Food in the Middle East, four: Pickles and olives

This is the fourth in a new series of blogposts about the Middle East trip, which took place mainly in May. For this series I have already written about breakfasts, lunches and dinners in Jordan, and sweets. 

This time I want to take a quick look at another aspect of ME food: the pickles and olives that you are sometimes served as a mezze ahead of your main course or that come with the meal itself.

The above photo was taken in the dining room of the hotel we stayed at in Amman, in Jordan. I am sitting in front of the part of the meal I shared with my travelling companion, which came in addition to plates of eggs and other things. But you can see on the table in front of me a small dish containing green olives of different sizes. The olives all have their pits in them and they came with the meal every morning. 

The photo above shows a piece of Turkish bread with a dab of minced olives on top of it. The mezze came with a meal which was eaten on day four in Istanbul after we had spent some time in the Istanbul Archaeology Museum, which is near the tram that runs from Sultanahmet to Beyoglu over the Golden Horn. We sat down at the restaurant at 4.10pm and waited almost an hour for our main course, which was grilled eggplant, to arrive at the table, and in the meantime the waiter brought us this olive spread and some unleavened bread.

The photo above shows the meal we ordered in Istanbul on day two at the Babylon Pub and Restaurant on Akbiyir Street near our hotel. The street is lined with restaurants that cater to tourists. You can see on the plate, at the bottom of the photo, a large green chilli, which was a type of pickle that accompanied the meal.

The above photo shows a stall in the market in Amman. This photo was taken on one day during our stay in the capital of Jordan. You can see the different kinds of pickles, some of which are dyed a very bright colour, as well as the different kinds of olives that are available. Below is another photo. This one was taken in the Muslim quarter of the old city in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is just visible from the hilly northern outskirts of Amman where it lies across the river that separates Israel and Jordan. You can see from looking at these photos that the kinds of pickles and olives that are available in Jerusalem are the same as what you can easily buy in Amman.

It is common for meals to be accompanied by mezze in all of the countries we visited on the trip. Often the food served on small dishes in this way before the main course is brought out is accompanied by some flat bread. You never go hungry in the Middle East!