Shafaq News- Medina

Under a latticed wooden roof in Medina, Islam’s second-holiest city in western Saudi Arabia, cooks in Souq Al-Tabakha move between pots and grills. Brown wooden signs above each doorway list what the kitchens serve: grilled, fried and baked fish, shrimp, rice and meat.

The market, once known as Souq Al-Khan, sits in the Al-Maghariba district on Prince Abdulmohsen bin Abdulaziz Road, known locally as Quraban Road, about a kilometer from the Prophet's Mosque. Visitors enter through a pointed arch of dark basalt stone, a material long used in the city's older buildings, and walk into a corridor of dozens of restaurants serving Medina's popular dishes.

The menus trace the city's history as a destination for pilgrims and migrants. Kabuli and Bukhari rice recall cooks from Afghanistan and Central Asia, mandi comes from the Yemeni tradition of slow-cooked meat over spiced rice, and mantu dumplings and yaghmash (Yaghmoush) pastries share roots further east. Alongside them sit local staples such as muqalqal, small cubes of stir-fried meat, and kammouniya, a cumin-heavy stew closely tied to Medina, as well as fish and seafood.

On a weekday afternoon, the crowd mixed residents with visiting pilgrims, some still wearing the lanyards of their tour groups, sharing platters of grilled fish and flatbread at tables wrapped in plastic.

Ahmed Al-Harbi, who owns one of the restaurants, said the market's appeal rests on variety and consistency. "Many customers come looking for the traditional flavor they have known for years," he told Shafaq News, adding that diners can choose between fish, grilled meat, rice dishes and older home-style recipes in one place.

For the cooks, that flavor depends on technique handed down through families. "Popular dishes need experience and knowledge of the details, from choosing the ingredients to balancing the spices and the cooking time," said Khaled Al-Oufi, a chef in the market. "What sets these dishes apart is a taste tied to people's memory, and we try to keep that flavor and pass it on to new generations."

Abdulrahman Al-Juhani, a regular visitor, said the concentration of restaurants is what draws him back. Having many kitchens side by side, he told Shafaq News, lets visitors try several dishes in one trip while taking in an atmosphere that reflects part of Medina's heritage.