I will not try to tout this as a healthy food. But no discussion of Arabic food is complete without talking about kanafeh. This is fried cheese, soaked in a sweet syrup, and topped with pistachios. It is difficult to eat very much at one time, because it is so sweet, but it is a classic, quite delicious "Arabic sweet."
In Jordan, you can generally figure out what is being harvested in the Jordan Valley by checking out the trucks parked alongside the roads. If lettuce is in season, then you will see a lettuce truck every few miles. If watermelons are being harvested, then you will see a lot of watermelon trucks. In the above photo, Bill stopped to check the price on pomegranates, which were in season at the time. It can be a little dangerous, but if drivers see something they want, they just veer to the side of the road.
Produce trucks certainly make for a colorful drive. You never know what produce you might see on the side of the road!
The last time we lived in Jordan, we stayed in an apartment building in Husn, Jordan. From there we oversaw three Arabic churches. Our neighbors in the building, and also the building owners, were very kind to us. We got to know Abu Fawzi, the patriarch of the family, his children and grandchildren very well. We spent a lot of time in their home and in their courtyard, visiting.
One day, they invited us to to to a piece of property a family member owns in Waqqas, in the northwestern area of Jordan. We all piled into three cars and drove into an area Bill and I had never been. (I have written an article about this day, which I will include in a Walking Ancient Paths book at some point.)
They brought a portable grill and so we had meat, plus other foods familiar to Arab culture, such as olives and hummus. Abu Fawzi pointed out a canal, shown in one of the photos above, that he helped engineer. It was a memorable day.
This is a picture of Sister Shanas. We were blessed to know her before she got married. She translated English into Sinhalese for the Sri Lankan services for Brother Ferrin and the other preachers. After she married Brother Moses in Sri Lanka, they both came back to Jordan and Brother Moses became the pastor of the Sri Lankan church in Amman. They are sweet and kind people.
One cold day, they and the Solitarios came up to Husn, where we lived, to do some work on the church. While they were there, Sister Shanas showed me how to make Arabic coffee.
I had been shown before, but by people that could not speak very good English. For me, making Arabic coffee is a show and tell process. I needed to be shown, but with some explanation. First, Sister Shanas and I went to the store and she showed the right kind of coffee to buy. Then, we went back to the apartment and made it.
Since I have an aversion to coffee, I cannot use the taste test method to see if is good. But after my Arabic coffee lesson, I was able to prepare coffee for the people that came to the church services in Husn. (We always had a time of fellowship after each service.) The first time, the people told me it was a little strong, but I think they appreciated my efforts and were surprised as well that I attempted this feat of making Arabic coffee. After a while, I got the hang of it and got smiles and "Shukrans" as my reward.
One never does know what skills one will need in life! :)
Look carefully at this road. It was November 18th and it had not rained in a long time. What you see on the road are soap suds. There is a severe water shortage in Jordan and when people wash cars, they use the same bucket of water to wash AND rinse. Since the soap never really rinses off of the "clean" cars, when it rains, all that soap comes off the cars and onto the roads.
