I think one of the best places to eat in the Middle East is Amman. The standards of the clientele are high, judging by the waistlines of the above-forties and taking into account the low-fat ingredients of the food – marrow excluded.

The place to visit is Hashem downtown, for hummus and falafel. It’s as basic as it gets. A short walk away you can get your kunafa from Habibah. You can end here your tour of the citadel where you can admire the Roman, Byzantine, and Umayyad remains of one of the oldest continuously inhabited places on earth, and see locals playing the bagpipe too.

Jordan is close to the Holy Lands. Christian Jordanians claim that Jesus was baptised on the ‘east side of river Jordan- if you look at the topology this is the sensible think to assume’.

Food and food markets are not sterilised. Somehow the relation to food materials has escaped the tension of post-industrialised societies where you can feel a distance, either because food is glorified, industrialised or the agent of compulsive behaviour.

Sharing bread and wine is forgotten in most places. I think not in Jordan. Some very ancient tradition is still very much alive – food is not the enemy, it is an ingredient of existence open to associations and interpretation.