Tanoor fish

Mike Sula profiles Sheeba, one of the Chicago area’s few Yemeni restaurants. Brothers Anees and Ismael “Smiley” Aljahmi, natives of Brooklyn, where their father runs a Yemeni place, opened in southwest-suburban Bridgeview back in November. Many Yemeni dishes feature a condiment called hulba, a fenugreek froth that gives the traditional meat, fish, and vegetable stews texture and buoyancy. Disks of naanlike flatbread are freshly baked on the interior wall of a tanoor, a clay oven that is also used to cook fish. Lamb is prominent on the menu: broiled chops, sauteed liver or kidney, roasted on the bone, or minced and sauteed with tomatoes, onions, and spices. The brothers’ “cultural platters” include mushakal, mixed vegetables with spices, and fattah, sliced, sauced pieces of the bread topped with lamb gravy, hulba, and zhug, a salsalike tomato condiment with chile, garlic, and cilantro. There’s a slide show of the restaurant here.