At Animal Kingdom Lodge’s quick service restaurant, The Mara, you can find a few African and Middle Eastern inspired menu items. One of these dishes doesn’t sound like much, the Chicken Flatbread, until you read its description: Berbere Sauce, Mozzarella, Chicken Breast, Corn and a Zhoug Drizzle.
Berbere is a an African seasoning blend which features spices such as chilies, ginger, cumin, and fenugreek. Like many mixtures, the actual seasonings used vary. The chicken appeared to be cooked in this sauce, as there didn’t seem to be any actual sauce on the flatbread.
Zhoug is a spicy green chili paste, although the heat is scaled back here and takes a bit more aromatic approach to the condiment. Recipes tend to call for a combination of jalapenos, cilantro, parsley, garlic, cumin, and a few other ingredients.
Zhoug Drizzle sounds like a rapper. Patent Pending.
In addition to the creamy mozzarella, savory chicken and slightly spicy zhoug, crisp kernels of corn add a bit of sweetness. The underside of the flatbread was lightly cooked, but it help up surprisingly well to the ingredients on top.
Overall, this was a delicious flatbread. I would imagine you could “vegetarianize it” by leaving off the chicken, and I don’t think you’d miss out on too many flavors as they are mostly reiterated and stronger in the Zhoug. The Mara’s Chicken Flatbread does a wonderful job of incorporating inspired flavors into a familiar format.
Here’s a look at the lunch/dinner menus for The Mara (click for larger):
Have you tried The Mara’s Chicken Flatbread? Do the flavors sounds interesting to you?
