What we're eating (and not eating)

About 90% of food in Jordan is imported, and this makes it a bit hard to tell whether we're eating like the locals do or not. In our neighbourhood, at least half the places to eat out serve burgers or pizza (and that's just the independent places - there's also KFC, McDonald's, Domino's, Carl's Jr ...). But I'm shopping in the local supermarkets, and not just heading for the familiar brands (Barilla pasta, Maggi & Nestle everything).

We've only eaten out a handful of times so far - a local chili burger restaurant (speciality chili mince on spaghetti ... hmmm), a shawarma (kebab) fast food place where I foolishly neglected to take photos of my dinner (it was very tasty), and Hashem, a famous falafel and hummus place downtown where it's rumoured the local royal family like to drop in for a snack late at night (maybe they don't get the plastic tablecloths though):

)

I will spare my delicate readers my photos of the meat section in the local supermarket. I have been very bravely dealing with bones in my chicken breasts, but I am not yet ready to cook lamb spleen, heart, brains, tripe, tongues or feet. They don't just butcher animals here; they completely dismantle them. I am very very grateful that the supermarket labels things in English as well as Arabic though, so at least I won't accidentally buy anything too challenging. Hearts are obvious, spleens less so. And it's clear some of these are considered desirable cuts of meat - lamb hearts are more expensive than chicken breast.

We're sampling our way through the local confectionery, though it can be hard to find amid all the imported stuff. There's something that looks and tastes exactly like Turkish delight, but is half the price:

(Yes, mastic is the flavour.)

But to really get the party started, you need these:

Yep, sugar coated chickpeas, full of nutritious goodness, a bit like peanut M&M's without the allergy risk.

It may come as a surprise to some of you that we haven't had a single taste of wine or beer since we've been here. There are bottle stores all over our neighbourhood, but they make the Huntly Cheep Liquor shop look inviting so I have not ventured inside. What we have had instead is malt beverages - 0% alcohol fizzy malt drinks with fruit flavours. They're all the rage. And just because the local kids don't get to drink Vodka Cruisers doesn't mean they have to miss out on drinking things that look like them.

 

From H-Town to C-Town

I'm spoiled for choice when it comes to supermarkets here - really it comes down to how far I want to walk carrying the day's groceries. (I know, some people would buy more at a time and get a taxi home, but that's not how I roll.) We have Carrefour, Safeways, Cozmo, Zait & Zatar (both of these are local chains, and even have online shopping just like home: see http://www.zait-zatar.com/), lots and lots of independent Four Square-sized stores, and then there's our local, C-Town, about 500 metres from home but across a crazy busy road.

C-Town is a Tardis of a place - decidedly poky-looking from outside, it turns out to have an upstairs section selling art supplies, slippers, kitchen goods, televisions ... pretty much everything except actual furniture and kitchen sinks. Downstairs are all the groceries. It's not laid out like a New Zealand supermarket - the first section is rice and cooking oil, then the bakery and international food section (mostly instant noodles), then aisles of cleaning supplies and toiletries, and finally the rest of the food, with the fruit and vegetables tucked away in the back corner. There are plenty of familiar brands here and in all the other supermarkets - lots and lots of Nestle products, Maggi sachets, Danone yoghurts and Barilla pasta - and of course plenty of unfamiliar ones.

Here's what I bought on Tuesday (this lot from Carrefour):

One packet of biscuits filled with Turkish delight (made in Jordan), three tetra packs of feta (made in Egypt), a very nasty can of sparkling apple drink, five mystery mini savouries, two local flatbreads (quite like naan bread), three mini cucumbers, two tomatoes, one red capsicum, some makdous (pickled eggplants stuffed with walnuts) and a piece of boneless lamb (cut unidentified). To get the last two items I had to interact with the deli and butchery staff, so I am quite proud of myself. Total cost JOD 7.4, approx NZD 15. Most of the dairy products here boast how much fat is in them; the feta cheese above is made "with natural butter".

And here's yesterday's lot, from C-Town:

A litre of fresh milk, a litre of juice, a sachet of chicken stock, an eggplant and yoghurt dip, a kilo of small flatbreads (no, we don't need a kilo of them, but that's the size bundle they are sold in), a couple of eggplants, a couple of courgettes, a lettuce and four imported plums, all for JOD 4.90.

(Why yes, we do seem to be eating a lot of eggplant.)

For staples, local vegetables and fruit are cheap, about NZD 1.30 a kilo for courgettes and cucumbers, 2.00 a kilo for eggplants, 60 cents a kilo for cucumbers. (Even lettuce and cauliflower are sold by weight here.) Chicken is a bit cheaper than NZ, and lamb quite a lot cheaper. Fresh milk is comparable to Anchor prices rather than Dairy Vale. Some kinds of bread are subsidised by the government and are very cheap - about 50 cents a kilo for the small flatbreads above. (There have been mutterings of discontent in the local paper about how non-Jordanians make up 35% of the population but buy 40% of the subsidised bread, and also about how much of the subsidised bread winds up being thrown away ... perhaps if they sold it in smaller bundles there would be less thrown away but I guess I am not in charge here.)

Most of the products in the supermarkets do have English labels on them as well as Arabic, though often the English is fairly well concealed. There are far more bottles of stuff that looks like milk and turns out to be yoghurt of some sort than there are bottles of milk (the locals seem to mostly buy UHT milk), so I am very grateful for the labels, however small they may be. Fizzy salty yoghurt drink would not have the right effect in my coffee at all.

Buying meat is interesting - there are packages of chicken breast (with bones in - I'd forgotten that was even possible), chicken legs etc ready to go, and sometimes cuts of imported beef, but for everything else you have to ask at the butchery counter, where they usually cut the piece the customer wants from a whole carcass. Unless the customer is a wimp like me who just asks for a random piece of lamb from the small pile of "boneless lamb" pieces already cut up.

Dates are huge here (as a product, I mean, not individually). There are date stands in the supermarkets, and even whole shops selling nothing but dates.

And honey is big too:

What there doesn't seem to be is crackers. Shelves and shelves of interesting local and imported cheeses, but no crackers to put them on. Also no Vegemite, though I was pretty much prepared for that - Safeways almost certainly has English Marmite but that's almost a worse culture shock than simply going without.