Where We Are Going Today: Mighty Catch restaurant in Qatif
The shrimp avocado salad has an extraordinary flavor because of the addition of fresh mango chunks
Updated 16 May 2023
Sulafa Alkhunaizi
If you ever catch yourself craving seafood with unique oriental flavors, Mighty Catch restaurant in Qatif in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia may provide the answer.
The best part of Mighty Catch is that all the fish is from local farms, resulting in a fresh dish every single time.
The menu contains appetizers and main dishes bursting with flavor from various cuisines: Thai tom yum soup, Indian shrimp biryani, shrimp kunafa, and Japanese shrimp katsu.
It also offers seafood boils with customizable mix-and-match flavors: spicy and garlicky cajun, cream sauce, lemon butter, or a mixture.
One of its star dishes is the black lime salmon served on a bed of roasted vegetables. The significance of this dish is the dried black lime, popularly known as limoo amani in Middle Eastern cuisine. The salmon is cooked until it is buttery smooth on the inside and with golden edges filled with flavor. The black lime sauce on top creates the perfect flavor and texture balance.
The shrimp avocado salad has an extraordinary flavor because of the addition of fresh mango chunks. These help create the perfect mixture of savory: tangy and sweet.
For those who have an appetite for spicy food, the Nashville chicken is a great choice. The Tennessee classic is deep-fried chicken slathered in a dark red cayenne sauce that adds a kick.
It is rare to find a restaurant with a range of international cuisines created so beautifully and effortlessly. One would expect the flavors to be affected when there are so many choices, but each dish is made with so much precision and elegance.
Customers can dine in Mighty Catch and enjoy the simplistic yet modern feel of the place, with all the focus on their meal. They may also order through the Shuka app from the comfort of their homes.
ALKHOBAR: Sourdough has started to shift from a niche interest into a mainstream feature of home kitchens, cafes and specialty bakeries across the Kingdom.
The rise of sourdough is part of a wider shift in Saudi Arabia’s food landscape, where artisanal production and slower preparation methods are gaining traction.
Specialty coffee seems to have set the early template for this transition, normalizing premium pricing, craftsmanship and an interest in process.
The rise of sourdough is part of a wider shift in Saudi Arabia’s food landscape, where artisanal production and slower preparation methods are gaining traction. (Supplied/creativecommons)
Bread is now undergoing a similar shift, with fermentation replacing extraction and roasting as the central point of differentiation.
In both cases, the appeal is rooted in the product’s perceived authenticity, reduced additives, and a clearer link between raw ingredients and final consumption.
Home bakers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have adapted natural yeast cultures to the Saudi environment, adjusting feeding schedules, hydration ratios, and fermentation times to accommodate higher temperatures and lower humidity in the summer months.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Home bakers in Riyadh, Jeddah and the Eastern Province have adapted natural yeast cultures to the Saudi environment.
• They adjust feeding schedules, hydration ratios, and fermentation times to accommodate higher temperatures and lower humidity in the summer months.
Cafes and specialty bakeries have responded by adding sourdough loaves, baguettes and focaccia to their menus, often positioned as premium alternatives to conventional commercial bread.
For younger home bakers, the appeal lies in the craft and the learning curve rather than nostalgia. “It feels more real and more intentional,” home baker Sarah Al-Almaei told Arab News. She began experimenting with natural yeast at home after watching starter tutorials online.
The technical aspect — hydration percentages, fermentation control and starter maintenance — has become content in its own right, with TikTok and Instagram compressing trial-and-error learning into short videos and recipe cards.
But the practice of maintaining a natural yeast culture is not new in Saudi Arabia. Long before sourdough became a global trend, Saudi households kept what was commonly referred to as the “mother dough,” a natural yeast starter fed and used daily.
“We used to maintain it every day and bake with it,” said Hessa Al-Otaibi, 56, a Saudi home baker with more than four decades’ experience. “People today call it sourdough. For us, it was simply bread.”
Her comment highlights a cultural continuity that has remained largely unrecognized, partly because the practice was not framed as artisanal or health-oriented, but as a routine household function.
The modern sourdough trend differs in its market positioning. While the older model was practical and domestic, the current model is commercial, aesthetic and often health-coded. Bakeries justify higher pricing through longer fermentation times, higher ingredient costs and smaller batch production.
Consumers justify their purchases through digestibility, perceived health benefits, flavor and product integrity.
“Once you get used to it, it’s hard to go back,” said Amina Al-Zahrani, a regular buyer of sourdough from specialty bakeries in Alkhobar.
Digestibility and texture are often cited as reasons for substitution, especially among buyers who report discomfort from standard commercial bread.
Another consumer, Majda Al-Ansari, says sourdough has become part of her weekly routine, noting that availability and quality have improved significantly in the past year.
The social media component has played an outsized role in accelerating adoption. Home bakers document starter feeding cycles, cold proofing and first bakes, turning a once-private domestic process into visible public content.
This has also created micro-markets of home-based sellers, where individual bakers offer loaves to local buyers, often fulfilling orders through direct messaging.
What remains to be seen is how far the trend will scale. If specialty bakeries continue to expand and consumers maintain willingness to pay premium prices, sourdough could establish a long-term place in Saudi food culture.
If not, it may revert to a smaller niche of committed home bakers and specialty cafes. For now, however, sourdough occupies an unusual position: both a newly fashionable trend and a quiet continuation of an older Saudi baking practice.
