If you are looking to stay fit and healthy, then you probably know the importance of having well-balanced meals at lunchtime. However, most of us lack the option of healthy food, with many of us resorting to highly processed or unhealthy fast food. Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant in San Diego, California is one of the few restaurants in the area that understands the importance of having healthy dietary options when it comes to a healthy diet.

Meals at lunchtime are significantly important because the type of food you eat during this time will have a direct impact on your overall health. Eating unhealthy food such as processed and greasy food predisposes you to lifestyle diseases such as obesity and diabetes. Studies have found that skipping meals during lunch time to lose weight will ultimately have the opposite effect for a majority of people. Having healthy, balanced meals during the day is more effective for weight loss and improving overall health. The meals at Aladdin are prepared with this in mind and the chefs are always looking to add healthy options to the menu.

Aladdin’s main offering is Middle Eastern food, which is one of the main dishes that make up the famous Mediterranean Diet. These types of food normally consist of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and other foods rich in calories and healthy fats. The food at Aladdin is also specially prepared with healthy herbs and spices instead of salt, which helps manage blood pressure.

Many nutritionists emphasize the importance of having a healthy lunch that offers a balance between the five major food groups: lean proteins, grains, fruits, vegetables, and dairy. At Aladdin Cafe, the menu is designed to accommodate these food groups to ensure you eat healthily. One of the menu items at Aladdin, the famous hummus topped with either lamb or chicken shawerma, offers the largest proportion of healthy food groups in the restaurant. The meal incorporates beans tahini, fresh lemon and garlic, olive oil, and chicken or lamb. When served with one of Aladdin’s freshly made in-house salads or desserts, this meal is bound to leave your taste buds thoroughly satisfied.

Apart from the hummus, Aladdin also offers other options for a healthy lunch. You can choose from different types of wood-fired pizzas, exotic rice plates, sandwiches, and up to twelve different types of entrees. These can be accompanied by lentil soup, herbal tea, or a variety of regular or sugar-free drinks for refreshment.

Aladdin also serves healthy vegetarian food for customers that have specific dietary restrictions. The restaurant also prepares vegan food on request, with the chefs at Aladdin always keen to ensure vegan and vegetarian meals are healthy. If you would like to deliveries made at home or for your office, Aladdin offers catering services to ensure you can still enjoy a healthy lunch outside its premises. Corporate catering is also offered for clients that would like to have meals served during meetings or other corporate events.

When planning your meals, always ensure to eat a healthy, balanced diet for meals during lunchtime.

To start off 2017 on the right culinary mood, the chef of Aladdin Mediterranean Restaurant in San Diego recommends Chicken Tika Kebab, a fusion dish that is not only delicious but also very interesting in terms of its origin.

Chicken Tika Kebab is perfect for a healthy lunch or a light dinner enjoyed during the spring and summer months. This meal consists of two chicken kebab skewers served with fresh basmati rice, vine-ripe tomatoes, hummus, Lebanese salad, pita bread, and a side portion of garlic sauce. The kebabs are white meat chicken tenders marinated in a tika, also known as tikka, sauce and carefully broiled to a crispy and golden perfection.

The History of Chicken Tika Kebab

Although the word kebab comes from an Arabic term used to describe Persian recipes that called for grilling chunks of meat, chicken or lamb on skewers, cooking instruments to make kebabs dating more than 1,500 years BC have been found by archaeologists in Greece. Even philosophers and authors from Ancient Greece mentioned this method of cooking in their scrolls; therefore the origin of kebabs is certainly Mediterranean.

Turkish historians acknowledge that kebabs were popular in the royal courts of the Persian Empires; they were subsequently adopted by many Mediterranean cultures as a breakfast or lunch dish to enjoy with pita bread.

The chicken tika marinade happens to be popular in the United Kingdom, precisely in Scotland. In the 1970s, a restaurant that specialized in Indian and Pakistani dishes came up with the marinade by accident. A diner ordered a chicken curry, a dish that had already become popular across the UK by the 1960s. The diner complained that the curry was too dry; the chef fixed up the dish with tomato soup as well as a few spices and the result was an amazing combination.

After the accidental tika invention, Indian and Pakistani chefs in the UK started to experiment with a chicken marinade that included yogurt, tomato and other spices. The chicken was baked tandoori-style, covered with an elaborate masala sauce, and served over rice.

Chicken Tika in San Diego

Although the original tika recipe can be considered to be a British dish, the chicken tika kebab of Aladdin Cafe is a Mediterranean variation that puts the chicken tenders on skewers after they have been marinated. Other Aladdin Cafe meals prepared with the tika marinade include lamb kebab and shish kebab.

Since this is a Mediterranean-inspired dish, it can be enjoyed with iced tea, lemonade, a frosty lager style beer, blush wine, or Pinot Noir.

It’s possible to trace the history of a region through its food. Every culture in the world has started with the foods that are native to their homeland, but their diet expands every time that they meet another culture. The two cultures mix, they take the best things from each other’s cuisines, and they create things that are entirely new. Middle Eastern food is no exception that that rule, and it reflects that area’s history as both the birthplace of civilization and the point where European and Asian culture met.

The Fertile Crescent

The history of the Middle Eastern diet starts with the great cities of the Bronze Age that rose between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The area’s cuisine has changed a lot since then, but many of the core elements were already in place. The region’s farmers were the first to grow wheat and barley, but they also grew figs and dates. Legumes, such as lentils and garbanzo beans were popular as a source of protein. They had a reasonably healthy diet, which was dominated by vegetarian food due to the economics of the time, and that diet forms the basis for modern Middle Eastern Food.

Crossroads of the World

The Middle East is in a unique position, since anybody who wants to travel between Europe and East Asia on foot needs to cross through it. That turned the region into a center of trade and cultural exchange, and it was that cultural exchange that allowed the Bronze Age diet to transition into modern cuisine.

Rice and many of the fruits that are popular in the Middle East came about as a result of trade and war with Asia. In particular, many of the spices that became associated with Middle Eastern food came from India. European contact introduced several vegetables into the region, and native agricultural innovations made meat such as chicken and lamb cheaper and more popular. Vegan food was still popular and a major part of most people’s diets, but most of the area’s popular meat dishes can be traced back to the periods of trade during the Classical and Medieval periods.

The Modern Middle East

Food never stops changing. Modern technology makes it easier than ever for people to travel and communicate, and that has helped to spread Middle Eastern cuisine all over the world. Hybrid cuisine, like pizza that includes traditionally Middle Eastern foods as toppings, are available now, but they would have been impossible even a century ago. The diversity of Middle Eastern food has made it popular with corporate catering services as well as catering for individual parties, and its adaptability means that even though this cuisine has been around for thousands of years, it will be popular for thousands more to come.