A Taste of What I Eat

The Dagger Merchant
Bashir Sabana: Sanaa, Yemen

Bashir Sabana and his brothers are crafters and sellers of jambiyas—short, curved daggers worn on the belt of almost every man in Yemen. The brothers close their small shop in the old souk of Sanaa for the afternoon meal, which Bashir eats at home with his wife and children, then open again until early evening.
From the coverage for the What I Eat project, but not included in the book.

Age: 29 • Height: 5'3" • Weight: 159 pounds

ONE DAY’S FOOD in April

CALORIES 5800

BREAKFAST Wheat bread roll, 6.1 oz • feta cheese, 3.4 oz • Bananas (2), 6.4 oz • Apple, 8 oz • Pear, 5.6 oz • Kalamata olives, unpitted, 4.6 oz • Coffee with sweetened condensed milk and sugar, 6.3 fl oz

LUNCH Saltah (spicy meat and vegetable stew. In this recipe— beef, canned tuna, eggplant, tomato, egg, green onion, with chili pepper and hulbah, a foamy fenugreek topping), 9.1 oz • Bint Al-Sahn "The Girl of the Plate" (Crisp millet flour pancake layered with honey and sesame seeds), 8.5 oz • Shafout (thin flat bread topped with yogurt, coriander, and fresh mint), 12.2 oz • Khubz (wheat flour flat bread), 6.1 oz • Boiled beef, spiced with turmeric and cumin, 12.1 oz • White rice spiced with cardamom and cloves, 10.7 oz • Fresh tomato relish, 4.9 oz • Salad of tomato, onion, cilantro, and pepper, 6 oz • Qat (herb widely chewed as a stimulant on the Arabian peninsula), 2 bunches

DINNER Majnoona "The Crazy" (tasting plate of tahini, mozzarella cheese, feta cheese, danish white cheese, hard boiled egg, butter and jelly), 9.7 oz • Qishir (sugar-sweetened tea-like coffee brewed from coffee bean husks), 3.4 fl oz

THROUGHOUT THE DAY Wheat bread roll, 6.3 oz • Green chilies, 0.6 oz • Black tea, 5.5 fl oz; with sugar, 1 tsp • Fresh carrot juice, 6.4 fl oz • Rothmans king size cigarettes, 1.5 packs • Hadda bottled water, 3.2 quarts

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