My Arab Diet

The food options here are such that if I never wanted to touch Arab food, I wouldn't have to. What I mean is that between the American franchised restaurants (like KFC), the western style grocery stores (such as Safeway), and the knock off restaurants that serve American"ish" food (anyone up for some Burjer Kinj or Chix Filet?), I could go with just eating stuff I'm used to if that's what I wanted.

But that's NOT what I want. My goal from day one has been to blend in with and embrace the culture around me. That's not to say that I don't enjoy food that reminds me of home (we fixed mexican food today and it was great), but I mostly want to eat the food that the locals eat.

Falafel Sandwiches

So, I thought today I might share about some of the foods that I eat regularly here. One of my favorite foods has been falafel sandwiches. You can find little stands and shops selling these throughout the city. And they are quite good. Each place makes them slightly differently, but the gist is the following:

Take a piece of bread (typically arabic flat bread)
Insert freshly made falafels
Smear in some hummus
Smush up the falafels
Spoon in some sauce made with chunks of tomatos
Add any desired extras (I like peppery hot sauce and french fries thrown in)
Close up and enjoy

Falafel sandwiches are cheap and delicious. I can buy 3 for about $1. And there's a stand that's only about a five minutes walk from my house; I can essentially get them whenever I want. Superb.

Falafel sandwiches are delicious.

Also, instead of going to the huge grocery store on the other side of town I usually just walk to a local store that's about 10-15 minutes away. The selection isn't as large, but I find it's just fine.

On the way I pass several fruit and vegetable stands. At this point I've learned which are the good ones and which are not so good. I have my favorite one that I walk to probably twice a week to buy dates, bananas, and pomegranates. The pomegranates here are superb! Oh my gosh. They are so sweet, and extremely red in color. I usually peel an entire pomegranate and put the seeds in a bowl, and then add plain yogurt. Fresh pomegranate and yogurt is hard to beat.

Doesn't that look amazing?

Also, I buy hummus and pistachios from various other stands and vendors. The hummus here is different than anything I had in the US, but it's very good. The food has been very kind to my stomach, and it hasn't made me sick once. I really was fearing having to be super careful with my food, but so far nothing has bothered me at all. I just hope it stays that way.

By the way, if you've never had a pomegranate, I REALLY recommend that you go out to a store and find one. Surely some organic grocery store has some you can try that would be like the ones I get here. They are so good. And as far as how to eat them, you just cut it open and pull out the little red pulpy seeds and eat them whole. Don't eat the white membranous skin separating the seeds as it is horribly bitter. I promise, pomegranates are extremely good.