Melon Display

    

We were in Jerash, Jordan...lost. Bill saw a cluster of guys and stopped to ask them for directions. We were right beside these neatly aligned and creatively presented melons. Seeing this cool melon display almost made getting lost worthwhile!  

Jordan Olive Oil Factory

  





One day, on our way to teach Bible studies in northern Jordan, our translator took us by an olive oil factory. His family, who had an olive grove, used this factory and he knew the owners. 

It was olive harvest in Jordan and each family brought their olives to a factory like this for processing. 

First, the sticks and leaves were separated from the olives, the olives were then mashed, and the oil was separated from the solids. The olive oil was then poured into containers that each family would take home with them. Men and women waited there in the factory for their olives to be turned into oil. 

The owner grabbed a (used) plastic water bottle and filled it with oil. He handed it to us. It was a gift for us. We accepted graciously but must admit that we did not use the oil. Although it was fascinating to see how locals process their olive oil and it would be impossible to get oil fresher than this, we were quite sure that the sanitation was probably not up to par. 

Nevertheless, the people were excited to have us visit their factory. It is possible that we were one of the few Americans to ever step foot inside it. 

Vine Road Restaurant

       

If you are ever in Jerusalem with your own rental car, as opposed to a bus tour, we highly suggest a stop at the Vine Road Restaurant in a moshav just off of Highway 1 called Beit Zayit (House of Olives.) They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The Vine Road Restaurant is one of the best we have ever been to in Israel. Fresh, healthy, and soooo delicious. 

The environment is delightful too. Dining at the Vine Road Restaurant is like eating in a garden. And you can not just enjoy the flowers, but buy them too, plus jars of olive oil and more.

Vine Road Restaurant Recipe

The Sweet Potato Salad was our favorite meal at the Vine Road Restaurant. Israelis use a lot of sweet potatoes when they cook. This recipe has sweet potatoes in the salad and sweet potato chips on top. Sound strange? Trust us. It is wonderful!



Here are the salad ingredients as we replicated them. 
(Sorry, we don't have the exact proportions. We go by taste.)

Lettuce varieties
Red onion, thinly sliced
Cucumbers, cubed
Cooked, cubed sweet potatoes
Feta cheese (There are many good kinds of feta available. We like Mt. Vikos Feta Cheese from Greece. If you want to go native Israeli, there is a good Israeli cheese at Trader Joe's called Pastures of Eden. Both of these have wonderful flavor.)
Sweet potato chips (We recommend the Terra brand.)
Mustard Date-Honey Dressing (You can probably find Date Honey at a Middle Eastern grocery store or the ethnic section of your grocery store.)

Enjoy!

Spices

Spice shop in the Muslim Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City

Pizza Roma Car

In Nazareth, we passed this tiny restaurant with a car on its roof. The name of the restaurant is Pizza Roma and I assume that the car on the roof is advertising pizza delivery, although I am not positive. Clever advertising, for sure. I just hope that the roof is sturdier than it looks!

Water Tank

These were our two water tanks when we lived in Husn, a northern town in Jordan. All of the roofs are flat in Jordan, making it convenient to store water tanks there. 





Our water was piped in once a week. Because of the strict water shortage in Jordan, we were only allotted a certain amount each week. If we ran out, a water truck could deliver a refill, but we were told that it would cost 35JD, or about $50.00. Needless to say, we used the water sparingly.

The people who lived in the apartment below us had nine people in their household, compared to our two. They had to be even more conservative with their water usage than we did. If I recall correctly, they had a total of three tanks for their family.  

There is a little door on the top of the tanks. Bill would go up to the roof periodically to check the water level. The tanks are not airtight and dust, which is in abundant supply in Jordan, filtered into the tanks. Sometimes, there were other things in the tanks also, leaves and such. Needless to say, the water was not as clean as we are used to in the United States. After showering, our skin always felt a tiny bit grimy. In Amman, the water cleanliness is better, plus some people have big round plastic tanks, which seal better than the metal ones. 

No matter where you live in Jordan, though, the water pressure is low, again, compared to what we are used to in the States when taking a shower or filling the tub of a washing machine. 

By the way, I hope I do not come across as complaining, because I am not. The last thing I want to do is make people feel sorry for us! I just thought you might enjoy learning about water usage in a developing country. 

Starbucks and Aroma Espresso Bar

If you are a Starbucks fan, you will have to go without while you are in Israel. The chain lasted for a brief two years in Israel, from 2001-2003. 

Interestingly, the CEO and chairman of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, whose self-made net worth is nearly 3 billion dollars, says that he does not support Israel financially, even though he is Jewish. It is difficult to determine why Starbucks did not make it in Israel, but the Newsroom page on Starbucks' website insists that their decision was not politically based. 

Although Starbucks is conspicuously absent in Israel, it has opened many stores in the Middle Eastern countries of Turkey, Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Jordan.

I am not a Starbucks fan because I hate coffee. I have tried their chai tea a few times and found it way too sweet, not to mention overpriced.

Israel has a few coffee shop chains of its own. Of course, I don't drink their coffee either, but I do like the chai tea at Aroma Espresso Bar. It is flavorful without being overwhelmingly sweet. You can find Aromas all throughout Israel. If you are a coffee lover, this is the place to go, I suppose.