4 minute read
Let’s Eat
from Mankato Magazine
By Dan Greenwood
Rahma Abdi of Karshe Tea. Abdi spent tie in Somaliland where she learned about her roots and culture.
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Karshe Tea
Taste of home
After Rahma Abdi graduated from St. Peter High School in 2016, her father organized a family trip to Somaliland so she could learn about her roots and culture. Born in Yemen, Abdi was for the first time setting foot in the country her father grew up in.
Making up the northern third of Somalia, Somaliland has been a success story. It’s a peaceful, representative democracy with its own flag, police force and parliament. Its stability has led the autonomous state to attract a growing interest among tourists looking for a unique destination to visit.
The trip was a life-changing experience for Abdi, and it inspired her father, Sami Ismail, to follow his lifelong dream of opening a Somali café in downtown Mankato, which officially opened last year.
While eating at a restaurant in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, Abdi sampled the best milkshake she’d ever tasted, made from mangos. Intrigued, she asked the restaurant owners what their secret was.
“They wrote down the recipe in Somali on a piece of paper for me,” Abdi said. “I held onto it until I got back to Minnesota. I asked my mom to read it for me and we made
Photos by Pat Christman
it. We decided to have it here and it’s our No. 1 hit.”
“It definitely reminds me of home,” she said. “Even when my cousins come here and visit the café, they always think of back home.”
Made of vanilla ice cream and mangos, she describes the milkshake as very sweet and condensed. It also contains Vimto, a carbonated beverage made from a variety of herbs and spices and a combination of raspberry, black currant and grape juices.
“Mango is the main one, but we also offer blueberry, strawberry, mixed berry, watermelon and I plan
Rahma Abdi prepares a speciality tea at Karshe Tea.
to add guava smoothies as well for the summer,” Abdi said.
This summer, they plan to add a plethora of other Somali dishes to their menu, as soon as they expand their kitchen.
“Hopefully by July we’ll have our entire kitchen open, which would then be our full menu,” Abdi said.
One planned item on the expanded menu is a Somali soup called maraq, with a vegetarian option made from potatoes, cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, onions and jalapenos. Goat meat is also boiled in the water to extract the flavors and then seasoned with a chili powder from Ethiopia called berbere.
“It’s grounded better and hits you differently,” explained Abdi, who said berbere is also used to clean the senses from a sinus infection.
Another Somali staple they will offer is malawax. Abdi compares it to a versatile crepe, which can be eaten plain, savory or coated in sugar or honey. It’s sometimes served with Nutella and strawberries or with Somali-style eggs, scrambled with vegetables and spices.
“Or you could pour the chaax on top of the malawax, the black tea that we serve here,” she said.
Somewhat comparable to chai, Abdi uses a black tea imported from Kenya. Then they add green cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and black peppercorns. Chaax plays a big role in Somali culture as a way to socialize and welcome guests. It is sometimes even poured on malawax. The finely grounded Somali coffee is also infused with similar spices, boiled together and then strained.
“You would never have a guest in your home without offering some tea, and if they say no, they still get a cup of tea,” Abdi laughed. “It’s definitely a cultural thing for us and it brings everybody together.”
Since they first opened, sambusas, a popular appetizer in Somalia, have been popular at Karshe Tea, and they are made from scratch by Abdi’s mother in-house.
The homemade dough is kneaded, cut into triangles, stuffed with ground beef, cilantro, garlic, jalapenos and then folded and fried in oil. Abdi’s mother uses a secret blend of spices for the ground beef, and they plan to offer vegetarian, chicken and tilapia sambusas later this summer.
Her favorite part of the job is meeting and having conversations with a diverse combination of customers from all walks of life. Her father, Ismail, who works another full-time job on top of running the restaurant, said he is so grateful that customers have been supportive and loyal as they prepare to expand their offerings.
“Sami wanted me to express his gratitude and appreciation to those who helped us keep our business open since we opened in June of last year,” Abdi said.
