2 weeks in the Middle East - Amman and Jerusalem

Mellonhubby and I are taking a trip to the Middle East in the next couple of months. We're looking for restaurant suggestions in Jordan (we'll be visiting his sister in Amman) and Jerusalem.

I've never been to either place so any LTH suggestions would be appreciated.

Thx,
Melissa

I don't know where this is, or if it's still there. In the spring of 1999 I was in Jerusalem and fell in love with a hole-in-the-wall (as all restaurants are in the old city) schwarma place that was next to the "Metro" night club. I still hold true to my claim that schwarma in Israel and most likely the rest of the middle east, is far superior to anything the US can offer. And, the tahini was so good that I think I remember drinking it more than my Coke.

for Amman:

try Deir El Qamar
http://www.deirelqamarrestaurant.com/about.html

this is simply one of the best arabic resteraunts that I know. frankly, a lot of arabic resteraunts have very similar design and style - they look like an arabic style house. this looks more like an upscale resteraunt, but the food is very authentic and the service is excellent. also, excellent view.

a more traditional place, but almost as good
REEM ALBAWADY RESTAURANT
Address: Gardens Street, West of Town, Amman
Tel.: (962)5-515419


if you want to try something very intersting, look for the "chinese resteraunt at first circle" - the first chinese resteraunt in the middle east. basically this is what defines chinese/arab food. an experience.


for jerusalem

first - Tzekiatt hazhot - the midnight steak house, on agripa street. the best possible example of israeli popular meat restereaunt. get the kababs, but if you are feeling adventurous, try the "mixed grill". also have humous and various mezza.

I would also suggest humous "pinati" - the corner humous place. all they serve is humous and the things that go with humous. try the humous with meat, and try the falafell.

the yeminite falafel place on bazalel - a hole in the wall, but about the best israeli style falafel anywhere in the world. always fresh and hot.

I would go to the covered food market, you need to go in the morning. you can buy salads and filled foods like grape leave, kube, morocan cigars (filled with meat). there is a bakery in the covered market called "marzipan" that has fantastic chocolate and cinimon rolls - recently they were listed in saveur magazine for the best rogolah in the world. get both the chocolate and the cinimom.

your hotels, or a good taxi driver, will be able to get you to these places.

Cool. I'm going to Jordan in June (after May in Egypt), so I too am interested in the spots you've recommended for Amman. Thanks.

let me know if you want for egypt

Globetrotter: Thanks! These are great suggestions. We're staying at my sister in-law's house on the eastern side of Amman. Both of your suggestions sound great (and the Chinese place sounds cool just to say we tried it.) There are a number of people telling me that "The Blue Fig" is the place to try...but it sounds a little bit like a Middle Eastern "Trixie" paradise: any opinion on this place?

We're staying in the Old City in Jerusalem so we'll be sure to check out your suggestions there too.

Cynthia: I'll do a post after my trip of all the places we eat!

globetrotter wrote:let me know if you want for egypt

Absolutely. I'd love recommendations for Egypt. I'll be on a tour, but we do have several days on our own, so any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

sorry - I was out of town

there are a couple of things I'd suggest

1. nile river boat dining - nice experience. try to the Nile Maxim, operated by the Marriott. anotehr boat is the Studio Miser which is more of a traditional egyptian grill place.

2. rotation tower on the Grand Hyatt - great views

3. Farahat is a traditional Pigeon place, in Nasr City. your hotel can arrange transportation and reservations. this is the type of place that a middle class egyptian family will go on a regular basis. get the stuffed pigeon, although the kababs are pretty good.

enjoy

Thanks. It's always nice to have some possibilities when one is heading to a new town.

When in Aman, do not miss the fresh squeezed orange juice. There are stands and shops selling fresh squezzed juices and the OJ is sublime!

Mellonhubby and I had a great time in Amman and Jerusalem. Actually, I was really impressed with Amman - Definitely a fabulous place to visit and a really great tourist destination if you're looking for something different than the usual "Euro Vacation".

Amman is laid out in one long stretch that goes from the downtown area (Eastern part of the city) all the way out to the Western part of the city. Along the way there are 8 traffic circles that stand as landmarks. The “First Circle” is just east of downtown. The “Eighth Circle” is the western most Circle a few kilometers to the west. We stayed with Mellonhubby's sister and her family and they live near the Palestinian Embassy between 4th and 5th Circle.

Jordanians don’t really use street names (although all the street signs are in Arabic and English) or addresses - many of the street names have changed in the last few years, causing lots of confusion. Mostly, people use landmarks. I’m a VERY bad LTH’er for not providing more specific information on addresses (I’ll do the best I can with what I have). But where I can I’ll include photos of the restaurants and phone numbers with some landmarks if possible.

And now ... on to the food:

First off we hit a little shawarma place called “Il Haal” near 5th circle (approx).


The shawarma in Jordan is not the Pita-stuffed sandwich that you get here in the States: this was a protein wrapped up in thin bread (‘shraak’) with a little pickle, parsley and sometimes a “sauce” (sometimes tahina…sometimes something else). Il Haal has great cheap shawarma that’s in the “Syrian” style – meaning there’s a really nice creamy mayo-like substance slathered on the bread for good measure along with your protein and pickles. It was a brilliant and cheap snack.

We also hit Hasham for a traditional Arabic breakfast.


There are 2 locations of Hasham, one in the downtown area near the fresh fruit and vegetable market and the other in Jabal Amman west of downtown. We hit both of these places and it’s probably easier to have a cab take you to the one in western Amman as the one downtown is a bit harder to find.

Freshly made falafel and hummos, along with great foul and fresh bread with olive oil and zaatar (dried thyme, salt and sesame seeds) for dipping – this is a breakfast to fill you up for a full day of sight seeing. I don’t know why we don’t have breakfast like this in America, but the super-protein packed food was filling and healthy considering the variety of legumes and olive oil.

Next up was Reem Al Bawady in Western Amman. This is a very traditional place that’s a bit upscale. This was one of the culinary highlights of the trip. FRESH mezza and warm bread started the meal – the traditional “homos” (yes, we giggled like school children when we saw that printed on the menu), baba ganoush, and tabouli, along with spicy olives, grilled veggies, spinach pies, baked “cheese puffs”, and other delights. Additionally, we were introduced to Labneh – a very thick strained yogurt – that had garlic and lemon mixed in. Needless to say I wanted to hook this stuff up to an IV drip.

After stuffing ourselves silly…the real meal came and we were happily assaulted with various grilled meats – FABULOUS chicken kebabs, beef and onion kebabs, lamb kebabs, lamb chops – it was endless meat.

We also had the Mensaf – the national dish of Jordan. Mensaf is stewed lamb done in a broth of jameed (dried goat milk yogurt, and broth flavored with marrow) served on rice with pine nuts and shraak. Now – I have a history with Mensaf: Mensaf - my first experience with Mensaf was here in the States and it was so bad I struggled to not spit it in my napkin. However, the Mensaf at Reem al Bawady was delicious. It was unbelievably flavorful – rich and salty, buttery and yet light. It was a revelation.

After eating ourselves silly, we got the bill and realized that we had just fed 4 adults and 3 children for less than $90…needless to say, I was surprised how inexpensive food was in Jordan.

Next up was the drive to Wadi Musa and sight-seeing at the jaw-dropping Petra. We spent the night in the very “grim” but clean Al Anbat hotel. What the place lacked in décor, it made up for with its friendly staff. We ducked out of the hotel for a quick dinner at "Arabiya" right on the main strip facing the traffic circle in Wadi Musa (you really can’t miss it – it’s right at the traffic circle). Decent and simple, it was somewhat more expensive than the food in Amman - probably due to the hordes of tourists who descend on the town every year - but not a rip-off either. Shawarma was around 3.50 JD (about $4.50) compared to 750 fils ($0.95) at Il Haal in Amman.

The next day we got up and explored the Petra site. After which we hit the Movenpick for a buffet lunch. The Movenpick is the luxury hotel conveniently located right outside the Petra site. Lunch was $74.00 and the buffet was mediocre at best. We should have taken Anthony Bourdain’s oft-repeated “No Reservations” advice and ate at a local place. But we were dehydrated, tired, and suckered in by the convenience of air conditioning and “Euro-luxury”. Ah chef Bourdain: I will never stray again…

Back in Amman, we decided to take Globetrotter’s advice and try the Jordanian take on Chinese food near 4th Circle. We hit the Taipei Tourismo for Chinese and there wasn’t a pig to be found! Unfortunately pork was out of the question that night (even though it was on the menu), but we ordered wontons, soup, lumpia-esque “Singapore Rolls”, Ginger Chicken, Beef with Garlic, and Szechwan Beef. It was a very “American-style” of Chinese – which surprised me. Everything was competently executed, but it was no Lao Sze Chuan.

We finished off the evening with Ice Cream at Gerard’s in the heart of the “Trixi-like” Abdoun neighborhood (Also of note: the restaurant “Noodasia” was down the street and the name was enough to send us into fits of laughter…perhaps we’ll try it next time).

After all of this we headed over to Jerusalem for a few days. Unfortunately for this post, we only ate at one restaurant in Jerusalem – Abu Shukri in the Old City. We had a nice, cheap Arabic breakfast served up by an older, quiet and graceful Palestinian gentleman (who I like to think was “abu Shukri” himself…) The rest of our time in Jerusalem was spent with Mellonhubby’s Palestinian aunties who proceeded to stuff us with the most fabulous food that I can’t describe here - it was dream-like.

We spent one day in Jaffa and were taken for a seafood lunch of deep fried “dineese” (sea bream) at Abu Nassar.

A comfortable restaurant overlooking the sea, any good taxi driver should be able to get you there from Tel Aviv.

Our trip ended in Amman for the last couple of days. We did a quick lunch at Ajeen (which means "dough" in Arabic).


At Ajeen they do various doughy breads stuffed with cheese, hot peppers, zaater, meat, or hotdogs. They're a great quick snack.


We had dinner at Zuwwadeh in the suburb of Fuheis. We decided to order a dinner of mezza – hummous, fried cauliflower with tahina, spicy olives, Fattoush, kubbeh (stuffed grape leaves), the “hurts-so-good” labneh and garlic, and 2 kinds of Fatteh – eggplant and chicken. It was all spectacular, and well worth the drive to get there (it’s about 15 minutes out side of Amman.) We ended the evening in Amman with another stop for ice cream at Bless (right across the street from Gerrard - 4th Circle).

I can’t wait to get back to Jordan…I can only imagine what I could have eaten if I spoke the language!


IN AMMAN:

Il Haal
Western Amman (see photo above - any cab driver should be able to get you there)

Hasham
2 locations - Jabal Amman and Downtown near the Fruit and Vegatable market (see photo above).

Reem Al Bawady
phone: 962-5-515419

Ajeen
phone: 465-0651

Taipei Tourismo Chinese restaurant
Near 5th circle, Amman

Gerard Ice Cream
Bless Ice Cream
Both at Abdoun Circle (near the Abdoun bridge)

Zuwwadeh
In Fuheis
phone: 962-6-4721528
http://www.zuwwadeh.com/


IN WADI MUSA, Jordan:

Arabiya
At central traffic circle in the town of Wadi Musa


IN JERUSALEM/ISRAEL

Abu Shukri
phone: 02-627-1538
At the corner of Al Wad and Via Dolorosa
Old City Jerusalem (near the Damascus gate)

Abu Nassar
130 Kedem St., Jaffa

great, glad you enjoyed yourself. I love abu shukri and Reem al Bawady - did you eat in the big domed room or in the beduin tents?