Iraqi Fried Fish Mountain!! Iraq Seafood in Basrah!!

Assalamu alaikum from beautiful Basra, the port city of Iraq. Today I'm going to go take you to Sharasi Basra, a traditional restaurant that serves some of the best fish in town. Obviously we're here on the Gulf, you have to eat lots of seafood when you come to Basra. Look at this, incredible views overlooking the city and then after we eat we're going to go straight to the biggest stadium in the country. Follow me, let's go straight to the kitchen. I can't wait, fish, fish all day. Where's Jafar at? Alright, so we just skipped the restaurant, went through the whole thing and now we're off into the kitchen and here we go. Assalamu alaikum. Hello, hello. Chef. Hello, hello. Assalamu alaikum. Okay, very good. I'm ready to go. Fish, fish? Right here? Assalamu alaikum. Okay, so we're about to start with this fish, right? So we have turmeric and the name of the fish? Zubairi. Zubairi, so they're going to put turmeric on the zubairi and then they're going to fry it. Yes. Okay, let's start. Some oil. Here we go, so he's going to cut the fish, make a few slits. Oh yeah, there's some salt. Salt in the fish, perfect. Is that in turmeric? On a daily basis, you know what the customers order. Yeah, so exactly how they do it for customers. We call it special spice from India. Yeah, turmeric. Let's go, chef. Chef Shadi, the way he did it is that he made some slits, some salt, added turmeric, then he put it on the pan, fried it really quick, literally two minutes, it's done. Smells so good. Smells amazing. That turmeric, that spice from India. Yeah. Done? So now he's going to put two different rices on the plate with the fish, so white rice with saffron, delicious, and then next to it, biryani, the king of rices. Let's go, chef. Yalla, yalla. Oh yeah, that's awesome. Actually, this is back in the steak, you know, we call it baked beans. Yeah, baked beans. Yeah, fasolia, okay. Fasolia, yeah, this is fasoli beans. This is okra. This is okra, right? Yes, this is how we do it in the southern states of America. All right, let's go to the table and let's eat. This food looks amazing. Zubaydi, the fish of Basra. The dish of Basra. The dish, the dish, but Zubaydi is the fish. Yes, it's known all over Iraq that if you come to Basra, you must try Zubaydi. Okay, so how we're going to do this, we're going to put it on our plate? Yes, let's put it on our plate. Okay. Yes, take it. Beautiful. Nice. Fried, huh? Yes, fried. Look, so we do it like that. Oh, look at this. Very buttery fish. So, separate this to the side. Let's get all this off. Oh, so nice. Got a little bit of bones. Just got to be careful with those. They're right here, right? And then we come over here and we get some of the rice, right? Yes. So, what do you want? Saffron? Both. Okay, so I'll give you a little bit of that one. And a little bit of the... Of course, walnuts. Yes. Okay, so let's get some of this. Biryani is the best. Can't stop with the biryani. Let's get that for now. Okay. Okay. And then we just mix it together, right? Yeah, let's do. But first, I want to try this Zubaydi alone. Okay. Nice fried fish. Very meaty. Another turmeric crust. Yes. Oh, it's so good. Wow. You know, it reminds me of like the king of fishes, like kingfish, you know? In terms of like the butteriness of the meat. Wow, it's good. I've never tried seafood in my life. What? Yes, I've only tried carp and zuri, which are fish found in the river near Baghdad. This is my first time trying seafood. It's amazing. And it's amazing. The fish, very light. I mean, that spice and turmeric. Amazing. Do you want me to get you something else? No, we're perfect. We're perfect. This is perfect. Thank you so much. Okay, you Thank you. This is the card. I put my name and this is my Iraqi. Thank you, Muhammad. Thank you so much. You're welcome. Nice. Get some more fish. Wow. Okay, here we go. So interesting. It's really interesting. It's a very unique fish and it comes from the Gulf, right? Yes, yes. Gulf So I think now we should just jump on some of these other things, right? So, you know, we don't really have bread. So I'm just going to try some of the hummus. Wow. Hummus with good chunky chickpeas and some oil. Hummus. Here we go. Feels like I'm in Lebanon. Right here. So good. It's hummus. It's like a garbanzo beans tahini. Yummy hummus. The oil, man. The oil. The oil, the chunky chickpeas. Oh, it's a thick hummus. I'm actually very excited to try this one though. This one is a mix of eggplant, tahini, and we have some pomegranate. Ready? Sourness is unexpected, but it's good. It's very nice. This one actually feels like very crumbly, very soft. The other one, the hummus is thick. This is soft, but the pomegranate just gives it that texture. This is amazing. It is amazing. Wow. I mean, usually I would eat this with a bread, but it's okay. For me, this shows that food is not just about the taste. It's about textures as well. Exactly. So I think we should jump on some of this other stuff. So my favorite salad on earth right here. I think this is the best salad on earth. So you want to see how I do it? Yes, show me. It's like that. It's like a tabbouleh lettuce wrap. A tabbouleh lettuce mini sandwich. Mini sandwich. Yes. I mean, it's either this or I mix it with some hummus, you know? Super nice. Falafel sandwich, add a bunch of tabbouleh and that's it. I can have tabbouleh as a main dish. Yeah, me too. As a dinner. It's amazing. Really nice. Okay, I guess next up, okra. I love okra. Look at this. Okra mixed with some tomato sauce. Yes. And lemons. Lemons, huh? Let's try it. I'm going to try the Iraqi way, which is to mix it with the rice. Love this stew. That's a lot of like vibrant taste, huh? Tomato, onion. Very good. This is Iraqi Bamiya. The lunch dish I have. Wow. I mean, I like it. Personally, these two are my favorite. I want to highlight the pistachios. Pistachios too? Yes, it's perfect. It's a really nice. Yeah, so the pistachios are all over the place, right? Yes. And over here we have basically, this is a bean stew, right? Fagioli. Fagioli Italian, fava beans. I personally, I grew up with this stuff. I ate with this when my mom used to make this like with rice and then a chicken, you know? Me too. It's good. This and meat. Exactly. This is what I grew up with. Yeah. Seems like we have something in common. I think a lot of people do. Yes. This is apparently the whole world. Yeah, yeah. And then they brought us some pomegranate juice. I won't lie to you. It is very sour, this one. And it's pure. Yes. Very sour. It's really good. That's the beautiful part about it. I mean, it's pure, you know? That's what I like about it because if it's not, it's full of sugar. You have noticed how Iraqis love pomegranate. Oh, I know. I know you guys love it. This is perfect. But I feel like from here all the way up to, you know, northern Iran, Armenia, that whole area, everybody likes pomegranate. Yes. You guys produce a lot of it. It's good. Yeah, it's good. The whole world is going to love it if they find it out. And over here we have a salad. So we have cucumber, onions. Obviously, this is fried bread. You want some? Yes. I'm just going to take a bite. And I'm sure they put like some pomegranate sauce, right? Yes, on top. Always. Talk about textures. Oh my gosh. No, it's amazing. It's like a sweet glaze, pomegranate glaze, right? Yes. It's good lunch, huh? Really amazing lunch. Better than expected. The lady was perfect. Seafood was better than I expected. This restaurant, as you see, very beautiful. High ceilings, lots of beautiful lighting, pictures. We also have over there like a place for kids. You have great views over the city. And yeah, that's basically the restaurant, right? Amazing spot. And are you ready to go? We're going to go to see the biggest stadium in the country, right? Yes. And don't worry guys, we're sharing this with the rest of our team. Pistachios. Remember that. So luckily, they do have espresso here. Not just Turkish coffee, not just Nespresso. This is oh, this is good. This is real stuff. Now, I'm breaking one of my rules. I'll drink coffee after food. It's a rule? For me, it's like a digestive. Oh, look at this. Sugar. But as you know, I'm trying to quit sugar and stuff on this trip. I mean, you know, because I'll go back to Madrid and you know, next week, I've been invited to the beach. How am I going to go to the beach if I fight sugar all day? Coaching, but nice. Thanks for coming. Shukran, shukran. Shukran, habibi. Shukran, shukran, habibi. Okay, David. Shukran. Nice meeting you. Nice meeting you, too. Let's do it. Let's do it. Okay, guys, let's go to the stadium. It's been a hot day. Continue, always. Continue, continue. Always forward, never patras. By the way, the restaurant we just were at is right up there where that bridge is. That's where we started. The restaurant is right there. These are the views, right? So, let's get in the car. Let's go to the stadium. Later, we got a six-hour drive back to Baghdad. Six hours, pretty intense, but hey, it's only when we go back. This heat, 50 degrees Celsius, crazy. How much is that in Fahrenheit? 120 Fahrenheit. Let's go. Okay, so we're now entering the sports city. So, over here, we have a hotel. Oh, look at the stadium over there. Dude, it looks like a looks like a tower. Looks like a palm tree. Yeah, gorgeous. I mean, I'm loving the architecture here. Nice. It's like little boats, right? All going in perfect symmetry all around. We are in Malab. Malab? That means stadium, right? Yes, Malab stadium. Malab stadium. Yes. How do you say the biggest stadium? Okay, Malab, I was saying. Perfect. VIP status, literally driving into the stadium. Who gets this? Okay, so here we go. VIP access. So, the story of this like a sports city started in 2009, and it was finished a few years ago. And look at this. Wow, massive. Oh, wow. It's huge. Yes, it's huge. Look at this. How many people sit here? How many people are? Next up with number 11. David's been here. I'm number 37. 65,000 people can watch a game at this stadium. The biggest stadium in Iraq. You can't touch the ball, man. That was amazing. We built up a sweat. We played a little bit of football. Oh, I'm exhausted. That was our afternoon. We had an incredible lunch, delicious fish, some rice and biryani, hummus. Oh, fantastic that we came out here. And we saw this incredible stadium. Basra International Stadium. And yeah, who are you rooting for? This World Cup. I know I'm going for America, but really, I think Brazil's going to win it. That's just me. Hey guys, if you love this video, please give me a thumbs up, comment below, and subscribe to my channel for more awesome stuff coming.