, this is for lunch. This is a whole goat parted out the ribs, the head, the intestines and all the organs have been kind of like wrapped up right? I Love it. Oh man, it's gonna be amazing Fresh for fragrance? Yes, Yes, yes. Foreign.

Foreign. Okay, that was yeah. such a cool process. An hour to an hour and a half to cook and everything just sealed into that oven.

Meanwhile, inside the kitchen to go along with the fire roasted goat, the ladies of the household prepared the rice, sauteed onions and garlic paste a blend of aromatic Arabian spices, shredded carrots for an added sweetness and tart tomato sauce. After another stroll around the farm admiring the views and a piece of the mountains, mouth watering from the anticipation of the goat, it was finally time. What is that stuck? stuck from the goat? Yes. Okay, when they opened up the lid, it's just this poof of like earthy smoke that comes out because it just kind of like sealed in all that smoke.

Yeah this this planet. it has this plant that he plastered on that that dough. and these are the bread dough. Kind of like full of flavor.

This one, it's gonna be so yummy. Oh oh that intestines wrapper wrapped. They don't add that much salt. they want to keep all the juice inside the meat.

That's why they don't add the salt good in the beginning and taste the natural taste. Yeah, this style of cooking is quite fascinating because it's kind of like grilling. It's kind of like smoking and it's kind of like steaming all at the same time because the fire is at the bottom and then they just load it up there and seal it until it's opened now. So it's like all cooking techniques at once.

This is the fat, the fat from the stomach. Okay, so everything the whole goat is out of the the oven onto the rice and distributing it to the other plates. and the dough. Okay yeah.

oh it smells so good. Thanks. did you have to hit it? The milk. Oh that's the milk.

The fresh milk. fresh milk from the cow. Oh nice. Yes.

Oh I'll pour it into the wooden cup. Oh nice. So typically you would drink milk along with this meal. Okay, yes, yes, real deal tonight.

The buttermilk, all the sourness and the richness and the smokiness. It has this smokiness, maybe from the face? Yes it's a piece of the bread special type of bread with the leaf and you dip it into the soup. That leaf has this sourness to it and the bread is so hearty and so like doughy, so fulfilling. and it's infused with the lamb.

It's like a sponge of bread that's absorbed all that lamb steam. Okay, this is the Mercer This is something. you're supposed to also start your meal with bread with mashed banana, ghee, and honey. Oh that's so good with.

uh like that. It's like a pudding with bread with the banana with the honey that just absorbs into it. And that is such a unique tradition to start your meal with something sweet to be able to kind of open up your taste buds before you get into the the meat. So we move into the lamb now.

I'm sorry. the goat, the fresh goat, all the different. oh it's so tender and pink and juicy and again it's been like smoked and steamed and grilled all at the same time and so you take some of the look at that color and typically would you eat it with the rice? Yes, mix it into the the rice. Oh goat is incredible.

It's so smoky, so fresh and sweet. You said to go for this chunk right here. Oh man oh that's so fatty and oily. Look at that texture that's straight like goat butter.

The texture of that is so so oily and so tender. Okay how do we eat this one? Okay with the honey and the fat. The seven minutes honey and ghee. Okay and so you grab this is a dough this this way.

so you make a you massage like a little well okay and dip, put it inside that's just so much salty and sweetness going on in your mouth with the honey with the fat. with that really like tasty dough. oh that's wonderful. Oh that's like very hearty.

Yeah well there's more. Yes that's one dish I told you about. Oh okay okay okay like spoon. Oh and then you dip okay okay and add soup.

Oh What A Move What a move! So you have a little like cup of soup. Okay I'm gonna try. so you make a make a cup I hope my cup is strong enough. Okay okay maybe that will work.

Then you dip into the elbow which is this is like a foam almost I think and then you dip in the soup. Oh hurry hurry before it collapses. Um oh the bigger has a bitterness to it plus the rich fattiness of the broth. Amazing.

Something so unique. Okay okay we add okay salt here. add yogurt and helba. Okay look at the texture of that hellbutt.

So yes such a unique and milk and milk? Yes so is this a main? Is this for the meal or with like a dessert? it's a meal. Yeah like a different mixture of the same ingredients. Where is your spoon and try it with the creaminess of the yogurt and again that like that kind of um sliminess of the helba. Oh it's really good and then it just kind of absorbs into that like breadcrumbs kind of but like doughy bread crumbs that help us Something truly truly unique though.

Another mix, oh there's you have another combination. Yes yes oh this is with the with the ghee and the honey and mix foreign totally different flavor from the the yogurt. So this is so it looks like their stomach and intestines wrapped up and see how okay how spongy it is. the intestines just completely wrapped coiled around the other organs.

Come on. Yeah okay that's one of the best parts of the whole of the whole goat. It's so tender. What I like about everything about this preparation is that it's simple.

Nothing is like covering up the natural taste of that that goat. You can really taste the like the herbs and the shrubs that the the roaming goat is eating. It's not covered by spices, not covered by salt. Actually, it's very lightly salted, but it's just that natural.

Like just I mean this entire environment is just natural. and that's even how the food tastes. You guys. How's the food? Delicious? Good? No talking down there.

I'm loving this dough. Three parts One: um that is such a unique bite. You want to try a rib? Um a balance of the spice, the salt, the ghee and the honey. How you doing? Oh nice.

nice. You know to how to open the head. Me: You? maybe? maybe? Okay Okay, we're moving on to the Head Okay, the tongue. Oh yeah.

okay. another move. Oh bread with the meat with me. So many different combinations.

Okay, yes, yes. another combination. Okay I'll try break a piece of the bread. that's the leg.

They're like. oh look at how tender that is. the drumstick and then dip in the hell. but more helba.

Look at that texture, the foaminess. Oh you're telling me that when you eat the hell, but you'll just smell like it because it has this amazing, like bitter, very strong taste to it. Well it's a good combination. Again, something unique.

something that's different. Look at that, that drumstick. It's just falling off the meat. So tender.

I'm going big on the helba that is such a unique flavor. Oh it's so good. And I think it's a texture that's extra unique. And then there is nothing cooler than drinking milk out of this wooden Smoky cup to just wash it all down.

What a meal! What an experience! Thank you thank you very much. Thank you very much for your hospitality. Yes, okay, Oh yes. next time.

Okay, next time. Yes! so that completes our unbelievably delicious and a learning experience meal. And here in Jazan it's such a beautiful place. The culture is so unique and different from anywhere else.

I Mean we're on the border of Yemen We're in the mountains. This is one of the origins of coffee and coffee is something. It's more than a drink here. It has so much cultural significance, it is a part of the daily lives and the culture.

and it's a part of the welcome and the hospitality of the culture in this region. And then the food, the entire experience, the freshness and locality of that goat was just Sensational And the helba, what a foamy sauce. A beautiful experience. so quiet, so peaceful here in the mountains of Jazzan in Saudi Arabia and I Want to say a big thank you to the ministry of Tourism here in Saudi Arabia for arranging this trip and what a what a fantastic day it's been.

Thank you also for watching this video. Please remember to give it a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. Leave a comment below I'd love to hear from you. We are traveling to a few more destinations throughout.

Saudi Arabia Learning about the local food and make sure you stay tuned for all of the videos and so that's going to be it. Good afternoon, good night see you from Jazan Saudi Arabia and I'll see you on the next video.