The restaurant Sahar took us to is called "Cave Restaurant" in Arabic, but "Grotto" on the English part of the sign.
We sat at the far end of the restaurant near the window, on cushioned benches around a large table, to replicate the cushions people sat on when they lived in caves.
A small room in the restaurant to show the caves people used to live in. I thought I aimed better to include the cushions around three walls people sat at.
Sahar had us order the salad variety, which included "salads" like hummus, a purple cabbage cole slaw, a corn salad, a parsley and yogurt salad, eggplant with sesame tahini dressing, hot peppers (no thanks), and several others. Other than the two spicy ones, I wanted to try them all! I love trying new things. All the meals here are served with pita bread to dip into the hummus and other dips, which my lap was full of crumbs by the end.
My little salad plate all loaded with a sample of each "salad." I sat next to Sahar, so I was full of questions for her about the food, her life, and anything else I wanted to ask. She graciously answered all of them. The woman sitting next to me is the mom of Amy's best friend here, April Fitzgerald, whose husband works for the US Consulate. April isn't allowed into the West Bank because of his job, but her family came with us for Sahar's tour.
The main dish she ordered was supposed to be for four people, but was more than enough to feed all eight of us -- a mixture of grilled meats. It was chicken, lamb (which I tried and quite liked) and beef meatballs mixed in yummy spices and even a few pine nuts! The little grilled onions were delicious too.
The woman here is Carolyn. Carolyn has an amazing story and is an amazing woman. She is from Florida, joined the LDS church as a young adult, and then met her husband in college in Arizona. He happened to be a Palestinian Arab. They moved back here to Ramala, and she decided to apply for Palestinian citizenship. That was 20-ish years ago. Several months ago someone finally got around to mailing her card to her, and now she can no longer cross the wall to come to church in Jerusalem.
The man on the left is April's brother-in-law, a doctor who lives near my sister Andrea. Their kids even go to the same school. His wife is so picky that she ate a couple power bars and a fruit leather for lunch, while he seemed as excited as me to try all this fun stuff. An ironic mixture, those two.
The young woman on the left is one of Carolyn's three children, who speaks perfect English and Arabic. She just returned for the summer from BYU in Provo after her third year there. Wow, what a mature, well rounded young lady. I can only imagine what her life has been like here.
We talked Sahar into taking the leftover meat home for her family. This is her home, much nicer than I expected, still modest, on a quiet street.
A sunny room in the front of her home, seems to be both kitchen and bedroom.
A beautiful grape arbor covered the spot next to her front steps.
I had a similar dinner in Bethlehem, but in a small family owned restaurant with my Palestinian guide, who I met in Jerusalem. The food was great! I often think about it! haha It is true that Palestinians cannot go to Jerusalem, but in Jerusalem the Jews told me that any that want to move back can do so, and have their land back, but none do, because the PLO would have them killed. I met several Palestinian taxi drivers in Jerusalem, who live in Jerusalem, who have since become born again Christians, and two of them took me on tours of Jericho, Bethlehem, Bethany, Hebron and Samaria, which my Jerwish guide would not.
ReplyDelete