It was the end of a long day of walking around, and since dinner was still 4 hours away (it is not rare to have dinner after 11pm in Barcelona), I needed something to hold me over until then. The only bagel they had left was jalapeno and cheese, and for some reason I wanted to try the curry cream cheese. It was amazing (also amazing that I can still find the picture of it I took in 2003). I still have dreams about it.
I had afternoon tea (which ran until 10pm!) a couple of weekends ago, and wanted to recreate the deliciousness with some spare mini bagels I had left (Thomas's mini bagels in wheat). The pastrami is sliced from the deli (I asked the deli lady to slice it thin and she misheard me so it is extra thick.). To make the curry cream cheese, I assume you just mix curry powder with cream cheese. There was no curry powder to be found at whole foods (I wish America had spice shops), so I mixed tumeric and cumin in with the cream cheese. It was almost as good as the curry cream cheese in Barcelona, except since I only used 2 spices instead of the usual suspects, I felt perhaps there was something lacking. In any case, the pastrami-curry cream cheese-wheat bagel was a winner with my tea companions.
Freshly squeezed fruit juice to relieve the unbelievably hot days.
Spices in large sacks. I definitely suggest stocking up on hard to find/expensive spices if you ever go. Saffron, for example, is about 1/10 the price.
Every so often, the shopkeeper of the spice store takes a trowel-like piece of metal and sculpt these neat little pyramids of ground spices.
Cactus fruits are juicy and refreshing, but I don't really know about the flavor. I'm not a fan. That white bucket on the bottom left corner is catching the juice that leaks out from the fruit while they are waiting to be purchased.
The market is a lot of fun, every vendor sings or chants the entire time, to get you to come buy their produce. The only time they take a respite from singing is when they broadcast the call to prayer (there is a mosque just next door to the market.)
Our bounty from the market: "French" peaches - they taste like white peaches from California, but are flat instead of round.
From front to back: Foul (fool) madamas, a bean dip with olive oil; extra spicy chili sauce reminescent of my Sechuan grandmother's chili sauces; hummus drizzled with olive oil; small balls of falafel. The falafel at Hashem is really and definitively the best I have ever had, just like Din Tai Feng soup dumplings are definitively the best in the entire world. I had a dream later that night about ordering a giant bag of falafel and just having it in my purse to snack on while we toured around Jordan.
You also have the option of getting fries and large balls of falafel. The large ball of falafel has onions and other spices mixed in. We traded some small falafel for the big one because it was quite good. The proper procedure for eating at Hashem is to tear off a bit of bread, dip in foul or hummus, and eat it with a bit of tomato/onion/mint and a ball of falafel.
The great thing about Hashem is that it is cheap. We thought that with a full table of food it would be at least a few JD per person, but our total (includes all the dishes above, 3 bottles of water and hot tea) was only 4JD or so. To pay, you simply get up and walk to the platform in the middle of the alley, on top of which there is portly middle aged man sitting with a small desk. He is the owner, and also the one who takes your money. Expect to pay maybe a little more than 1JD per person (~$1.40) for a very filling meal.
From Rainbow Street, take a detour to Souq Jara, a market that sells handicrafts and food. The food section is separate from the craft section. You have to buy tickets with which you pay for your food, so that the vendors don't have to touch food and money at the same time. It feels like a night market, selling clothes, jewelery, soap, dead sea products, etc.
I didn't get a bottle of sand, but apparently they are popular souvenirs.
There are also a few stalls with street artists showcasing small portraits and paintings.
We started out in the food section of Souq (market) Jara (the name of the co-op that runs the market; stands for Jebel Amman something or another), so the lighting might seem anachronistic.
On the way to the souq, we got free cans of Coca Cola.
I wasn't hungry, but I got a "chipstix" for the road (to dinner). They're potatoes cut in a spiral shape, deepfried, and sprinkled with seasonings. (the picture is blurry because i was trying to be stealthy taking a picture of the kid)
Seasonings include curry and ketchup (yes, in sprinkles)!
What you see here is a "beverage thong" (丁字褲). Back in the day, if you got a bubble tea to go, they would put your cup of bubble tea and a straw into a small red and clear striped plastic bag with maybe some napkins. In an effort to cut down on waste and cost of buying plastic bags, you can carry your beverage in a "beverage thong". It is basically two loops melted together, one to hold and the other one to go around the cup. Very good for delayed consumption of beverages while wandering the streets of historic Da Shi (大溪).
The seal says "Taoyuan Hsien Tahsi Hoping Old Street," which is half literal and half translated into English. Hoping is actually pronounced huh-ping; it means peace. Old street is probably best translated into historic street.
The facades to the street is an odd mix of western style Japanese colonial architecture and traditional Chinese flourishes.
You can see towards the rear of the photo, someone build more floors to their unit, reminescent of how people added apartments to coloseums in Europe during Medieval times. The restoration people left one Medieval apartment but tore down the rest at the amphitheater in Arles, France (les arenes d'Arles). (The bear's name is Guy. He accompanied me around Europe in 2003)
The prices are:
Those round things in the pot are the "vegetarian stomachs". They are basically just dou gan shaped like a pouch (which is supposed to resemble a stomach).
Here is a site that shows the packaged type of dou gan as well as the snacks (小吃) you would buy off the street. The most famous makers of dou gan are Huang Da Mu (黃大目) , Huang Ri Shiang (黃日香), and Da Fang Dou Gan (大房豆干). It doesn't matter which one you buy your dou gan from, they are all tasty; they are all stemmed from the same family of dou gan makers, but the different brands came about after infighting among the brothers, as explained in fact #7 of this site.
The process is very similar to making a risotto. Once you cook the meat and add in all the ingredients that had been soaking (shrimp, mushrooms, peanuts), add soy sauce to taste and cook on low heat for a long time.
Here's what mine looked like. I was running low on mini shrimp, so it's not very colorful. The consistency should be sticky but not soggy like glue. It should have a bit of Q to it (chewiness).
It's an octopus! No, it's just half of an onion shoved under the skin of the chicken. Our old transcriptionist gave me this tip in reference to shoving 2 halves of an onion under the skin of a Thanksgiving turkey. It makes the meat more moist and naturally flavorful (and gives the bird some boobs).
Gingerly detach the skin of the chicken without perforating it, starting from the rear end, to make the pocket for your onion half. Side note: my mom made me that apron for Christmas! It is made out of waterproof upholstery fabric so it feels great but protects me from chicken juice and dishwater splashes! Also, note the Franziskaner in the background. No good cooking is done without a beverage near by.
I always have a grocery bag around for easy disposal of any rinds, skins, and in this case, chicken neck and internal organs. Creepy. I definitely would not choose to eat chicken internal organs.
I think I used 2 sticks of butter and a ton of different herbs and spices. I don't quite remember what all I used, but I think there was salt, sage, and a lot of basil.
Drizzle your butter and herbs over the chicken. I have yet to figure out how the meat on the inside gets its flavoring (I did make some cuts under the skin and try to baste the butter inside, but it didn't seem like it made a difference).
I wish I had taken a picture of the chicken when it came out of the oven. The herbs and butter formed a delicious golden crispy shell out of the skin. I know chicken skin is not healthy, but it was SO good. In the process of baking, the chicken juice and butter will cook the vegetables underneath. It took close to an hour of baking, but you should check the doneness of your chicken with a meat thermometer or make a cut in the deeper part of the thigh.
I ate roast chicken for a week. I don't want to eat any more chicken for at least a few more months.
