BehindBlueI's
Grandmaster
- Oct 3, 2012
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- 113
Does Jordan have those amazing arabic dessert pastries, phyllo dough with honey and nuts and dates and cream cheese and more magic dough and more honey?
When I was in Saudi Arabia a few times there was a lot to complain about but the pastries were not one of them. They always had a bunch of them at the goat roasts, and those things were heavenly. You should convince mother-in-law to instruct daughter to bake a ton of them in honor of your promotion.
You're probably talking about Knafeh/Kunafeh/various English spellings, and yes, they are somewhat famous for it. My wife has made it before, though she buys the phyllo dough pre-made because it's a real bother to make. It's not cream cheese, though, it's a soft white cheese that's similar to mozzarella called Nabulsi. At least for the Palistine/Jordan version. The honey is more often simply syrup, but sometimes it is real honey or a combination, and sometimes with rose water.
http://habibahsweets.com/ is the one I've been to in Amman a few times. If you go to the site and see the 'downtown branch', that's the original. The picture somewhat undersells how small it is and the fact it's in an alley. It's a tiny little shop that you pay for your sweets at a guard shack outside and get tickets for your purchase, then file in a very tight customer area, hand your tickets over the counter to get your sweets, and file back out and then eat in the alley or take it with you. It's the original one and the old king of Jordan visited it, declared it the best Knafeh in Jordan, and then the owner explodes in popularity. The other sites are modern and kind of have a Baskin-Robbins sort of vibe, but he leaves the original one open because of the history and it remains very popular. There's always a line, or at least every time I've been there's a line.
*MIL confirmed Nabulsi is the correct cheese, and you have to soak it in water for 2 days to get the salt out before using it.*
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