Jordan Diaries: Chapter 4

A Foodies Perspective

“The way to a man's heart is through his stomach”… this also holds true, if you are trying to understand a country, its culture, its people and Jordan being a land, where people know how to treat their guests, there is no dearth of experiencing its amazing variety of food.

Sheesha Getting Ready

Arabic food outside the Arab world, is incomparable to the real food, served in any of the Arabic countries. Food from this region, is way beyond Hummus, Baba Ganoush, Falafel and Shawarma. There is so much diversity in the Arabic cuisine, that naming a few dishes and tagging them as Arabic food, teeters at the edge of blasphemy. From Egyptian Mahshi, Lebanese Kibbeh & Manakish, Emirati Rubian Meshwi, Jordanian Mansaf; the list is never ending and the opulent opportunities to indulge in them has been a blessing for me.

Reminiscing on my food journey, that I was fortunate enough to take through my days of travelling across Jordan, still gives me a rush of happiness. It is really difficult to mark an exact point of origin to this story, because Jordan has a diverse geography, just like its food, which can take you up on the mountains and also take you to the sea. So, I would start from the very beginning…

Downtown Amman

Filled with various eateries; some flocked by tourists and locals alike and some only by locals, I was accompanied by my good friend Ahmed Emad as always and we found a place and I decided

to try a national favourite called Kafta E Tahine, literally meaning, meat cooked in Tahina(Sesame seed paste). The place we went into was inside an alley and initially I wasn’t much impressed with the location. It was a very basic cafeteria styled restaurant, filled with people, all waiting for their food to arrive. My friend suggested that I also try the Arayes (Meet stuffed bread) as that is something that I would have never had.

The Arayes arrived within 10 minutes after the order was placed and a small tub of yoghurt was served along with some basic salad. The Arayes was still probably sizzling inside as I dug into it and the flavour of the minced meat with a touch of spice and a dash of lemon was absolutely divine. It was hot, it was juicy, and you can’t stop yourself going for the second and third bite.

Experiencing Magical Arayes

As I mopped up the bits and pieces, the star dish arrived. A bake pan, straight out of the oven, with a hunk of meat, submerged in a gravy like slurry of tahini, with some shredded potatoes on top. We dove into the hot pan, with our Khubbus breads and while our fingers burned in the slurry, pieces of succulent meat was wrapped in bread and savoured with a lot of satisfaction. A simple meat dish, with two to three clean flavours, is just what you need to satiate your hunger pangs.

Two Shades of Kafta E Tahine

Kafta E Tahine and Arayes Baking

Hashem Restaurant

Right at the beginning of downtown, a restaurant stands which is a well known name in

Chai Bu Nana

Amman. A place so famous that time and again, it even attracted the king and his family to savour some great food which they have been making since 1956. Surprisingly, they are famously known for their vegetarian dishes viz. Fol, two varieties of Falafel, Hummus, Musabbaha, Muttabel and most importantly, Chai Bu Nana(Sweet Black Tea with fresh Mint). After a long days of work, as you relax in this restaurant, sitting outside, under the open sky, a swig of that tea, a bite of the falafel, and the brightly lit up downtown in front of your eyes and people passing by, the world stops for you. You learn to savour the moment, you enjoy it.

A Must Visit Place

Sara Seafood Restaurant

During Ramadan, when my friend Ahmed observed a day long fast, we would ensure that we go to a nice place, to break his fast in the evening. We would certainly visit another famous restaurant in downtown, called Sara Sea Food Restaurant. Founded in 1990, this is one of the oldest sea food restaurant in Amman and is quite an attraction for the locals. Finding a table sometimes can be difficult, especially during the weekends. Here, as you enter the restaurant from behind an alley, you choose what you want to eat and how you want to eat it. Grilled, roasted, fried and what kind of fish and sea food. Our go to dishes were usually their sea food soup, lemon and butter prawns and a whole grilled fish served with potatoes and salad. There is an option to sit in the balcony area overlooking the bustling downtown. Request your waiter, NICELY and he can arrange that area for you.

Habiba Sweets

I don’t have a sweet tooth, but I like to try regional desserts, for the experience of it. Arabic

Soft Kunafa

cuisine has a diverse range of sweets and one of them has many avatars, depending on the country you are eating it in, is Kunafa. Known by other aliases viz., Kunafe, Knafe, Kanafe, it's an amazing soft, cheesy and sweet dessert, mostly eaten warm and preferably fresh. Habiba Sweets located in downtown Amman, is one of the oldest sweet shops. Established in 1947, they specialise in many sweets, but their Kunafa is probably world famous. Every evening you would see a long queue of mostly locals, buzzing outside the door of that small shop, waiting for their plate of soft or semi hard Kunafa, made and cut fresh in front of their eyes. You can see several eyes lighting up, as they cut into the piece of heaven and the melt in the mouth experience, making them weak in their knees. The warm, soft feeling of the cheese, complimented by the crispiness from the vermicelli like pastry on top, can only be experienced in person. Feels like falling in love, over and over again.

How You Experience Kunafa

A more formal yet leisurely setting, calls for two restaurants which I frequented quite a bit. Tawaheen Al Hawa and The Great Amman Restaurant. For a large gathering, we would choose the former as it had a large courtyard styled seating and for a more cosier setting the second option was perfect for us. My favourite at both these places were their Fried Chicken Liver coated lightly with pomegranate molasses and their succulent Lamb Chops.

Bearing in mind that Arabs are people with big hearts, and they know how to pamper their guests; one needs to accept if an invitation is extended, for anything related to food, even if it is for just a cup of coffee. And if you are meeting a lot of people through the day, prepare yourself for a good number of sweet and strong Arabic coffee, that will keep you up at night, if you are not used to it.

Other Places Worth Visiting

I had mentioned in one of my older blogs about another great place to visit in Amman other than

Chilling in Books@cafe

downtown. Rainbow street is one more location in Amman where one can visit, to try out many small to medium sized eateries. These places are mainly buzzing with college and high school students, during week days and with young families during weekends. From burgers, to frankies, to local street snacks, you name it and this place has it. Amongst all these eateries, Gerard’s Ice Cream parlour caught my attention. Their variety of flavours and their quirkiness would attract you to try a few and then take you through a series of indecisions, before you finally settle down with one particular flavour.

Down South

In the south of Jordan lies the gulf of Aqaba. A small city flanked by sand stone hills on one side and the clear blue gulf water on the other side. This city is speckled by many resorts, that lies on the long beach and right across the city are Jordan’s neighbours, Egypt and Israel. Aqaba is quite a bustling little city, as it is an entry point for tourists coming in from Israel to visit Jordan and also has ships, docking nearby for trade. Although fishing is not allowed inside the gulf, Aqaba receives quite a load of sea food, from the deep sea fishing. Resultantly, you can find quite a few places, to savour good sea food. Having tried a number of eateries, we zeroed on one restaurant

we frequented every time we visited Aqaba. The restaurant was called Fish Fish. Fishy as the name sounded, the food served there was on contrary, a delectable experience. We would amongst other things, always order for the chef’s special baked fish with potatoes on top. The use of garlic, some herbs and lemon on the potatoes, would create an amazing flavour coating on the fish. The fish would be crispy on the outside, soft and moist on the inside and would deserve all your attention on it.

The 3 Shades of the Seafood

Ahmed Visually Stressed By The Fish Size

Some More Seafood Galore

Maternal Instincts

Over the years of travelling across Jordan, I made some really good friends and I was lucky enough to be invited in one of their homes. It is not everyday that you get invited in an Arabic household, and it becomes even special, when your friend’s mother cooks for you. In this case my friend Ibrahim was a 50 year old man, and needless to state that his mother was quite elderly. Although they have been living in Jordan for many years now, their forefathers were originally Palestinians. I was greeted by Ibrahim and some his old friends who spoke some English, just how I spoke “some” Arabic. Over a couple of cups of Arabic Coffee, time was being well spent in his garden amidst laughter and some flavoured Sheesha. Soon it was time for lunch and the table was set for an authentic Palestinian meal. There was a simple clear lamb soup, full of aromatics and packed with flavour. Followed by some roast chicken and salad. Amongst this was the star dish called Musakhan, a Sumac scented, flat bread topped with caramelised onions and pine nuts, that is served with the roast chicken. Take my words for it, you can’t just have one, and you will be in trouble if you eat two. It’s kind of a double jeopardy, but in a good way. Although I was able to experience a household meal and an experience which I can never get in a restaurant, I wasn’t able to meet the maker of my meal that day. She was too shy to come out and meet a stranger from a far away land. But I could taste the fact that she cooked her heart out for me and I felt immensely blessed.

Palestinian Lunch

I learnt that day, far away from home; a mother’s cooking, whether your own, or someone else’s always reflects one flavour, invariably… The flavour of LOVE…

Special Thanks To Ahmed Emad

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