About Mona’s Daimah

The word “Daimah” is a Yemeni word which translates into “Kitchen”, so Mona’s Daimah basically means Mona’s kitchen.

I have always loved cooking and baking. Growing up, I would watch the cooking shows my mom watched, and I was intrigued by the cooking process and how you can make a spectacular, restaurant style meal out of simple ingredients. My true passion is baking, and my first ever homemade dessert was a perfect New York cheesecake made from scratch. I was about 11 years old when I first made it (with the help of my mom) and I was so proud at how perfect and delicious it turned out. From then on, I started making desserts, adding twists of my own, and learning more and more each day.

What I wasn’t interested in at the time was making Yemeni food. I’ve always loved Yemeni food, and my mom would only make Yemeni food (although it was hard finding Yemeni/Arab ingredients in Hawaii). I wasn’t interested in perfecting Yemeni dishes at that age, so I just focused on baking. When I went to Yemen, I started noticing just how beautiful the cuisine is. Yemen is a somewhat small country, but every city/governorate/village has its own mini cuisine. I started learning more about the different recipes for the Yemeni dishes I grew up enjoying. I learned more and more each day and I decided to surprise my family by making Zorbian, which is a meat and rice dish that is a bit tedious to make, and everyone who tasted it didn’t believe that I was the one who made it. My love for cooking Yemeni food grew, and a few years later I decided to make an Instagram page with Yemeni recipes written in both Arabic and English.

My page was one of the few, if not only, bilingual Yemeni cooking page on Instagram. I wasn’t very skilled with food photography when I first started, but it’s amazing what one can learn from social media. My photography skills improved, and I started making video recipes. Although it wasn’t a full time thing, but I invested a lot of time in growing my page and I was glad it was by doing something I thoroughly enjoyed.

Fast forward to the summer of 2020, I had just moved to Dallas, Texas from Hawaii, bored, stuck at home due to the pandemic, and I had just found out that I would start my new job as a technology manager in August so I had 2 long months ahead of me with absolutely nothing to do. One of my good friends, who is an aspiring chef, messaged me and suggested I make a Yemeni cookbook. She used my Instagram page as a reference and would always ask me for Yemeni recipes, so she said I would be the perfect person to make a Yemeni cookbook. I was so encouraged by her that I started brainstorming. I spent all summer researching Yemeni recipes, cooking, writing out the recipes in both Arabic and English, and taking photos of the dishes I made. I used my iPhone, simple backgrounds, and the best natural lighting my cozy Dallas apartment had to offer.

About a year and a half later, after countless setbacks, 4 start overs, and a few breakdowns, I had my draft copy in my hands and I could not be happier. I was on cloud 9. My dream had finally come true and I had an actual draft of my cookbook. The cookbook was released in March 2022 and the support I received was overwhelming.

My cookbook can be purchased through the shop on this website.