Go’s Brandon Barron stopped by Downtown’s popular fruit and vegetable market to bring you the best in local healthy (and fresh!) eating.
One of the most beautiful things about Fridays in our city is the lack of traffic. Crosstown destinations that might be a pain to reach on any other day become a breeze to reach. No area of town is this more apparent than in the Balad. And nowhere in the Balad is as great to spend an hour or two than the fruit and vegetable souk. As I explored the narrow covered alleyways that encompass Al Husseini Mosque, happy, hardworking vegetable vendors welcomed me with smiles and beckoned me to “come buy.” It’s as if each stall was specifically arranged with contrast in mind — ruby red tomatoes next to crisp green cucumbers and sweet Granny Smith apples juxtaposed to tangy banana peppers. This is the Jordan many of us cosmopolites miss out on. You won’t find individually wrapped bunches of grapes with a barcode slapped on the bag here. Instead, what you’re buying (and saving on) is food as it’s meant to be: handpicked by local farmers and speedily delivered to vendors without added effort to make it look “more appealing.”
Fruit & Veg Market. Image by Noor Renfroe
The market comprises five main alleyways, and offers everything from olives and spices to in-season, locally grown staples. I found the readily available samples from welcoming salesmen to be the most appealing part of my experience. Don’t worry about being obligated to buy after trying a sample, either. The shopper’s goal of finding the most choice produce is an understood priority at the market, and shoppers and vendors alike understand that — while Stall A might have the best bananas around, no one can beat Stall D’s avocados! It’s the price of the goods, though, that lures patrons in. Using their superb oratory skills, sellers boast of the lowest prices. Haggling is completely acceptable (and expected) here as well, so don’t be afraid to start at rock bottom. If you’re like me, and you don’t have the heart to scrape by with the lowest price, you can rest assured that, even if you pay more than most, you’re still getting more for your dinars than at West Amman’s big supermarkets.
You’ll want to go to the fruit and vegetable market on a Friday, for a number of reasons. While the streets are blissfully vacant, the narrow alleyways of the market itself are bustling with shoppers, so competitive vendors offer lower prices than they would when fewer people are around. Make sure to go early in the day, before noontime prayers. Among other reasons, the old aphorism of the bird and the worm really applies here. My friends and I arrived at 9:30am, and we saw a noticeable drop in quality of what was offered in just one hour — it’s slim pickings for latecomers!
Non-local foods, like mangos and pineapples, are also for sale, but don’t expect the super freshness or
low prices you find with produce supplied by Jordanian farmers; it’s imported after all. And don’t let the market’s name fool you either. In addition to fruits and vegetables, I was surprised to find fresh fish, herbs, and dry goods too. To get the full experience, walk around the whole market and explore what it offers before making your buys.
Images by Noor Renfroe.
Featured in Go Magazine, Issue #5, April 2011.
Go Magazine, Jordan 
Posted on April 24, 2011
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