Al - Saba Foods: A Yemeni Kitchen in Vancouver, Where Every Plate Tells a Story
"The maximum that we stayed was six months in the place. We pushed so much and I didn't give up I guess. Although I was like feeling like 'aw, this is not gonna happen again', and it happens again. And every time you move, there's a certain expense that you need to add."
"Me eating that [lamb haneeth] back home, I wanted everybody here to try it. 'cause I feel that it's amazing and although the country's going through whatever they're going through, but the people there are very hospitable and very generous. Like if people come, they would like to show them the best of what they have.
“[Husam] is the best partner I could’ve ever asked for. He is amazing. I went to visit the family for three months and he was doing everything. They did better without me.
The barriers was the moving and finding a permanent location, and also finding someone who I can depend on and operate with me. That when I found my partner, Husam, which I’m very grateful for.
He used to be one of my customers. And I was, uh, overwhelmed with the work that I had to do. 'cause when I started, I used to do most of the work. We were on a small scale, so I had to go grab all the purchases myself, it wasn’t delivered. And then I will go help our friend who's doing the cooking, serve the customers, the dishes, and everything. I was doing everything with one person at the beginning, and so I wanted a partner.
People used to come, they will give me money.
But I said no, I want someone who's gonna work with me. Money? I’ll manage. I can get the funding that I need, I just need to find the perfect person who will operate with me.
We did a test drive on Facebook for two weeks to see like if we're gonna receive orders, and guess who was first order?
It was him. We locked the post and we did an order for him and that's it. We did it from home for two weeks before he started. And, uh, that was it — that's how I got to know him. And we are very social. As soon as you get find someone from in Yemen, you can actually take a taxi and end up a taxi driver, become your friend, and the next day you're hanging out.
Saba Foods Middle Eastern Yemeni Restaurant
2881 Granville St, Vancouver, BC V6H 3J4
I started talking to him and he's, uh, very practical and straight to the point. So for me, like if I want to execute, it would take me a bit of time to make sure that everything is perfect; but for him, it’s not like that, it’s ‘just make a mistake and fix it down the road’. Because if you keep thinking, you'll not do it, right?
I learned from him a lot now. I just do whatever, exactly. And now he's like, ‘put your foot on the brakes a bit.’ And I’m like, ‘oh’.
We understand each other well right now. If he sees me like going forward more than I’m supposed to be, he will calm me down. If he's gonna make me calm down, It means he knows something about it, yeah, it's very good.”
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the 150 Time Immemorial Grant Program.
