EGYPT
You won't STARVE in Egypt, and some people love the food. I found the Middle Eastern staples of falafel (AKA ta'amiyya) and shwarma to be poor compared to other countries. And there's not much more variety than that.

Egyptian falafels are quite small. However, they are SO cheap—50 to 60 piastres, around $0.09—you might as well get two. Shwarmas are just bad. The meat is dry and stuffed into a tasteless hamburger or hot dog bun, rather than pita. The baklava there does not earn the name.

There are a few bright points. Fresh fruit juices are widely available. Fuul, essentially Egyptian refried beans, has a lovely smoky flavor. And the food is so ridiculously cheap, taste ceases to matter.

Dahab has the best food in Egypt. I'll get into this in the Dahab journal.

JORDAN
There is some improvement in Jordan. The shwarmas are better, but still kind of bad. But I had the best falafel EVER in Wadi Musa near Petra—with veggies and hot sauce packed into a crusty sesame-seed hero and grilled.

Mensaf is a delicious Bedouin dish of spiced rice mixed with pine nuts, topped with lamb or chicken chunks and served with yogurt. It is more common in Jordan and Syria than Egypt.

Maneeash is also common to both Jordan and Syria. It is a crispy flatbread coated in olive oil and thyme (most typical) or red-pepper paste. Savory pastries are good in Jordan, but significantly better in Syria.

SYRIA
Falafels and shwarmas are an artform here. A shwarma is stuffed with meat or spiced chicken and veggies, wrapped into a long tube with pita, and then grilled. One end is topped with tahini and yogurt. Genius.

Fresh juice is cheap and everywhere! Enjoy.

Cherry kababs should not be missed. Babaghanouj is best in Syria, and the tahini-mixed version still exists, but the best versions are tahini-free, drowned in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

LEBANON
Take a break from Middle Eastern food here. French food is widely available, especially crepes.

If you do get shwarma here, it's fantastic. Lebanese chicken shwarma includes loads of garlic. The meat shwarma adds a flavorful oil, but I didn't try it.

TURKEY
I will go in depth about this in the Turkey dining guide, but food is definitely one of the highlights of Turkey.

I skipped regular doner, the Turkish shwarma, as I was burned out. But don't skip Iskender kabab, a calorie explosion of doner meat and flatbread chunks doused in yogurt and tomato sauce.

Manti, the dish of tiny lamb dumplings in yogurt sauce, is amazing! Don't order it from lokanti, cafeterias, where it's sub-standard.

Pastries in Turkey achieve an all-time sugar high. Try it all.

ICE CREAM
Especially important in Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, where there are popular specialty ice creams, but the heat and sweet tooth of Arabs means there are at least freezer cases of ice-cream bars every block or so in all countries. If you like ice cream, the Middle East is your paradise.

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