Eating like a king

Last night's dinner was a treat.

We went with the whole group to the downtown area of Amman - so much quieter when it's not a holy day weekend!

We ate dinner at a tiny cafe famous for its hummus - so famous in fact that the king of Jordan and his family come here - evidenced by the huge photo of same king on the wall outside the cafe. As a large group we didn't fit inside - I'd say it seated 10 if you were very friendly - so the owners set us up on plastic tables and chairs outside in an alleyway. Our plates - piece of paper were produced and the obligatory glasses of sweet black tea. Then the yumminess - smooth as butter hummus served with still warm flat bread. Accompanying this was the most sublime felafel - light as a feather and tasty as. We also had some stew like stufff called foul - no joke!
Sitting in the cooler night air in an alley sharing food - it was like being in the Mastercard ad. Oh yes and it cost 2 dinar!

But the night got better - the tour guide has a friend who lives in the downtown area, an artist and oud player he welcomed us into his home. We'd thoughtfully picked up some sweets on the way - so we sat in the dusty book room of his home, surrounded by textbooks of a bygone ear and he prepared sage tea and we ate the yummiest dessert - called kulafa - a sweet cheese mixture covered in coconut and fried - you eat it still warm so the curds stretch out -YUM.

Lovely indeed.