The good news: canned, boiled oysters are available for sale in Amman at Carrefour and C-Town. Of course, Carrefour is cheaper, where an 8 oz can goes for 2.70 JD. Aside from the obvious pan frying in a garlic butter sauce, I tossed a bunch in a bechamel sauce with mushrooms and ate it over spaghetti. I am meaning to try them breaded and deep fried. I tried finding boiled oysters in Vancouver's supermarkets. Not having a car at my disposal, I just went to the big outlets: The Real Canadian Superstore, Safeway, Save On Foods, and even Zellers. None had boiled oysters. Kroger, the very first supermarket I visited in Columbus, OH did have them.
Another thing that Vancouver's supermarkets lack is a good selection of natural dairy. Sorry, but, "milk ingredients", "milk serum", "milk powder", and "milk protein" don't have entries in my dictionary of natural dairy ingredients. I'm look for, "milk": straight, simple, and unqualified (just like me). As soon as I visited Kroger in Columbus, I found a wonderful product that is unfortunately lacking in Vancouver's supermarkets: Daisy Brand Sour Cream. The sole ingredient is: Cultured Grade A Cream.
And finally on my list of things I dislike about Vancouver's major supermarkets is the lack of natural breads. I generally try to follow the five-year-old rule of ingredients: if a five-year-old doesn't know what it is, I don't eat it. L-cysteine, propylene glycol, and calcium proprionate are not what I think of when it comes to my daily bread. For natural bread, Kroger wasn't any better.
Fast forward back to Amman.
It seems that most restaurants in Amman use imported meat. I am not a
baladi meat
snob; I will eat Romanian or Australian beef and mutton if the animal is slaughtered in Amman's abattoirs. However, I'm not comfortable eating meat that is imported from non-Muslim countries, even if it's labeled, "halal." (I'm not claiming that it is not halal, but merely that I'm uncomfortable with it.) I've spoken to a number of restaurants who told me their meat is Chinese or Indian. I also spoke to Nabil, the Jordanian food company. After being forwarded to another employee, I had the following conversation:
Me: I'd like to know the source of the meat you use in your products.
Nabil Employee: Who are you?
Me: I am Abu Fluffy. You don't know me. I don't know you.
Nabil Employee: Why do you want to know?
Me: Because I'd like to know what I'm eating.
Nabil Employee: It's Australian.
Me: As in, Australian animals slaughtered in Amman's abattoirs or imported as meat?
Nabil Employee: Imported as halal meat.
The pattern of: not understanding the question, forwarding me to another employee, asking me who I am, and finally asking why I want to know is very common when asking restaurants and shops about their ingredients. However, often I don't get a satisfactory answer in the end. At least Nabil was able to answer my question.
Recently, my wife and I went for dinner downtown at Al-Quds restaurant. We ordered mansaf and some appetizers, which included fried lamb brains with salad. I asked them the source of their meat: it was Romanian mutton slaughtered in Amman's abattoirs. The lamb brains were disgusting: they tasted like they were fried in oil that was used to fry fish. The mansaf was acceptable: the meat was tender and tasty; the sauce was good (but not great) and it didn't give me a stomach ache the next day. The meat wasn't cooked in the sauce, which kind of makes sense when you're cooking Romanian mutton, for the sauce is acidic and will dry out all but very tender lamb, which is why locals prefer young local lambs for mansaf. Romanian lamb is much cheaper, of course. Overall, Jabri's mansaf is much more authentic: the baladi meat is cooked in the sauce, the sauce is tangier, and they give you two pieces of meat, not one.
After dinner, we decided to go for dessert at Habiba's. Again, I was pleasantly surprised that they (eventually) understood my questions and told me the cakes were topped with fresh cream and made with butter. We had a few pieces. While they weren't as disgusting as most Jordanian cakes, they definitely did not match up to Al-Wadees. Still, I have yet to find a single cake joint in Jordan that can hold a candle to La Poire or Classique of Egypt. (I go to Egypt to become one with my inner stomach.)
And now for drinks: back around Eid time, I was avidly searching for root beer and cream soda. The former was primarily for my children while the latter was mainly for me. After several phone calls, including one very inappropriate one, and asking at a number of shops, only to be told they don't carry beer, I managed to find a place that sold them both and yet didn't sell alcohol or pork: a supermarket called Miles, downstairs in Mecca Mall. They carried A&W brand for both, as well as Mug brand root beer. I settled for the A&W brand of both and they met expectations: the root beer tasted like bubble gum and the cream soda was very creamy and delicious. (I'm not a fan of root beer.) I then learned that the corner store next to us carries Canada Dry brand Cream Soda, but it can't match A&W's elixir. (In case you're wondering how someone who cares so much about healthy eating would actually consume soft drinks, let it be known that I binge twice a year on eids. Other than that, I maintain a healthy diet, alhamdulillah.)
On October 18, we partook in Jordan's autumn activity: olive picking. The area of Jordan and Palestine boasts one of the finest oil-producing olive cultivars in the world: the revered Nabali (referred to as baladi, or "local", locally). We drove out to Mafraq, close to where my brother-in-law bought some land. There was a large orchard of olive trees. Being a much better negotiator than me, my brother-in-law managed to convince them to sell the olives to us for 0.35 JD/kg. We picked 100 kg worth of olives that day, but only 20 kg was for us.
then moved to the next side of the tree.
a mill outside and cracked up our 20 kg.
