hilbeh (or hulba
or halba), an Arabic word which always indicates fenugreek but can mean anything from just that (the spice) through a foamy preparation made from the soaked and ground seeds to a thick soup-like dish based on this foamy preparation but including other ingredients. Of these other ingredients the most important in the yemen, where hilbeh/hulba counts as a national dish, would be the spicy chilli-hot paste called zhug.
Hilbeh is known throughout the Gulf region, but seems to be more important and better known in the Yemen than anywhere else.
