Opened in March 2023, Aqla is a tiny Middle Eastern street food joint in a historic neighborhood that couldn’t be more Roman: Monteverde vecchio, a stone’s throw from Viale dei Quattro Venti.
If the vision of those ethnic, somewhat tired and stale establishments that swarm and weigh down the air around big stations has flashed through your mind, well press on the “reset” button of your mind and change your perspective completely.
Aqla Middle Eastern street food in Rome is run by Nada together with her mother Aqla after whom the restaurant is named (the word Aqla means “wise woman”) and her sister Samantha. This is a must-try place for several reasons: first, the cuisine from the particular mix of Yemeni and Ethiopian flavors unusual and delicious, from raw materials of undisputed quality. A home cooking, warm with spices, comfortable with round and soft flavors, cheerful like a family table.
Second reason: grit. Yes, the overwhelming vitality and determination of this petite girl with the infectious smile, darting eyes and affable gab of someone who has so much to tell about herself, her past, and the country she holds in her heart but to which she cannot and does not want to return: Yemen.
Aqla Middle Eastern street food in Rome: a little feminine gem
This family, all women running this little gem to be discovered, were forced to leave a country at war and landed in Italy almost seven years ago. A new language, a life to reinvent, and a certainty: Mama Aqla cooks beautifully. Italian bureaucracy you know is not an easy thing even for native speakers let alone a foreign girl, but want is power and after no small amount of difficulty, a little over a year ago, Nada, just over 30 years old and the grit of a lioness, managed to raise the shutter of Aqla. As she tells it, her eyes shine proudly and I get goosebumps and my heart warms.
Sandwiches from family names
The names of the sandwiches (the bread is from the Roscioli bakery) have the names of family members scattered around the world: theAya (a sister living in the Netherlands) is the one with chicken marinated with spices, cooked on the griddle, with garlic sauce; Aqla (mom) is the sandwich with spiced lentils, feta, tomato salad, cucumber and red onion; the Huda (can’t remember the parentage), stuffed with zighinì and rice, then again Nada With falafel and tahina sauce.
I sampled various dishes including the ever-present falafel and Mutabbaq typical of Yemen. Vegetable Mutabbaq aono handmade crispy puff pastry rolls filled with leek, spring onion, egg, cilantro, parsley and tomato. I also loved the rice with chicken, peppers, and pomegranate molasses: it is a bit reminiscent of our chicken and peppers but has that sweet and sour taste of pomegranate sauce that makes it special.
Also very intriguing is the selection of Middle Eastern drinks, pleasant and refreshing to cleanse the palate from the intense tastes of the dishes. The non-alcoholic raspberry beer or the always non-alcoholic and sparkling tangerine or mulberry drinks.
Cost? Very little when you consider how enriching the experience is, and I am not just talking about the gastronomic experience. For less than 20 euros, you eat with gusto and you leave with a refreshed smile and a pinch more knowledge about such a fascinating and little-known culture.
