The first ten days, chapter 2: Matha nakul?

It is impossible to begin any discussion of Jordanian food – vegan or not – without starting at the heart of every meal: chubs. The flat, round bread is slightly thinner than pita, and often lacking a true pocket-ability, but is, in essence, the same bread you can find in many other countries in the area. It even occurred to us last night, while munching away, that it bears a strong resemblance to what Matzoh might have looked like before it became, well, cracker-y.

Chubs is ubiquitous here. You get it, free, with every meal out, and most Jordanians eat it with every meal at home. It is also incredibly cheap. A kilo of chubs, at the local bakery, runs about 35 cents. In case you can’t picture a kilo of bread, imagine getting a bag of bread from the store, having two people eat one “chubs” with every meal, and still not finishing the bag for nearly a week. It is a lot of bread.

Unfortunately, everything here is made from white flour – the chubs, the pasta, even the rice is a white basmati. Always. You ask about brown rice, or whole wheat bread, and they basically say, “Maybe in Amman?” That being said, it does all taste good.

And where they lack for wheat flour, the US can’t keep up in the produce section. There are little produce stores everywhere, with everything from standard onions, tomatoes, corn, apples, etc., to under-ripe crunchy dates, pomelos, melons we haven’t yet tasted, Lebanese bananas (a different variety than those standard in the US – smaller and yummier), squash that look like shrunk, light green zucchini. And it’s all cheap. We went to a produce stand the other day and got onions, a ton of tomatoes, cucumber, pomelo, banana, scallion, lemons, Anaheim peppers, and green beans – two full, heavy bags – and it rang in under $6. The owner was so happy we’d spent so much that he gave us each a banana for the road. The entire time that we’d been shopping, people had been stopping by to grab a bunch of this, a head of that. People even pulled up in cars and honked and the owner’s son would run to the car and take an order and run back with the produce. A slight variation on the McDonald’s drive-thru, you might say.

There is also the expected fare – the great humus (which we eat in spoonfuls), savory falafel sandwiches, and olives, and salads (oh my!). There is also the unexpected: our local grocer has Malaysian "soya" milk in regular, chocolate, strawberry, malt, and cappuccino. Tofu? “Maybe in Amman.”

But the desserts. Oh, the desserts. Now, ignore the glamorous multi-layered cakes (chocolate, vanilla and strawberry seem to be the most popular), the fresh fruit parfaits, and the decadent cheese cakes that adorn the windows of the sweet shops (halwiah). They are non-vegan. Make your way to the back of the shops, where the baklawa sits. Incredibly, it is vegan: gentle layers of phyllo dough wrapped with nuts and covered in a sugar (not a honey!) glaze. Decadent, melt-in-your-mouth-and-all-over-your-senses yumminess. The halva – they call it something different but only have it pre-packaged in stores – is quite yummy, too. Even when mixed with chocolate, it’s not quite the same melt-all-over-your-senses affect. You can, for instance, eat the halva and continue to take part in a conversation.