Last December, we made a day trip up to Umm Qais - in very Northern Jordan with views into Israel of the Sea of Galilee and the Golan Heights (formerly Syria). We and our fellow daytrippers had all remembered it as one of our very favorite places in Jordan - with the same Roman ruins as everywhere; a nice restaurant; and GREENERY. We returned yesterday and while the ruins are still interesting (thought to be the site of Jesus turning demons into pigs); and the restaurant still a tasty source of hummus; a long drought has meant that it wasn't very green. Jordan is very very dry and people don't even try to create lush green grass like in Arizona (except in the Ambassador's backyard which is beautifully green) - but northern Jordan tends to be greener than everywhere else. Umm Qais December 2007
We did eat tasty hummus and my favorite mezze -shanklish -which is a spicy goat cheese dip. This restaurant did not make a very tasty mint lemonade. Mint lemonade is one thing that I will miss a lot from Jordan (also available in Israel and Egypt and presumably elsewhere in the Middle East). It is lemonade with very finely chopped mint added to it (like a virgin mojito). It varies greatly from restaurant to restaurant, however - and varies in color from yellow to dark green depending on how minty it is; it is sometimes in slushy format; and sometime like yesterday it is more sour than sweet. My favorite mint lemonade is available at Crumz, a sandwich place near the Embassy - it is sweet, slushy and pretty green.
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