Recipe #2: Rabiya's Yemeni Foul

It is always a bit of a mystery to me how some foods migrate across vast distances and become popular in foreign lands, while other, equally delicious foods, do not.  Hommos is now practically a staple food in the U.S. (at least in California), and yet its best friend and fellow bean-dip, foul, has not enjoyed the same global notoriety.  May this recipe help to change that!

Foul is a staple food and breakfast of champions all across the Middle East (see bottom for tangent), but each region has its own twist.  Foul literally means "beans," and in the Arab world there really is only one kind of widely available bean: fava beans.  Jordanians, Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians (the Levantine countries) typically make their foul just like hommos except substituting fava beans for chick peas and serving warm.  This can be pretty good.  But it is Yemeni-style foul, piping hot, tomato-y and somewhat chili-like, that has captured my heart.  It is super easy and fun to make, cheap, healthy, sensationally tasty, gluten-free and vegan.  Top that, I dare you.  Yalla.

1) Chop 1 onion (or half, your choice), 1 green pepper, 1 hot pepper (or more, to your taste), 2-3 cloves garlic, and 1 ripe tomato.  I diced the garlic and hot pepper finely and together, while the rest I left somewhat chunky.  Peeling tomatoes is a pain, but if you do it you'll avoid some of the sourness that tomatoes sometimes have, and you won't have annoying little skins drifting around the finished product.  I advise it.

2) Sautee onions in a good amount of olive oil in a large frying pan with raised sides until softened, then add the garlic and hot pepper and sautee for another minute or so.

3) Add a dash of cumin, a dash of black pepper, and a dash of coriander, and stir well until the onions seem stained yellowish (probably a minute).

4) Add the green pepper and cook another minute or 2, then add the tomato and a heaping tablespoon or 2 of tomato puree.  Make this judgment based on how juicy the fresh tomato is.  If it looks a little undernourished help it along with the canned stuff.  Add a couple pinches of salt, stir well, and let simmer on medium low heat for about 5 or more minutes, until the tomato is complete mush and the oil has turned red.

5) While that's cooking, open and drain a can of fava beans, and rinse well.  Spread the beans on your used cutting board and squeeze half a lemon over them, and add a bit of water as well.  Mash the beans roughly with the bottom of the can, adding a little water as you go if it seems difficult.  Don't smash them into oblivion, just flatten them kinda haphazardly.

6) When the oil has turned red, add the mashed beans and one cup of water, and stir until well mixed.

7) Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the foul has reached a scoopable consistency.  Taste and add seasoning if needed.  Serve in the pan you cooked it in (it tastes best when very hot!) with fresh bread of any kind, and if you like garnish with white cheese, chopped hot pepper, chopped onion, cilantro, or any combination thereof.

Excuse the flash.  I know it looks kinda gnarly but TRUST me it is amazing.

Tangent:  There's actually a great commercial here for canned fava beans -- a little boy comes into the kitchen in the morning and is sooo excited because he smells foul cooking so it MUST be Friday; when else would his mom have time to soak and cook dried beans?  He goes on and on about how much he loves Fridays and how foul is his favorite breakfast as the whole family sits to eat together.  Then his mom holds up his backpack -- "time for school son, it's Tuesday!" WAHHAH!?!?  With canned foul you can have Friday breakfast every day!  It's adorable.

Auntie Roo's Eid Goat Stew

Our attempts at cooking local cuisine have been hit or miss, but I declare last night a victory!  There's a bit of backstory here:

1)  Eid Al-Adha is perhaps the most important Muslim holiday.  It is certainly in the top 3.  It commemorates Abraham's willingness to sacrifice his son as God commanded.  You doubtless know the story -- Abraham is super old, wants a son more than anything, with God's help he ends up with 2: Ismail, the older, born of Hagar, Abraham's Egyptian slave, and Isaac, the younger, born of his elderly wife Sarah (miraculously).  Isaac becomes the father from whom all Jews are descended, while Ismail is the father of future Muslims.  Christians and Jews believe God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, which he was prepared to do without Isaac's knowledge.  Muslims believe it was Ismail who was to be sacrificed, and that Abraham, fraught with worry, told Ismail what God had asked him to do and asked for his advice.  Ismail told him that if God commanded it then it had to be done and he consented to be sacrificed.  In both stories, at the last minute God calls off the sacrifice and gives Abraham a lamb instead.  (If I fucked any of that up please forgive me, I am no authority on Biblical stories).  SO, now, Muslim families that can afford it slaughter a lamb or goat or whatever they have (or, more often these days, have it slaughtered) on Eid and donate the meat to poorer families.  The mascot of this holiday is, somewhat morbidly, a smiling cartoon lamb.  Very reminiscent of Thanksgiving and all the happy turkey pictures . . .

2)  Meat at the supermarket is RAUNCHY.  We went veg for awhile after some bad experiences, but vowed to someday try going to a local butcher.  There are 3 in our neighborhood.  The way the butcher works is they kill an animal every day and butcher it and sell it -- if they have lamb they have lamb, if they have goat they have goat, and if they have beef it is a very special occasion indeed.  In other words, you don't choose what meat you want, you either take what they have or leave it -- but it is always incredibly fresh.  People here don't usually distinguish between sheep and goats, so you can't always be sure what you're getting.  But yesterday we went to the butcher, and with a little inquiring we learned that the meat that day was goat meat -- being that it's Eid, goat and sheep are ubiquitous.

 Being undaunted by the prospect of cooking goat meat, unfamiliar territory, we bought a half kilo and headed home.

Many hours later, this is what we had:

 If you're feeling adventurous (by US standards; goat is a staple food in most places in the world), go buy some goat.  Our Arabic is terrible, so I'm really not sure what cut we got.  The butcher chopped it up for us, but I think if I were to do it again I'd cut it into smaller pieces.  If you want to be a wimp about it, get some lamb, or even beef.  Here we go!

1) Wash meat thoroughly with lemon or lime juice, then rinse with water.  Our extensive internet research told us that goat meat smells bad if you don't citrus-ize it first.  Judging by the smell in the butcher's I'm inclined to agree.
2) Heat a few Tbs olive oil (side note: this should be GREEN.  Not greenish, not yellow-green, GREEN.  If your olive oil is yellow that means it's diluted with corn oil and that is not ok) in a pot on medium heat.  Stir in some spices, enough to make it a little pasty.  We used mansaf seasoning (which is kinda curry-esque?  kinda?), cumin, chili powder, and a little cinnamon, plus salt and pepper.  Cook the spices for a minute or so until they smell really good and turn a little darker.
3) Brown the meat on all sides in the spice oil and then remove, leaving the juice in the pot.
4) Add one chopped onion, two minced garlic cloves, and one minced hot pepper to the pot and sautee until the onion is clear.
5) Add the meat back to the pot and add water until everything is about 3/4 covered.  You may need more later.
6)  Bring to gentle simmer and cover.  The heat should be quite low.  Check often to make sure it's simmering but not boiling.
7)  When meat is tender-ish (for us it was about 2 hours), add chopped potato and carrot to your liking.  I used 2 of each.  At this point you might want to try the broth and add seasoning if it needs it.
8)  Cover and continue to cook until potatoes are soft and meat is very tender.

tips:  If I'd had flour I probably would've put some in to thicken the broth.  As it was it was fine, and gluten-free too!  Also, start early because it really does take hours.  We ate at 10pm . . .  We had it plain but it would be really good over rice methinks.  Oh, and maybe some of you Northern-dwelling family could try it with venison!  Any really lean meat I think would work great.  Finally, for those of you who work or are lazy or are otherwise not in a position to devote 4 hours to a meal, I'm pretty sure a crock pot would do the trick.

Yum yum yum, goaty!  If anyone tries this please let me know!

The Shebab Embark on a Seaside Retreat

 on the bus (4 hours!)

 Abe writing on the terrace of our incredible hostel

 View of the water from the hostel

 That's either Israel/Palestine or Egypt across the way -- we were a little unclear where the border was, and apparently we weren't the only ones (har har)

 Abe takes the first dip

 A couple camels also enjoy the warm beach

 Some of the clearest water I've ever seen

 A GORGEOUS mosque in downtown Aqaba -- I wish I'd gotten a picture of the amazing gardens and shaded walkways on the other side

 They have parks here!

 Back to the beach for sunset

 Sunrise on our last day

 Since we had a week off for Eid, we decided to finally leave Amman and do some traveling.  There is still so much of Jordan to be seen (not least of all Petra and Wadi Rum), but this time we headed far south to Jordan's only coastal city, Aqaba.  The sight of the Red Sea as our bus pulled in was truly shocking -- how long had it been since we'd seen water!?  Almost as shocking was Aqaba, a strange little oasis overflowing with palm trees and 5-star Western-owned hotels.  There were tourists EVERYWHERE, and I was trying to figure out if Europeans and Americans would really travel all the way to Jordan just for vacation, or if most of the people we saw were expats like us taking a break from Amman.  Yet expats in Amman are few and far between, whereas they seemed to be half the population of Aqaba.  Go figure.

The sea itself is gorgeous, though the beach left something to be desired (oh look honey, sea glass!  Wait, ACTUAL GLASS.  Watch out for that camel turd!).  The water was insanely clear, and actually a bit cold.  The narrowness of the sea was also surprising.  Looking out over the water you see (very, very close) the stark rocky hills of the Sinai and the twinkling skyscrapers of Eilat, Israel.  Looking South along the coast you see the thick black smoke pouring out of Saudi Arabia's oil refineries.  A very strange site/sight indeed.  The people on the beach were just as randomly assorted: white, bikini-clad Westerners; local men swimming or smoking argeela on the shore; groups of giggling, hijab-wearing teenage girls splashing in the water, wetting their jeans up to the knee; whole families having tea and elaborate meals inside tents or blanket forts.  It seemed like all of Jordan was on the beach for the holiday.  After taking a walk down the shore, we realized much of Syria was, too.  UN-issued refugee tents had been set up all over the beach, the floors lined with stones, the insides decorated -- made into semi-permanent homes.  As usual, that's about all I want to say on that matter.

All-in-all it was a highly relaxing respite from city-life.  We swam, we lounged, we read, we enjoyed the availability of public outdoor space which is unheard-of in Amman, we ate the best meal we've had so far at a Syrian restaurant across from that glorious mosque, we played with the hostel kittens, and we did a lot of wistful gazing.  Now we're recharged for more Arabic!

Pictures -- Eid Al-Adha Hefla (party)

 Classmates enjoying the show

 Amazing singing!

Teachers goofing off (as usual)

 My class!  Minus 2 classmates who came late, and plus one classmate's mom who was visiting.

 Check it out mom and court!

 Abe in his natural environment.

 Rooftop view at Books@cafe, Amman's oldest bar and only explicitly queer-friendly bar.

Trying in vain to capture the beautiful sunset

More overdue pictures

 What remained after we demolished our hummus falafel fuul khubz (bread) veggie sampler from Hashem, a famous (re: touristy, but soooo delicious) open air restaurant downtown.  The royal family ate there!  There are pictures to prove it! 

 View from Abe's side of the table.

Our amazing spread when we had our landlord & lady over for tea.

Missing my nieces

It's almost Lyra's 3rd birthday, and I'm getting very homesick knowing that I won't be there :(  So this post is for my Lyr-bear (and Isla-spoon too)!  Here is a song by a pretty popular local band, written about one of the band member's nieces, Salma.  In addition to being adorable, it also showcases some very nice scenes of Amman.  Anyone recognize the view from that empty lot they're playing in?!  If you don't go check my earlier posts ;)

I love you girls!  If I ever become a famous musician I'll write a song about you!

Fun with Analogies

It would be impossible to provide an "accurate" (re: complete) picture of Amman to someone who has never been here, especially as someone who lacks a complete picture herself.  We've only been here about a month and a half now, and still have never ventured into the mythical "East Amman," where the impoverished are neatly segregated (sound familiar Oakland folks?).  But I feel like, narrow view that I have, I can still share my experiences and draw a few tentative conclusions, always open to revision.  During our Qasid orientation, we were told a little statistic: Arabic language students who had studied abroad in the Middle East made more negative generalizations about the region than their counterparts who hadn't studied abroad.  The last thing I want is for this blog to be an excuse for people's distrust of the Middle East (yes, Mein Kampf is a big seller here. That is TRUE, but obviously not an isolated truth.  Jordan's population is almost entirely made up of displaced peoples from surrounding countries, primarily Palestine.  Amman's population may be as high as 90% Palestinian).  All in all, Amman is an incredible city, massive, diverse, beautiful, sometimes noisy, sometimes peaceful, crawling with kittens, dotted with pine and olive trees, and very, very beige.  So this post is about adding more parts to the picture, by trying my hand at making comparisons to familiar US sites.  Yalla.

1)  Amman is big.  Population-wise it's Chicago.  Geography-wise it looks more like LA; rolling hills covered with buildings as far as you can see in every direction.  Neighborhoods are highly distinctive and pretty segregated by economic status and national origin.  Think Oakland.  Our neighborhood borders the University and is firmly middle class (by West Amman standards -- factor in East Amman and it appears wealthy).  Mostly white collar workers (like teachers) and their families live around us.

2)  Amman has odors.  Think Mission district of SF.  "Name that smell" is a great game to play here.  Typically the answer would be sewage.  All things considered Amman is very sanitary -- trash almost always is confined to dumpsters, and sewage is disposed of properly.  But the pipes are old, and they drain slowly, and smells make their way to the street.  Again, not unlike the Mission.  Amman also, at times, smells amazing.  Jasmine bushes grow over walls and buildings, coffee vendors stand on corners doling out cups of Turkish coffee (finely ground, flavored with cardamom), and there's nothing like the smell of fresh falafel bubbling in oil.

3)  Amman is dry.  Very dry.  Jordan is the third dryest nation in the world.  It is, in plain terms, a desert, and looks VERY similar to the high desert of Southern California and Northern Mexico.  Amman itself has quite a lot of greenery: olive, pine, and palm trees, jasmine bushes, and many houses and buildings are covered with ivy.  But no grass.  No big loss, if you ask me.

4)  Amman is beige.  Not unlike Santa Barbara, the architecture in Amman is very uniform.  Buildings are rectangular, flat-roofed (it barely rains, so why not?), and made out of large bricks of yellow/white sandstone.  Most buildings are tallish, between 4 and 7 floors, with recessed entrances, sometimes behind a simple archway.

5) Amman stays up late.  It would make sense to compare to NYC here, but it's not quite like that.  It's actually quite normal to see whole families (babies, toddlers, grandmas) hanging out in cafes until midnight or later, drinking tea, eating sweets, and shooting the shit.  As far as we've seen, kids have no special schedule or rules -- they're just part of the family and do whatever the adults do.  This reality has led some of my classmates to the conclusion that Jordanian kids are spoiled, which definitely makes sense.  People do seem to be way more accepting of what we would call "bad behavior" from children, which is odd considering how important politeness is in adulthood.

In other words, Amman is different but the same.  I am constantly shocked both by the ways in which it's different and the ways in which it's familiar.  I'm sure you all would be too.

Well you're probably tired from reading all that.  I know I am.  Please comment or email my mom with requests if there's something you want to hear about!  This post is dedicated to Sara!  I miss you!