Mandi is a traditional dish known in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for a long time. It is cooked by lighting a fire in a special pit until it becomes very hot, and then a whole lamb or goat is placed inside the pit with or without rice. The pit is sealed tightly to prevent air leakage and is opened after two hours when mandi is ready.
Mandi types
Mandi is famous in the southern provinces of the Kingdom, such as Aseer and al-Bahah. There are two main types: chicken and lamb or goat.
Mandi preparation
Restaurants excel in preparing mandi by placing the meat in a circular pit made of clay or iron, no deeper than one hundred cm and forty-fifty cm wide. Then, wood is burned in the pit until it turns into embers. A pot filled with rice is placed in the pit with meat or chicken seasoned with saffron and salt on top, and covered well. The meat starts dripping fat onto the rice, moisturizing it for two hours before serving the delightfully tasting dish. The demand on Mandi is increased by visitors of Tihama for dinner, and its popularity increases in winter compared to summer. Mandi restaurants compete in their preparation methods and spices used on meat or chicken to attract customers from within and outside al-Bahah.
Mandi restaurants
Government entities have set technical requirements for restaurants serving Mandi. The restaurant area must be at least one hundred m (sixty-five m thirty-five m2 for preparing and cooking Mandi).
The Resolution of Health Requirements for Restaurants and Kitchens stipulates that lambs or goats must be slaughtered in licensed slaughterhouses. Restaurants must have a section dedicated to cooking Mandi.
Mandi oven (tannour)
Preparing Mandi requires one or more "tannour" (an underground cylindrical pit with walls made of heat-resistant bricks). The pit has two steel lids: a flat one with a central hole and an upper rounded cover. The tannour is equipped with stainless steel rods to hang the meat inside. Restaurants and kitchens must have a tiled ground area of thirty cm wide next to the tannour for the sand used in this cooking method, and they must maintain the cleanliness of the cloth used to cover the tannour.
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