Arth Aljanatain

When Arth Aljanatain opened at the corner of Rhinelander and White Plains Road in late 2008, it was the first Yemeni restaurant in what has since become the Bronx's Little Yemen. The name means 'Two Paradises', after an ancient city in the north of Yemen. The room is small — nine tables on the ground floor of a three-story building that also holds a mosque — and it fills after prayers, with children stopping in after weekend Quran classes and regulars from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan and Morocco alongside Latino neighbors.

Every meal starts with a cup of maraq, the salty golden broth, and a small salad on a cafeteria tray. Then order the fahsah or saltah, the bubbling stone-bowl stews of shredded lamb or minced meat that Yemen calls its own, or the slow-roasted lamb over perfumed rice, cooked until it falls apart. Tahini-rich hummus is a good side. Prices are kept low on purpose; this is a neighborhood canteen first.