Spencer points out a line on page 250: In the morning she poured two bowls of Count Chocula, and we ate on the front steps.
Me: “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten Count Chocula.”
Elliot (?): “I think there’s a lot in that book you’ve never eaten.”

The sign for a really cute vegetarian cafe in Jerusalem, which I’ll blog about next time.

Seeing as the classic Middle Eastern dishes of falafel, hummus, and baba ganoush are some of my very favorites, you can just imagine how happy I was eating these foods every day if I wanted to. I think the rest of the gang were a little bit hummus-and-falafel’d out by the last few days, and I may have echoed as much, but I didn’t really mean it. Have I mentioned my undying love for falafel?

A simple and filling lunch at one of those we-don’t-get-many-tourists-in-these-parts sort of restaurants in Amman.

At the aforementioned hummus joint inside the Akko suq. The brown dish is hummus with beans, known as “ful mudammas.”

My favorite meal of the trip, at Samir’s in Ramla, where we stopped en route to Jerusalem. Yummy falafel, beautiful fresh salad with pomegranate seeds, a hearty lentils-and-rice dish, and exquisitely marinated mushrooms. (And the waiter said he didn’t think he had much to offer us vegetarians—!!)

They’ve been making olive oil for thousands of years.

Another tasty version of the same basic meal at Karak, on our way back to Amman.

I didn’t get a photo, but on our first night in Haifa Kate and I split a roasted eggplant (it comes with the stem!) with tahini on top, served with freshly-baked focaccia-type bread. We had tahini served various delicious ways, which I’ll talk more about next time. It’s a way more versatile dip/spread than I’d ever thought!