Eats and Treats!

Yay, second post of the day! If you're reading this... there's another post right below this for Petra. After writing that boring post about Petra, I thought everyone might enjoy hearing about what I've been eating... so here's my some thoughts about food.

To start with I have my basic rotation of 3 staples - rotisserie chicken, shawarma, and hummus/felafal. As a budget and, more importantly, single traveler... I spend most of my meals in the diner-esque/casual restaurants... which in the Middle East usually means felafel/shawarma, which generally runs for about a buck in Egypt or 2-3 in Jordan. FYI, the hummus in invariably excellent... especially since it comes with healthy amount of olive oil. The shawarma in Egypt... not so great... but in Jordan its been fantastic. Different spices. Also, they serve it with a soft crepe-like bread in Jordan that is perfect. Oh, and this felafal sandwich in the picture has a runny hardboiled egg in it. In the words of Homer Simpson, "Mmmmmm.... egg... felafel... mmm".







Breakfast is pretty standard but light and easy... pita, jam, butter, and egg. This breakfast here was a deluxe breakfast with the usual suspects in addition to cheeses, salad and fuul... which is a kidney bean type of dish... sorta like chili but not as heavy and no meat involved. Breakfast, as with other meals and afternoon breaks, is accompanied with tea... usually taken with healthy amounts of sugar. I take milk with mine, but apparently that just makes me look like a gringo.





Other typical dishes, outside of the budget range are Kofta (kebab made of ground lamb) and other grilled meats. Here is Shish Tawouk... basically chicken grilled with spices, which I dont think is anything special... For 1/2 the price you can get a plate of shawarma which is twice as good!











Another budget option in Egypt was Koshari... which is basically lentils, chickpeas, different types of past, and rice... all mixed together with tomato sauce on top served for $1 and add meat for an extra $0.50. Its tasty, but it reminds of something college guys would make. Basically empty out all the carbs you can find in the pantry and add "sauce".











The most unique main course that I've had is mensaf... a bedouin speciality. Its a lamb dish cooked in a yogurt based sauce. I'm not sure how you cook yogurt without it curdling... so if someone knows, please explain. Here is a pix I got from internet, cuz I didn't have my camera on this outing.



Breakfast options outside of the typical b-fast... are basically bakery items. I noticed the items at the bakery are either incredibly and overwhelmingly sweet OR kinda like Chinese desserts... lightly sweetened and mixed with nuts or some sort of bean paste.



Dessert items are like the bakery goods... but more on the overwhelmingly sweet side. My absolute favorite, which I only found at one place in Egypt is Sahlab. In Israel its more of a drink... but in Egypt its more pasty/congealed/gelatinous... sounds gross, but oh soooo good. I'm sure that you when you eat it... it just goes straight to your heart and starts to clog all the major arteries in your body. ummmm fat and sugar... what a combo! Its got coconut and some other good stuff in there. Another one I tried, but already forgot the name, is here... it was sorta like baklava...



Finally, desperate times call for desperate measures. When I get sick of eating the usual 3 and get tired of eating at sit down restaurants by myself... its hamburger time. Local burgers usually are marinated, with unknown spices. Also, FYI, local McD's are actually better than at home. Still horse-meat-esque, but larger portions of mystery goodness.




All that sounds pretty heavy, but needless to say, I'm losing weight on the trip from all the walking and hiking... and there go many meals where odwalla bars are my main sustenance.