I found the MOST WELCOMING LOCALS + ate the BEST FOOD in Jordan's Amman

I found the MOST WELCOMING LOCALS + ate the BEST FOOD in Jordan's Amman

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Welcome to Jordan. If you're joining me for the first time, hi I'm Caroline and I'm in Amman for the very first time. I spent the last week and a half exploring some of Jordan's best highlights and fallen in love with this country. From its unique experiences such as floating in the Dead Sea and hiking through one of the seven modern wonders of the world, to getting back to nature, camping, hiking and cooking in the Wadi Rum desert and discovering what Roman life was like in the country. This morning I explored some of Amman's ancient sites but this afternoon, I aim to depart the touristy closed off sights and explore through the eyes of a first-timer, the vibrant, joyous, welcoming, attack of the senses, modern day culture that can be found in Amman. We crossed over the main road and now we're into the gold souq and every single shop is a jewellery store.

There is nothing in between, it is just chock-a-block. I don't understand how the competition can work because, there's so much competition! Welcome, how are you? Well thank you, how are you? We've come into a restaurant called Hashem, which is a bit of an institution here in Amman. Anyone and everyone will come and eat here, even the Jordanian Royal family have been in here, and I know that loads of other youtubers come here, to the point where as we've come through the courtyard, there was another youtuber obviously with a much more... professional set of camera equipment than what I would say.

It's crazy, we've come, we've been told just go and take a seat. It was really busy we've been able to get one inside of the restaurant but it's become so popular that tables and chairs have just spilled out into the alleyway and we sat down at a table that obviously someone had just left because there's stuff all over it. They've come and cleared the table and then they were like 'what would you like?' And I kind of looked at them... you can tell I'm a visitor because I was like: 'is there a menu?' And he was like 'no menu!' So I've just said we'll have a little bit of everything so it'll be really interesting to see what comes along. Okay so in saying that we'll just kind of have a little bit of everything, this one's quite hot. He definitely said something about baba ghanoush, but I'm not too sure because it looks a bit more like the fava bean thing.

I can't remember what that's actually called now, but we had that when we were in the Wadi Rum desert that was lovely. And then we've got hummus what's really nice is that it's got loads of olive oil on the top and we've got some bits of chickpeas and I'm not too sure what the green stuff is. Normally at the moment when I'm seeing green I'm thinking pistachios but I don't I don't think they've put pistachios on top of hummus.

Then we've got these loads of falafels. I was expecting to eat a lot more falafel in Jordan than what we have done but every single time I've had them they've been delicious. And then we've got this plate of vegetables. So we've got mint on the top we've got tomatoes at the back we've got some pickled...

I don't know there's some pickled carrots, I think probably people cucumber and then what's really cool is there's just like half a slice of raw onion and I know that when you're having hummus if you're not wanting to have a carb overload with the flat bread, you can take out a leaf of the onion and just use that to scoop up the hummus and it's much more healthy. And then of course the flatbread. And then as he brought all of the food to the table he said did we want tea at which obviously coming and eating this kind of food we need to have some Jordanian tea too.

That hummus is delicious. I have to confess we got a little bit hummus-ed out earlier on in the trip. When we were staying in Petra we went and did a hike at Wadi Ghuweir and I wasn't really too sure what to do about lunch.

And we're in the middle of this wadi, we knew that there wasn't gonna be anywhere to pick anything up and so in the end we just got a whole load of flatbread from bakery, where like the bread was literally falling from the ceiling, and then we went into a corner shop and we picked up this big pot of hummus and we just ate way too much hummus and flat flatbread all in one day and then we were just done. This is the next proper bit of hummus that we've had and I was ready for it again I feel like it's been long enough and this one is delicious. He definitely said baba ghanoush, but this really does not look like aubergine at all. I'm not too sure what to make of that. I think I might have gotten a lot of the olive oil scooped in and then when I got through to the bean bit at the end I'm almost certain it's beans, it was a little bit nicer.

I think I'd like to have another try at that without them epic amounts of olive oil. No, it is a little bit on the bland side this one. It's not my favourite. It doesn't offend me but, it's just just kind of alright. So this here is a butcher's. Now the sort of meat that they've got in here is nothing like what we would find in a butchers back home in the UK.

Last night when we went out for dinner, we weren't expecting for it to be anything special, so I didn't go out with the proper camera, but on the menu it had lamb's brain... or sheep's brain and I couldn't resist. So I will flick back to some footage from last night but on the front it was just taking it on my phone so the quality is not going to be as great.

But I'm assuming something in here, and certainly you've got the lambs heads on the inside of this butcher I'm not too sure if you have to buy the entire head in order to be able to get the brain or maybe if the brain's... something in here but to me it's just absolutely fascinating. We've come to this very fancy restaurant and on the menu was a meze plate of sheep's brain, which I've heard is quite an Arabic delicacy. So when we're over here I feel like you've only just got to try it. So, I have to confess, it smells amazing! I think there's some kind of parsley in there. It might be like a bit of garlic and onions.

So I'll just start with one piece. I think you're supposed to have it with the bread but rather than trying to mask the taste, since I'm having it for the very first time, I want to have a go at just eating it as is, but that feels so tender. The fork just went through it no problem. They've pickled it with something - it's like super super vinegary but it does not taste at all like meat. The texture isn't even like meat either, it's like... it's super soft it's like... oh I suppose like mozzarella - really similar texture to mozzarella, maybe even a little bit softer than what mozzarella is, but you know when you've got an uncooked mozzarella ball, it it's like that, it's like no other meat, meat is much chewier than that.

I like sheep's brain! manga manga Right Left or right And there's a cat surprise surprise. Wow look at these ones Welcome. Where are you from? Where am I from? England, London. London okay should be getting you to take me on a tour That way Maybe let's go down here The smell What does it smell of? Anything and everything! Spices Now it smells clean Oh it's like luminous pink Nuts - what type I have no idea! I'm going to buy some of these! So he's put a really lovely lid on top and he's like - I don't know, cling filmed it up.

But what I really really love the most about this... of course it's really really busy now, but if you swing the camera just over there and have a look at what the shop is selling over there... It's like everything is just in one place! So that's where all the produce is. We're about to walk to where it gives you all the utensils to cook it with! Okay there's one shop that gave you all the things you need to cook it with.

Also can I just point out? Yeah. There is a road sign in the middle of a pedestrianised market. Yeah, if you turn around... Those things, yeah, you're mean to use it for water but I've seen people fill up their cars.

Shukran! Yeah I think that's it. We survived oh that was too short Well it's not as big as Istanbul just as crazy. More fun yeah There's no one in it there's no one in the truck And what's your name? I'm Caroline, and what's your name? We Allah, Allah nice to meet you Allah.

Have fun. Bye. Thank you - shukran - bye! I kept on seeing people everywhere with these really refreshing looking drinks, we've come across a store on the side of a really busy intersection and that's obviously just been freshly pressed - that is gorgeous one JD as well - bargain! This city is amazing! I've absolutely loved our time here. I don't think you probably really need more than a full day and night time. I mean we've stayed for three nights at this hotel, but that's because we've arrived late on Thursday evening and then we went up to Jerash on the Friday. We spent all day Saturday exploring Amman, obviously until the sun is going down, but I'm sure we'll head out in a little bit, and then we fly home first thing tomorrow morning.

So we've been quite fortunate in that we've had or we're going to have three evenings here. I think the city really does come alive in the evenings, but even during the day time, it's just fantastic. It's like a party for the senses the amount of sounds that are going on, the amount of smells that are going on and the people are just so friendly and so welcoming. But at the same time as with just about any city when you go and explore it it gets very exhausting so we'll come back to our hotel for the evening, for an early evening just to get a little bit of coffee, sit down on the rooftop watch the sun go down, because we've obviously got this amazing view over the city and you can see the citadel up there in the background.

And how much did that come to? Errrr 1dinar 10, which is about £1.20. Bargain that's our dinner? Yeah! Tonight's our third night here in Amman and when we came up to Rainbow Street on the very first night, it was a Thursday which is a little bit like back home on a Friday because obviously it's the religious day the next day. This street was absolutely heaving, but we were so tired after the drive up here that we just didn't bring out the camera and I was kind of hoping to capture that this evening, and of course because it's a Saturday night tonight, which is like a Sunday - everyone's got work and school the next day, it's just not quite got the same buzz to it. But we have gone back to - it's called Al Quds and they do this... it's almost like

a panini of bread and then they've got inside of here some squished down falafel balls and there's some hummus. I think there might be some kind of like chili sauce in there and some other fresh vegetables. And we got this on the very first night and we only went with one because we then got like a bit of shawarma as well from another place, and we were shocked having come from places like the Red Sea and Petra to then get charged not even one Jordanian dinar, so yeah one Jordanian dinar 10 in order for the two of us to have one of these each. Just kind of sitting in one of the squares in amongst some of like the street sellers and we've got some other skateboarders but it's just not quite as heaving as what it was two nights ago. Yeah it's good and it was also made fresh.

We saw the guy actually making the falafel balls and he made them with such speed and then he's putting them in the deep fat fryer. So yeah, it was quite an impressive show to watch as well. So we've now come down off of Rainbow Street to downtown Amman and we've come along to Habibah sweets which is yet another quite an institution for Amman.

They have what's known as kunafe which is a cheese, I believe that's some kind of pastry which is like the brown stuff, and then there's some pistachio on the top and it's doused in either... it's either like a rose water or maybe just a sugary water of some description. It's actually a dessert even though it's cheese and I just have to tell myself that it's kind of like cheesecake I guess that we have at home which is a dessert and it's steaming hot! That tastes so wrong and yet so right all at the same time. You can really really take the cheese on like a cheesecake and it's super stringy like a mozzarella I'm not too sure what type of cheese it is. But then that sugary kick that you get from the syrup, and the little bit of pistachios on the top is just delightful.

I'm gonna be eating pretty much all of this I think. Kunafa naama? And the other one, Kunafa? Khishneh. Khishneh Kunafa Khishneh.

So I'm finding out that this is actually Kunafa naama and there's another one that they were describing as being like hair and that's Kunafe Khishneh? Oh it's like a medium like a medium sort of sweetness I guess, and then maybe like the the next one's like sweeter? Really sadly we've come to the end of our time in Jordan, but perhaps just our time in Jordan for 2021. As tomorrow morning we have to leave pretty much straight after breakfast for our flight back to London. But Amman has been the icing on top of the cake. We'd met some travellers earlier on when we were down in Wadi Rum who'd said that they weren't so keen on the city, but we have absolutely adored it from the calm start this morning of going to those Roman sites, through to then the the real life hustle and bustle and the meeting of people - we haven't always caught it on camera very well, but the Jordanian people have honestly hand on heart being some of the friendliest and most welcoming people that we've come across on our travels to date. And this, Jordan is country number 40 for me and that's saying something out of the other 39 countries Jordanians are definitely up there as being some of the most friendly people. As a country I would highly recommend coming and visiting, and I'm sure I'll be back again sometime in the future.

2022-04-15 06:28

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