Amman Food Festival

On Saturday, Shadea, Betsy and I went to the Amman Food Festival. The festival was held at the King Hussein Gardens. I expected it to be a small, quiet event comparable to Oxford's uptown market (except Jordanian style, of course). Boy was I wrong.

The three of us took a cab out to the King Hussein Gardens. When we arrived we could tell that we were at the right place because of all of the cars and people. After the taxi dropped us off, we walked to the entrance to buy admissions tickets. To paint an accurate picture for this whole event it is necessary to remember that lines do not really exist. Think of a mob instead of a line. Now, when we approached the ticket booth there was quite the like aka mob in front. Betsy agreed to muscle through the crowd to get us our tickets. Shadea and I stood off to the side away from all of the people. Betsy successfully acquired our tickets and we walked through the gate. Initially, I didn't see anything resembling a food festival. Helpful people in matching green shirts pointed us up the hill. We walked a few minutes through the park until we spotted a fenced off area with inflatable slides and games for children. Then we spotted white tents which we assumed to be what we were headed to.

The food festival itself utilized a three-level, outdoor, fountain and sitting area. The three levels each had rows of back to back white tents (like you would find at a county fair). Each tent was operated by a different restaurant or representative. The restaurants there were making samples of their signature dishes. The range of food was astonishing. There was everything from traditional Arab fare to Italian to gourmet dishes prepared by the Jordan Royal Academy of Culinary Arts to s'mores! 

Our tickets came with 6 food sample vouchers. Meaning, we could walk up to a tent of our choosing and exchange one of our vouchers for a small sample of food. One of the popular freebies was a drink called G. G is a ginseng drink that has become pretty popular in Jordan probably because of it's overwhelming sugar content. It was pretty hot outside so a free can of G made that tent very popular. There was another tent that was giving out free magazines (we snagged a few for Arabic reading material). From the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts, Betsy and I waited 10 minutes or so in the mob/line to sample a dark chocolate and nuts concoction. I haven't gotten good enough at being aggressive in lines to shove my voucher closer to the workers hands so we waited until a younger woman chef came over to Betsy and I and handed us our samples. We said thank you in Arabic and she responded "Anytime" in a clearly American accent. She had our back.

Aside from the samples, you could also purchase food. I tried a kebab from a restaurant called Kebabji. It was awesome to watch them take my order, pull out a spear of meat, grill it on an open grill, and make my sandwich right in front of me. Not to mention, that the kebab was delicious. I also had to have my lemon with mint. I found a stand that was making the drink and ordered one. It was perfect for such a hot day because the drink had been turned into a slurpee/ slushie consistency. I also had to try one of the s'mores. As it turns out, this idea was developed by a young Jordanian woman who had gone to the United States on Fulbright and fallen in love with s'mores (who can blame her). To be clear though, these were not just any s'mores. These were roasted marshmallows, dipped in chocolate, put between two graham crackers (brought in from Dubai) which were then dipped in chocolate and finally rolled in either nuts, coconut, or sprinkles. I had to try the one with the nuts. It was awesome. But I couldn't eat anymore after it.

Once we decided we were all food-ed out, the three of us embarked on a hike (originally a walk) to find the King Hussein Automobile Club. The late King loved to collect cars. Since his death, the car collection has been housed in the Royal Automobile Club. Apparently, the museum was in the same complex as the park and admission was free for the event. We asked a few people to point us in the direction of the club. We walked uphill away from the food festival in search of the museum. After walking for a little while (probably only 10-15 minutes but the sun made it feel like so much longer!) we figured we weren't going to find it, that or our interest had quickly faded. 

Deciding it was time to leave, we headed back down the hill to the main road where we hoped to catch a cab. On the way down we spotted a few trees that had yellow leaves.  In truth, the leaves had probably turned color due more to lack of water than the changing season. However, as midwesterners, we wanted autumn so badly that we decided to call it Fall and take pictures of the trees.