Saturday, July 23, 2011

Souk Jara

Souk Jara is on every Friday in Dowtown Amman throughout the summer. For some reason visiting the Souk made me nostalgic for Darwin's dry season markets and the incredible Asian food that we would always have there. Fresh Vietnamese spring rolls and Indonesian satay for breakfast, so naughty, so yummmmm. There was certainly no Asian food on offer at Souk Jara, but we met up with the lovely Heidi and Joe and their baby daughter Sofia, whom we met earlier in the month at Ma'in Hot Springs. Joe, being Lebanese, was the authority on the best Arabic food to sample and so he and Dave went off and bought a round of pancakes filled with halloumi, thyme, turkey, lettuce and tomato, as well as freshly made lemonade infused with plenty of mint. I think the turkey in the pancakes is a bit of the American influence on Jordan, and also seems to be a substitute for pork products. For example, you can get "turkey bacon" here. Anyway, we happily feasted and chatted away soaking up the summery souk vibes.


One brilliant thing about the Souk was the abundance of juice vendors very enthusiastic to give everyone free samples. They seem to give so much away that we questioned if they actually sell any or make any money. We ended up feeling sorry for these ridiculously generous juice vendors and bought some of our favourite sample, strawberry and kiwi fruit. They kind of seem surprised to have made a sale.



After sampling the Souk's food and abundant juices,  we perused the Souk's wares:



One of the most interesting things for sale was Sadam Hussein memorabilia,  including this old Iraqi currency:


Also, there were beautiful dresses made out of Jordanian keffiyeh, the red and white headscarves that the Bedouin wear. I would have definitely bought a dress for Charlie, but she already has one that was very kindly given to her at her first birthday party. Such a sweet souvenir of our time in Jordan.










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