I had Holy Land Oreo cookies this afternoon. We actually had them in our picnic lunch yesterday and I didn’t eat them. They made a nice 4:00 in the afternoon – post nap – snack. Just one problem, THEY AREN’T LIKE HOME! Someone has messed with my Oreos. This is the first food here I have been disappointed with. But you know the chocolate part of the Oreo – the black part of the cookie? It was brown. Brown, and it didn’t taste the same. I read the package, what parts were in English. Most of it is written in Arabic. Here is my first clue, I should have caught it before I opened the package. They call them biscuits, not cookies. But right there it says “manufactured under license by Nabisco Arabia, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Now what makes me think that Arabs know anything about Oreo cookies!
The local Arabs may not know how to make an Oreo cookie, but they do know how to cook. At least the cook here at Tantur does. He is amazing. Every day is an adventure. He makes wonderful breads for breakfast; you are never sure what is in them. This morning there was a roll – it looked too beautiful to pass up. It was almost braided, it had walnuts and coconut in it as well as some seeds I couldn’t identify. It was a yeast bread, soft. It was delicious. One morning we came out there was a very large platter – the size of an extra large pizza. He had large disks of a flat bread with yeast. It had butter already on it. It was light and flaky – yum. I am hoping he makes that again soon. Breakfast is our simplest meal. We can choose from cereals – not the sugary one you like, but granola or corn flakes. There is always cheese at the table. We have eggs. Often hardboiled but occasionally fried or scrambled. Orange juice, fresh squeezed, is served every morning along with really good coffee. Water is always on the table! Fruit is also served in two forms. The first is a stewed or slowly simmered mixture of figs, apricots, and prunes. Most people start with this and add plain yogurt and cereal to it. Then there is always fresh fruit – usually bananas. It took a couple of day for me to try them because the peel stays green. I was expecting hard and flavorless bananas but instead they were very ripe. All of the produce tastes just a little different. It must have to do with the different nature of the soil here. But they grow beautiful fruits and vegetables.
Let’s talk lunch and dinner. There are a set of salads served at every meal. They can change daily but there are no less than 4 of them offered. If you go out to a restaurant you will find the same thing. Plates of “salad” are brought to the table. All of them are made fresh and are delicious. One of my favorites is shredded carrots with pineapple and anise seeds (those are the ones that taste like licorice) There is a cabbage salad with golden raisins which is also very good. Red cabbage is also turned into a beautiful salad. The chef makes a beet and apple salad – no canned vegetable here – real fresh beets. One of my favorites is similar to a waldorf salad with apple and celery and a few greens I cannot identify. Here if someone says ‘with salad” that always indicates a salad of cucumber and tomato. There is no dressing on this salad. But the vegetables are so fresh and tasty it doesn’t need it. The chef also makes a potato salad using the left over roasted potatoes and greens of some sort – no mayonnaise just the greens and the potatoes. It is also delicious.
We have had pizza –not a local dish but the chef did a really nice job of making us feel at home. He made meat loaf – Kaylah and Alicia – I like ours better! His had peas and carrots in it. It was good, just not mine. Lunch can often be fun. Falafels are my favorite dish. They are ground chick peas with minced parsley and other spices. They are made in to oval shaped balls and deep fried. You then make a sandwich with them on pita bread adding some of the “salad”, tahini which is a sesame seed sauce and humus; more on the humus in a minute. We have French fries. The chef makes them from scratch here. He also makes homemade potato chips every now and then – especially when there are young people around. Humus is pureed chick peas with tahini and olive oil. It can have other things added but usually just the three ingredients. It is ALWAYS served and we ALWAYS have pita bread on the side.
Dinner can look a lot like lunch except the main course, usually a meat dish, will be a little more formal. We have had fish, chicken, beef, and lamb. All of it is just a little different than home, but all of it has been very tasty and enjoyable. Water is the drink of choice at lunch and dinner. Usually by dinner we are looking for water and need to rehydrate ourselves.
Let’s not forget dessert! After lunch and dinner dessert is served. There is always fresh fruit. This can be grapes, watermelon, apples, peaches, plums, or cantaloupe. At dinner you can usually add a cooked dessert. All of it is very foreign and it tends to be much sweeter than we are use to. But most of it very enjoyable and will be missed when I come home. They use a lot of nuts and coconut in their cooking.
For those who know me well, we had the Palestinian equivalent of flan the other day – YUM! On Sunday’s we celebrate birthdays or anniversaries in the group and we always have cake. But even this will be a little different. Last weeks cake had pineapple in it and soft, almost whipped cream filling and topping. It was very good.
The lesson of the day is - eat the fruit and vegetables here and skip the Oreos!
